They Should Be the Lord’s People

2 Chronicles 23:16-17, “[16] And Jehoiada made a covenant between him, and between all the people, and between the king, that they should be the Lord’s people. [17] Then all the people went to the house of Baal, and brake it down, and brake his altars and his images in pieces, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars.”

In this passage, King Jehoiada made a covenant, or agreement, along with the people that they should be the Lord’s people. Being Israelites, they already were part of God’s chosen people, but they wanted more. They wanted to obey and serve God.

As a Christian, we must also make this covenant. Once we get saved, we become a child of God. However, we should want more than that. We ought to want to serve and obey Him! Like those in the above verses, we must make a covenant with God. We must still make a promise and commitment that we will obey Him and strive to do His will.

The passage states that after the King and people made the covenant, they got rid of all the idols. They got rid of everything that would get in the way of them serving God. In today’s world, we don’t really have statue idols that keep us from serving the Lord. However, there are many other things that can get in the way of us serving God, and these become our idols.

The challenge today is twofold.

1) Have we made a commitment to the Lord that we will serve Him?

2) Are there any idols in our life hindering us from serving God?

Let us make the promise to God (or renew the promise if you’ve already made it) that we will serve Him to the best of our ability, and let us get rid of any idols that get in our way.