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2 Chronicles 29 - Hezekiah Reopens the Temple · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hey, they're faithful listeners, Welcome to the Bible
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Speaker 1: Explained podcast. Today we're going to be talking about King Hezekiah,
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Speaker 1: one of the best kings in Judah's history, which is
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Speaker 1: funny because Hezekiah's dad was the worst king in Judah's history.
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Speaker 1: So Hezekiah kind of seems like learned what not to
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Speaker 1: do from his dad. So we'll get into today's passage
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Speaker 1: in just one second after a quick word from a sponsor. Alrighty,
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Speaker 1: faithful listeners, grab your version of the Bible, whatever it
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Speaker 1: may be. But I'll be reading from the web today
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Speaker 1: and we'll be in Second Chronicles twenty nine talking about
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Speaker 1: the entire thing. It is a longer portion of scripture,
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Speaker 1: but it all connects with what we're going to talk about.
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Speaker 1: How Hezekiah's heart is in line with Yahweh, and how
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Speaker 1: Hezekiah was one of the few kings to actually walk
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Speaker 1: in David's stafe. Let's go ahead and read Second Chronicles
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Speaker 1: twenty nine together. Hezekiah began to reign when he was
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Speaker 1: twenty five years old, and he reigned twenty nine years
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Speaker 1: in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abaijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
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Speaker 1: He did that which was right in Yahwai's eyes, according
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Speaker 1: to all that David his father had done in the
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Speaker 1: first year of his reign. In the first month he
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Speaker 1: opened the doors of Yawai's house and repaired them. He
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Speaker 1: brought in the priests and the levites and gathered them
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Speaker 1: together into the wide place on the east, and said
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Speaker 1: to them, listen to me, you levites, Now sanctify yourselves,
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Speaker 1: and sanctify the house of Yahweh, the God of your father's,
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Speaker 1: and carry the filthiness out of this holy place. For
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Speaker 1: our fathers were unfaithful and have done that which was
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Speaker 1: evil in Yahweh, our God's sight, and have forsaken him,
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Speaker 1: and have turned away their faces from the habitation of
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Speaker 1: Yahweh and turned their backs. Also, they have shut up
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Speaker 1: the doors of the porch and put out the lamps,
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Speaker 1: and have not burned the incense nor offered burnt offerings
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Speaker 1: in the holy place to the God of Israel. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: Yahwai's wrath was on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has
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Speaker 1: delivered them to be tossed back and forth, to be
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Speaker 1: an astonishment and a hissing, as you see with your eyes.
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Speaker 1: For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and
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Speaker 1: our sons, and our daughters and our wives are in captivity.
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Speaker 1: For this now it is in my heart to make
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Speaker 1: a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, that his
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Speaker 1: fierce anger may turn away from us. My sons, don't
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Speaker 1: be negligent now, for Yahweh has chosen you to stand
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Speaker 1: before him, to minister to him, and that you should
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Speaker 1: be his ministers and burn incense. Then the Levites arose
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Speaker 1: Mayhath the son of Amesi, and Joel the son of Azariah,
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Speaker 1: and the sons of the Coethites, and of the sons
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Speaker 1: of Maurari, Kish the son of Abde and Azariah the
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Speaker 1: son of Jehalel, and of the Gershonites, Joah the son
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Speaker 1: of Zimah, and Eden the son of Joah, and the
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Speaker 1: sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeyul, and the sons of
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Speaker 1: asaf Zechariah and Matania, and of the sons of Haman,
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Speaker 1: Jehul and Shimei, and of the sons of Jedithan, Shamaiah,
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Speaker 1: and Uzel. They gathered their brothers, sanctified themselves, and went
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Speaker 1: in according to the commandment of the king. By Yahwi's words,
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Speaker 1: to cleanse yahweih house. The priest went into the inner
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Speaker 1: part of Yaowai's house to cleanse it, and brought out
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Speaker 1: all the uncleanness that they found in Yawai's temple into
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Speaker 1: the court of Yawai's house. The levites took it from
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Speaker 1: there to carry it out to the brook Kidron. Now
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Speaker 1: they began on the first day of the first month
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Speaker 1: to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month
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Speaker 1: they came to Yawai's porch. They sanctified Yaway's house in
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Speaker 1: eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first
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Speaker 1: month they finished. Then they went in to Hezekiah the
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Speaker 1: King within the palace and said, we have cleansed all
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Speaker 1: of Yahwai's house, including the altar of the burnt offering
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Speaker 1: with all of its vessels, and the table of showbread
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Speaker 1: with all of its vessels. Moreover, we have prepared and
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Speaker 1: sanctified all the vessels which King AHAs threw away in
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Speaker 1: his reign when he was unfaithful. Behold, they are before
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Speaker 1: Yahway's altar. Then Hezekiah the King arose early, gathered the
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Speaker 1: princes of the city and went up to Yawai's house.
