6/3/2011 8:00: AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Hezekiah the reformer Part one
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: 2Chron. 29:1-19; 2Ki. 18:1-4
Message of the verses: The first sub-point under this first main
point in this tenth chapter of Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on 2Kings and also
2Chronicles is called “He cleansed the
temple,” and it covers the verses mentioned above. He entitles this chapter: “The Making of a King—Part I and it covers
verses in 2Kings, 2Chronicles and also a chapter in Isaiah.
“1
¶ Hezekiah became king when he was
twenty-five years old; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And his
mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. 2 He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father
David had done. 3 In the first
year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the
LORD and repaired them. 4 He brought in
the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the square on the east.
5 Then he said to them, "Listen to
me, O Levites. Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the LORD,
the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place.
6 "For our fathers have been
unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the LORD our God, and have
forsaken Him and turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the LORD,
and have turned their backs. 7 "They have also shut the doors of
the porch and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense or offered burnt
offerings in the holy place to the God of. 8 "Therefore the wrath of the LORD was
against Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them an object of terror, of
horror, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes. 9 "For behold, our fathers have fallen by
the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for
this. 10 "Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the
LORD God of Israel, that His burning anger may turn away from us. 11 "My sons, do not be negligent now, for
the LORD has chosen you to stand before Him, to minister to Him, and to be His
ministers and burn incense."
12 ¶ Then the Levites arose:
Mahath, the son of Amasai and Joel the son of Azariah, from the sons of the
Kohathites; and from the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi and Azariah the
son of Jehallelel; and from the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah and Eden
the son of Joah; 13 and from the sons of
Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel; and from the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and
Mattaniah; 14 and from the sons of
Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; and from the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.
15 They assembled their brothers, consecrated themselves,
and went in to cleanse the house of the LORD, according to the commandment of
the king by the words of the LORD. 16 So
the priests went in to the inner part of the house of the LORD to cleanse it,
and every unclean thing which they found in the temple of the LORD they brought
out to the court of the house of the LORD. Then the Levites received it to
carry out to the Kidron valley. 17 Now
they began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and on the
eighth day of the month they entered the porch of the LORD. Then they
consecrated the house of the LORD in eight days, and finished on the sixteenth
day of the first month. 18 Then they
went in to King Hezekiah and said, "We have cleansed the whole house of
the LORD, the altar of burnt offering with all of its utensils, and the table
of showbread with all of its utensils. 19
"Moreover, all the utensils which King Ahaz had discarded during
his reign in his unfaithfulness, we have prepared and consecrated; and behold,
they are before the altar of the LORD.’”
1
¶ Now it came about in the third year of
Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of
Judah became king. 2 He was twenty-five
years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem;
and his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did right in the sight of the LORD,
according to all that his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places and broke down the
sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze
serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned
incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan, ‘a thing of brass.’”
Dr.
Wiersbe writes at the beginning of this chapter that the things that are
recorded in the Scriptures in this section are not written in chronological
order, but some of the things in his life, like his illness and his welcome of
the Babylonian ambassadors, actually antedated the Assyrian invasion (Isa.
36-37). This is the way that Dr. Wiersbe
has decided to approach the study of Hezekiah.
There
are three chapters in 2Chronicles that describe the reforms that Hezekiah made
while king, and only one verse in 2Kings, and that is verse four. However in verse four of 2Kings there is
something mentioned that is not mentioned in 2Chronicles and that is the
destruction of the brass snake that Moses made while in the wilderness to stop
the killing of the children of Israel.
It was something that the Lord instructed Moses to make at that time,
but now it had become something for the children of Israel to worship and therefore
needed to be destroyed, and so that is what Hezekiah did with it.
It
took a while for Ahaz to shut down the worship of the Lord and the temple
worship of the Lord, which was the heart of worship to the Lord for the
children of Israel, and now the first thing this 25 year old son of Ahaz, the
new king of Judah did was make sure that the temple worship would begin
again. There was a procedure for this to
take place and Hezekiah followed the plans that were in the Law of Moses to
accomplish this. The Levites were the
ones to accomplish this task and Hezekiah included all three families of the
Levites for this project. The three
clans of the Levites represented are listed in the second paragraph of the
section in 2Chronicles starting with verse twelve. The clans from the tribe of Levi were the
Kohathites, Marari, and the Gershonites.
These leaders had to be right before the Lord or else the nation would
not apt to be right before the Lord and the first thing that they did was to
consecrate themselves before the Lord.
They had to be clean before they could go into the temple and clean it
out, and so they did this. Some of these
Levites were the singers and there needed to be music in the temple in order to
please and worship the Lord and so Hezekiah included the singers in this
project.
This
project or process of cleansing the temple began on the first day of the first
month, and that was the day when the Passover celebration was to take place,
but we will see in chapter thirty that it would be celebrated on the second
month of that year. These Levites began
by cleansing themselves, then moved into the temple area starting with the holy
of holies, and them moving to the holy place, and then moving to the outer court
where Ahaz had set up a place to worship idols.
In verse ten we read that Hezekiah had a plan to make a covenant with
the Lord, “"Now it is
in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that His burning
anger may turn away from us.”
Hezekiah did this because he knew that when the temple worship was
stopped by his father that the Lord’s anger burned against Judah and now things
had to be right before the Lord so that the enemies of Israel did not come
against them again like in the days of his father when invasions from Syria,
Edom, and Philistia came against Judah.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I sometimes copy something from Warren
Wiersbe’s commentary for this section of my devotions and that is what I would
like to do this morning.
“If
we are to have revival in the Lord’s work, we must begin with cleansing. Over the years, individuals and churches can
gradually accumulate a great deal of ‘religious rubbish’ while ignoring the
essentials of spiritual worship. It’s
not by doing some unique new thing that we experience new blessing from the
Lord, but by returning to the ‘old things’ and doing them well. If we confess our sins (2Chronicles 7:14),
light the lamps, burn the incense (a picture of prayer, Psalm 141:1-2), and
offer ourselves as living sacrifices (verse 7: Romans 12:1-2), the Lord will
see and hear and will send His blessing.”
2Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which
are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and
turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive
their sin, and will heal their land.”
Psalm 131:1-4, “1 ¶ «A Psalm of David.» O LORD, I call upon You;
hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to You! 2 May my prayer be counted as incense before
You; The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering. 3 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep
watch over the door of my lips. 4 Do not
incline my heart to any evil thing, To practice deeds of wickedness With men
who do iniquity; And do not let me eat of their delicacies.”
Romans 12:1-2, “1 ¶ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Cleanse my heart so that I can have fellowship with
the Lord.
2.
Give myself to the Lord for worship and for service
unto the Lord.
3.
Continue to learn contentment.
4.
Remember that the battle is fierce at the time of my
life and I need the Spiritual Armor on in order that I may stand.
6/3/2011 9:10:25 AM
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