Today’s passage reminds me of why we spend so much time focusing on Hezekiah as one of the good kings of Judah and less time on some of the other good kings, such as Asa. Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz, had been a truly evil king. Essentially the first thing Hezekiah did upon taking the throne was to begin reversing his father’s evil policies. Hezekiah immediately initiated a process of purifying the temple, and as soon as the temple was purified he called the people to assemble to worship the Lord. As I recount this, I struggle with communicating the infectious, joyous enthusiasm for worshiping the Lord which Hezekiah and the people shared as recounted in this passage. In fact, the people were so enthusiastic in their return to public worship of the Lord that not enough priests had been consecrated in time for this celebration. Reading the passage suggests that the “common” Levites and the ordinary people were more enthusiastic about this spiritual revival than the priests, who should have been leading the way. That particular fact should be a lesson to us today. The “clergy” are often less enthusiastic about the restoration of worshiping God, about spiritual revival, than ordinary people.
When we think of King Hezekiah we generally think of the Assyrian threats against Jerusalem during his reign, but today’s passage sets the stage for that event. Hezekiah ordered the consecration and reopening of the Temple as his first act as king. In doing this Hezekiah had the full support of the priests and Levites. Less than two months after Hezekiah took the throne after his father’s death, the Temple was ready once again for sacrifices, offerings, and worship of the Lord. The part I like the most out of this is the special Passover celebration which Hezekiah promoted. Since there was not enough time from beginning to cleanse the Temple and the normal date for the Passover for enough priests to be consecrated, someone among the initial assembly suggested that they hold it a month later than usual (the inspiration for this would have come from the instructions given to those who were unclean through no fault of their own at the time of the second Passover).
All of Israel was to be invited, not just those living in the Kingdom of Judah. So, Hezekiah sent messengers throughout both Judah and the Northern Kingdom. Those messengers sent to the Northern Kingdom were met with scorn and ridicule. Yet even so, a number of people from the Northern Kingdom chose to come to this Passover celebration in order to resume worshiping God. This whole episode tells us a lot about how we should worship God. The people of Judah sought to celebrate the worship of God with all of those to whom His promise had been given. Those from the Northern Kingdom were willing to be ridiculed in order to worship God. On whichever side of such a divide we find ourselves, let us emulate the people of Hezekiah’s time. If we are within the group celebrating the worship of God, let us invite those outside who wish to worship Him to join us. If we are among those who ridicule the worship of God, let us stand up to worship God and be ridiculed.
So, I wonder how Hezekiah came to be such a staunch follower of God after the extremes to which his father had gone. Perhaps it was a combination of contrasting his father with his grandfather (Hezekiah was 9 when his grandfather died) and seeing his father sacrifice some of his younger brothers. In any case, he called on the priests and Levites to purify themselves so that they could lead the people in worship of God once more. King Hezekiah did something interesting: when he offered sacrifices for the people’s sins, he did not just offer sacrifices for the sins of the people of Judah, over whom he ruled, he offered sacrifices for all of the people of Israel, many of whom did not acknowledge his sovereignty.
Then when Hezekiah decided to hold Passover, he chose to hold it a month late because there was not time to prepare and have people gather in time for the normal time. However, King Hezekiah did not reach this decision on his own, he did so in consultation with his advisers and representatives of the people. Further, he sent word throughout all of the lands settled by the Israelites, even though he knew that most of them would reject celebrating the Passover as silly. Finally, when they held the Passover, King Hezekiah made accommodation for those who had not properly prepared themselves. We, also, should allow for those who wish to seek the Lord, but still struggle with sin. We should not ask people to have cleaned all of the sin out of their lives before we accept their participation in our services and activities worshiping and serving God. All we ask is that they strive to do better going forward.
