Today in God's Word—March 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
March 11, 2 Chronicles 29
Thus the service of the house of the LORD was restored. And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because God had provided for the people, for the thing came about suddenly. - 2 Chronicles 29:35-36
On Inauguration Day in the United States, the newly elected and freshly sworn-in President of the United States often signs a flurry of Executive Orders. Sometimes the orders are little more than political theater, campaign promises kept. They are designed to undo with the stroke of a pen as much as possible of the former president's policy and practice. The Executive Orders do not have the force of law, but are an exercise of the president's sweeping executive powers. Some new presidents have made the political statements (and the headlines) with the executive orders first, and let the courts decide later whether or not the orders exceeded the president's rightful authority.
I thought about those first day orders as I read this chapter about King Hezekiah's first days and actions as Judah's king, after the death of his father, Ahaz. Hezekiah ordered drastic reforms as soon as he became king. From the beginning of his reign, he made it clear that Judah's return to the LORD would be his top priority.
2 Chronicles gives more space to Hezekiah's reign than any other king who followed Solomon. The account of Hezekiah's reign focuses most of that extra space on restoration and reformation of Israel's worship of the one true God. Remember that idolatry was deeply rooted in the minds, hearts and everyday lives of the people of Judah by this time. The sudden about-face in Judah's spiritual life was nothing short of amazing in its scope and swiftness.
As they said in the old West of America's frontier, there was a “new sheriff in town” when Hezekiah came to power. He began on the first
day of the first month to reopen and repair the temple. He gathered and recommissioned the priests and Levites. In his first recorded royal address, he repudiated his father's sins and how he had turned the people of God away from the LORD. He told them that their present troubles and misery were exactly what God promised would happen if the people and their king did not obey the LORD. God warned them about the consequences of forsaking him when he gave them the Law through Moses. He repeated the warnings many times through the prophets. Judah ignored the warnings and made themselves vile with idolatry, just as Israel had done. God kept his promises to punish them for their apostasy.
So Hezekiah ordered the priests and Levites to get busy. He wanted the tempe of the LORD cleaned and reopened as soon as possible. Decades of neglect and abuse had defiled the house of God. Ahaz had closed the temple as he opened many new places across the country to worship false gods. After the first week of work, the priests and Levites had cleared the trash and filth away from the court and reached the temple vestibule. In the second week, the priests went into the temple and cleaned it. They restored the missing vessels necessary for the service of the Lord. The diligent Levites and their brothers the priests finished the work and opened the temple on the 16th day of the first month, just two weeks after Hezekiah ordered the work to be done.
Hezekiah immediately moved to restore the sacrifices and praise assemblies in the temple. Based on the instructions of Moses and David, he assigned duties to the priests and Levites. The sacrifices resumed, and the temple rang once again with praises to the Lord.
The king and the people all rejoiced. God had brought restoration and revival in an amazing way in a very short time. How did it happen so quickly? Hezekiah set his heart on turning the nation back to God. He enlisted and
encouraged the priests and Levites to do what they alone could do to get the restoration underway. The king's enthusiasm and commitment was contagious, spreading to the Levites and all the people.
But above and beyond the actions of the humans involved in the revival, the Chronicler acknowledge that it happened so quickly because "God had provided for the people." God gave them the means to do it, providing materials and workers to get the job done. He gave them a heart of repentance, so that they abandoned the idolatry they had been practicing. They returned to the Lord and cooperated with the King's restoration efforts.
And the LORD gave Judah a good king, a dynamic, godly leader. He gave them Hezekiah whose courage to change, deep faith in God, and love for LORD and his people spearheaded the revival effort. These people had the law, but they were ignorant of it. The priests were there, but had been kept from doing their work by evil kings. God used Hezekiah to bring the nation back to worshiping the LORD within a few days of his ascension to the throne.
We live in a time and place that desperately needs revival. If we say we are for it and agree it is needed, what can each of us do to help bring it about? And are we willing to humble ourselves, acknowledge our need, and cry out the Lord to make our efforts successful by his enabling power?
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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