Spiritual Renewal:   "Hezekiah and Revival"

Last week we looked at the first part of the story of Hezekiah
and found that it had something to say to us about repentance.
We saw that that chapter could be divided into 4 parts. Renewal
of the covenant with God, cleansing of the temple, restoration
of temple worship, and a voluntary cleansing of individuals
along with a great spontaneous outpouring of love for their God.
 

Today we are continuing our study on Hezekiah with the 30th
chapter, the chapter that I have chosen to call  revival. Last
week as you recall we looked at repentance, next week we will
see how reformation took hold of the land after the revival. And
finally we will hear the story of deliverance as related in
Chapter 32.

I'm  sure that many of you have read the story already, but
let's go over it again together. You will recall that the last
thing that is said in Ch 29 was .....What? God prepared the
people for the thing was done suddenly. Who did ? The Lord also
put it into the heart of Hezekiah to restore not only the temple
services per se, but also to renew the keeping of the feasts.
Verse 2 tells us that the king had taken council, and his
princes and all the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep the
Passover in the 2nd month.

There are some that feel that the one from whom the council came
was none other than the prophet Isaiah. This is quite possible,
for they were contemporary, and no doubt Isaiah carried many
messages, some good, some of warning to the king.

 So, the nations leaders decided to hold the Passover
celebration. Now how many of you remember how the Passover
services got started? Where did Passover originate? Of course,
in Egypt. and the Passover was so important to the Jew that
because of the event, the month in which it occurred was
declared to be the first month of the Jewish year. Let's find
more information in Exodus l2 vs 1,3,6,8,11-14, 24

The Passover was a celebration of deliverance from Egypt. It was
also the time when the Israelites got their back wages for that
400 years that they had been in slavery. It was to be a reminder
of the great ways in which the Lord God of Abraham Isaac and
Jacob moved to bring about his will for his people.

But there was just one thing wrong. There were certain problems
with timing. You see, by the time they could get the message out
to the people, it would be past the time to hold the Passover.
It would be beyond the 14th day of the first month.

Verse 3 tells us that they could not keep it on the regular time
because the priests were not sanctified, and the people hadn't
had time to assemble in Jerusalem The Lord had made provision
for this as we find in Numbers 9:10, 11. Here provisions were
made for a person who was gone during the Passover, or was
ceremonially unclean during that time. That provision was that
the Passover could be celebrated in the next month on the 14th
day.

Here in the time of Hezekiah, we have a situation where a whole
nation was unprepared for the celebration of the Passover. Thus
the whole nation had to delay the celebration of the Passover
feast.

Vs. 4 tells us that the king and the people were pleased with
the prospect having the Passover, so the king made a decree, or
proclamation that was to  go through out Judah, inviting the
people to partake of the Passover service.  The invitation ion
was necessary for evidently it had been some time send the
Passover been celebrated.

The Invitation read: "You children of Israel, turn again to the
Lord God Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the
remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of
assyria. And be not like your fathers, and like your brothers
who trespasses against the Lord God of their fathers, who
therefore fore gave them up to desolation, as ye see. Now, don't
be stubborn as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the
Lord, and inter into his sanctuary, which he h hath sanctified
forever, and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his
wrath may turn away from you. For is you turn again unto the
Lord, your brothers and children will find compassion from those
who lead them captive, and they will return to the land. The
Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away
his face from you, if you truly return to him."

Quite a message. I don't know if i would have the nerve to take
a message like that to another country that only a few years I
had been warring with. But it was carried. From city to city.
Town to town. In Israel, they were mostly scorned, laughed at
and mocked. Where was God when we needed him, they might have
asked.

They jeered the messengers. for indeed, Israel had passed
through much because she had left the Lord. The northern kingdom
had been harassed by the Assyrians, as had Judah. There had been
deportations from both nations, in which the children of Israel
were scattered to other lands by their conquerors. This had been
much worse than in Israel than in Judah. In fact the kingdom of
Israel, or Samaria as this area was called, was virtually
non-existent at this time. and it was because of the fact that
they had refused to return to the Lord and listen to his
prophets. So in a way, this message of "return to me and
celebrate your deliverance"  was in itself a way to have further
deliverance. But in turning down the privilege of celebrating
their freedom from Egypt an the Lord had commanded them, they
were turning down the possibility of any future deliverance by
their God.

As we look to history we find that this is exactly the case, for
not too many years after this, there was a peasant revolt of the
northern kingdom, for the leaders and wealthy had already been
deported, and the nation of Assyria came in and took all of the
Israelites away leaving only a very few, and then resettled the
land with peoples that had been conquered in other areas.

Fortunately, the nation of Judah responded differently.
Evidently the King was a person who was loved and respected by
his people, as we will see later. and we find that when he led
out, that his people followed. and while there were a few
Israelites who came to the Passover service, Vs 12 tells us that
in Judah, the hand of God was to give them one heart to  the
commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of the
Lord.' The word goes on to tell us that there assembled at
Jerusalem, much people to keep the feast of unleavened bread in
the second month, a very treat congregation.

