Day 9: DARK AGES
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3 Now for a long season, Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.
4 But when they in their trouble did turn unto the LORD God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them.
2 Chronicles 15:3-4.
It does not say here that Israel was without religion. It says that they were without “the true God.” In other words, things had been going on as usual in their temple; and their religious activities had not significantly diminished, but their religious practice was hollow; “the true God” was missing in their rituals.
To say that they were without “the TRUE God” is further frightfully profound. It seems to suggest that a ‘God’ was present in their religious ceremonies, but it was another God, not “the true God.”
Secondly, the passage does not say that there were no priests. It says that the priests that there were, were not “teaching priests.” Maybe they were preaching priests, or philanthripic priests, or entertaining priests. They were not false priests, but they were not teaching priests.
No one teaches what they have never learned; no one can give information they do not possess. Maybe those were priests that never received instruction themselves, so they could not give instruction. They were never taught, so they could not teach.
A teacher is an explainer, a motivator, a guide, an enabler, a builder, a support. He does not only show how things work, but also why they are that way. He does not merely pursue conviction but offers a reason, a ground, for the conviction.
A people without instruction and without instructors will be a lawless people. Teachers are important in any society, more so in the Church. A generation with gifted priests without teaching priests will lack vital balance.
The third condition of the land, as described in our text, was that it was also “without law.” If the priests did not have the law, what did they preach? Stories? Their private experiences? Doctrines and dogmas? What may they teach if they did not have the law?
Much later in the days of King Josiah and Jehoshaphat, the law of God was found and read with great impact on the land and in the lives of the people (2 Kings 22: 8-14). But first, what was the condition of that land in this critical ‘trinity of vital lacks’?
We notice in verse 14 of our text that that season without the true God, without a teaching priest and without the law, was a season of trouble, such trouble that made the people cry back to God. It was Dark Ages of a kind. (May our troubles draw us nearer God, not farther from Him. Amen.)
Compare the gloomy land of which we have read about in 2 Chronicles 15:3-4, to Israel under Jehoshaphat as reported in 2 Chronicles 17:9-10, when the law had been found:
9 And they taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of the LORD with them, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught the people.
10 And the fear of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat.
The spiritual vitality of a land is not essentially in the abundance of its religious ceremonies or the presence of priests, even true priests (sadly when they are incapable of giving spiritual guidance).
May we know God, the true God; may we have priests, teaching priests, too, and may we have the law. Amen.
3 For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach and without the law. 4 But in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them. 5 In those days it was not safe to travel about, for all the inhabitants of the lands were in great turmoil. 6 One nation was being crushed by another and one city by another, because God was troubling them with every kind of distress [in that season without the true God, without even a teaching priest, and without law] (2 Chronicles 15:3-4, New International Version).