6/4/2011 8:04:22 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Hezekiah the reformer Pt. 2
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference:
2Chronicles
29:20-36
Message of the verses: “20 ¶
Then King Hezekiah arose early and assembled the princes of the city and
went up to the house of the LORD. 21
They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs and seven male goats
for a sin offering for the kingdom, the sanctuary, and Judah. And he ordered the
priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the LORD. 22 So they slaughtered the bulls, and the
priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. They also slaughtered the
rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar; they slaughtered the lambs also and
sprinkled the blood on the altar. 23
Then they brought the male goats of the sin offering before the king and
the assembly, and they laid their hands on them. 24 The priests slaughtered them and purged the
altar with their blood to atone for all Israel, for the king ordered the burnt
offering and the sin offering for all Israel. 25 He then stationed the Levites in the house of
the LORD with cymbals, with harps and with lyres, according to the command of
David and of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for the command was from the
LORD through His prophets. 26 The
Levites stood with the musical instruments of David, and the priests with the
trumpets. 27 Then Hezekiah gave the
order to offer the burnt offering on the altar. When the burnt offering began,
the song to the LORD also began with the trumpets, accompanied by the
instruments of David, king of Israel. 28
While the whole assembly worshiped, the singers also sang and the
trumpets sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.
29 Now at the completion of the burnt
offerings, the king and all who were present with him bowed down and worshiped. 30 Moreover, King Hezekiah and the officials
ordered the Levites to sing praises to the LORD with the words of David and
Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with joy, and bowed down and worshiped.
31 Then Hezekiah said, "Now that
you have consecrated yourselves to the LORD, come near and bring sacrifices and
thank offerings to the house of the LORD." And the assembly brought
sacrifices and thank offerings, and all those who were willing brought burnt offerings. 32 The number of the burnt offerings which the
assembly brought was 70 bulls, 100 rams, and 200 lambs; all these were for a
burnt offering to the LORD. 33 The
consecrated things were 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep. 34 But the priests were too few, so that they
were unable to skin all the burnt offerings; therefore their brothers the
Levites helped them until the work was completed and until the other priests
had consecrated themselves. For
the Levites were more conscientious to consecrate themselves than the priests.
35 There were also many burnt offerings
with the fat of the peace offerings and with the libations for the burnt
offerings. Thus the service of the house of the LORD was established again.
36 Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God
had prepared for the people, because the thing came about suddenly.”
I
have always admired what King Hezekiah did while on the throne over the kingdom
of Judah. I realize that there were
faults that he had however when you first start to read about Hezekiah you see
that he did things like David, and David was a man after God’s own heart. David was a man who committed great sins,
probably greater than what Saul had committed, but David was a man who would
confess his sins before the Lord, for he was a humble man, and these same
qualities are seen in King Hezekiah.
It
seems that Hezekiah’s first priorities were to make sure that the people and
the temple of the Lord were clean so that the people could worship the Lord the
way that He wanted them to worship Him, and so the first thing was to
consecrate the priests and the Levites in order to clean out the wreckage that
was not only in the temple, but also in the people. This was explained in yesterday’s SD, but one
thing that I did not make clear yesterday was that it was the priests who were
first were consecrated and they were the
ones who went into the temple to clean it out.
I noticed in today’s verses that there
was not enough of the priest who was consecrated to skin all of the sacrifices
so the Levites had to help them finish the job.
The end of verse thirty four makes this clear: “For the Levites were more conscientious to consecrate themselves than
the priests.”
Hezekiah
had in mind to include all of Israel in this ceremony and so all Israel were
invited, for there were some from the Northern Kingdom who had come to Judah in
order to worship the Lord in the proper way before that kingdom was destroyed. He also had a desire to have the temple
sanctified to the Lord in a similar way that Solomon had some 200 years before
him. I have been reading slowly through
the Bible this year in the evenings and a few weeks ago I finished reading
Exodus and saw that the Tabernacle was also dedicated or sanctified to the Lord
in a similar way that Hezekiah had done in this section.
The
people brought many offerings to this ceremony and there were burnt offerings
and also fellowship offerings and Hezekiah had the Levites play the instruments
that David had made, and also they sang when the offerings were given in order
to worship the Lord in a way that was pleasing to Him.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have been thinking about something that seems
like it is an impossible dream for a few weeks now and it seems that my study
of God’s Word may indicate that this dream that I have may be something that
the Lord may provide for me to take place to His glory.
One
of the times that I visited Kalaheo Missionary Church a few weeks ago a lady
and her daughter set down beside me and told me that the church would be
looking for someone to take over after their Pastor would leave in a few
weeks. At that time the thought jumped
into my head that this could be something that the Lord would want me to do,
and actually this was not the first time I had thought about this for I had
heard that he was leaving a couple of weeks before that. There has been a great struggle going on in
my heart over this thought and I have told three people about this struggle in
order that they might pray over this matter.
It was a great struggle for me to come to Kauai and it seemed that the
Lord had a couple of things for me to do before I got here, which I did with
great pleasure and also great pain. My
prayer since before I knew that we were coming here was that the Lord may have
a work or a ministry for us to do while here something like when we were in
Aruba. I would have never dreamed that
something like this would even enter my mind, but the fact is that it has and I
can’t get it out of my mind. In
yesterday’s SD I learned that I must be clean like the temple and the people
needed cleaning and so I prayed about that.
Now today as I was reading very slowly and also very carefully through
the verses some words almost jumped off of the page: “Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared
for the people, because
the thing came about suddenly.” I
will continue to pray over this and then leave it in the capable hands of my
Lord.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Continue to pray over the situation that I find
myself in.
2.
23 Search me,
O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and
lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm
139:23-24)
3.
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. (Romans 12:1-2)
4.
11 Not that I
speak from want, for I have
learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means,
and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have
learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance
and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who
strengthens me.
6/4/2011 9:29:22 AM
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