Good Wednesday to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
When was the last time you were part of a ‘restoration’? When have you helped restore something to function again which had been closed or broken down for some time? Restoration can be a very exciting experience, right? I left you yesterday on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in the middle of a ‘restoration’, do you remember?
The great Temple of the God of Israel had actually been closed by King Ahaz several years before. (2 Chronicles 28:24) Unthinkable, isn’t it? Nothing was more important, more significant to Israel than the Temple for worshiping God. It had been constructed under the watchful eye of King Solomon in about 960bc. During its dedication by Solomon, God had sent fire from heaven to burn up the sacrifices on the Altar in the Temple Courtyard and God had sent the cloud of His glory to fill the Temple as Solomon had prayed dedicating this magnificent Temple to God. (2 Chronicles 7:1)
Now, 240 years later, during the reign of wicked King Ahaz, the Temple had actually been closed and worship of Holy, Almighty God was suspended in Jerusalem! The unimaginable had become reality. But when King Ahaz died in 715bc, Hezekiah his son became king, and the first thing King Hezekiah did was order the Levites and Priests to re-open the Temple, clean it out, and consecrate it for restored worship. Yesterday we watched as that took place. It was remarkable! (2 Chronicles 29:3-29)
As the worship of the government officials and spiritual leaders continued King Hezekiah ordered that the Temple gates be opened and Israelites from Jerusalem and surrounding towns bring their sacrifices and RESTORE God honoring worship for all Israelites at the Temple in Jerusalem. The record says: “So the people brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings.” (2 Chron. 29:31)
It was a joyful time for Jerusalem, what a tremendous contrast with what was happening only a few miles north in wicked Samaria as the northern kingdom of Israel had been pulverized by the great Assyrian army. (2 Kings 17) Thousands of Israelites had been hauled off to Assyria as captives and thousands of Assyrian captives from other lands had been relocated into Israel and were settling. Life was little more than basic survival in the northern kingdom Israel, as God’s judgment for their abandonment of God had been poured out upon His rebellious people who had rejected the warnings of God’s prophets.
As the crowds came to Jerusalem for worship, for the first time in several years, the Levites and the priests were a bit overwhelmed. During the time that the Temple had been forcibly closed, apparently many of those priests had drifted away from their calling and their commitment to God. They had not kept themselves morally pure or consecrated to God. So as Temple worship was restored the spiritual leaders were unprepared for the avalanche of worshipers looking for spiritual men to help them with their sacrifices and prayers. In fact this statement is challenging: “The priests were too few to skin all the burnt offerings so their relatives, the Levites, helped them until the task was finished and other priests could be consecrated, for the Levites had been more conscientious in consecrating themselves than the priests had been.” (2 Chronicles 29:34)
Look around your city my friends. Are those men and women considered spiritual leaders keeping themselves pure and consecrated to God so if there is a sudden spiritual hunger among many people and crowds come rushing to the churches in your town seeking God’s help, will there be sufficient people of God to help the throngs of desperate spiritual seekers?
In history, whenever there is a significant catastrophe people cry out for God and seek help from those who they believe may know God. Is your town prepared and are you among those who can step forward to help the spiritually desperate? In Jerusalem, the spiritual leaders were unprepared, but God was patient and merciful and very quickly priests and Levites reconsecrated themselves and worship at the Temple of God was restored!
This powerful statement says it all: “So the service of the Temple of the LORD was RESTORED. Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for His people, because it was done so quickly.” (2 Chron. 29:36) Some might call this a spiritual ‘revival’! Have you ever been part of something like this? I have and it’s amazing, it’s life changing! From the time King Hezekiah took the throne, to the full restoration of Temple worship, it was less than 30 days! When God is working a spiritual cleansing and spiritual restoration things can happen fast and powerfully!
If our study of 2 Chronicles 28 & 29 over the past few days has left you wondering if God could do this transformational work of cleansing and restoration in your personal life, the answer of course is YES! If after reflection you feel you need God’s help in being set free from things that have had dark strongholds in your life; if you long to be a spiritual ‘chain breaker’ in your family; if you’ve drifted and you long for a deep spiritual restoration as we’ve seen in the story of Hezekiah, I have a book to recommend to you: “Victory Over the Darkness” by Neil Anderson. Dr. Anderson is an anointed man of God who had done extensive Biblical study on the footholds and strongholds of the devil and dark kingdom which can so easily shackle people, restricting them from experiencing true “Freedom In Christ”. In fact, that is the name of Dr. Anderson’s ministry where you can find many resources to help you. The website is: FICM.org https://www.ficm.org/
As King Hezekiah watched the spiritual transformation of Jerusalem and the towns of Judah God gave Hezekiah a vision for what might be if he would trust God and open the gates of the restored Temple to Israelites from all over the region! So the record says: “King Hezekiah sent word to ALL Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, inviting them to come to the Temple of the LORD in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the LORD the God of Israel.” (2 Chronicles 30:1) It had been almost 250 years since all the people of Israel had been invited to the Temple of God for Passover; 250 years since the days of King Solomon! Could it possibly happen?
Would those who remained in the north, after the ravaging of the king of Assyria, have any desire and be willing to come to Jerusalem and gather with their distant cousins for such an ultimate restoration event?
Tomorrow, if you’ll join me again, we’ll see what God did! For today, is God ready to accomplish ‘spiritual restoration’ in you, your family, your city, your nation? Are you and I ready to be part of such a move of God? Here’s an old song to help us consider this possibility of God RESTORING His people…
Today’s Scripture: 2 Chronicles 29:29-30:1.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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