A Whole Heart

“But the high places were not taken out of Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true all his days.” – 2 Chronicles 15:17

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” – 2 Chronicles 16:9

One Mystery Science video I watched recently with the kids talked about how we get metals from the earth: it’s not as simple as digging them up. Most metals exist in such close combination with other elements that these mineral “ores” must undergo a process called “smelting” to be extracted. Smelting involves heat. It takes temperatures thousands of degrees hotter than an oven to separate the metal from its ore. 

With each successive king in Judah’s history, it’s easy to ask the same question our kids used to ask about everyone: “is he good or bad?” But we often find it’s not that straightforward. Kings may tear down some altars but not others. They may govern wisely but marry foolishly. They may start off well but make a poor decision, as we see with King Asa, who renewed a covenant to follow God wholeheartedly, but then turned to seek the help of the Syrians rather than God when difficulty came. The same word is used for “wholly” and “blameless” in these two verses: shalem, related to the familiar shalom. God desires that our hearts are shalem towards him, are blameless and true in the sense of having no other ultimate love, no other ultimate object of worship and desire and help. 

There is a shift between the end of chapter fifteen and the beginning of chapter sixteen, and it is caused by one thing: war. It is external trial that brings out the condition of King Asa’s heart. “I have refined you,” says God, “but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10). I picture my heart strewn with ores: mixed motives, desires, and loves running like veins through the geography of my mind and soul. This pandemic is like one big smelting furnace, an act of extractive metallurgy upon the core of my being. Every challenge and trial makes me ask, what am I really looking to for help? What do I really believe is the point of my day? What is my calling really about in this time? God is searching endlessly for one precious thing, more precious than the purest gold: a heart that is whole towards him. To that heart, he says, I will give strong support. That is a promise worth holding on to. “In this you rejoice,” writes Peter, “though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).