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

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.

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