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Hello my dear friends all around the world who are on this wonderful “Walking with Jesus” journey together. I pray that this day may be for you a glorious Thanksgiving Day 2020. With all the COVID related restrictions, I hope you will still find ways to connect with your family and closest friends, and THANK God for His boundless goodness!
Yesterday we considered a very important day in history as king Hezekiah took bold action to step out of the ‘shame shadow’ in which he had been raised as the eldest son of wicked king Ahaz. I urged us to consider how widespread this ‘shame shadow’ is in every country of our world today and how important it is for those whose lives have been too much defined by their family ‘shame shadow’ to follow Hezekiah’s example in 2 Chronicles 29 and boldly take action. Bring the light of truth to their shadow, honestly acknowledge the cause of the shame, bring it before God and leave it in God’s hands, then step forward to cast a new life shadow, living free of the ‘shame shadow’. Have you done that my friend?
Today I invite us to take a few moments to consider the great “Thanksgiving Day” found in 2 Chronicles 30. The consecrated Levites and priests worked diligently as Hezekiah had challenged them and they thoroughly cleansed the temple from top to bottom, front to back. It was so filthy it required two full weeks of work! Not only had dirt and cobwebs accumulated while the Temple had actually been closed by king Ahaz, but more importantly they cleaned out the defiling artifacts which Ahaz and his fellow leaders had placed inside the great Temple of God. They also cleaned up and brought back into the Temple all the sacred artifacts which had been fabricated according to God’s directions so many years before.
Friends, have you discovered that part of leaving what I’ve called ‘the shame shadow’ is cleaning out the stuff that has cluttered your life and separated you from God? Even cleaning the wounds of that painful shadow so real healing can take place. That’s what was happening as the Levites and priests worked diligently to clean and restore the Temple of God. Please take note of the glorious worship with instruments, singers, sacrifices, incense, song and prayer, which followed the cleansing work. The shadow of shame in Jerusalem was being dispelled, replaced by a glorious reopening of the Temple of God. It was a wonderful season of Thanksgiving for people who had lived in shame and fear under king Ahaz.
What followed the rededication worship is also historic. You’ll remember the nation of Israel had divided about 215 years before, following the reign of king Solomon. Sadly the northern nation of Israel had so thoroughly rejected God that God finally allowed the empire of Assyria to invade and conquer the land, destroying many cities and towns, and taking as captive thousands of His Israeli people. But some people had remained and Hezekiah did something no previous king had done since the days of Solomon! “Hezekiah sent word to ALL Israel and Judah…inviting them to come to the Temple of the LORD in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover of the LORD the God of Israel…At the king’s command couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his officials inviting the people…” (2 Chron. 30:1-6) Hezekiah knew the people of Israel, their Hebrew cousins to the north, had lived in a 200 year long ‘shame shadow’. It was time to break the curse and come together for praise and worship of the Holy God of Israel!
2 Chronicles 30:6-9 gives you the actual text of the letter of invitation which king Hezekiah sent throughout the land. It’s remarkable! Sadly there are always those who have been so deeply wounded by the ‘shame shadow’ they’ve lived in they can’t imagine escape, and out of their woundedness they respond with criticism rather than gratitude. Do you know anyone trapped by their wounded heart? Listen to the record: “The couriers went from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, as far north as Zebulun, but the people scorned and ridiculed the couriers. Nevertheless, some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went to Jerusalem…The hand of God was on the people to give them unity of mind to carry out what the king and his officials ordered, following the word of the LORD. A very large crowd of people assembled in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover together…” (2 Chron. 30:10-14)
My friends, I doubt any of us can fully comprehend how glorious, how wonderful this grand reunion must have been. Those from Israel in the north and those from Judah in the south had not been together, except to fight against each other in battle, for 200 years…even though they were all direct descendants of those who had been rescued out of Egyptian slavery by Almighty God and Moses! This Passover was a Thanksgiving gathering in Jerusalem which celebrated their shared history and greatly honored the God of Israel! It was so glorious, filled with so much thanksgiving and celebration that one full week was not enough time, so “The whole assembly then agreed to celebrate the festival of Passover for another seven days. Hezekiah king of Judah provided 1000 bulls and 7000 sheep and goats for the assembly, and the officials provided another 1000 bulls and 10,000 sheep and goats.”
Now perhaps some of these animals were for the continuation of worship through sacrifice, but may I suggest much of it was to feed this huge gathering of people who had come to worship for 14 consecutive days of Passover festival! You see my friends, one of the great byproducts of people leaving behind their ‘shame shadow’ is almost boundless generosity and authentic joy! In some ways our modern Thanksgiving Day should be a family version of what took place in Jerusalem those days! Oh my how I would have loved to be part of that celebration…how about you?
Finally, please notice a profound spiritual revival was also taking place in this event. The record says: “A great number of priests consecrated themselves. The entire assembly of Judah rejoiced along with the priests and Levites and all who had assembled from Israel including aliens (foreigners) who had come from Israel and those who lived in Judah. There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. The priests and Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, HIS Holy dwelling place.” (2 Chronicle 30:24-27)
Oh my, Oh my!! Dear friends, for the first time in 200 years God was delighted to see a reunified people of Israel, with Hebrews who had come from throughout the region. The great Temple of worship was once again filled with delighted worshipers. The altar was ablaze with sacrifices of repentance. And God poured out His great blessing on His people.
Sadly many thousands of Jews who could have been and should have been there, were in captivity paying the high price of rejecting God.
In many ways what happened in Jerusalem in those days is what Thanksgiving Day is all about today! So I hope you can find time today to immerse yourself in this remarkable account, and then bring this experience to your family and friends who will gather together, even if your gathering is on ZOOM!
Oh may Jesus Christ be the center of your Thanksgiving Day today, as Almighty, Holy God was the center of this full month of cleansing and celebration in Jerusalem. May we all experience healing of broken hearts, restoration of torn relationships, and may we see Jesus bring great hope to all of us and our families for 2021 and beyond. If it happened in 2 Chronicles 29 & 30 it can happen in our day… do you agree?
Click to read today’s chapter: 2 Chronicles 30. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“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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