WE ARE SURROUNDED BY A GREAT ENEMY! A PROPHETIC WORD TO THE REMNANT! 2 Chronicles 29-32.
“After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself.” (2Chron. 32:1)
AFTER THESE THINGS: What things, the tearing down of idols and the cleansing of the Temple! Hezekiah was a good king; and upon coming to the throne of Judah his first concern was to restore the worship and the glory of God’s temple... and God gave them a great revival.
Areas that lead to Revival, then opposition:
1. OPEN OUR HEARTS TO THE LORD
The first thing Hezekiah did was to “open the doors of the house of the LORD and repair them.” (2Chron. 29:3) Priests and Levites were assembled together at Jerusalem to begin the task of cleansing the temple of God. There was a battle coming, and God knew that. Why did He not get them involved in military training camps? Because God’s armor is the “armor of light”, and therefore His first concern was for His temple. The temple had to be cleansed, or there would be defeat in battle. It is time God’s people understood this. God wants truth in the inward parts. This is the day of the cleansing of God’s house. Not a mere outward legalistic sort of thing... but a deep, penetrating work of the Spirit of God in hearts and lives. When God cleanses and changes the hearts of men, then the outside will be clean too.
2. ALLOW GODS FIRE TO CLEANSE US
The burnt offering had to be restored. The hearts of men had to be laid on the altar, and totally exposed to the fires of God. “And when the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began also...” (vs. 27)
3. RELEASE TRUE WORSHIP
There are lots of nice songs in the Church today, and a lot of good professional music. But “the song of the LORD” is entirely different: songs of the Spirit are songs that penetrate the heart and produce a brokenness and a sense of awesomeness because of the presence of God. You don’t really hear the SONG OF THE LORD until there is a burnt offering, a complete yielding to God, a sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit.
4. MOVE IN OBEDIANCE TO GOD
Next comes Divine order. “So the service of the house of the LORD was set in order.” (vs. 35) Generally, this is first on our agenda: Get it well organized with a building, a well structured leadership, and have it all ready for God to move in. And so we have man’s order, which soon ends in another Babel - disorder, division, and strife. God’s order is based upon a people drawn together by the Holy Spirit, coming to fullness of commitment and sacrifice, and offering themselves willingly unto the Lord. Soon the revival spread to other parts of the land. Messengers went forth from Jerusalem to the various towns and villages, inviting the people to come to Jerusalem to keep the passover, and to turn again to the Lord. Some mocked and laughed the messengers to scorn. Others humbled themselves, and came and sought the Lord. Healings began to take place (though we are not told the names of any who ministered the healing!). The hearts of the people were open for the Word, and teachers were raised up to lead the people of God in His ways. The final outcome of it all was JOY. There was “great joy in Jerusalem”. This was far different from the trumped up joy that men are trying to manufacture in our churches today. There is nothing like the joy of the Holy Spirit... the joy that proceeds from a people who are brought low at His feet because of the burnt offering, and who wait before Him in humility and contrition of heart, and begin to learn of Him and walk in His ways.
5. REMOVE AND DESTROY OUR IDOLS:
Idols, those things that take the place of God are only revealed when we get close to God, we are often blinded by distraction, seeking God opens the eyes of our hearts to truth!
Next came the breaking down of the images and high places of idolatry that abounded in the land. I wonder just how many idols we are going to discover when God begins to judge His house, and search out His people with the seven flaming eyes of the Spirit of God! May God continue this great work that He has begun in the earth that His Temple (the Church) might be restored, and the people of God cleansed and purified and
enriched with all the glorious provisions of His grace! And let us not be deterred from this vision by ignorant teachers who scoff: “These people are sitting around trying to get perfect, instead of getting out there and working for God”. The Day of the LORD is at hand, and that’s what this great preparation is all about. The Enemy has devised a wicked plot to destroy the people of God in one massive blow, and if God’s Temple is not cleansed and His people consecrated on the altar of burnt offering, we are not going to survive the burnings of that great day. And so we read, THE ENEMY WILL ALWAYS ATTACKS THOSE WHO ARE MOVING WITH GOD: The people had revival, they had turned from idolaters to worshippers!
6. THE BATTLE IS THE LORDS:
“After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself.” (2Chron. 32:1) But Jerusalem was ready for them. They did not feel they were ready, and it brought great fear into the hearts of all. But in their commitment to the Lord they had penetrated the very heavens. How we seek to emphasize that it is only as the people of God become KNOWN IN THE HEAVENS AND RECOGNIZED BEFORE THE THRONE, that they are going to know victory over the onslaughts of the Evil One down here. What did Hezekiah do in the hour of such great distress and peril? He sent a message to Isaiah the prophet in which he confessed (and once again it seemed like a very negative confession): “This is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.” (2kgs 19:3)
It seemed to Hezekiah that all the good things God had done for them, and the revival they had known, were about to end in disaster. “No strength to bring forth!” Now Hezekiah means “Jah is Strength”, but Hezekiah had none of his own, and there was none in Israel. But the secret of their victory would rest in this very fact... that they were helpless, and they knew it... and that God was their sufficiency. Hezekiah received a long, threatening letter from Sennacherib’s general, which amounted to this simple ultimatum: “Surrender or else!” Hezekiah had no answer to send back. So he took the letter to the temple, and “spread it out before the Lord”. He said, “Lord, you read this... I don’t know what to do about it”. Hezekiah had touched the throne. I know we are exhorted: “We must pray more... we must intercede more...!” Very true. But all this will amount to nothing if the hearts of the people have not turned back to God, if the Temple is not being cleansed, if the burnt offering of total commitment to God is not ascending before the Lord from broken and contrite hearts. The people of God had penetrated the Heavens, and were recognized by the armies of Heaven, and God would soon reveal what He was going to do. The battle was the LORD’s! Isaiah sent back to Hezekiah the assurance that God had heard their cries, and gave Rabshakeh the answer that Hezekiah was unable to give. It was a scathing denunciation of Sennacherib and all his armies, and he concluded the letter by saying:
“I (the LORD) will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. And it came to pass that night, that the Angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand.” (2kgs 19:34, 35)
Let us pursue God, open our hearts to Him, and move in His Spirit! We will see that God is for us and not against us in these Days!
