Scripture
Ahaz gathered together everything that belonged to God’s temple. He took all of it away. He shut the doors of the LORD’s temple. He set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem.
~2 Chronicles 28:24, NIrV
Quote
The first step toward revival is deep repentance; getting down in the dust before God with deep humility and forsaking sin.
~Charles Finney
Ironically, two of Judah’s greatest kings had sorry parentage. Manasseh, the worst of the worse, was Josiah’s grandfather and Ahaz was Hezekiah’s father. Ahaz was horrible: he sacrificed his own children to Molech. He first desecrated the Temple with idols, then he removed the sacred objects and finally, he pad locked the doors and shut it down. He sent the priest, and Levites packing, not sacrifice, no incense {Prayer}. He put out the holy lamp and closed the doors. He then built altars on every street corner but they were for Baal and the worship of the stars. Ahaz was so sorry that when he died, no one cared. Family and officials choose not to bury him in the Royal Cemetery which gives us an indication of his approval ratings. But thank God, he did one thing right, he married Abijah, daughter of Zechariah and she had a son Hezekiah {Jehovah is my strength}.
We must assume Hezekiah got his upbringing from his mother’s side because he was a Jehovah lover. He became king at age 25 and he knew exactly what to do and he did it. His first order of business was to reopen the Temple but to do it properly, he first had the priest “Cleanse” the Temple. They went in and removed all the idols and things considered unclean. Jesus was not the first to cleanse the Temple, it was Hezekiah. It took the Priest 16 days to clean the Temple. Then after cleaning it, they repaired the altar {where sin is dealt with}. They opened the doors and began their morning and evening sacrifices. Hezekiah re-instated the Levites and put them to work following David’s plan. The Levites were the gate-keepers, the musicians, the choir and they assisted the Priest. They actually sang and played their musical instruments during the sacrifices. Then Hezekiah re-instituted the Passover sending invitations to all of Israel. Some of the people laughed and made fun when they got the kings invitation but he was undaunted and the Passover was observed. The streets of Jerusalem were packed and they celebrated with great joy for seven days. Then the whole community agreed to celebrate seven more days. There was great joy in Jerusalem.
How do I know they had REVIVAL? The entire community voted to go another week and the people began to give to the LORD’s work freely. I’m not making this up, check out 2 Chronicles 31:5.
Let me tell you what I would like to see; I will even make it a challenge to DBC…why don’t we fake a REVIVAL. The bible says “the whole community” agreed to celebrate for seven more days {2 Chronicles 30:23} so lets get our whole church body to agree to obey God for seven days. We can get an evangelist if you want but the key is agreeing to obey. Joy comes from obedience. Disobedient Christians don’t rejoice; I’m not sure they understand why others rejoice. If we commit to seven days, it means we will have 465 for the Gathering on Wednesday night. If Joe David shows up and there is 465 there on Wednesday night, don’t you think he will get revived? Sure he would and so would I. Some of you think I’m crazy but am I wrong to expect professing believers to have a spirit of obedience. If everyone was willing to “Cleanse the temple,” get the idol and sin out of our lives, we would have REVIVAL.
Don’t have much extra these days. My High School Class reunion [50] is coming up Saturday night and I am on the program twice. I am not going to lie, I am a bit nervous. There were 133 in our class, 16 have departed this world. The last time I mentioned this, there were 15 but we lost one this past month. This means 12% of our class have moved on. The class just below me lost at least on to Viet Nam but our first physical death came in 1985 which was 18 years after graduation. A big part of my apprehension is remembering and recognizing people. I never knew all 133 to begin with. I have no idea where my High School Annual is or if I have one.