Hope From the Word

Narrator: God is looking for men and women who will seek them with all their heart, do what's good and right, and be faithful to him. We'll meet a king who fit that description and be encouraged to walk that way ourselves today on Hope from the Word.

Narrator: We invite you to take the next 26 minutes and spend them with us, studying God's Word here on Hope from the Word. We're going to be in Second Chronicles 29 and 30, learning about the reign of a very godly man named Hezekiah. Hezekiah became king of Judah at the age of 25, but that young age might be deceiving. He was a very wise man for his age.

Bill Luebkemann: There's a lot to like about this guy. It didn't take him long to make a positive difference as he reestablished worship in the temple during the first month as king. We begin at the end of chapter 30 of Second Chronicles. Here's Bill Luebkemann to tell us all about it.

Bill Luebkemann: So in the northern kingdom, you have a small number of men from a few towns that hear this proclamation and want to want to come back to the Lord. But in the Southern Kingdom, you have a large number of people because the hand of God was on those people to give them unity of mind to carry out what the king and his officials had ordered.

Bill Luebkemann: So the king and his officials were following the word of the Lord, and God's hand was upon them and gave them unity and and purpose, and they were united in wanting to follow the king and do what the Lord had said. So the Southern Kingdom, we see here, following God in a big way. The Northern Kingdom, not so much, but a few guys coming down to join them.

Bill Luebkemann: A very large crowd of people assembled in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month. They removed the altars in Jerusalem and cleared away the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley. So they joined together here to celebrate this feast. And while we had seen that the temple had been cleaned out and restored, there were still altars all over town.

Bill Luebkemann: You'll remember that from the end of chapter 28, he set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. That was what Ahaz did. So these people got together here, they gathered together to celebrate, and they said, "Yeah, let's go out and remove those altars," and they cleared them right on out of the streets and threw them off into the valley, into the Kidron Valley.

Bill Luebkemann: They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the 14th day of the second month. That was the backup date now. Passover was the 14th day of the first month. If you were unclean on that day, you could celebrate it on the 14th day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed and consecrated themselves and brought burn offerings to the temple of the Lord.

Bill Luebkemann: It seems like the priests and the Levites weren't so much with the plan. They were maybe a little bit slower. And you had all these people there with all these animals, and the priests were kind of like put in their place. They were ashamed. They weren't ready for it. They weren't as prepared as the people were.

Bill Luebkemann: And they consecrated themselves and brought burn offerings to the temple of the Lord. Then they took up their regular positions as prescribed in the law of Moses, the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood handed to them by the Levites. Since many in the crowd had not consecrated themselves, the Levites had to kill the Passover lambs for all those who were not ceremonially clean and could not consecrate their lambs to the Lord.

Bill Luebkemann: You remember, it was the head of the household who consecrated the lamb and killed it on the Passover. But the heads of the households here hadn't been weren't clean because this this hadn't been prepared. It wasn't that they hadn't taken a shower, they weren't ceremonially clean. They hadn't offered a sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins.

Bill Luebkemann: Whatever it is that they had done that they needed to be forgiven of hadn't been done. They had not planned in advance here. That's the bottom line. So the Levites had to step in for people and help them out by taking care of sacrificing their lambs for them. Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not purified themselves. Yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written.

Bill Luebkemann: So even the people who come to Passover are supposed to be ceremonially clean, but they weren't. They probably maybe they didn't even know how to become ceremonially clean. And maybe they didn't have time. And maybe this was all a last-minute kind of thing, and it happened so fast, they didn't know what to do. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God."

Bill Luebkemann: "The Lord, the God of his fathers, even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary, and the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people." Here Hezekiah understood that the Lord wanted was the heart. Not the outside, not the procedures and the rules and whatever, he wanted the heart.

Bill Luebkemann: And Hezekiah prayed for those whose heart was in the right position, seeking God. Now you hear people today say, "All roads lead to heaven if you're just sincere." And you know, when you hear them say that, you got to be sincere. It makes it somebody could read this and say, "See, it was the same thing here. It was having to do with their heart."

Bill Luebkemann: But it's one thing to be sincere in your heart, it's another thing to be sincere and believe the truth and be following the truth. You can be sincerely wrong and you go to hell if you're sincerely wrong. But if you trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, sincerely, you'll spend eternity with him in heaven.

Bill Luebkemann: Here here he says, "May the Lord who is good pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God." So they were sincere in their heart because they were seeking God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even if he is not clean. They were sincere in their heart and seeking the right God. The only God, the one true God, that we saw a few days ago on Sunday.

Bill Luebkemann: And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people. He heard him, and he healed him, and he accepted that prayer. The Israelites who were present in Jerusalem celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great rejoicing. Now you know, Passover is day one, and then the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the seven days following that.

