I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 29-30.

    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.