seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
2 Chronicles 29:15 When they had assembled their fellow Levites and consecrated themselves, they went in to purify the temple of the Lord, as the king had ordered, following the word of the Lord. 16 The priests went into the sanctuary of the Lord to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the Lord. The Levites took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley. 17 They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month they reached the portico of the Lord. For eight more days they consecrated the temple of the Lord itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month.
18 Then they went in to King Hezekiah and reported: “We have purified the entire temple of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table for setting out the consecrated bread, with all its articles. 19 We have prepared and consecrated all the articles that King Ahaz removed in his unfaithfulness while he was king. They are now in front of the Lord’s altar.”
20 Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered the city officials together and went up to the temple of the Lord. 21 They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven male lambs and seven male goats as a sin offering[a] for the kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Judah. The king commanded the priests, the descendants of Aaron, to offer these on the altar of the Lord. 22 So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and splashed it against the altar; next they slaughtered the rams and splashed their blood against the altar; then they slaughtered the lambs and splashed their blood against the altar. 23 The goats for the sin offering were brought before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them. 24 The priests then slaughtered the goats and presented their blood on the altar for a sin offering to atone for all Israel, because the king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel.
25 He stationed the Levites in the temple of the Lord with cymbals, harps and lyres in the way prescribed by David and Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet; this was commanded by the Lord through his prophets. 26 So the Levites stood ready with David’s instruments, and the priests with their trumpets.
27 Hezekiah gave the order to sacrifice the burnt offering on the altar. As the offering began, singing to the Lord began also, accompanied by trumpets and the instruments of David king of Israel. 28 The whole assembly bowed in worship, while the musicians played and the trumpets sounded. All this continued until the sacrifice of the burnt offering was completed.
29 When the offerings were finished, the king and everyone present with him knelt down and worshiped. 30 King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed down and worshiped.
31 Then Hezekiah said, “You have now dedicated yourselves to the Lord. Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the temple of the Lord.” So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts were willingbrought burnt offerings.
32 The number of burnt offerings the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams and two hundred male lambs—all of them for burnt offerings to the Lord. 33 The animals consecrated as sacrifices amounted to six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep and goats. 34 The priests, however, were too few to skin all the burnt offerings; so their relatives the Levites helped them until the task was finished and until other priests had been consecrated, for the Levites had been more conscientious in consecrating themselves than the priests had been. 35 There were burnt offerings in abundance, together with the fat of the fellowship offerings and the drink offerings that accompanied the burnt offerings.
So the service of the temple of the Lord was reestablished. 36 Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for his people, because it was done so quickly.
a, 2 Chronicles 29:21 Or purification offering; also in verses 23 and 24
Have you ever been to the opening of a new wing? Hezekiah had to reopen the Temple. His father, Ahaz, looted it and shut it down. Hezekiah's mom, Abijah, was the daughter of a priest named Zechariah, however, so Hezekiah knew to open the Temple back up. This is a description of some of the work it took to clean the place and the priests back up. Look at the massive slaughter of animals to cover the sins of the people.... hundreds of animals were slaughtered still more were consecrated for slaughter. It's like this time they knew they weren't going to change their ways enough.
The commentary is from the easy English site.
They started work on the first day of the month Nisan (March or April). And it took them a week to clear all the rubbish. Then the priests and the Levites made the temple holy for the LORD. This took another 8 days. The temple was ready for worship by the 16th day of the month. That was two days after the Passover feast should have started.
The first sacrifices for sin were on behalf of the king and his family. The next sacrifices were to clean the temple. Then there were sacrifices because of the sins of the priests. Then there were sacrifices because of the sins of the people in Judah and Israel.
The people brought a large number of animals for sacrifices by fire. But there were too few priests to prepare the animals for sacrifice. So, other Levites had to help them. They could prepare the sacrifices but only the priests could offer the sacrifices.
There were priests who had not made themselves ready for the work in the temple. They had not done as Hezekiah asked them to do. Probably many of the priests had supported Ahaz in the worship of other gods. A few years earlier, Urijah the priest had made a foreign altar for Ahaz (2 Kings 16:10-16). The Levites had done better than the priests had. But these priests now made themselves ready for the work.
There were three main types of sacrifice.
First, there were the sacrifices because of sin.
Then there were the sacrifices by fire for dedication.
And there were the sacrifices for peace. At the sacrifices for peace, the people shared a meal together and they gave thanks to God.
So, it was indeed a huge BBQ at the end. Only this time instead of Ahaz BBQing babies on a statue of Molech, Hezekiah, his mom, his granddad, and a prophet Isaiah cleaned up the Temple and now there is a big Peace Party BBQ. Everything and everyone are cleaned up and spiffy.... full bellies.... smiling faces... and no doubt they are reminiscing good king David with some of his favorite Psalms. I got this commentary from Bible.org.
The burnt offerings and thank offerings move into the third area of renewal, celebration, or corporate worship. But the point is, we can’t experience spiritual renewal, whether individually or corporately, unless we appropriate God’s cleansing through the blood of Christ, confessing our sins and cleaning the offensive, idolatrous crud out of our lives, even as they cleansed themselves and God’s temple. Spiritual renewal starts with commitment; continues with cleansing; and culminates in celebration:
I wonder.... can we get back to a clean Temple, priests, and Levites again. Jesus has already done the sacrifice part.... I'm sure He's ready to forgive... I don't think it's necessary that we forget.... as a matter of fact.... the reason Hezekiah's house cleaning was in the Bible might be so we don't forget.