Title: Open Doors, Clean Temples

This is an edited version of the message I preached for June 14. You can find the YouTube recording at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qksy55mU-Q&t=2s

Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ²He did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.

1. Doing Right

Scripture records for us that Hezekiah, the king of Judah, did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his great, great-grandfather had done. But when the Holy Spirit makes this reference to King David, it is not to suggest David was perfect.

We know of his wicked sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah and other soldiers who died with him in battle. We also know he certainly was not the perfect parent, most notably in his relationship with one of his sons, Amnon (2 Samuel 13) and his other son, Absalom, especially in the aftermath of Amnon’s rape of Tamar. (2 Samuel 13-19).

Nonetheless, for all his failures, David was a humble man before God. We see evidence of that most clearly in Psalm 51 which records his confession and repentance before God for his sins in the Bathsheba incident. (See this link).

Psalm 32, likely written after Psalm 51, is a testament to David’s confidence in God’s forgiveness of the penitent, regardless of his sins. It reads in part this way. (See this link).

G. Campbell Morgan says of Psalm 32 says of this psalm, “It is a Psalm of penitence, but it is also the song of a ransomed soul rejoicing in the wonders of the grace of God.”

It was of because of David’s humility and soft heart toward God, that Scripture tells us he a man after God’s own heart, and Hezekiah proved himself to also be man of God.

Are You a woman or man after God’s own heart? Do you have a soft and humble heart toward God? When you sin, do you confess those sins to God, and do you turn away from those sins as David turned away?

2. Getting Access

The text in 2 Chronicles continues in verse 3: In the first year of [Hezekiah’s] reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the square on the east.

We find in the preceding chapter, chapter 28 of 2 Chronicles, the Temple doors had been locked by Hezekiah’s father, the evil King Ahaz. It was Ahaz who led Israel deeper into the horrific sins of idolatries, child sacrifice, and officially sanctioned religious prostitution and other sexual perversions – not too unlike today, if you think about it.

But Hezekiah changed all that. He opened the doors of the Temple and called the priests whose lineage traced back to Aaron and the sons of the Levitical tribe of Israel.

You will remember that under the old covenant – better known as the Old Testament – God established a separate caste of men to lead Israel in its worship. You’ll find that history in especially in Exodus and Leviticus.

It was only men from that special group of Levites who could offer sacrifices for the sins of the people. It was only that special group who had access to the holy place inside the Temple.

And it was only one person of that special caste – the High Priest– who could access the holiest place of the Temple, where the Ark of the Covenant rested. He alone had access only once a year, during the Day of Atonement. The laity, however – the regular people in the pew – were forbidden by Mosaic Law to enter the holy areas.

In an analogous fashion, under the New Covenant inaugurated by God and promised 600 years earlier through the prophet Jeremiah, Jesus opened the doors of true worship – no longer in a Temple or on a mountain, but – as He told the woman at the well in Samaria: “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. (John 4:23)

Under the new covenant, all those who follow Jesus – men, women, young, old, of every race, nation, language and culture – everyone born again through their faith in the blood of Jesus can enter boldly and with confidence into the holiest of holies.

Here is what the writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews tells us as he quotes from the Old Covenant prophet, Jeremiah: “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant
With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.” (Hebrews 8, quoting Jeremiah 31)

It is the New Covenant Jesus promised at the Last Supper when He said “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.” (Luke 22:20)

Through the first ten chapters of Hebrews, the writer repeatedly refers the readers back to the Old Testament Scriptures to make it clear that everything associated with the Old Covenant worship – the sacrifices, the priesthood, the Temple, the rituals, and regulations – all of it was deleted when Jesus took our sins to that cross, died as our substitutionary sacrifice, resurrected on the third day, and ascended back to His Father.

We who follow Christ are under that New Covenant of promise. And as a result of following Christ, the doors of worship have been thrown open and we each have personal access to God’s very throne room. Oh! Think what that means!

Again, as the writer to the Hebrews says: “Therefore let us draw near with confidence (Greek: ‘boldly, freely’) to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

Please recall what happened to that huge curtain in the Temple, the curtain that separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies, the place where the Ark of God rested, and into which only the High Priest could enter once a year on the Day of Atonement.

St. Matthew tells us that while Jesus hung on the cross, He “cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” Matthew 27:50-51

Listen again, please. There is no longer a veil that separates any child of God who has been adopted into His family through his or her baptismal faith in Christ. We have direct access to our Father who art in heaven.

3. Being Consecrated

Hezekiah continues in verse five of 2 Chronicles 29: Then he said to them, “Listen to me, O Levites. Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place. For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the Lord our God and have forsaken Him and turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord and have turned their backs . . . .” (verse 5-6)

Hezekiah told the priests to consecrate themselves, to set themselves apart for God’s work. And that is exactly what the Holy Spirit tells each of us who call Christ our Lord: to set ourselves apart for the work God calls EACH of us to do.

Here is St. Paul to the Christians at Rome: “The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore, let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. (Romans 13:12-14)

And to those in Corinth: “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1)

I want us to also notice when the priests began cleaning the temple, they started from the inside out. Here is verse 16: “So the priests went in to the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and every unclean thing which they found in the temple of the Lord they brought out to the court of the house of the Lord. Then the Levites received it to carry out to the Kidron valley.”

Likewise, when we consecrate ourselves, we start with the heart. It is utterly useless to dress ourselves up with good works and religious activities and rituals if our hearts remain defiled, full of envy, anger, lusts, and self-centeredness, and jealousies.

That’s why St. Paul wrote to the Christians at Colossae, If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” . . . . according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:20-23, English Standard Version)

What is it the Holy Spirit wants you and me to cast away to our own Kidron Valley? That’s something we need to ask God: What, Oh, Lord, in my life displeases you?

4. Being Named

We saw a few minutes ago that the priests cleaned out the house of God. But there is one more point I want to make about this record of Hezekiah’s instruction. It begins at verse 12.

“Then the Levites arose: Mahath, the son of Amasai and Joel the son of Azariah, from the sons of the Kohathites; and from the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and from the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah and Eden the son of Joah; and from the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel; and from the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; and from the sons of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; and from the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. They assembled their brothers, consecrated themselves, and went in to cleanse the house of the Lord, according to the commandment of the king by the words of the Lord.”

The Holy Spirit considered their names important enough to record them in Scripture for multiple generations upon generations to know about. It was those men with names nearly unpronounceable by non-Hebrew speaking people who took it upon themselves to clean out the dirt, the defilement, the garbage that was in the house of God so it would be purified and ready for worship.

God tells us our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). And so, will the Holy Spirit record your name in God’s book for all the angels to read for all eternity? Will He annotate in His book that we wanted a purified temple of the Holy Spirit – AND we made diligent effort to cleans our temples of everything which defiled it?

That is a serious question, isn't it? Please consider it carefully.