Essentially the first thing which Hezekiah did when he became king was to reopen the Temple, which his father had shut. As part of that he summoned the priests and Levites. He commanded them to purify themselves and the Temple so as to be prepared to properly worship and present sacrifices to God. It would be easy to reach the conclusion that this just involved cleaning the Temple and conducting the appropriate rituals, but I think that Hezekiah meant, and his listeners understood, conducting the rituals, re-familiarizing themselves with God’s Laws, and changing their behaviors.
It took the Levites 16 days to cleanse and purify the Temple (note that it specifies that the Levites did this work, not “the priests and Levites”). As soon as the Temple was purified, Hezekiah gathered the city officials of Jerusalem and had the priests offer a sin offering for all of Israel. It would be easy to overlook that he did not just ask them to offer a sin offering for the nation as commanded in the Law of Moses. That could have been interpreted as either being for all of Israel, or just for the kingdom over which Hezekiah ruled. No, Hezekiah called for a sin offering for all of Israel, for all of the descendants of Jacob, even those who had been taken into exile (both from the northern tribes and from his own territory while his father was king). As part of this process, he had the priests and Levites conduct a festival-style worship service. This drew the people of the city, not just the officials whom Hezekiah had summoned.
Once the re-dedication and sin offerings had been offered Hezekiah called on the people who so desired to bring their own offerings to the Lord. This is where we see the significance of my note about who purified the Temple because not enough priests had purified themselves to offer all of the sacrifices the people brought. The passage tells us that the Levites had to help the priests offer the sacrifices. I believe that the problem was that what revealed that not enough priests had purified themselves was that many of them did not know how to offer the sacrifices. Which indicated that they had not studied the Law of Moses, but the Levites had and thus knew what needed to be done. The people responded enthusiastically to Hezekiah’s restoration of God’s worship, as did the Levites. The priests, and I am going to guess other high officials, responded less enthusiastically.
The final element of Hezekiah’s restoration was the first Passover he celebrated. They celebrated this Passover a month late because not enough priests could be purified in time. As part of his preparations Hezekiah sent messengers throughout the entire land of Israel, not just the part over which he had authority, inviting people to prepare themselves and come celebrate the Passover. This was after the fall of Samaria, so we learn that not all of the Northern Tribes were taken into exile by the Assyrians. Most of the people in the northern regions laughed at King Hezekiah’s messengers, but large numbers still responded and came to Jerusalem for the Passover. Many of those who came from the northern regions no longer knew how to properly worship God and so failed to properly purify themselves for the Passover. King Hezekiah ruled that they should be allowed to take part anyway and prayed to God that He accept their desire to serve Him. We should follow Hezekiah’s example and welcome all who genuinely wish to worship God, especially those whose enthusiasm exceeds their understanding. I will note that they did not just allow those who were unprepared to conduct their Passover sacrifices however they saw fit. No, they had the Levites prepare their sacrifices for them, showing them the correct way to do it.
When Hezekiah became king his first act was to begin the process of reversing his father’s closing and defiling of the Temple. He called on the priests and Levites to clean, restore, and purify the Temple and its furnishings. In doing so, he challenged them for having failed to resist his father’s closing of the Temple, but he did not single them out. His method of handling this is a great example for us. He did not assign them any more blame in this than anyone else, but he also did not excuse them for their failure to remain faithful. As a result, they dedicated themselves wholeheartedly to the task and completed it in sixteen days. King Hezekiah had the priests offer a sin offering for the nation and held a ceremony for the people to consecrate themselves to God.
One interesting thing we learn hear is that the Levites were more diligent in purifying themselves than the priests were. Perhaps this happened because the priests only had a limited role in the services, admittedly the most important role, and they did not believe that many people would respond to Hezekiah’s call and therefore only a few of them would be needed. On the other hand, the duties of the Levites were many and varied such that there would always be a task which one more Levite could be assigned. In any case, the response of the people was overwhelming and the Levites who had purified themselves were called on to assist with the sacrifices until more priests could be purified.
