Cleansing The Temple
2 Chronicles 28: 1-5
2Ch 28:1 ¶ Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: but he did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD, like David his father:
2 For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Baalim.
3 Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
4 He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
5 Wherefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.
2 Chronicles 29: 1-11
2Ch 29:1 ¶ Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.
3 He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them.
4 And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street,
5 And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.
6 For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs.
7 Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel.
8 Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.
9 For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.
10 Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.
11 My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense.
I want to give you a little bit of background before we dive into the contextual part of this message.
Slide # 1
After King Solomon’s death in around 930 B.C., the kingdom split into a northern kingdom, which retained the name Israel, a southern kingdom was formed called Judah, named after the tribe of Judah that dominated the new kingdom.
The city of Jerusalem was in the southern kingdom of Judah. And of course that is where the temple stood.
In an attempt to keep the people in the northern Kingdom from going to Jerusalem to worship, Jeroboam built two places of worship, one at Bethel and one at far northern Dan, as alternatives to the Temple of Jerusalem.
King Jeroboam commissioned the construction of two golden calves and installed one at each shrine.
This led to Israel’s idol worship and Israel became corrupt.
They became very diabolical in their idol worship including the worship of Moloch.
Slide # 2
Moloch worship included child sacrifice which God strictly forbid.
It is believed that idols of Moloch were giant metal statues of a man with a bull’s head.
Each image had a hole in the abdomen and possibly outstretched forearms that made a kind of ramp to the hole.
A fire was lit in or around the statue. Babies were placed in the statues arms which was red hot, or they were placed in the hole of fire.
God forbade this.
Le 18:21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
Jer 32:35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
(Remove slide #2)
Both Israel and Judah had forsaken God and turned to extreme wickedness and abomination.
2 Chronicles 28: 24, 25
2Ch 28:24 And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the LORD, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.
25 And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD God of his fathers.
Now, God’s wrath begins: God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria.
2Ch 28:5 Wherefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus.
And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.
2Ch 28:6 ¶ For Pekah the son of Remaliah (king of Israel) slew in Judah one hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men; because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers.
2Ch 28:8 And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.
Now remember, Judah was the brethren of Israel. Yet Israel attacked Judah.
Now lets look at verse 9-11 2Ch 28:9 But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out before the host that came to Samaria, and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD God of your fathers was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage that reacheth up unto heaven.
10 And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not with you, even with you, sins against the LORD your God?
11 Now hear me therefore, and deliver the captives again, which ye have taken captive of your brethren: for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you.
But that was still not the end of Judah.
The Edomites also attacked Judah and carried away captives.
The Philistines attacked and conquered the low country, or southern Judah.
2Ch 28:19 For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the LORD.
Ahaz, by seducing his people from his worship and service, had degraded them, stripped them of all their ornament, deprived them of all their protection, and left them defenceless and contemptible in the hands of their feeblest enemies.
The Lord made an end to Ahaz and he was buried in Jerusalem.
Now, we begin in chapter 29, “2Ch 29:1 ¶ Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.
3 He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them.
4 And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street,
5 And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.
6 For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs.
7 Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel.
8 Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.
9 For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.
10 Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.
11 My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense.
2Ch 29:15-19
15 And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD.
16 And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron.
17 Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD: so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.
18 Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread table, with all the vessels thereof.
19 Moreover all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away in his transgression, have we prepared and sanctified, and, behold, they are before the altar of the LORD.
They cleansed the temple from the dirt it had contracted while it was so long shut up, from dust, cobwebs, and the rust of the vessels.
And especially they cleansed the temple from the idols, and idolatrous altars which had been set up therein.
The rest of the chapter tells of the joyous celebration for they could now worship God at the temple.
For all the abominations of Ahaz had been cleansed, and the temple restored and cleansed.
2Ch 29:35 And also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings, and the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of the LORD was set in order.
36 And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people: for the thing was done suddenly.
(KJV)
It was, as a very great, so a sudden change, that the people, who but the other day were so ready to comply with wicked Ahaz in his idolatrous presumptions, were now so free and forward in God's service:
whereby it plainly appeared to be the work of God, changing their hearts by his Holy Spirit.
The temple, or the church today needs to be cleansed.
The church today has been polluted with false doctrine, heresy, false worship, worldliness, willful rejection of the genuine Word of God, instilled their own interpretation of the Bible, and abandoned the cross.
A lot of church congregations are ordaining homosexuals as pastors and leaders.
Many are sanctioning the same sex marriage agenda.
Many have forsaken the church altogether and have gone after the pleasures of this world.
2 Timothy 3:5, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
Jude 1:4, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Titus 1:16, “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.”
Today its time to cleanse the church and restore all the things that have been neglected.
There is dust on our bibles, dust on the altars, cobwebs on the pulpit, and many so-called full gospel churches have closed the door to the Holy Spirit and formed a boundary or barrier, therefore not allowing the Holy Spirit to do His work.
Its time to restore our worship and praise! To open up the doors again to the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Its time to repair the altars of prayer by getting down on our knees and worshiping God.
Let us purify the church from all works of the flesh, which is in total contrast with the fruit of the Spirit.
When Judah cleansed the temple, and set it in order again, and repented of their sins, they invited the northern Kingdom of Israel to unite with them in worship.
Some of Israel laughed and mocked at their invitation, but many of them went to Jerusalem to worship.
2 Chron 30:5-6
2Ch 30:5 So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written.
6 So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.
2Ch 30:21 ¶ And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness: and the Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the LORD.
22 And Hezekiah spake comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the LORD: and they did eat throughout the feast seven days, offering peace offerings, and making confession to the LORD God of their fathers.
23 And the whole assembly took counsel to keep other seven days: and they kept other seven days with gladness.
24 For Hezekiah king of Judah did give to the congregation a thousand bullocks and seven thousand sheep; and the princes gave to the congregation a thousand bullocks and ten thousand sheep: and a great number of priests sanctified themselves.
25 And all the congregation of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the congregation that came out of Israel, and the strangers that came out of the land of Israel, and that dwelt in Judah, rejoiced.
26 So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem.
27 Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, even unto heaven.
(KJV)
