Lord, Give Us More Hezekiah's

 

 

Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word:

 

Isa 14:28 This is the burden which came in the year that King Ahaz died. 29 "Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, Because the rod that struck you is broken; For out of the serpent's roots will come forth a viper, And its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent.

 

The Philistines are warned here to not think more highly of themselves than  they ought. The only reason they were able to conquer some territory from Judah was because God was judging Judah for the wicked acts and unfaithfulness of  King Ahaz.

 

Now that Ahaz is dead, a new King is reigning. His name was Hezekiah! 2Ki 18:3 And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done.

 

One of the first things that Hezekiah did was carry out the accumulated trash

of the temple, we pick up the story in 2Ch 29:4 Then he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them in the East Square, 5 and said to them: "Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place. 6 "For our fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the LORD our God; they have forsaken Him, have turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the LORD, and turned their backs on Him. 7 "They have also shut up the doors of the vestibule, put out the lamps, and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. 8 "Therefore the wrath of the LORD fell upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has given them up to trouble, to desolation, and to jeering, as you see with your eyes. 9 "For indeed, because of this our fathers have fallen by the sword; and our sons, our daughters, and our wives are in captivity.

 

Hezekiah knew that the apostasy of the church had led to easy pickings for the enemies of the Israelites and the subsequent victories of the Philistines.

 

Note well what he did. He cleared the temple of the accumulated rubbish.

 

Friends if we in the church wish to have victory over the enemies of God, we need to clean out the rubbish that has found its way into the church. So many things that have been accepted by the world, things that are contrary to the Word of God, have found their way into the church and they continue to pile up at an alarming rate.

 

And instead of going after these morally lax behaviors, with preaching that says, “Thus saith the Lord,” we look the other way, not wishing to offend anyone.

 

Underneath all that rubbish in the church you will find the forgotten truths of Scripture. Truth that has been judged too harsh for the general population.

 

The result is our posterity (like the days of Ahaz) have been carried off to captivity…in bondage to the sins that so easily enslave us.

 

These truths that in reality set us free, are not harsh, merely forgotten, buried under the rubbish of compromise with the world.

 

Pray the Lord will raise up a generation of Hezekiahs. Church leaders who have the courage to call sin, sin, and point people to the only remedy for sin…the cross.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word.