Week 22   Day 6

 We have read these cycles over and over again 

            building altars for idol worship 

            tearing them down 

            closing the temple doors 

            opening the temple again 

            doing what was evil in God's sight 

            doing what was right in God's sight 

But to each generation the choices were new 

            what is old ground to the reader

            was new ground to the participants.

Every time Moses' old Book of the Law

            was rediscovered 

            it became new

and people read it for the first time  

            those who believed

            were changed

            their lives were made new.

This time Hezekiah initiated  

            he wanted to enter into

            a covenantal agreement

            with God   

God responded

            heard his desire

            and entered into covenant

            with him

Seek God and

            God will be found

Hezekiah knew this

            from personal experience.



                                      A 16-DAY CLEAN UP
         Ahaz closed up the temple; Hezekiah reopened it.
                                     II Chronicles 28 & 29

     22In the time of distress king Ahaz became increasingly

unfaithful to the Lord.  23He sacrificed to the gods of

Damascus which had defeated him, saying, "Because the
gods of the kings of Syria help them, I will sacrifice to them
that they may help me."  But they were the ruin of him and
of all Israel.  24So Ahaz gathered the articles of the house
of God and cut them in pieces, shut up the doors of the temple
and made for himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. 
27So Ahaz rested with his fathers, and they buried. 

    Then Hezekiah his son reigned in his place. 1He was

twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in

Jerusalem.  His mother's name was Abijah the daughter of

Zechariah.  2He did what was right in the sight of the Lord,

according to all that his father David had done.

     3In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened

the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.  4He

brought in the priests and the Levites, 5and said, "Sanctify

yourselves, sanctify the house of our God, and carry out the

rubbish from the holy place.  6Our fathers have turned their
faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord, and turned
their backs on Him.  8Therefore He has given them up to
trouble, to desolation, and to jeering, as you see with your
eyes.  9Indeed, because of this our fathers have fallen by
the sword, and our sons, our daughters, and our wives
are in captivity.

     10"It is in my heart to make a covenant with the God

of Israel.  11My sons, do not be negligent, for the Lord has

chosen you to stand before Him, and minister to Him."  

     15The Levites gathered their brethren, sanctified

themselves, and went to cleanse the house of the Lord. 

16The priests went into the inner part to cleanse it, and

brought out all the debris that they found. 

     17They began to sanctify on the first day of the first

month, and on the eighth day they came to the vestibule

of the Lord.  So they sanctified the house of the Lord in

eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month

they finished.

     18Then they went in to Hezekiah and said, "We have

cleansed all the house of the Lord, with all its articles. 

19All the articles which Ahaz had cast aside, are there."
         _{This Bible passage was condensed from the NKJV}

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