2 Chronicles 29 - Study the King James Bible

Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.

And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.

He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them.

REVERENCE FOR GOD’S HOUSE
‘He opened the doors of the house of the Lord.’
2 Chronicles 29:3
So frantic had Ahaz been in his wickedness that he gathered together the vessels of the house of God and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord. He not only repudiated God himself, he placed His worship under the ban. That was the state of things when Hezekiah came to the throne—the Temple had fallen into the filthy condition of all neglected and unoccupied buildings, and its closed doors were a visible symbol of the national repudiation of Jehovah.
I. Hezekiah’s respect for God’s house.—The first thing that Hezekiah did upon succeeding to the throne was to reopen the doors of the Temple. ‘He opened the doors of the Lord’s house, and repaired them.’ ‘The doors were opened,’ says one commentator, ‘as a sign that Jehovah was invited to return to His people, and again to manifest His presence in the Holy of Holies.’ And that is no doubt true. But instead of the national significance of the act, let us think for a moment of what it implies with reference to Hezekiah himself.
( a) It was a proof of his love for God. It was because He loved God that the sight of the closed Temple pained and grieved Hezekiah. It was because he loved God that he resolved to have an ‘open door’ by which he and his people could enter into the presence of God. Notice, they who love God, love His house. They say ‘My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord.’
( b) It was a public declaration that Hezekiah meant to serve the Lord. It was not an easy thing to do, for during Ahaz’s reign idolatry had entrenched itself firmly in Judah. Idolatry had its ‘vested interests.’ There were numbers of Pagan priests; there were Ahaz’s old counsellors and friends, all of them committed to idolatry. When the present Tsar ascended the throne he issued a proclamation, in which he said: ‘Let all know that.… I intend to protect the principle of autocracy as firmly and unswervingly as did my late father.’ When Hezekiah ascended the throne he issued a proclamation nobler far, for by this act of opening the Temple doors he declared to the world: ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ What a noble decision this was! And what an example to us! Let us, too, openly—in the sight of the world, no matter how men may mock and scoff—confess the Lord. Those that honour Him, He will honour.
( c) And Hezekiah did this at the earliest possible moment. He opened the doors of the Lord’s house, in the first year of his reign, in the first month! He did not put off serving the Lord, but he made his public confession at the very first opportunity. Again, what an example! Some people put off confessing Christ till only the dregs of life are left. That is a poor and mean and contemptible thing to do! ‘Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth,’ says Scripture. Let confession of Christ’s name be the act of our young days. Open the doors and bid the King of Glory enter in.
( d) The ‘opening of the doors’ of the Temple by Hezekiah reminds us of a Greater than Hezekiah, Who provided an ‘open door’ for us to the throne of the Heavenly Grace. ‘I am the Door,’ says Jesus Christ—the Door to the Father’s presence and the peace of God. And this is an ‘open door.’ Let us thank God for it and let us enter in by it.
II. The cleansing of the Temple.—But it was not enough to open the doors of the Temple. With its lamps extinguished and its vessels destroyed, and its floors and walls thick with dust, and full of all filthiness, it was no fit place for the indwelling of the Most High. And so Hezekiah summoned the Levites to the task of cleansing the Temple. And for sixteen days these men laboured, until they were able at the end of the time to come to Hezekiah and say that they had ‘cleansed the house of the Lord, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the table of shewbread, with all the vessels thereof.’ Hezekiah recognised that God requires a clean dwelling. ‘Holiness,’ says the Psalmist, ‘becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever.’ That was the truth our Lord taught when, with that whip of small cords, He drove out of the Temple them that bought and sold within its courts, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers and the seats of them that sold doves. There is no place for anything unholy or unclean in God’s house. There is a lesson here for us, perhaps, with reference to our own churches. We must bring into them nothing base or unholy or sinful. Holiness becometh God’s house. Only those that have clean hands and a pure heart, says the Psalmist, can go up into the hill of the Lord. To worship God acceptably we must do so with reverence and Godly awe. And there is a lesson, here, too, with reference to our own hearts. For the heart is God’s truest Temple. The Heaven of heavens cannot contain Him—but He is willing to dwell in the humble and contrite heart. But the heart that is to be God’s dwelling-place must be clean. ‘Blessed,’ said our Lord, ‘are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Illustration
‘How good is a time of religious revival in Church and land! Probably it ought never to be needed. Year after year pure religion and undefiled ought to prosper in the State and in the house of God. Month after month, the fig tree should blossom, and the vines should yield their fruit, and the labour of the olive should not fail. Day after day, men and women and children, like the boys of Florence in Savonarola’s time, should cry, “Long live Jesus Christ, our King!” But again and again it is needed. Torpor and coldness invade the Church. Irreligion and sin spread themselves over the country. Then God is kind. He does not hide His face in merited displeasure. He revisits His people.’

And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street,

And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.

For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs.

Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel.

Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.

For, lo, 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 mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.

11.

My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense.

12.

Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites: and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehalelel: and of the Gershonites; Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah:

13.

And of the sons of Elizaphan; Shimri, and Jeiel: and of the sons of Asaph; Zechariah, and Mattaniah:

14.

And of the sons of Heman; Jehiel, and Shimei: and of the sons of Jeduthun; Shemaiah, and Uzziel.

15.

And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD.

16.

And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron.

17.

Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD: so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.

18.

Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread table, with all the vessels thereof.

19.

Moreover all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away in his transgression, have we prepared and sanctified, and, behold, they are before the altar of the LORD.

20.

Then Hezekiah the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the LORD.

21.

And they brought seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the LORD.

22.

So they killed the bullocks, and the priests received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar: likewise, when they had killed the rams, they sprinkled the blood upon the altar: they killed also the lambs, and they sprinkled the blood upon the altar.

23.

And they brought forth the he goats for the sin offering before the king and the congregation; and they laid their hands upon them:

24.

And the priests killed them, and they made reconciliation with their blood upon the altar, to make an atonement for all Israel: for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.

25.

And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet: for so was the commandment of the LORD by his prophets.

26.

And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.

27.

And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began also with the trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by David king of Israel.

28.

And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded: and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.

29.

And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves, and worshipped.

30.

Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the LORD with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped.

31.

Then Hezekiah answered and said, Now ye have consecrated yourselves unto the LORD, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the LORD. And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings; and as many as were of a free heart burnt offerings.

32.

And the number of the burnt offerings, which the congregation brought, was threescore and ten bullocks, an hundred rams, and two hundred lambs: all these were for a burnt offering to the LORD.

33.

And the consecrated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep.

34.

But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings: wherefore their brethren the Levites did help them, till the work was ended, and until the other priests had sanctified themselves: for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests.

35.

And also the burnt offerings were in abundance,with the fat of the peace offerings, and the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of the LORD was set in order.

36.

And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people: for the thing was done suddenly.