[0:00] So let's take our Bibles, go to the book of 2 Chronicles chapter 29. 2 Chronicles chapter 29. 2 Chronicles chapter 29 will be in verses 1 through 19 this evening.
[0:14] ! 2 Chronicles chapter 29. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this day you've given us. We thank you for the opportunity we have of gathering together, the encouragement that it is to us as we come together midweek just to look at the Word of God with one another.
[0:33] So Father, we pray that you be with us as we open up the Scripture, that it would be opened up to us, that we would have eyes to see and ears to hear, minds to understand it and hearts to love it and to apply it, and may it be for your glory and honor.
[0:49] We do pray, Lord Jesus, that through the reading and studying of it that we would grow closer to you. We pray that you would be lifted on high among our children and our youth tonight, and be with the workers that are working with them in the back.
[1:02] Lord, we just praise you for all that you're doing, and we ask it all in Christ's name. Amen. 2 Chronicles chapter 29. As we just continue to make our way through Scripture, and we have found our place here.
[1:17] Again, we're looking at the first 19 verses of the 29th chapter. This passage has no parallel in the book of 2 Kings, though the king which we will be referring to, that is, the king Hezekiah, has a parallel in 2 Kings.
[1:35] It has been rightly described that 2 Chronicles takes three chapters to detail what 2 Kings devoted one verse to. So, really, there is much about the reign of Hezekiah, which we would not understand had it not been for the chronicler recording for us 2 Chronicles.
[1:56] It is this chapter and the two which follow it that detail the events that happened during the reign of Hezekiah, actually right at the beginning of the reign of Hezekiah, in which the author of 2 Kings kind of confines to a single verse when it speaks of the reforms which he brought to the temple and to the worship, because the author of 2 Kings is focusing on the political realm, or the world that is going on around Hezekiah.
[2:25] Now, I say that because Hezekiah is an amazing study. If you realize, sure, he is one of the good kings. We'll get to that in just a moment. The book of 2 Kings tells us that there is no king before Him and there is no king after Him that had such a heart for the Lord God.
[2:43] It tells us in 2 Kings that He clung to the Lord His God and did not depart from Him. We know that it is during His reign, and we need to understand these things, because really, to understand how we got there, we need to know what He does here.
[2:58] We know that during His reign, the northern kingdom of Israel falls to the Assyrian Empire. We know that it is really just right into the beginning stages of His reign that the Assyrians come and carry the northern kingdom away for their rebellion.
[3:17] We also know that while the northern kingdom was doing great wickedness, at the beginning of His reign, or really before His reign, the southern kingdom of Judah is doing just as much wickedness.
[3:34] If you remember the chapter which precedes this, the 28th chapter, when we find those who are doing what is right, in contrast between the northern and southern kingdom, it is the men from the northern kingdom who respond to the word of the Lord while the men of the southern kingdom are doing whatever appeals to their flesh, and there is really no restraint to their wickedness and their sin.
[3:57] But yet, history tells us that the southern kingdom of Judah existed some nearly 200 years longer than the counterpart of the northern kingdom, and we ask ourselves, why?
[4:09] What was the difference? What happened? Because when it fell, we're shortly before the fall of Israel, and God cast them into the judgment of the Assyrian, which would eventually be absorbed into the Babylonian empire, one could just go a little bit further south and find just as much wickedness going on.
[4:33] Before Hezekiah's reign, you would find the temple doors closed. You would find altars under every tree and on every hill. You would find multitudes of gods being worshipped.
[4:45] You would find child sacrifice taking part even by the king himself. But something happens in the first part of Hezekiah's reign, and that's what we will get into tonight, which really sets the stage for what takes place later on in Hezekiah's reign, and that is during the 14th year of his reign, if you read it in 2 Kings, that the king of Assyria comes and besieges Jerusalem and says, I'm going to take you captive as well, and Hezekiah refuses him, resists him, and submits to the Lord, falls upon his face.
[5:19] His counterpart during that time is the prophet Isaiah. He sends the letter to Isaiah, and then he himself goes before the Lord and falls on his face, and God delivers the southern kingdom. So we paint all of that so that when we get to this point, when we read through Kings, we say, wow, Hezekiah was a great political leader, and he led the nation to do wonderful things, but we forget that something happens in the first 14 years of his reign.
[5:45] We pick it up immediately during the 14th year of his reign. Now there's a verse that says great reform was brought, but then we see in the 14th year of his reign that the king of Assyria comes. But it will do us well to now look and see what the chronicler tells us happened at the first part of his reign, because really it is the matters we do in silence that prepares us to fight the enemy in the midst of the battle.
