2 Chronicles 29-34; I have waited for two weeks before writing the blog on this portion of scripture. I have been enthralled with the passage! We use to play games with the name of Hezekiah, asking people to turn to the book; of course it sounds like a book in the Bible but is not. Hezekiah the King of Judah is a remarkable person. Beginning in chapter 29, we find this 25 year old King sitting on the throne of God’s people – Judah. As a pastor I have always been told “don’t do anything for the first couple of years when taking over a new church;” sounds like great advice. But this is not what King Hezekiah did – it says ” in the 1st year and the 1st month, he opened the door to the house of the Lord; then called the Levities and Priests on the carpet – saying “CONCECRATE YOURSELVES AND THE HOUSE OF THE LORD.” Talk about having some brass! Now in our current climate of Christianity, we have a lot of resistance to the younger generation of pastors and ministers. I found it ironic that the people God uses to bring revival and restoration to Judah and Israel is the kings, not the religious leaders. God used Kings like Asa, Jehoshaphat, Josiah and Hezekiah.
I pray for revival everyday for the church. I keep praying that God will somehow open the eyes and hearts of believers to the urgency of the Gospel in our world. 2 Chronicles 7:14 is a oft quoted formula prayer for revival. As I have mentioned before, I see that passage not as prescriptive but descriptive about revival. King Hezekiah didn’t wait around to be given permission to act as king; he jumped in and took command of the situation. What is interesting also is Hezekiah follows a corrupt king in Ahaz. I got to thinking about the revolving door of kings and couldn’t help but draw the analogy of revolving doors of pastors in churches. It seems that whoever follows; begins to deconstruct what was done, and then establish their own leadership system. This makes sense if and only if the previous leadership was in fact corrupt and needed changing. But many times what happen, is pastors and those in leadership scrap the organizational structure for a new one. If this is done enough times, the people grow weary of the constant change and bow out of listening to leadership as a whole.
Anyway, Hezekiah spends no time in restoring the LORD’s house, and tells the religious leaders to “clean up their act.” We have been taught that the Church or Christianity is the secret to restoring a nation, country, community or church back to God. Hummm? Really, then why is it that God had to use those outside the Church to fix the church? Revival is for the people who know God but have become disobedient and apathetic towards God and His requirement of obedience.
The condition of the religious leaders is disheartening; they were unclean – filthy, yet they stood in the honorable place of intercession for the people. The Church/Lord’s house had been neglected and was in ruins. The religious leaders cowered down and gave into Ahaz and Baal worship. Today as then we must have men of God who will stand in the Gap and stand up against the garbage of culture and Satan! Where are all the men of God today that will speak against the sins of the world and the sins of the congregation?
Hezekiah brought a wonderful revival to the land. He got the religious leaders right, cleansed the Lord’s House, then called people to come worship. There was something to come worship about now. Restoration of the Passover, a feast that was to be perpetually observed, hadn’t been for years. Hezekiah did what Revitalization Leadership does – make pastors and churches do what they already know to do, but aren’t!
A single word is repeated over and over in these chapters – CONSECRATION, CONSECRATE, CONSECRATED. The word means is more than -separated or sanctified. It carries the concept of cleansing that which is filthy, to purify, to make holy for the use of the Lord. Hezekiah wouldn’t let the religious leaders conduct services until they personally were consecrated. Here is this 25 year old King standing up to the vile filth of Baal worship and apostasy of the religious leaders and orchestrating an awesome revival, that the people wanted to extend another week. Oh, that we would hear a prophetic voice of God today for consecration before God. DO we really want revival? It starts with us!!
preachbetweenthelines 