Bill Luebkemann: And they celebrated this feast for seven days with great rejoicing, while the Levites and priests sang to the Lord every day accompanied by the Lord's instruments of praise. So they had a worship service every day, and this went on for a whole week. Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good understanding of the service of the Lord.

Bill Luebkemann: That's the verse I mentioned earlier. Many of these Levites probably had never served the Lord in this way before. Their ancestors had, their fathers, or their grandfathers, perhaps, or their great-grandfathers, but they they had never done it themselves. And somehow it had been passed down to them, or they had read the writings of Moses, and Hezekiah was encouraged to them.

Bill Luebkemann: He didn't whip them into shape or beat them up. He was encouraging to them because they showed good understanding of the service of the Lord. For the seven days they ate their assigned portion and offered fellowship offerings and praised the Lord, the God of their fathers. The priests were entitled to a portion of the sacrifices and they did that for seven days.

Bill Luebkemann: The whole assembly, verse 23, then agreed to celebrate the festival seven more days. So for another seven days, they celebrated joyfully. They got together and said, "We're having such a rockin' time. We want to keep doing this." And we haven't done it for so many years, let's catch up a little by doubling the length of it.

Bill Luebkemann: Let's continue to celebrate for seven more days. And so for another seven days, they celebrated joyfully. Hezekiah, king of Judah, provided a thousand bulls and 7,000 sheep and goats for the assembly. And the officials provided them with a thousand bulls and 10,000 sheep and goats. So, it appears like they needed more animals because they were going to celebrate for seven more days.

Bill Luebkemann: And Hezekiah and the officials were so happy that the celebration was going on. These people wanted to keep celebrating and worshiping the Lord that Hezekiah and the officials provided thousands of additional animals here. If you add this all up, it's like 19,000 more sheep and bulls. A great number of priests consecrated themselves.

Bill Luebkemann: So you have more and more priests coming on board as time goes on. The entire assembly of Judah rejoiced, along with the priests and Levites, and all who had assembled from Israel, including the aliens who had come from Israel and those who lived in Judah. So everybody here was rejoicing.

Bill Luebkemann: The entire assembly, the people from Judah, the priests and the Levites were there, those that came down from the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and even the aliens. Now we're not talking space aliens here, right? But the aliens from other countries, some of which were living in Judah, some of which were living in Israel, and had come down to worship God, they all were rejoicing here at what was going on and how great their God was and all the things that he had done for them here.

Bill Luebkemann: 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. They may have celebrated the Passovers a few times occasionally. It doesn't seem like they did it very often. But not on the scale that it was celebrated here.

Bill Luebkemann: This was just off the charts. Nothing had been done like this in a long time. The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place. God was well pleased that the people had returned to him. And it was all because this one king came along.

Bill Luebkemann: Isn't that amazing? One guy, a leader, can come along and call this country back to following God, and the Lord worked through that, brought a unity to the Southern Kingdom, brought down many folks from the Northern Kingdom that wanted to join them, and they praised and worshipped God and celebrated together. And the prayer their prayers reached to heaven, God's dwelling place.

Bill Luebkemann: When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property.

Bill Luebkemann: So when all this was over here, they they went out on a rampage here to clean up the kingdom. You remember, they had they had cleaned out the altars in Jerusalem and thrown them all in the valley. After 14 days of celebrating, they said, "Let's clean up this kingdom." And they went out all throughout the land.

Bill Luebkemann: And the amazing thing is they even went to the Northern Kingdom. They did Judah and Benjamin on the south, but also Ephraim and Manasseh. So they the entire land of Israel. Remember, the Northern Kingdom was where the people scorned and ridiculed the messengers who went there with the message. So must have been large groups of people that came into town and said, "Well, you can scorn and ridicule the message, but we're still taking down your altars here if you don't like it, too bad."

Bill Luebkemann: And they cleaned out the whole kingdom, destroyed the altars, smashed the sacred stones, cut down the Asherah poles. They they cleaned up the whole town here. And then they returned to their own towns and to their own properties. I said altars, but it says the stones and the poles. Oh, and it does say altars. They destroyed the high places and the altars, so I was right.

Bill Luebkemann: So they they cleaned out the whole kingdom. Praise God for that. Verse two. Hezekiah assigned the priests and Levites to divisions, each of them according to their duties as priests or Levites, to offer burn offerings and fellowship offerings, to minister, to give thanks, and to sing praises at the gates of the Lord's dwelling.

Bill Luebkemann: So he assigned the divisions. And you remember that was something that David had done a long time before, and here he was reimplementing that where they were assigned to duties, rosters, shifts if you will, divisions and they each one had their prescribed timeframes when they would be in the temple doing their duty.

Bill Luebkemann: The king contributed from his own possessions for the morning and evening burn offerings and for the burn offerings on the Sabbaths, new moons, and appointed feasts as written in the law of the Lord. So to have the daily offerings and the offerings for Sabbaths, new moons, and the various feasts, the king provided himself for those things.

