2 Chronicles 30:1-12
Verse 2 The king and his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month.
Many, many years later after the Israelites had entered the Promised Land they had yet again walked away from God. Their pattern through the years had been the same – walk away, become oppressed, cry out for God to rescue them, turn back to God and then start the cycle again. Since entering the land they had failed to clear out the land of idol-worshiping nations, struggled with sin because of their relationships with those nations, experienced the gift of a godly leader and allowed the nation to be divided into two separate nations.
About a dozen kings into the nation of Judah, God once again chose to bless His people with a godly king. King Hezekiah was 25 years old when he took the throne and when he had looked at the state of the kingdom he knew something must be done. Within the first month of his first year the young king got people working at getting things back into order and reopened the doors of the Temple (2 Chronicles 29:3) and when it was ready they had a rededication of the Temple.
Now that the Temple was ready the king knew it was time for the people to get back to celebrating the festival of Passover and Unleavened Bread. There was one slight problem. Though they had worked hard at getting the temple ready and had rededicated the building and each of the Temple utensils, there were not enough priests ready to serve. The lack of prepared priests gives the larger picture of what was going on in the nation as a whole during those years.
The king wasn’t going to be deterred and he and the other officials agreed this was a time for God’s provision of celebrating the festival a month later. The time of waiting a month was actually a blessing as it allowed word to be taken to all the regions of the nation to make sure everyone knew to come and celebrate the long neglected holy days. Was God happy about this reviving His festival? Of course and His hand was upon the people of Judah so they would be unified in their worship and obedience.
The young king did more than just call the people of his kingdom together. When he sent word it was to all of Judah AND Israel. King Hezekiah knew the celebration was not just for the people of Judah, God had commanded it of all 12 tribes which had been brought out of Egypt and that was how it should continue.
Making It Personal
When have you had to do a reset on your life to be prepared to worship God? Was it difficult to restart your worship? How eager are you to maintain your relationship with God?
Making It Personal Kids
Have you ever had a time when you hadn’t gone to church in a while? Was it hard to start going again? Why does Jesus want you to go to church to be with other Christians to worship Him?
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for godly leaders who can get us back on the right track in our worship of You. Help us to love worshiping with other Christians and never want to miss an opportunity to worship together. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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