My eye was drawn in this week’s reading to a series of episodes in which the mandates of the law of Moses are bent or broken with varying effects, and I found myself pondering again what it means to honor the spirit of the law when circumstances make perfect observance difficult or impossible. Consider the following cases from the reading:
Case 1
In 2 Chronicles 26, we see the rise of a righteous young king, Uzziah, who appears in some way to have been appointed by the people when he was sixteen years old (v. 1). He is a successful military commander whom the chronicler portrays as receiving help from God in his military endeavors (v. 7). But then, in a pattern familiar from the Book of Mormon, pride sets in (v. 16), and in his pride, Uzziah commits an offense against the same God who had been helping him. He attempts to enter the temple and offer a sacrifice there, something that, as a non-Levite, he was not authorized to do under the law of Moses. Only the strenuous intervention of the priests of the temple prevents him from carrying out his intention, after which, as punishment, the Lord smites him with leprosy.1 Despite all the good he is credited with doing over his five decades as king, his attempt to enter into the sacred place and perform the functions reserved for the priests cost him dearly. He died with his leprosy. Like other kings before him, Uzziah found out the hard way that the order of the Lord’s house is not to be trifled with.
Case 2
In the next assigned chapter, 2 Chronicles 30, we find King Hezekiah, another righteous king after a series of idolatrous ones, uniting the tribes around the proper worship of Jehovah again. Via couriers with letters, he invites all members of any tribe to come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. And then the chronicler notes that Hezekiah and his court “had taken counsel to keep the passover in the second month (for they could not keep it at its proper time because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem)” (vv. 2–3).2 So, the timing of the observance of Passover is altered from what is legally prescribed. Then, in a further departure from the ideal, as the Passover is underway we read that “a multitude of the people . . . had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the passover otherwise than as prescribed” (v. 18) due to the short amount of time they had, even with the later date of the celebration, to get ready. “But,” we read, “Hezekiah prayed for them, saying ‘The good Lord pardon all who set their hearts to seek God, the Lord the God of their ancestors, even though not in accordance with the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness.’ The Lord heard Hezekiah, and healed the people” (v. 20).
These two legal anomalies are handled differently by Hezekiah than Uzziah did when he tried to enter the temple and offer a sacrifice. Rather than acting unilaterally and precipitously, we read that the king counseled with his assembly as to how to proceed regarding the timing, and when the people turned up in large numbers ritually unprepared, the king took intercessory action: The difference between the case of Uzziah and the case of Hezekiah and his people is one of disposition rather than perfectly orthodox action. Hezekiah and his people are doing their best to effect a national repentance from idolatry, and while they make every effort in that direction, some allowances must be made for the change to take place in a timely way. They show they are cognizant of the exceptions they are making, and do so with humble consultation and prayer.
As a result, the Lord looks with favor and forbearance on them. I love the word used as the chronicle describes the result of the king’s prayer: “The Lord heard Hezekiah, and healed the people” (v. 20). In other words, in response to their ritual uncleanness—a state of outward, performative impurity—the Lord addresses the deeper need, the more enduring concern, which was that years of estrangement from true faith and true worship had left not just outward, ritual impurity, but spiritual wounds—most of them no doubt known only to God. In the language of healing, we hear the chronicler signal that more was set right than the formal preparation of the people for covenant renewal; their hearts, too, were touched and healed.
Case 3
That circumstance of repair and healing between the people and their God leads to the final exceptional action we read about in this lesson: “Then the whole assembly agreed together to keep the festival for another seven days; so they kept it for another seven days with gladness” (v. 23). This time the rules are bent not out of necessity for lack of time or preparation, but in gratitude for the abundant mercy of God. The people give freely another week of their lives to honoring and worshiping the Lord.
It is common in some theological traditions to think of the God of the Old Testament as the legalistic, punitive Lord who is quick to smite and slow to salve. The examples before us in this reading do include an instance of the rigorous discipline for which the Old Testament’s God is renowned. But if we are discerning, there are factors here that shift the temperature of that example. God was dealing with a king, the man who held the power of life and death over his people, the man who stood in the line of David and could bring about suffering and calamity—as many before him had done—through hubris and vanity. The Lord’s intervention here was little different than the rebukes he would offer the dignitaries of Jerusalem in his ministry among them as Jesus of Nazareth. And at the same time, the grace and mercy with which he treats Hezekiah and the celebrants of that unorthodox Passover is of a piece with the way Jesus healed on the Sabbath and countenanced his disciples “harvesting” grain as they walked along with him through the fields on that day. In every dispensation, it seems, the God of creation is quick to distinguish between the pride that bends rules for self-aggrandizement and the humility that bends them in service of genuine return and holy relationship. Perhaps this reading is an opportunity for us to likewise reflect on our relationship to pride and to gratitude and sincere devotion when it comes to how we “observe to keep” the Lord’s commandments.
D. Morgan Davis is a Research Fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. He holds a PhD (2005) in Arabic and Islamic studies from the University of Utah, an MA in history from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BA in Near Eastern Studies from Brigham Young University.
Art by Solomon Alexander Hart (1806–1881).
The Old Testament Reflections series is published in collaboration with the Maxwell Institute: https://mi.byu.edu/old-testament-reflections.
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Note that the parallel account in 2 Kings 15:1–5 says the reason for his leprosy was that he failed to stop the people from idolatrous practices during his reign.
All Bible quotations are from the NRSV.
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Very insightful and thought provoking. I’ve been too binary in my reading and interpretation on obedience/disobedience without really considering the motivations and circumstances. Thank you for giving me something to discuss.