Bill Luebkemann: What a difference this was from Ahaz, who was the king and probably wanted to have everything for himself. And here we see a king who is just simply so generous in providing whatever is needed. He ordered the people living in Jerusalem to give the portion due the priests and Levites so they could devote themselves to the law of the Lord.

Bill Luebkemann: As soon as the order went out, the Israelites generously gave the first fruits of their grain, new wine, oil, and honey, and all that the fields produced. They brought a great amount, a tithe of everything. The men of Israel and Judah who lived in the towns of Judah also brought a tithe of their herds and flocks, and a tithe of the holy things dedicated to the Lord their God, and they piled them in heaps.

Bill Luebkemann: They began doing this in the third month and finished in the seventh month. When Hezekiah and his officials came and saw the heaps, they praised the Lord and blessed his people Israel. So here it was now the first month, they got everything going again. The second month, they had the Passover. And then he put out the word to the people of Jerusalem there that they were to be giving the first fruits of these things, their grain, new wine, oil, and honey, and all that the fields produced.

Bill Luebkemann: They were to be giving the first fruits to the priests so that the priests could eat and they could concern themselves with the work of the Lord. And this was all the whole system that God had provided. Remember, the Levites, they didn't have any land of their own because they were perpetually in the service of the Lord.

Bill Luebkemann: And it was the rest of the nation that was to give generously from the first of their fruits, these things. And when he put out the order to do this, it hadn't been done probably in quite some time, and the people were very generous, sending in a tenth, a tithe is a tenth, sending in a tenth of everything.

Bill Luebkemann: And the men of Israel and Judah who lived in the towns of Judah, they also brought in their stuff, and so many things came in, it was they were piled in heaps, beginning in the third month. Now, the first month is March to April, the second month is April to May, the third month would have been May to June. So we're talking about the beginning of the grain harvest here, up until the seventh month, three, four, five, six, seven.

Bill Luebkemann: So that would have been September, October when they were harvesting from the vines, when they were harvesting fruit, the fruit of the vine, grapes, and whatever else. So during the entire summer harvesting season here, from the third month to the seventh month, people were bringing all kinds of stuff. And Hezekiah and his officials were just pleased and blessed to see all that came and how big these piles were.

Bill Luebkemann: Hezekiah asked the priests and Levites about the heaps, and Azariah, the chief priest from the family of Zadok, answered, "Since the people began to bring their contributions to the temple of the Lord, we have had enough to eat and plenty to spare, because the Lord has blessed his people, and this great amount is left over."

Bill Luebkemann: So Hezekiah was asking, "Hey guys, what's going on down here? Hey, how about those piles there? Are you getting enough stuff to feed everybody?" And this guy Azariah, who was the chief priest, he said, "We have more than we need. We have enough to feed everybody. The people have been so generous, and so much stuff has been brought down. And the Lord has blessed his people."

Bill Luebkemann: The Lord blessed the people that they could have good crops to begin with. And the Lord blessed the priests and everybody else in their generosity, and this great amount was left over. So they had to have a place to put it. Verse 11, Hezekiah gave orders to prepare storerooms in the temple of the Lord, and this was done.

Bill Luebkemann: Then they faithfully brought in the contributions, tithes, and dedicated gifts. Conaniah, a Levite, was in charge of these things, and his brother Shimai was next in rank. Jehiel, Aziah, Nehaph, Azahel, Jerimoth, Jozebad, Eliel, Ismakah, Mehath, and Beniah were supervisors under Conaniah and Shimai, his brother, by appointment of King Hezekiah and Azariah, the official in charge of the temple of the Lord.

Bill Luebkemann: So here you have these two guys, Conaniah and his brother. And then he had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, if I counted right. 10 supervisors working underneath them. That doesn't count all the workers. So two guys in charge, under them, 10 supervisors, and under them, who knows how many workers? We're talking about a lot of surplus stuff here that was stockpiled.

Bill Luebkemann: Then you had this other guy Core here, son of Imna, the Levite, keeper of the East Gate, was in charge of the freewill offerings given to God, distributing the contributions made to the Lord and also the consecrated gifts. Eden, Mimamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shekaniah assisted him faithfully in the towns of the priests, distributing to their fellow priests according to their divisions, old and young alike.

Bill Luebkemann: So this guy here and his crew, they were in charge of distributing the stuff that was brought in to the priests. So the stuff came in, it was stockpiled, but it was intended that it would be given to the priests, that they could devote themselves to serving God. And this food and other items would come to them and this would be how they would live.

Bill Luebkemann: And so you had this guy with his six helpers in charge of distributing to the priests, regardless of how old they were. Look at this, verse 16. In addition, they distributed to the males three years old or more, whose names were in the genealogical records, all who would enter the temple of the Lord to perform the daily duties of their various tasks according to their responsibilities and their divisions.