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Speaker 1: They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven
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Speaker 1: mail goats for a sin offering for the kingdom, for
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Speaker 1: the sanctuary and for Judah. He commanded the priests, the
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Speaker 1: son of Erin, to offer them on Yawai's altar. They
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Speaker 1: killed the bulls, and the priests received the blood and
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Speaker 1: sprinkled it on the altar. They killed the rams and
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Speaker 1: sprinkled the blood on the altar. They also killed the
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Speaker 1: lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar. They brought
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Speaker 1: near the male goats for the sin offering before the
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Speaker 1: King and the assembly, and laid their hands on them.
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Speaker 1: Then the priest killed them, and they made a sin
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Speaker 1: offering with their blood on the altar to make atonement
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Speaker 1: for all Israel. For the king commanded that the burnt
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Speaker 1: offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.
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Speaker 1: He set the Levites in Yawi's house with symbols, with
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Speaker 1: stringed instruments and with harps, according to the commandment of
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Speaker 1: David of Gad, the King's seer, and of Nathan, the
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Speaker 1: prophet for the commandment was from Yahweh by his prophets.
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Speaker 1: The Levites stood with David's instruments and the priest with
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Speaker 1: the trumpets. Hezeki commanded them to offer the burnt offering
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Speaker 1: on the altar. When the burnt offering began, Yahweh's song
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Speaker 1: also began, along with the trumpets and the instruments of David,
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Speaker 1: King of Israel. All the assembly worshiped, The singer sang,
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Speaker 1: and the trumpeters sounded. All this continued until the burnt
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Speaker 1: offering was finished. When they had finished the offering, the
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Speaker 1: king and all who were present with him bowed themselves
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Speaker 1: and worshiped. Moreover, Hezekiah, the king and the princes commanded
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Speaker 1: the levites to sing praises to Yahweh with the words
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Speaker 1: of David and of Asaph the Seer. They sang praises
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Speaker 1: with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped. Then
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Speaker 1: Hezekiah answered, now you have consecrated yourselves to Yahweh, come
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Speaker 1: near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into Yawi's house.
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Speaker 1: The assembly brought in sacrifices and thank offerings, and as
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Speaker 1: many as were a willing heart brought burnt offerings. The
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Speaker 1: number of the burnt offerings which the assembly brought with
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Speaker 1: seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs. All
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Speaker 1: these were for a burnt offering to Yahweh. The consecrated
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Speaker 1: things were six hundred head of cattle and three thousand sheep.
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Speaker 1: But the priests were too few so that they could
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Speaker 1: not skin all the burnt offerings. Therefore their brothers, the Levites,
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Speaker 1: helped them until the work was ended, and until the
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Speaker 1: priests had sanctified themselves, for the Levites were more upright
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Speaker 1: in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests. Also, the
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Speaker 1: burnt offerings were in abundance with the fat of the
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Speaker 1: peace offerings and with the drink offerings of every burnt offering.
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Speaker 1: So the service of Yaway's house was set in order.
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Speaker 1: Hezekiah and all the people were rejoiced because of that
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Speaker 1: which God had prepared for the people. For the thing
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Speaker 1: was done suddenly. So what we read today is a
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Speaker 1: very unique story because it is not found anywhere else
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Speaker 1: in the Bible. You know, Second Chronicles is often thought
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Speaker 1: of as a retelling of First and Second Kings, But
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Speaker 1: this story right here is unique to Second Chronicles alone.
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Speaker 1: You won't find the same story in Second Kings. And
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Speaker 1: I think the reason that is is because you can
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Speaker 1: tell the author of First and Second Chronicles was very
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Speaker 1: focused on the temple. In fact, you could even argue
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Speaker 1: that the entire theme of First and Second Chronicles, other
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Speaker 1: than the Kings, of course, was the Temple to God.
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Speaker 1: And I find that kind of cool. It says in
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Speaker 1: verse one that Hezekiah began to reign when he was
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Speaker 1: twenty five years old, and he reigned twenty nine years
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Speaker 1: in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Baijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
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Speaker 1: It says in verse two that he did that which
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Speaker 1: was right in Yahwai's eyes, according to all that David
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Speaker 1: his father had done. Now if he turned to a
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Speaker 1: similar retelling in Second Kings eighteen, here's what it says
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Speaker 1: about Hezekiah. It says in verse three that he did
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Speaker 1: that which was right in Yahwai's eyes, according to all
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Speaker 1: that David his father had done. It says he removed
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Speaker 1: the high places, broke the pillars, cut down the Asherah.
