2 Chronicles 11 Devotional

Leaving Everything to Seek Him

“Those from every tribe of Israel who had set their hearts to seek the LORD their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their fathers.”2 Chronicles 11:16 (BSB)

Rehoboam musters an army to win back the north, but the LORD sends Shemaiah with a short message. They are not to fight their brothers. They must go home, because this division is the LORD's doing (11:4). They listen and turn back.

The heart of the chapter, though, is a quiet migration. In the north, Jeroboam rejects the priests and Levites of the LORD and appoints his own priests for his calf idols (11:14-15). So the Levites leave their pasturelands and property behind and move to Judah. And from every tribe, those who have set their hearts on seeking the LORD follow them to Jerusalem to worship (11:16). Their move says plainly that worshiping the LORD in the way he had given mattered more to them than what they left behind. Their coming strengthened the kingdom for three years (11:17). God has always gathered his people like this, drawing them from scattered places toward true worship of himself. Nothing you set aside to follow him is lost on him.

To think about: What would it cost you to make seeking the LORD your first priority this week, and what might you gain?