Bible in one year 7/8/2022 2Chronicles Chapter 28-29 Wicked Ahaz & Hezekiah repaired the Temple
By Rev.Katherine
Liu Bruce
Christian Arts
Ministries : Biblical precepts & Gospel music; Pastoral ministry &
Counseling
2Chronicles 28 Ahaz’s wicked and unfaithfulness to the Lord. He had closed the door of the Lord’s temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem, built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods.
Ahaz was twenty
years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. He
did not do right, walked in the wicked ways of the kings of Israel , made cast
idols for worshiping the Baals. He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben
Hinnom and sacrificed his sons in the fire, following the detestable ways of
the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He offered
sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under
every spreading tree. (vve.1-4).
Therefore, the Lord
his God handed him over to the king of Aram. The Arameans defeated him and took
many of his people as prisoners and brought them to Damascus.(v.5). He was also
given into the hands of the king of Israel, who inflected heavy casualties on
him. In one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed a hundred and twenty thousand
soldiers in Judah. Be cause Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their
fathers. (v.6). The Israelites took captive from their kinsmen two hundred
thousand wives, sons and daughters. (v.8). But a Prophet of the Lord named Oded
was there and urged the army when it returned to Samaria. He said, “ Because
the Lord, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your
hand…Now listen to me! Send back your fellow countrymen you have taken as
prisoners, for the Lord’s fierce anger rests on you.” (v.9,11). So the soldiers gave up the prisoners and
plunder in the presence of the officials and all the assembly.(v.14).
At the time
King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help. The Edomites had again come and attacked Judah
and carried away prisoners, while the Philistines had raided towns in the
foothills and in the Negev of Judah.(v.17). The Lord had humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of
Israel, for he had promoted wickedness in Judah and had been most unfaithful to
the Lord.
(v.19). Tiglath-Pileser king of
Assyria came to him, but he gave him trouble instead of help.(v.20). Ahaz took some of the things from the temple
of the Lord and from the royal palace and from the princes and presented them
to the king of Assyria, but that did not help him. (v.21).
Ahaz gathered together the furnishings from the
temple of God and took them away. He shut the doors of the Lord’s temple and
set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. In every town in Judah he
built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and provoked the Lord, the
God of his fathers, to anger.(v.24-25). Ahaz rested with his
fathers and was buried in the city of Jerusalem, but he was not placed in the tombs of the kings
of Israel. And Hezekiah his son succeeded him as king.
Chapter 29 Hezekiah repaired the temple of
the Lord (715-686:2Kings18:1-20:21)
Hezekiah
was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem
twenty-nine years. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his
father David had done.
In the first month of the
first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the Lord and
repaired them. (v.3). He brought in the priests and the Levites, assembled them
in the square on the east side and said, “
Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of
the Lord, the God of your fathers. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary.
Our fathers were unfaithful; they did evil in the eyes of the Lord our God and
forsook him. They turned their faces away from the Lord’s dwelling place and
turned their backs on him.(vv.4-6).
They also shut the doors of the portico and
put out the lamps. They did not burn incense or present any burnt offerings at
the sanctuary to the God of Israel. Therefore, the anger of the Lord has fallen
on Judah and Jerusalem; he has made them an object of dread an horror and
scorn, as you can see with your own eyes. This is why our fathers have fallen by
the sword and why our sons and daughters and our wives are in
captivity.(vv.7-9).
Now I intend to make a covenant with the
Lord, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger will turn away from
us.(v.10). My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to
stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to burn
incense.”(v.11).
The priests went into the
sanctuary of the Lord to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the
Lord’s temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the Lord. The
Levites took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley. They began the consecration
on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month they
reached the portico of the Lord. For eight more days they consecrated the temple
of the Lord itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first
month.(vv.16-17).
Then they went in to King Hezekiah and
reported : “ We have purified the entire temple of the Lord, the altar of burnt
offering with all its utensils, and the table for setting out the consecrated
bread, with all its articles."(v.18).
Early the next morning King
Hezekiah gathered the city officials together and went up to the temple of the
Lord. They brought seven bulls,
seven rams, seven male lambs and seven male goats as a sin offering for the
kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Judah. The king commanded the priests, the
descendants fo Aaron, to offer these on the altar of the Lord. (vv.20-22).
He stationed the Levites in the temple of the Lord
with cymbals, harps, and lyres in the way prescribed by David and Gad the
king’s seer and Nathan the prophet. This was commanded by the Lord through his
prophets.(v.25). So the Levites stood
ready with David’s instruments, and the priests with their trumpets. (v.26).
Hezekiah gave the order to sacrifice the burnt
offering on the altar. As the offering began, singing to the Lord began also, accompanied by trumpets and the
instruments of David king of Israel. The whole assembly bowed in worship, while
the singers sang and the trumpeters played. All this continued until the sacrifice of the burnt offering was
completed.(v.28) When the offerings were finished, the king and everyone
present with him knelt down and worshiped. King Hezekiah and his officials
ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the
seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed their heads and
worshiped.(vv.29-30).
The number of burnt
offerings the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams and two hundred
male lambs –all of them for burnt offerings to the Lord. (v.32). The animals
consecrated as sacrifices amounted to six hundred bulls and three thousand
sheep and goats. The priests, however, were too few to skin all the burnt
offerings; so their kinsmen the Levites helped them until the task was finished
and until other priests had been consecrated, for the Levites had been more
conscientious in consecrating themselves than the priests had been. There were
burnt offerings in abundance, together with the fat of the fellowship offerings
and the drink offerings that accompanied the burnt offerings.(vv. 32-35).
So the service of the temple of the Lord was
reestablished. Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought
about for his people, because it was done so quickly.(v.36)
Bibliography,
Ryrie, Charles
C. The Ryrie study Bible (NIV).Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible
Institute, 1986
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