Second Chronicles 29:25

The Bible says in Second Chronicles 29:25-30, “And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet: for so was the commandment of the LORD by his prophets.[26] And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.[27] And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began also with the trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by David king of Israel.[28] And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded: and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.[29] And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves, and worshipped.[30] Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the LORD with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped.” These verses give a good example of the importance of music in the worship of God. God invented music and He wants it to be used for His glory and to help spread the Gospel. King David was called the sweet Psalmist of Israel. The Psalms were written to be sung. It says in Ephesians 5:18-19, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;[19] Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;” In verse thirty King Hezekiah had the people sing the Psalms. That is what it means when it says, “Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the LORD with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer.”

The Bible says in Second Chronicles 29:31-36, “Then Hezekiah answered and said, Now ye have consecrated yourselves unto the LORD, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the LORD. And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings; and as many as were of a free heart burnt offerings.[32] And the number of the burnt offerings, which the congregation brought, was threescore and ten bullocks, an hundred rams, and two hundred lambs: all these were for a burnt offering to the LORD.[33] And the consecrated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep.[34] But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings: wherefore their brethren the Levites did help them, till the work was ended, and until the other priests had sanctified themselves: for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests.[35] And also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings, and the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of the LORD was set in order.[36] And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people: for the thing was done suddenly.” Notice in verse thirty-one what is said about the additional giving that the people did. Some people emphasize the importance of tithing in spite of the fact that tithing is only found as part of the law in the Bible. But it is also good to notice that the people gave much more than the tithe, the ten percent. In addition to the tithe, they gave many other offerings. In verse thirty-one they are called “sacrifices and thank offerings.” And it also says in verse thirty-one that those who gave were “as many as were of a free heart.” In other words: those who were willing to give. There was no obligation or requirement placed upon them. They did it willingly. You want to have a heart that is willing to give and that is looking for opportunities to use your material prosperity to serve the Lord. After all, everything that you have was given to you to use for your needs, for your enjoyment, and for your service to the Lord. It says in Second Corinthians 9:7, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

The Bible says in Second Chronicles 30:1-8, “And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel.[2] For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep the passover in the second month.[3] For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.[4] And the thing pleased the king and all the congregation.[5] So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written.[6] So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the LORD God of 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.[7] And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see.[8] Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.” Something that is very interesting here is that we know that King Hezekiah was king of Judah, and not of all of Israel. Israel had a civil war and was divided right after King Solomon, and that was many years and many kings before Hezekiah. But now we see King Hezekiah reaching out to all of Israel and reminding everyone of the Jews that they all needed to get back to serving the Lord. They had all stopped doing the things that God wanted them to do. They were not even keeping the yearly Passover. What is more important than the Passover? Jesus is our Passover lamb. Are there Christians who have forgotten Jesus and how important He is? Are there Christians who have stopped going to hear the Word of God? Are there Christians who have stopped walking close to the Savior like they once did? It is time to come back and start doing the things that slid away. King Hezekiah was right. Notice what Hezekiah said in verse eight, “Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.” The reason that they stopped going to the temple is they were “stiffnecked” and were not yielded to God’s Spirit. That is the exact same problem today with all the people who refuse to go to church. They find an excuse and they stick to their excuses. The excuses are all the same: they went to a church once and no one said hello to them, so they will never go again. They went to a church once and the pastor said something that they did not agree with, so they will never go again. They know that some people who go to church are hypocrites, so they will never go to church. But the truth is that they are just finding convenient excuses. The truth is that they are stiffnecked and not yielded to God’s Spirit. They truth is that if they hungered for the Word of God, they would find a good church or they would start one. Jesus established the church. Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” It says in Hebrews 10:25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.”

The Bible says in Second Chronicles 30:9-12, “For if ye turn again unto the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.[10] So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.[11] Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.[12] Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of the LORD.” Even though Israel and Judah had sinned much against God, and we are not talking about little sins, we are talking about violence, immorality, and false religion, and many other things; Hezekiah knew that God was very merciful and would gladly forgive them. That is why Hezekiah said in verse nine, “for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful.” If God is done with you, He will end your life and take you off the earth. If you are still here, that means that you can turn to Jesus and He will forgive you.

It looks like all of Judah followed Hezekiah’s advice and turned to the Lord, but only a few from the northern kingdom of Israel. Only a few “humbled themselves” and came to Jerusalem. The northern ten kingdoms had become so evil that they would not take this opportunity to turn back to the Lord. That is probably why Israel was destroyed many years before Judah. They turned away from God sooner.

The Bible says in Second Chronicles 30:13-20, “And there assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great congregation.[14] And they arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense took they away, and cast them into the brook Kidron.[15] Then they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the second month: and the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought in the burnt offerings into the house of the LORD.[16] And they stood in their place after their manner, according to the law of Moses the man of God: the priests sprinkled the blood, which they received of the hand of the Levites.[17] For there were many in the congregation that were not sanctified: therefore the Levites had the charge of the killing of the passovers for every one that was not clean, to sanctify them unto the LORD.[18] For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, and Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, The good LORD pardon every one,[19] That prepareth his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.[20] And the LORD hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.” King Hezekiah had a lot of spiritual wisdom. This passage shows that truth once again. First of all, the people knew what they needed to do to start serving God again because they had the Word of God. They had the law of Moses. The law of Moses gave many requirements that took time to fulfill. The people did not have time to fulfill all the requirements of the law in order to get ready for the Passover. They did the Passover anyway without all the preparations required by the law. As it says in verse eighteen, “yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it was written.” Hezekiah prayed for them and said, “The good LORD pardon every one.” Hezekiah knew that if their heart was right with God, that is what was truly important. We are in a similar situation, except that we are not under the law. Jesus kept the law for us, and now the believers in Jesus are not under law, but under grace. The law does not work for us anyway because we are all sinners. Jesus forgives our sins. Be like Hezekiah. If you see someone who has failed to keep the law or has sinned, pray for them. God loves to forgive.

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