“Levites, listen! Consecrate yourselves and consecrate The Temple of God—give this much-defiled place a good housecleaning. Our ancestors went wrong and lived badly before God—they discarded him, turned away from this house where we meet with God, and walked off. 2 Chronicles 29:3-4
Hezekiah was a good king. He had enough Godly guts to clean up the mess of his predecessors. He saw the idolatry and the profane way they led the country. His heart was broke. He would look at the temple of God and the disrepair and the weak worship and hurt. You can hear it in the story how his heart broke because the Temple was not functioning as it should.
He did what was right.
He went to church and the fire still flickered and you could see the smoke trickling up. The flame was out. Just coals. No where in the chapter do we hear that the fire was out. It simply wasn’t burning. Someone had failed to pay attention to the things of God.
He told the Levites to do two things. First Clean up yourself. Second, clean up the temple. I think he non-negotiably to repent of their neglects, reform their hearts and lives, and to renew the covenant that they had with God. Then he told them to make the temple clean from top to bottom. Clean what needed to be cleaned and repair what needed to be repaired.
It was as if he is saying to this preacher, “Beware, Crooks! You do not get away with what you do. You have been given a place of honor. You have been allowed to stand before me. I give you the responsibility to minister to Me. Your temple is dirty and I have to live in it. Get busy and clean the place up. “Be not deceived God is not mocked whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap”.
God start with me.
May God who is all good, pardon and forgive everyone who sincerely desires God, the God of our ancestors. Even – especially – these who do not meet the literal conditions stated for access to the temple.
The words “Create in me a clean heart” own me this morning…