[6:13] It is those matters which are done in isolation which prepare us for the moment when the enemy looks at us and says, you can't trust the Lord your God, but yet we have the confidence in that time to indeed trust.
[6:27] We see the beginning of that in what I titled this evening the reforms of Hezekiah, just because there's really no better way to state it, found in the first 19 verses of 2 Chronicles chapter 29.
[6:41] The word of God tells us Hezekiah became king when he was 25 years old. And he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
[6:53] He did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.
[7:05] He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the square on the east. He said to them, listen to me, O Levites, consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place.
[7:23] For our fathers have been unfaithful, and have done evil in the sight of the Lord our God, and have forsaken him, and turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord, and have turned their backs.
[7:36] They have also shut the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense, or offered burnt offerings in the holy place of the Lord, or of the God of Israel. Therefore the wrath of the Lord was against Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of terror, of horror, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes.
[7:57] For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons, and our daughters, and our wives are in captivity for this. Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel.
[8:08] That his burning anger may turn away from us. My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him, to minister to him, and to be his ministers, and burn incense.
[8:23] Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasaiah, and Joel the son of Azariah, from the sons of the Kohathites, and from the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah, the son of Jehalel, and from the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zemah, and Eden the son of Joah, and from the sons of El-Zaphon, Shemri, and Jael, from the sons of Asaph, Zechariah, and Mataniah, and from the sons of Heman, Jahil, and Shemai, and from the sons of Judathun, Shemaiah, and Uziel.
[8:57] They assembled their brothers, consecrated themselves, and went in to cleanse the house of the Lord, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the Lord. So the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, to cleanse it, and every unclean thing, which they found in the temple of the Lord, they brought out to the court of the house of the Lord.
[9:18] Then the Levites received it, to carry it out to the Kidron Valley. Now they began the consecration of the house, or they began the consecration on the first day of the first month.
[9:30] And on the eighth day of the first month, they entered the porch of the Lord, and they consecrated the house of the Lord in eight days, and finished on the sixteenth day of the first month.
[9:43] Then they went into King Hezekiah and said, We have cleansed the whole house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering, with all of its utensils, and the table of Shobria with all of its utensils.
[9:56] Moreover, all the utensils which King Ahaz has discarded during his reign in his unfaithfulness, we have prepared and consecrated. And behold, they are before the altar of the Lord.
[10:09] 2 Chronicles 29, verses 1 through 19. I want you to see this morning, or this evening, the reforms of King Hezekiah. The question begs to be asked, how could, by the time we get to the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign, the nation being surrounded by the Assyrians, which has just led away the northern kingdom, and if you remember, if you can call back to mind, there were people sitting on the wall, listening to Sennacherib as he mocked the Lord God, as he told them not to trust in Hezekiah, nor to trust in the protective hand of Yahweh.
[10:52] How could these people remain silent? How could they not revolt and walk out of Jerusalem? How could they not surrender and give themselves over?
[11:03] How could they trust in the king of their land, who was going to go before the prophet Isaiah, and then in turn go with Isaiah before the Lord God, and beseech God to do a miraculous work?
[11:16] God did deliver the nation of Judah. He did deliver the city of Jerusalem. He went, and He called Sennacherib back home, and He was slain in the house of His own God, lowercase g, Dagon.
[11:29] We know that they counted and trusted in the protective hand of the Lord God, but we also know that these same people, described and defined in the 28th chapter, some 15 years prior to that, are declared to be people living without restraint.
[11:46] They are people living as they wish, doing what they want, and worshiping however they intend. They are living under the reign of a king of wickedness, one who has tried to call the king of Assyria to his aid, but yet has been given a greater detriment because of his allegiance with him, has cost him dearly.
[12:08] He has emptied the house of the Lord. He has emptied the house of the king, and he's emptied the house of the princes, and yet he was done much more harm than good from his alliance with this king.
[12:18] We know that these people who are living as they want could not own their own initiative and by their own power all of a sudden become people who would live a very restrained and controlled life, that they would be individuals who would not be so easily swayed.
[12:36] Something had to happen in those 14 years of Hezekiah's reign, And what happened really was the reformation that he brought about among the people.
[12:47] He did not build a greater army. He did not, as Uzziah did, fortify with greater machines of war. He did not build towers along the countryside.
