March. The third month. In the Old Testament there are six occasions when “the third month” is mentioned, three of which are significant and very applicable to us in this our third month of the year.
The first comes in Exodus 19. In the very first verse it says that “In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt — on the very day — they came to the Desert of Sinai.” That probably doesn’t seem very significant. Three months of travel only to come to a desert. But they had set out from Egypt to worship God—we forget that sometime: we think it was only to be free from slavery to Egypt, but it was to worship God that they had been freed. God brought them into this desert to meet Him at His mountain: Mount Sinai. In the third month they were going to meet God. While we have the opportunity every month and every day to meet God, my hope and prayer for all of us is that in this third month we make and take the opportunity to meet with God.
In 2 Chronicles 15.10-14, it says that the people assembled in Jerusalem “in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign… They entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul.” This generation of Israelites went beyond meeting with God and receiving His covenant, as did their forefathers at Sinai—they wholeheartedly renewed the covenant and sought God with all their hearts. Oh, that we would seek God wholeheartedly. Oh, that we would covenant to serve God. May this third month be the month in which we commit ourselves to do just that, to seek and to serve the LORD God, with all we are and have!
Finally, during the reign of Hezekiah, the people once again knew a time of re-covenanting to seek and to serve God. But this time their renewal led to a time of reformation of the land. They cleaned up the nation: they destroyed idol worship in the whole country, and then they renewed their commitment to support God’s Temple. Hezekiah ordered that the people bring in their tithes and offerings, which to that point had been neglected, apparently for years, and the people obeyed. 2 Chronicles 31.7 reads this way: “They began doing this in the third month and finished in the seventh month.” Let’s commit to God with obedience in this third month that results in reformation of our society and community and in giving that supports His work—giving that takes four months to collect because it’s so much!
The third month. Now maybe it won’t be just a bad-weather month. Maybe now it will look like a time for renewing your commitment to meet with, and to seek and serve the LORD God, with results that affect society and can be measured in the giving levels of His people. You think about that. Amen.
– Pastor Jim