2 Chronicles 29:1-36 - Homiletics

The reformation of Hezekiah-the thing done suddenly.

Hezekiah was the thirteenth of the twenty kings of the line of Judah; but when his reign of twenty-nine years had run to its end, as many as two hundred and eighty-two yearn had sped away of the three hundred and ninety-two of the duration of the line up to the date of the Captivity. It may also be remembered that, of the seven reigns following upon that of Hezekiah, two (those of Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin) lasted only three months each. Something, no doubt, is to be learned from the comparative lengths of the lives of individuals, of kings with their reigns, and of nations. Some solemn law, no doubt, obtains, which, however, especially as regards the first, is to a very great degree simply inscrutable. We can only think with wonder, awe, and the resignation of adoring submission, of the young, the beautiful, the useful, and the most promising and loved being so often taken away, while so many all the reverse remain. We never less dogmatize than when our thought dwells with this mysterious and veiled theme. We are especially helpless to pursue it, to any detail, or in its minutiae and its individual examples. We know that we are even then in the presence of the sovereign Arbiter of life and, what we call, death. One profoundest truth is rather afresh brought to our recollection, than by any means for the first time taught us hereby, viz. that all life and all things here are but a part—ay, and that a small part—of a vaster scene, vaster scheme, and one measureless for the ken of our present mental horizon. Another probably reliable impression made on us is, not only that time makes for goodness, even in the present shorter and sharper conflicts of good and evil, but that the slower growth of goodness, as compared with the frequently gigantic strides of evil, is providentially calculated for, where often it is simply impossible to us to trace it. The unredeemed evil of Ahaz and his sixteen years, while these lasted, is reduced in its proportions, when viewed as the work of sixteen out of forty-five years, the balance of which was made up of the twenty-nine of Hezekiah. The present chapter, however, of the reign and work of Hezekiah, is itself the account of—

I. SWIFT WORK . "The thing that was done suddenly," i.e. promptly, and with the promptness that indicated that the doer of it felt it to be such as could not permit nor brook delay. The "suddenness" was no doubt praiseworthy on the part of Hezekiah, and it was a testimony to this, and an encouragement to all imitators of it, that God sanctioned the suddenness, and let nothing fall to the ground because of it, in that he directly contributed to the work and soundness of the whole result by "preparing the people," i.e. disposing their hearts to every good word and work required. Swift and slight work for God is the very last to secure his approval and help; but swift and earnest work, because the "days are few and evil," will have his gracious pardon in respect of many a too probable defect, and with pardon his assisting and preventing help.

II. THE PRACTICAL WORK OF CLEANSING . Priests and Levites cleanse themselves; and then the house of God, the altar and all its vessels, the table of shewbread and all its vessels. This was outer work, but not only such; for with an urgency and zeal which proved it but the expression of deep inner conviction, it was pressed on priests and Levites, and also executed by them. King Hezekiah, for the time preacher and prophet, takes the right means to influence those to whom he speaks, that their outward work may go on right motives, and spring from depth of conviction, and be the likelier to be continuous and sustained. He calls their attention plainly to the evil of the ways that had been the ways of the kingdom now these sixteen years, and calls that evil by its right name. It is evil, and it is trespass; and it is "forsaking" God; and it is "turning the face from his habitation, and turning the back" to it; it has involved the criminality and horror of "temple doors shut," of the "perpetual lamp" being made a lie to its own most sacred name, of "incense" refusing its fragrant ascending to heaven, and "altar of burnt offering" a pitiable blank! Hezekiah challenges them to deny that all the suffering of these years past is punishment— plain punishment from the just "wrath of the Lord." And punishment it was, as e.g. the being "delivered over to trouble, and astonishment, and hissing;" and with the fresh memories of "fathers fallen by the sword, and of sons, daughters, and wives" being at this time "in captivity." Hezekiah leads the way in lifting the courage, which the terrible retrospect might well go to quench; he tells them of the covenant that he, for his part, purposes "in his heart" and proposes; and, with warm, loving exhortation, entreats their hearty and diligent assent and consent, their " not negligent" co-operation, with solemn record of their election and, so to say, ordination vows. This, at all events, looks like an earnest endeavour to repair in the "sixteen days' the evils of the past "sixteen years." For Hezekiah remembers that

"Delay is dangerous, sleep disease;

And few that slumber, wake."

III. THE DEVOUT REMEMBRANCE AND REHEARSING CELEBRATION OF ATONING BLOOD AND THE SPRINKLING THEREOF . Call attention to 2 Chronicles 29:21-24 ; and (in 2 Chronicles 29:24 ) especially to the doctrine couched in the words, "to make reconciliation;" and to the stress laid upon the "atonement" and the "sin offering," being said to be for " all Israel, " as signifying, probably, that Hezekiah's heart yearned again over the schismatic kingdom, and would fain comprehend it within the compass of the blessing of the sacrificial blood.

IV. THE DEVOUT REMEMBRANCE AND EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION OF THE BURNT OFFERING , WITH ALL DUE ACCOMPANIMENTS OF PRAISE , SINGING , MUSIC , AND THE FULL PROFESSIONAL CHOIR . The sin offerings must, with all their significance of penitence and humiliation, and confession of punishment deserved, precede. And it appears that, in full number and with faithfulness, they were offered. But after them, with what surrender of themselves, with what abandon of true and "free heart," did the Israelite who was an Israelite indeed take his burnt offering to the altar and the priest! Now, in particular, when the holy worship of the olden and happier times recommenced to the sound of "the song of the Lord … with the trumpets and the instruments of David," it was the inspiration of a blessed service indeed. "All the congregation worshipped … the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves, and worshipped And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped." "The service of the house of the Lord was set in order," and "God was in the midst of his people."