[13:01] He did not strengthen and acquire cities. He reigns, and God shows him favor. But the very first thing that he did, the very first thing that he did, was to open the doors of the temple.
[13:16] The reforms were not political reforms. They were not economic reforms. They were not reforms of acquiring more individuals.
[13:26] Rather, it was a reformation of spirit. And so we see here that the great transition, the great change that 2 Kings doesn't inform us of, that the chronicler tells us about, and it is right in line with the purpose of the chronicler.
[13:44] Remember the three purposes of the chronicler? I mean, we're making our way through the book of 2 Chronicles, and I know you hear it all the time because we've been saying it since the book of 1 Chronicles. They focus on three things.
[13:55] What is it? The throne from the lineage of David, the temple of the Lord, and the Levitical priest. That's the three things they're focused on. And that's the three things that really matter because he's writing to post-Babylonian captivity remnant.
[14:10] He's writing to a few people without a king, without really a temple, because the temple that was constructed after the Babylonian captivity, there was a shout of joy, and there was a weeping sound of crying because of those who saw Solomon's temple said this is nothing in comparison.
[14:24] But those who had never seen the temple said, well, at least we have one, right? And so there's the in-between people there, and it's the people who really don't know who they are. And he's telling them, you are a people with a king that is coming who worship the Lord God in a proper way through the proper people.
[14:40] You are a people with a king, and with priests, and a place. And so we understand that the chronicler shows us that the great reforms that happened during Hezekiah's reign were not necessarily political reforms.
[14:55] Rather, it was the reformation of spirit. It was a reawakening of worship. No wonder 2 Kings tells us that there is none who sought the Lord like Him before Him nor after Him.
[15:10] That He clung to the Lord His God and never departed from Him. And it's astounding, right? Because His father, His earthly father, was one who wanted nothing to do with the Lord God.
[15:24] who reigned. He saw, He was alive, if you see how long His father lived, He was alive for the entirety of His father's reign. He was born before His father ascended to the throne.
[15:37] He saw the wickedness that took place. But He did not use His earthly father as His example because, it declares, that He does right according to His father David had done.
[15:49] He goes beyond the nearest kin and goes to the standard. And we understand, how do these reforms happen? Number one, there is the priorities renewed.
[16:02] It is the very thing I've been talking about all along. It is the priorities renewed. Look at what it says. Hezekiah became king when he was 25 years old and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
[16:14] He did right in the sight of the Lord according to all that His father had done. It's amazing when we read this, we see it so often, we don't think anything of it. But He did right in the sight of the Lord.
[16:26] It does us well to remember that at that time, there were no strong priests, there were no strong men, there were no citizens that we are aware of.
[16:37] We know that God always has His people. He has a remnant. But the people we are described in chapter 28, as we've already said, were living without restraint. And Hezekiah was not concerned how the people perceived him, but rather his concern was, am I doing what is right in the sight of the Lord?
[16:58] It would be easy to start his reign giving the people what they want. Because even the Jewish historian Josephus tells us during the reign of his wicked father Ahab, the people were happy.
[17:12] And why would they not be happy? They got to do what they wanted to do. They got to live however they wanted to live. They got to behave however they wanted and there was nothing to keep them in check. But yet Hezekiah chose to do what was right in the sight of the Lord, not what was right in the sight of the people.
[17:29] Big difference. And that was his priority. His priority was not to follow in the steps of his father or even some of the kings who went before him, but to go back and to see what David had done.
[17:44] And we see that this priority is set very early because it tells us in the first year of his reign, in the first month. We are told later on that it is the first year, the first month, and the first day of that month.
[17:58] So just in case we have any question as to what he thinks is important, during the first month in office, he opens the doors.
[18:12] And he opens the doors of the temple and he repairs them. His father had closed the doors because he had ransacked the temple and used it to pay the king of Assyria for an alliance that never benefited him.
[18:24] And besides, before that, he had pushed the altar of the Lord to the side of the room and put his own altar there to burn his own incense and to burn his own offerings. And he had based it off of the one he had seen of the king of Assyria.
[18:39] And what we find is that from the very beginning, Hezekiah says, no, we're going to make first things first. He enters into a land and he ascends to a throne that has lost a number of battles by the time he becomes king.
[18:59] They have been defeated by the Edomites. They've been defeated by the northern kingdom. Some 200,000 people have been carried away only by the intervention of the Lord God did those 200,000 people return.
[19:13] They have seen the Assyrians come in and alleviate some of their problems but then carry some of them away. But yet the first thing he does is not say, let's build a bigger army.