Bill Luebkemann: So even a three-year-old that was of a priestly line and that was going to be a priest when he grew up, he was entitled to his share also, even at the age of three. And they distributed to the priests enrolled by their families in the genealogical records, and likewise to the Levites 20 years old or more, according to their responsibilities and their divisions.

Bill Luebkemann: The Levites only got it when they were 20 years old. That was when they were able to go into the service of the Lord. They included all the little ones, the wives, and the sons and daughters of the whole community listed in these genealogical records, for they were faithful in consecrating themselves. So, look, to summarize that here, you have the people bringing the offerings in.

Bill Luebkemann: You have two guys with 10 supervisors in charge of storing all this stuff, organizing it, saving it up, figuring out where it's going to be kept. And then you had this other guy with his six helpers distributing it to the priests and to the Levites. And not just in Jerusalem, but wherever it was that they lived.

Bill Luebkemann: As for the priests, the descendants of Aaron who lived on the farmlands around their towns, or in any other towns, men were designated by name to distribute portions to every male among them and to all who were recorded in the genealogies of the Levites. So they kept good records of genealogies, of who's descended from who and who's entitled to what.

Bill Luebkemann: And they assigned men by name to take the portion. "Okay, you two guys, you're going to take and go to this town with a few carts of stuff and distribute it to the priests that are there. And you two are going to go over here." And this was a big undertaking to distribute this food all across the land to all the different towns that the priests were living in, and the Levites.

Bill Luebkemann: This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God. In everything that he undertook in the service of God's temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly, and so he prospered.

Bill Luebkemann: Here we have a guy who did everything that was right, and he he was good and right and faithful before the Lord God. And he started out with a kingdom that wasn't walking with the Lord, and that was destitute from God. And it was just packed with idols and figures and all kinds of idol worship stuff on even on the streets of Jerusalem, right down the street from the temple.

Bill Luebkemann: And the doors of the temple were closed, and he cleaned it out, and he he got the whole temple worship going again. And then he got the Passover and this celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for twice as long as they had to. And then he implemented the whole system of temple worship. He implemented it back again. He didn't invent it, but he implemented it the way it was supposed to be done.

Bill Luebkemann: And he had the people bringing their offerings, and the offerings were given to the priests so that the priests could focus on the work of God. And he did all these things in an amazing few months, from the first month of the year when he cleaned out the temple, to the second month when they had Passover and the feast, to the third through the seventh month where they had all these heaps of stuff, and presumably later in the year, perhaps in the fall, they were out there distributing it all.

Bill Luebkemann: So in the space of just a few months, he took this kingdom from being nowhere with God to being everywhere with God. And in all the things he did, it says here in 21, in everything that he undertook in the service of God's temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he was he was doing all these things in obedience to what the law was and what God's commands were.

Bill Luebkemann: And in everything he did, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. He didn't do it because he had to. He didn't say, "Well, all right, if I have to, I guess I will, but I don't really want to." He did it wholeheartedly. He was excited to be able to do it, and he sought his God. And how many times have we read about people who stop seeking God?

Bill Luebkemann: They started out seeking him for a while, then they stopped, and they started doing it their own way. And when it came time to fight a battle, instead of asking God for his help, they were down negotiating with Egypt or trying to bribe the enemy by giving them gifts from the Lord's storehouse. And here we have a guy here, it says, "He sought his God."

Bill Luebkemann: Don't think he just went out and did this on his own, whatever felt good. He sought God. And he was familiar with God's law. When we read the Bible and plant it into our hearts, we we find out what God wants from us and how we should live our lives. And that's what this guy did. He was familiar with the law. He was familiar with the commands because he was familiar with the word of God, and he sought his God, and he did this wholeheartedly, and so he prospered in doing so.

Bill Luebkemann: It is great to read about Hezekiah because we've seen so many lousy kings here, to see a guy that seeks after God and just simply sets out to do what God wants and to see how blessed they are because of that, it's just amazing.

Narrator: You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in Pastor Bill Luebkemann's study of Second Chronicles. If you'd like to hear this message again, you have several options. Visit our website at CCmarlton.org, download the Hope FM app to your smartphone or tablet, or look for us wherever you find podcasts.

Narrator: If you've been thinking about visiting Calvary Chapel of Marlton, where Bill serves as pastor, we'd love to have you. Our service times are on Sunday mornings at 10:00. We also meet midweek on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. You can also livestream from home when you visit our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton. For more information, go to CCmarlton.org. We hope to see you soon.

Narrator: Before the day is done, we'd like to connect with you. Share a praise report, prayer request, or what you're learning from this series. You can easily email us from our website, CCmarlton.org, or just call us at 856-983-1662. There's more to come from Bill's study of Second Chronicles, and we'll have that for you next time on Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel of Marlton.