The part of this process which I most want to take note of is how Hezekiah dealt with the Northern Tribes. When he had the priests make the burnt offering and sin offering for the people, Hezekiah specified that it should be for ALL of the people of Israel, not just those over whom he ruled. He took it upon himself to try to make it right between God and all of the descendants of Jacob, even those who had rejected his ancestors and himself. Then when he scheduled a Passover celebration, he invited the people of the Northern Kingdom to join in the celebration. Most of the people of the Northern Kingdom laughed at Hezekiah’s messengers and made fun of them, but some joined in this celebration. In many ways, this Passover celebration offers us a model for reaching out to call sinners to the Lord.
The messengers went out and invited the people of the Northern Kingdom to come to the Lord. They did this knowing that they would be ridiculed, if not when they went out, certainly after their first stop. Yet they did not stop spreading the word. Then when the people, who had not had the opportunity to worship the Lord for over a generation, came to the service, special accommodations were made for them. These accommodations were made with the expectation that these people would follow through and make themselves fully right with God, but they were not excluded because they had not known what to do in advance.
When Hezekiah took the throne upon his father’s death, his first act as king was to reopen and begin repair on the Temple. He then gathered the priests and Levites and ordered them to purify both themselves and the Temple. Once the purification was completed, Hezekiah gathered all of the city officials of Jerusalem for a day of consecration and worship. It is interesting that the passage tells us that the Levites were more conscientious about purifying themselves than the priests. Hezekiah led a revival. The revival under Joash was led by the priests and Levites. This revival was led by the secular leadership. King Hezekiah and his officials recognized that the kingdom needed to return to God. Repeatedly in this passage the secular leadership is recounted as ordering the priests and Levites to take the next step, purifying themselves, offering the sacrifices, praising the Lord with psalms. However, this was a genuine revival. When the people saw what was happening they rejoiced and joined in to worship the Lord. As evidence of this, when Hezekiah summoned the people to celebrate the Passover, they not only gathered for the Passover, but they spontaneously removed from Jerusalem all of the incense altars for worshiping other gods.
Hezekiah took the throne shortly after the fall of the Northern Kingdom to Assyria. As part of his religious reform, he invited the people remaining in the land of the Northern Kingdom to come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. An unspoken part of this invitation was the rejection of Assyrian gods and sovereignty. By coming the Jerusalem and taking part in the Passover, with its purification before God, the people of the Northern Kingdom would be putting themselves under Hezekiah’s authority. Initially, the bulk of the people in the area of the Northern Kingdom rejected Hezekiah’s overture. We will see that over time Hezekiah was able to extend his sovereignty over some of the land of the Northern Kingdom. Those who did come from the North for Hezekiah’s Passover celebration had failed to properly purify themselves, probably because they had forgotten how in the many years since God was truly worshiped there. In regards to these people Hezekiah made a statement that we should follow to these days. Those who chose to follow the Lord should be commended and encouraged to start from where they are, not told they have to wait until they get to where we think they should be. In addition to those from the Northern Kingdom who had forgotten the proper ways to prepare to worship the Lord there were many foreigners, who had never known how, who were welcomed to join in the celebration of Passover by Hezekiah.
I have always admired Hezekiah. When He became king, he reopened the Temple which his father had closed. He called together the priests and Levites and inspired them to cleanse the Temple. Once the Temple had been cleansed, Hezekiah ordered bulls, rams, and lambs offered as a burnt offering and a sin offering to consecrate the Temple, and the people, to God once more. His actions inspired the people to bring so many sacrifices to God that the priests were unable to keep up. God used Hezekiah to draw the people of Judah to Himself. But Hezekiah did not limit himself to the people of Judah. He invited the people remaining in the lands of the Northern Kingdom to come to Jerusalem to worship God and celebrate the Passover. While most of the people in the lands of the Northern Kingdom laughed at Hezekiah’s messengers, some were inspired to dedicate themselves to God. Hezekiah’s success was a result of the fact that first he dedicated himself and his resources to serving God. Only then did he call others to do the same.