[19:25] The first thing he does is he opens the doors of the temple. It is the realization that the priority is not that we need to be stronger or we need to do what the rest of the world would do.
[19:40] It is the realization that the first thing, the most important thing, is that we must worship accurately. And he has this conviction that the Lord God is not a God among other gods but he is a God that is set apart.
[19:56] That's what consecrate means. He says, consecrate yourselves in verse 5. We'll get to the rest of that in just a moment now. And consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers. The kings who have went before him, his father in particular, have allowed other gods to take the place and to be alongside of the Lord God.
[20:17] He understands, as a matter of conviction, that God is, as the legacy standard says, set apart. He is different. He is above and beyond. And so he makes it a priority that God would have his rightful place among the people.
[20:34] That the temple would be consecrated. That everything would be seen as holy and set apart. He does this at the very beginning. And he also does it because he realizes the judgment and the wrath that they have experienced is because, not because people are stronger, but because they have failed.
[20:54] He declares the reality, therefore, in verse 8, the wrath of the Lord was against Judah and Jerusalem and he has made them an object of terror, of horror, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes.
[21:06] He understands that worship is essential because the judgment that has fallen upon them is directly connected to the reality that they are no longer worshiping. Too often, when we get in a problem or in a fix, we think that the issue is because we have done something wrong or we have not been strong enough or others have just ascended to greater position, but yet Hezekiah understands it is how we worship and who we worship that dictates what happens to us.
[21:36] and this has become the great priority. He knows that this situation they find themselves in is not because of political alliances, it's not because of military strength, it's not because of territory gained, rather, it's because the temple doors are closed.
[21:58] The great problem is a worship problem and the greatest reform that He can do is open the doors so we see these priorities are renewed.
[22:10] We understand how important things are based upon what people do first, what they do first, first thing that they do every day, the first thing that they do every week normally has priority.
[22:25] We will prioritize that which is important, it's just natural. what is the greatest thing and the most important thing to us? Well, we can tell it because it's the one thing that we will not let not go undone.
[22:41] It is the prioritization of worship and communion and relationship with the Lord God that Hezekiah establishes that that is why when the king and the enemy shows up and says, don't let Hezekiah fool you that you can trust in the Lord, they remain silent because for that time for 14 years he has shown them how important worship was.
[23:05] And for 14 years he has established this priority which leads us to the second thing, there is not only the priorities renewed, there are the people reaffirmed. This falls right in line with one of the purposes of the chronicler but it also falls right in line with the priority which Hezekiah is distributing.
[23:24] He says, he says to the Levites in the first year of His reign He not only opened the doors but He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the square on the east. Now during the days of some of the kings who went before there were strong priests but during the days of His father there were no strong priests.
[23:42] As a matter of fact if you remember the false altar that was constructed for His father was constructed by the high priest. There were no priests with conviction.
[23:53] There were priests with connections but there were no priests with conviction. And we should not be astounded because the people are without restraint because even the priests are without restraint because the reality is if we're going to bring reformation it has to start in the pulpit first.
[24:12] It has to start not with the people or the general populace it has to start with the proclaimers and the teachers of the word of God. That is just a reality. It's a conviction that we understand.
[24:22] And you say well I'm glad that's not me. Well the good thing for you is in the Southern Baptist life and even in the biblical life we don't even have to say Southern Baptist but your pastor believes in the priesthood of the believer so you're included too.
[24:36] Because you're in charge of the teaching of the word in your circle. I am to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. I'm not to be in your home doing the work of the ministry.
[24:48] I'm to equip you to do the work of the ministry and come along beside you as you do the work of the ministry. And as the Bible tells us that Peter writes for us that God is constructing us as a nation of priests.
[25:01] Which by the way if you read your Old Testament was God's intended purpose with the nation of Israel. He called them to be a nation of priests but because they continued to revolt and rebel and they continued to sin they became a nation with priests.
[25:14] And then he calls the church to be a body of priests. And too often we say oh that's too hard we would rather be a body with priests. We are descending rather than ascending. So it starts with the people of God first.
[25:28] And he calls in the Levites and the priests and he says listen to me oh Levites consecrate yourselves set yourselves apart. So we see that the first thing that had to be done was the doors were open but then the priests the teachers and instructors of the word had to set themselves apart from those living without restraint before you can deal with the community before you can deal with society then you must first deal with yourself.
