The Lamps Are Still Lit

 

The Lamps Are Still Lit

 

My typical devotional routine consists of reading three chapters of the Bible every day, followed by a Psalm, and then a Proverb. If you’ve been following along, you know that I am currently in the Book of 2 Chronicles.  It’s kind of frustrating reading the “good king….bad king” scenario that threads its way through the book. I mean, can’t you people see? When you have a king that follows hard after God, things go well, when you have a king that chases after other gods, things go south in a hurry! Why don’t you get it? Why don’t we get it?

 

Well, today I was in chapters 29 through 31, and it’s all about the good king Hezekiah. A king that really “gets it”! It’s pure joy! First of all, he decides to clean up the temple. I imagine up to that point going to the temple to worship was like going into an old attic with all sorts of junk piled up. We are told the lamps had been put out, and no incense was being burned or offerings in any shape or form being made to the One true God. Oh beloved, now more than ever, in the midst of this pandemic, keep the lamps burning!

 

The temple had become a stuffy prayerless, Holy Spirit-less junk yard of mixed religion. (Something we need to be on guard against even today!)

Then Hezekiah restored proper worship in the temple. Yes, they had a liturgy to follow, (don’t all churches have a set pattern of worship?) Burnt offerings were offered for sin, incense was burned (prayers) and we are told in 2 Chron 29:27 that when the burnt offerings began, “the song of the Lord also began,”

I find myself wondering, what was the song of the Lord? My educated guess would be a refrain of worship oft repeated in the Old Testament: “”Praise the Lord  For His mercy endures forever!” Or maybe it’s the song found in Re 5:12, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!"  13 And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: "Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!"

Then Hezekiah “kept the Passover.” The foreshadowing of what we call “the Lord’s Supper.” And we are told in 2 Chron 30:26 that there was “great joy in Jerusalem.”

Finally the people left the temple, left the Passover feast with  service to the Lord on their mind. 2Ch 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke the sacred pillars in pieces, cut down the wooden images, and threw down the high places and the altars-from all Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh-until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned to their own cities, every man to his possession.

The people didn’t just repent of their sins and receive God’s forgiveness. They did something about the idolatry that had been their way of life.

 

Hezekiah! What a refreshing break from the string of kings in 2 Chronicles. As many of us gather for worship in person or virtually tomorrow. Let us joyfully thank and praise God for His mercy that endures forever. Let us come with appreciation that in spite of the pandemic, the lamps are still lit!