Now we find more reform taking place. We see it developing
gradually with the restoration of the temple services. In this
chapter we discover that the reform is moving to the whole city
of Jerusalem. In the next chapter we will see where reformation
sweeps over the entire land. But here in vs 14, we feel the joy
of the people, and their devotion to the Lord as they go through
the city and tear down the alters that were standing to other
gods. There was only one God, there should only be one place of
worship. These other gods were cast into the brook Kidron. By
the way, that word for brook can also stand for the entire
valley through which a creek or river passes. I had kind of
worried about that damming of all the water.

As we go on find keeping Passover 14th day of 2nd month  Priests
and Levites were ashamed and sanctified themselves, brought
offerings to Lord.

They then began going through the ceremonies as they were
supposed to.  But since there were not enough priests, the blood
sacrifices had to a certain extent be done at hand of the
Levites. Levites also helped in slaying the lambs for Passover
for others not ritually clean.

Vs 18. Evidently many had left their homes in a hurry, perhaps
as soon as the messengers arrive. Don't know the exact time
frame. This in spite of the fact that Passover was a month later
than usual. They also ate Passover otherwise than it was written.

You may recall that no one  who had contact with any dead person
was to partake until certain time passed and certain offerings
made. They were not to have leavened bread in house.  Also were
to come to Passover with clean heart.

But some did not have time for the cleansing rituals

Hezekiah prayed  for pardon for the ones that had prepared their
hearts to seek God, even if they weren't cleansed according to
the purification of the sanctuary. And the Lord listened to
Hezekiah and healed the people.

I believe that this is the center of this message.  In the last
chapter it closed with God doing the work that was necessary to
bring about the work of repentance.  Here we have God once again
working to bring about his will. This time we find the Lord
leading out in the work of revival.

And what does the word revive mean? I can tell you what revival
means On many occasions while working in the hospital I have
been part of revival techniques. If you have ever walked into a
room of one of your patients, and you find them blue and not
breathing, you know that revival is necessary. I could spend the
next half hour telling of things that are not done to revive a
person. You don't stand around and discuss it. No.  As many of
you have probably seen on T V  you begin immediately to revive
that person or you attempt to find what is the first thing that
a dying person must have in order to revive: Air. Sometimes all
you need to do is to shake them a little and they will begin to
breathe on their own. Sometimes it becomes a little more drastic
than that. But by whatever means, be it CPR or breathing
machines, to revive someone you have to give them air. Once that
they have air, then you can turn your attention to the other
things that need to be done to correct the problem.

Now lets take a slight detour and let me ask you a question.
What is the word for breath in the Bible. (ruach pneuma).  Two
words. Both words are the same words that are used for spirit in
the Bible. So we might conclude that in any revival of the
people of God, or anyone else, must begin with the working of
the Spirit of God in the hearts and lives. Just as the Lord
brought repentance, He brings revival. Again I repeat, the
process of salvation is accomplished for us by God, as long as
we are willing to follow. But let me add, as with the Israelites
who mocked and derided the messengers of Hezekiah, if we refuse
the repentance that the Lord brings to us, we are setting up
ourselves for destruction and loss.

I want to point something out in vs 18,19 that is unusual for
this time in the 0. T. While this sentiment had been voiced by
David, rarely do we see it except for passages in the prophets.
That was Hezekiah's prayer that the Lord pardon those who have
prepared their hearts to seek God even if they were not clean
according to ritual. I find this referral to individual
preparation of the inner man rather than ceremonies interesting
in this context. I feel that it is a description of what God
really desires of his people. The rituals, the sacrifice, the
ceremony, were all to point people to the fact that the life,
the heart if you will, must be where the preparation and revival
must be made.

I believe we find this echoed in Psa 85:6  "Will You not revive
us again, That Your people may rejoice in You?"

Psa 85:7  "Show us Your mercy, LORD, And grant us Your
salvation."
 
 

Psa 86:4  "Rejoice the soul of Your servant, For to You, O Lord,
I lift up my soul."

Psa 86:5  "For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And
abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You."

Psa 86:6  "Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; And attend to the
voice of my supplications."

Psa 86:7  "In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, For
You will answer me."

Back to 2 Chron 30  Vs. 21. Revival always brings gladness.
Being in tune with our maker makes us run better. Being in tune
with our maker puts us in tune with each other. That brings
peace and gladness. And while we may weep tears of sorrow over
our past as we come to the Lord, he will take that away and give
us peace and joy.