[25:53] Much harm has been done throughout the ages because the church wags the finger and tells the world to clean itself up but the reality is just as we read in scripture judgment begins in the household of the Lord first.
[26:05] And if the righteous are scarcely saved then where were the sinner and the ungodly appear? We shouldn't be surprised right? We say woe is me oh Lord. It is me that needs to be set apart.
[26:17] It is me that needs to be cascaded and declared to be holy for be holy as I am holy declares the Lord. And we understand this reality because he is reaffirming the right people to do what it is they're called to do.
[26:32] The Levites were to be the leaders of the nation in worship. The king was to set the standard but the Levites were to lead the people and they had abandoned their position. And by the way we don't have to go very far in scripture before we see what it looks like when Levites and priests abandon their position.
[26:50] We see in the book of Judges remember those five statements there found in the book of Judges in those days there was no king in his own every man did what was right in his own eyes. Do you remember when we found the introduction of that statement for the first time?
[27:02] If you're reading through the book of Judges right now in your yearly reading plan you know that it's not found in the first half of the book of Judges it's found in the back half of the book of Judges and it is found when a priest left his position.
[27:14] And began wandering around taking concubines from here and there and hanging out and he lingered too long as the father of his concubine's house and he had a party and we don't need to go any further.
[27:29] In those days there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes. The sad irony is is those who should have been teaching the word of God were also doing what was right in their own eyes.
[27:40] And so now we see that he reaffirms their calling he tells them to set themselves apart to set the temple apart to lead the nation I love verse 11 by the way because he looks at them and he says my sons do not be negligent now just because it's difficult just because the people are living without restraint just because there's an altar under every tree and on every high hill just because society is going downward do not be negligent now.
[28:16] That's a call that can resound throughout the church now is not the time for negligence. He says don't take it easy now look around you look at the wrath that has come immediately after he declares this the northern kingdom will be carried away he sees the wrath of God resting upon them and just because the judgment has started don't be negligent now for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him to minister to him and to be his ministers and burn incense look at what it says he is not saying you are called to do this for the people you are called to do it for him big difference you stand before him to minister to him to burn incense for him throughout history the church has entered into dark periods and when the world seems to be in chaos and the church gets negligent it wants to pull itself back and have a holy huddle here and think well we'll just kind of take care of ourselves and they enter into a period of negligence and they allow society just to go their way because we think that we are called to serve society and we're not we're called to serve the Lord our God in society and as we serve him then he draws them to this our focus is wrong and say well the world is rejecting us well that's okay
[29:41] Jesus said do not be surprised when they reject you for they've rejected me and they will reject you but we are called to serve him in his presence and to love him and to adore him and to minister before him and for those he draws and attracts to himself through us he says do not be negligent now so we see that the people are reaffirmed in their calling because it's so easy when it gets difficult just to say well this is how it is now this is how it is and this is how it's always going to be but he reaffirms their calling and he goes back to the calling even of David and if you notice that we were given 14 names I believe it is of Levites but if you notice of the Levitical names we're given all three families of the Levites are represented there all three of them if you go read your lineage of the Levites you'll see that there are three there are the Korah and let's keep running the Korathites the Merara the Gershonites so Gershon and then if you keep running on down and Sons of Elisaphon and not only are all three of those named all of the ones who are charged to lead in singing and with musical instruments are named again the ones that
[31:05] David had set in order so he's calling the leaders to lead this is your charge this is your call and they responded they responded and it says so on the first day of the first month of the first year of his reign they began to cleanse the temple I love that because when he reaffirmed these people they responded we call that calling out the call too often we just allow people to exist rather than challenging them and charging them so priorities renewed people reaffirmed third and finally look at the place restored it's the one thing that happens but look at the place that's restored he not only opened up the doors of the temple he repaired the doors of the temple so the people could go in and out but he called the Levites and the priests and he told them now all priests are Levites but not all Levites are priests so you understand that right so when he's calling the Levites and the priests they're all from one family but not all of them have the title priest because only the descendants of Aaron are priests but he charges them now to cleanse the temple and they begin to cleanse the temple
