2 Chronicles 30:1

HEZEKIAH LEADS ISRAEL IN OBSERVANCE OF PASSOVER;

AN INVITATION SENT TO ALL ISRAEL TO COME TO JERUSALEM FOR THE PASSOVER

"And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto Jehovah, the God of Israel. For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the assembly in Jerusalem, to keep the passover in the second month. For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, neither had the people gathered themselves together at Jerusalem. And the thing was right in the eyes of the king and of all the assembly. So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto Jehovah, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem: for they had not kept it in great numbers in such sort as it is written. So the posts went out with letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, who trespassed against Jehovah, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as ye see. Now be ye not stiff-necked as your fathers were; but yield yourselves unto Jehovah, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever, and serve Jehovah your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. For if ye turn again unto Jehovah, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that led them captive, and shall come again unto this land: for Jehovah your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him."

This wonderful invitation from Hezekiah is a remarkable testimony. It came following the fall of the Northern Israel to Assyria in 722 B.C., a disaster that Hezekiah attributed to their forsaking the true worship of God in Jerusalem. This is proof that long before the times of Josiah God had commanded the centralization of his worship in Jerusalem. Note also the significant words as it is written (2 Chronicles 30:5). The Book of the Law (the Pentateuch) was appealed to by Hezekiah in these words. It is also significant that Hezekiah admits here that the passover had indeed been kept previously but by small numbers of people (2 Chronicles 30:5).

"The king had taken counsel ... to keep the passover in the second month" (2 Chronicles 30:2). The divine instructions for the passover required its observance in the first month (Exodus 12:1-3); but the urgency of Hezekiah in his efforts to rally all Israel to a rebirth of their loyalty to God prompted this technical violation. Note also that not even the priests of Judah and Jerusalem had bothered to sanctify themselves for the legal passover a month earlier.