| 2 Chronicles 30:18-20 – “May the good Lord provide atonement for everyone wh o prepares his heart to seek God…and tphe Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people.” |
Chasing after the Lord reminds me of one of Hezekiah’s prayers. His father, Ahaz, shut the temple down, and trashed it for 16 years.
Can you imagine what your home would look like after 16 years of nobody living in it? Such a sad thought!
When his son Hezekiah became king at the age of 25, the first thing he did was repair the temple gates and clean the junk out of the temple and purify it for worship.
Purifying was a big deal! I think it’s where people get thinking the Bible says cleanliness is next to godliness. If the priests did not purify themselves with the ritual cleansing, they received the death penalty. They were cut off from their people and their relationship with God was severed! Sends chills up my spine! The people who partook of passover had the same rules-they had to be ceremonially cleansed first.
Hezekiah reinstituted the Passover and multitudes walked or came by donkey for up to 70 miles. They were super excited to be able to worship at the Temple again. They did not cleanse themselves and ate of the Passover as soon as they arrived! Heart dropping, isn’t it?
Hezekiah asked the Lord to forgive them because their hearts were chasing after Him!
God listened and forgave them for this violation of the Old Testament law.
We don’t serve a God who is just waiting to catch us doing something wrong, instead, He is waiting to catch us doing something right!
- Vicki Rance