[32:15] I love this verse 16 so the priest because only the priests were allowed to go into the inner part not all the Levites could so the priests went into the inner part and began to carry out the things that were unclean and the things that were wrong and their counterparts the rest of the Levites would carry it out to the valley and they would burn it in the valley but notice where the cleansing started so the priests went into the inner part they began to cleanse it from the inside out it's a great picture here because too often we try to cleanse things from the outside in we want to make it look pretty on the outside and not really concerned so much about what it is on the inside because listen not many people get on the inside right only the priests could go in there the Levites didn't even know what existed the priests knew what was in there but the common folks the town folks they had no idea what was in there the king had no idea what was in there but they began cleansing it from the inside why because worship really begins in the innermost part that was the place of communion and meeting with the Lord
[33:19] God it didn't matter how beautiful the outside was it mattered little if the doors had been repaired and if the courts were well decorated and everything was up kept if in the inside where worship was supposed to take place if that was still defiled it doesn't matter how beautiful the appearance is so this place that is restored they started on the inside why because worship is the priority not appearance and when worship becomes a priority it matters little how we look to other people what really matters is the broken and contrite heart it is the internal person that says there's some matters in here I don't care how well I look on the outside if the inside the inner part where worship really is where the high priest alone ascends not once a year but every single day because I have a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek that I am told makes his abode or tabernacle within me and he dwells within me if the high priest is in there and nobody else sees it but he looks around and he writes
[34:24] Ichabod across it it matters little how good it looks on the outside Ichabod means what the glory has departed right you need to know it's not just a name but it means the glory has departed so we need to understand this cleansing doesn't happen for the individual or for the church or for the people group on the outside some of the most beautiful religious buildings I've ever visited were not Christian buildings I mean when I say if you ever go to Provo Utah Utah and you walk in on Temple Square I'll use the word Temple lightly it's the most well kept grounds there are rules and laws in Utah Valley that your sprinklers have to be run so many days your grass can't be brown all of the wards or the church no I won't say church but in the wards the buildings are meticulously maintained
[35:27] Temple Square is the most ornate beautiful building in the area and it looks magnificent but it's the darkest place I've ever visited it's the only building I've ever been escorted out of and told I couldn't talk in it's got wonderful statues great artifacts they tell you it has a divinely inspired constructed if you ever listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir where the choir sings they'll tell you that that was a divinely inspired constructed temple and that's why the acoustics are so good and then they'll tell you in the very next verse that they had to make repairs to it after it was constructed the first time so the question I asked was did that mean that they misinterpreted the inspiration or was the angel wrong they didn't like that question they had to make the acoustics better after the inspiration but it is magnificent it looks ornate but if you tap on it it's not even real wood it is beautiful but it's all a facade and I'm not here to put it down
[36:39] I'm not here to belittle it because the builders of that did some genuine craftsmanship but the heart of it the part that the visitor doesn't get to go see there's no worship there there's no communion with the Lord God there and see we try to take that in our own lives we want to look good on the outside but friend listen we can be well kept and well clean but if the cleansing doesn't start internally it matters little there's no true reform if we don't get the junk out of the inside first and let somebody take it to the valley and burn it and we replace that you remember the tabernacle where all the furnishings and even the temple remember how simple it was very little furnishings there because the focus wasn't on the furnishings it was on worship and the
[37:53] Lord God and being in his presence and the fact that that's where he met his people one of the things Hezekiah did and I'm closing if you don't see it here in this statement of reforms but you find it in 2 Kings this is one of the things that the author of 2 Kings tells us that Hezekiah did that the chronicler does not he smashed the bronze serpent to pieces and you say the bronze serpent you mean the thing that Moses made and the people looked at it when they were bit by snakes it was the very thing that is a type of Christ that Christ himself said just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so too must the son of man be lifted up so that whoever looks upon him will be saved that same thing Hezekiah smashed it to pieces yes why because in his day people were worshipping that bronze serpent and forgot what it was supposed to represent that's pretty radical right that gets you voted out of most churches but he said no we're not they had a name for it then and the translation is pretty good it was called that bronze thing they worshipped that bronze thing nehushta the translation just means the bronze thing they forgot that what the bronze thing represented was that by faith if you trusted what
[39:19] God was raising up that you would be healed and it was never about the bronze thing the whole reason he said why did he have to make a bronze serpent put it on a staff and put it above the ground because it was pointing to the hill of Calvary it's pointing to God being raised up from man so that whoever looks at him will be saved it's not the bronze thing it's the king of kings and lord of lords who's lifted up that we by faith when we're all bitten by sin and we by faith look to him realizing there's nothing we can do we have the disease and we need to look up and we see him raised up above us then we too are healed yeah I mean what radical reforms because he had his priorities right no wonder when they camped about the city the citizens could just be silent because they had a king with a backbone who said we're going to worship and we see it in 2nd chronicles 29 verses 1 through 19 thank you my brother