I’ve been reading and reading about good kings and bad kings in divided kingdoms in Chronicles, restoring the temple, robbing and ruining the temple, listening to God thru His prophets and ignoring them… Their loyalty or cruelty caused the people to follow or not, then the Israel’s and Judah’s people were whisked away to captivity…
So much history. The Word folds it’s to us, His listening people, in multiple sets of scriptures of the same important timeframe… and we can see this is all in preparation for Jesus to come as the Messiah. King Hezekiah had Prophet Isaiah to teach them, and us, both that God kept His Word and that the Word was fortelling Himself becoming flesh…
This preparation of the Word is both telling of the gathering of people from David’s bloodline and the needing of understanding WHY the bloodline is being preserved. Each turn of the good and bad kings is like folding a delicate batter over “in a fold” with a spatula. Each set of peoples another “fold” or flock of people Jesus came to save. These churnings and learnings are like KNEADING the earthly dough of the Bread of Life. Needing this Messiah, God’s leading was kneading and working His Word of Himself into the world.
Our reading and reading is like kneading and needing His Word in us.
Jesus Was and Is and Is to come, never changing as God, but humbling Himself to help us here get up there.
These “good” and “good turned bad” kings returned to listening for stretches of time, similarly God was stretching the dough. They listened to the prophets and this dough was proofing Itself (as Jesus is fully Gid) and gaining rise, until He allowed Himself knocked down for the Final Bake. Done. Knock on the Bread of Life and hear Him knocking back on your door, asking you to remember Him when He is broken…
God’s forever Temple restored in Heaven’s Kingdom with Jesus’s Sacrifice – never to crumble again. Now we are gathering the crumbles of the remnants of peoples. Now Jesus IS calling in ALL His Flocks back into His Folds. May we pray they hear with opened ears.
Hezekiah brought people back to celebrate the Passover. Jesus IS the lamb slaughtered for us, we are covered in His Blood. Hezekiah prayed for those who did not come clean and God forgave them. Jesus came to clean and God forgives us. “…and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place.”
Jesus came. Jesus is the now-leavened RISEN Bread. He was and is proof of His bloodline foretold. Jesus took the Time to save us.
May we realize our need of His knead and Rise with Him!
Amen
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2nd Chronicles 29:1-12
Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.
In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the Lord and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites, assembled them in the square on the east side and said: “Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary. Our parents were unfaithful; they did evil in the eyes of the Lord our God and forsook him. They turned their faces away from the Lord’s dwelling place and turned their backs on him. They also shut the doors of the portico and put out the lamps. They did not burn incense or present any burnt offerings at the sanctuary to the God of Israel. Therefore, the anger of the Lord has fallen on Judah and Jerusalem; he has made them an object of dread and horror and scorn, as you can see with your own eyes. This is why our fathers have fallen by the sword and why our sons and daughters and our wives are in captivity. Now I intend to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger will turn away from us. My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to burn incense.”
Then these Levites set to work……
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2nd Chronicles 30:1-9, 17-20, 26-27
Hezekiah Celebrates the Passover
Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, inviting them to come to the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel. The king and his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month. They had not been able to celebrate it at the regular time because not enough priests had consecrated themselves and the people had not assembled in Jerusalem. The plan seemed right both to the king and to the whole assembly. They decided to send a proclamation throughout Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, calling the people to come to Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel. It had not been celebrated in large numbers according to what was written. At the king’s command, couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and from his officials, which read: “People of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he may return to you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. Do not be like your parents and your fellow Israelites, who were unfaithful to the Lord, the God of their ancestors, so that he made them an object of horror, as you see. Do not be stiff-necked, as your ancestors were; submit to the Lord. Come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever. Serve the Lord your God, so that his fierce anger will turn away from you. If you return to the Lord, then your fellow Israelites and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will return to this land, for the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.”
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Since many in the crowd had not consecrated themselves, the Levites had to kill the Passover lambs for all those who were not ceremonially clean and could not consecrate their lambs[a] to the Lord. Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets their heart on seeking God—the Lord, the God of their ancestors—even if they are not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.” And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.
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There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place.
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Another blog about Hezekiah:
Debbie Upper 