V.22. Mentions making confession.  Compare that with Leviticus
5:5. Offerings of confession. Very graphic. very emotional. Sin
had real results. Not like T V , or the movies.  Sin brought
death, even sin against fellow man.  But the death that it
brought was not the death of the sinner, but the death of an
innocent victim, Through this system of sacrifices, it was
brought to the attention of all that sin had a terrible result,
but that there was a Savior who would come to bear the sins,
leaving them a sinless What better reason for rejoicing?

vs. 23. There was such a great revival that people didn't want
it to stop. So they celebrated another week. One other time:
there is record of feast of Joy being held over another week.
That was when Solomon dedicated the temple. There was so much
joy and rejoicing that the feast was held for another week at
that time.

The remainder of the chapter deals with two things: rejoicing,
and praying to the Lord in heaven. We are told that there had
not been so much joy in Jerusalem since the time of Solomon!

Well, lets wrap up this chapter of revival by looking at what it
has for us today.

Again I see this chapter  begin divided into 4 areas.

1-decision to keep Passover and writing of the proclamation.

2-Invitation for all to some to worship; the Lord with some
refusing.

3. The assembly of the people who were seeking the Lord, and the
sacrifices they offered. also in this section, it is God that
pardons and purifies.

4. The overwhelming Joy of the congregation as they serve the
Lord.

Let's take them one at a time.

1. Revival begins with a decision. A decision to listen to what
the Lord has to say. There are some people who are very
uncomfortable with the idea that religion or love is based on
decisions. They feel that you must fall in into some kind of
ecstatic state before you will have revival just as some feel
that there must be the pitty pat in the heart to love.

But revival, while it brings joy, and much feeling, has to be
based on a decision. and that decision must be there if there is
to be any lasting change.  A revival based on feeling alone is
worthless. In fact it is worse than worthless, for it introduces
us to the up/down cycle that so many people live with in their
religious experience. If revival and religion are based on
feelings rather than decision, then when you feel bad, God has
deserted you, and when you feel good, God is there. But when
your experience is based on a conscious decision, then you have
something to hold onto in time of trouble and you can say with
Job, though he slay me, still will I trust him.

2. Revival means reaching out to others who need to know the
Lord. If we have experienced a renewed relationship with the
Lord, we are going to want to share it.  I can remember hearing
of a little congregation that was asked by their pastor for an
evangelism budget. The reply from one of the members was, "what
do we need to do evangelism for. We have enough members
already". The church at that time had less that 10 members. That
is not the spirit that is bred by revival. and just as the
message was written down and carried through out the two nations
by special messengers, so today we have special messengers to
proclaim the message that we have today. We call them
evangelists. But we also have other messengers and that is each
of us. Not all of us have the same gifts, but we can all use the
  gifts that we have to spread the good news of salvation.

Just as the message that was sent out was message to call people
back to the true worship of the true God, so our message today
is for the same purpose. There is a lot of talking going on
about religion, but very little living of it.  There is a lot
read about conversion, but very little experiencing it. Our duty
as people of God is to issue the invitation to come worship the
the Lord with us in the way he desires.  But some things never
change. As those messengers traveled throughout the land, they
were mocked, laughed at, derided. "Hey you, go back an tell your
king that we don't want to worship his God. Our Idols are good
enough for us and we can worship then right here at home."

It's not any different with any messengers for God at any time
in history. Many many reject what they hear. But there are
always some who are led by the spirit to respond to the messages
that are given. Remember the responsibility of a messenger is to
carry the message. The Holy Spirit will guide and direct that
person when he hears the message. So keep on carrying that good
news.

3. When the people repented they gathered together to celebrate
the days that the Lord had set aside for worship. They came
together expecting a blessing from the Lord and they received
it. They came together just as they were, clean and unclean, and
the Lord worked in their lives to cleanse them for his service.
Perhaps this tells us that we are not to wait until some feeling
sweeps over us to worship the Lord. Maybe it tells us to live by
principle rather than feeling. But I feel that it certainly
tells us that the work to be done is the work of the Lord and it
is ultimately he that brings about what His will.

4. The overwhelming joy that comes about from serving the Lord
is here again shown. You cannot hide a revived life. It is
virtually impossible to be full of happiness and hide it from
anyone, just as it is impossible to disguise real grief.  Our
praise going to be heard by all around us. We are going to have
joy unlimited. And some to spare. And our payers of thanksgiving
and confession are going to go up to our father in heaven to
show our dedication to him.

Friends, today we need repentance in our church. We need sorrow
for our sin and turning away from it. But we need revival too.
We could kill our spirituality dwelling only on our sin. Should
we could become very morbid about our shortcomings. You know
what that word morbid refers to don't you. Yes, death. So we
need more than repentance. We need the fresh breath of revival
pumped into our lungs by the Holy Spirit.  We need the medicine
of his grace. but that's not all. We need reformation. That's
what we will look at next Sabbath. We do not need revive to
continue in our old ways, but rather to continue in a new way.

My prayer for us is that the Lord will revive us today, in
preparation for reformation.

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