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Speaker 1: He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses
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Speaker 1: had made, because in those days the children of Israel
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Speaker 1: burned incense to it and called it Nahushtan. He trusted
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Speaker 1: in Yahweh, the God of Israel, so that after him
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Speaker 1: was no one like him among all the kings of Judah,
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Speaker 1: nor among them that were before him. For he joined
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Speaker 1: with Yahweh. He didn't depart from following him, but kept
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Speaker 1: his commandments which Yahweh commanded Moses, Yahweh was with him
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Speaker 1: wherever he went, he prospered. He rebelled against the king
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Speaker 1: of Assyria and didn't serve him. He struck the Philistines
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Speaker 1: to Gaza and its borders, from the Tower of the
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Speaker 1: Watchmen to the fortified city. So that shows how righteous
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Speaker 1: of a king Hezekiah was. And this is kind of
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Speaker 1: interesting considering the fact that Hezekiah's father, a Has, who
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Speaker 1: he just spent several days discussing, was the worst king
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Speaker 1: in Israel's history, specifically for the spiritual health of Judah,
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Speaker 1: because a has introduced all sorts of idolatry into Judah. Now,
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Speaker 1: of course, there is always idolatry in Judah because the
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Speaker 1: people were constantly turning away from Yahweh every chance that
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Speaker 1: they got. But a Has went above and beyond with
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Speaker 1: his idolatry. He even introduced human sacrificed and sacrificed one
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Speaker 1: of his own children, his firstborn son, and then after
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Speaker 1: that most likely his second born son was killed in
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Speaker 1: a raid that happened on Judah, and now Hezekiah most
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Speaker 1: likely was the third born son. And Hezekiah became a
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Speaker 1: fantastic king where it says in Second Kings, chapter eighteen
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Speaker 1: that he was so good that no king was like
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Speaker 1: him before or after him. So he was even better
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Speaker 1: than King Asa, who we discussed not too long ago.
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Speaker 1: I don't know if he was better better than King David,
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Speaker 1: but it does say that he walked in all of
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Speaker 1: David's footsteps in verse two of our passage for today.
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Speaker 1: So he was a great king. And even scripture gives
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Speaker 1: him a lot of credit for being a fantastic king.
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Speaker 1: And one of the reasons he was a fantastic king
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Speaker 1: was because of our passage that we're reading today where
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Speaker 1: he just immediately started getting rid of the idolatry, out
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Speaker 1: of God's Temple and out of Judah as a whole.
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Speaker 1: It says in verse three of Second Chronicles twenty nine
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Speaker 1: that in the first year of his reign, in the
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Speaker 1: first month, he opened the doors of Yahway's house and
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Speaker 1: repaired them. Now, the reason he had to do this
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Speaker 1: was because his father had closed the doors to the
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Speaker 1: sanctuary that's talked about in the previous chapter. Second Chronicles
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Speaker 1: twenty eight, Verses twenty four and twenty five. It says
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Speaker 1: A has gathered together the vessels of God's house, cut
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Speaker 1: the vessels of God's house into pieces, and shut the
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Speaker 1: doors to Yahwai's house. So A has shuddered the door
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Speaker 1: to the temple. So we don't know how long God's
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Speaker 1: house had no visitors. We don't know, but it's so
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Speaker 1: sad that that's what A has. Did you know, one
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Speaker 1: of the kings of Judah treated God with so much
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Speaker 1: contempt and utter hatred essentially, And Hezekiah caught on to
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Speaker 1: all of this because he gives this speech in verse
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Speaker 1: four through eleven about how his father and the kings
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Speaker 1: before his father had done so much evil that it
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Speaker 1: was causing Judah to be completely destroyed. We talked about
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Speaker 1: the intense wars that were happening under a Has his watch.
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Speaker 1: Every single nation was targeting Judah, from Israel up north
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Speaker 1: to eat them down in the south, to the Philistines
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Speaker 1: in the east, to the Assyrians and the Syrians in
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Speaker 1: the west. Tons of people were coming after Judah during
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Speaker 1: the days of King a Has. But he never not
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Speaker 1: once asked Yahweh for any help whatsoever, even when God
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Speaker 1: came to a Has directly and was like, I will
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Speaker 1: help you, no strings attached, I will help you. Just
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Speaker 1: ask me for anything, ask me for a sign, and
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Speaker 1: a Has wouldn't do it. He wouldn't even ask God
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Speaker 1: for anything. He didn't want a relationship with God. He
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Speaker 1: didn't want to talk to God. He wanted nothing to
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Speaker 1: do with Yahweh. Hezekiah figures out the problem, and maybe
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Speaker 1: he figured it out because he saw the depravity that
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Speaker 1: was taking place in Israel and in Judah. Maybe he
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Speaker 1: heard about his big brother being sacrificed to an idol,
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Speaker 1: maybe he saw other people sacrificing their children to the idols.
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Speaker 1: From the day pretty much that he becomes the king,
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Speaker 1: he does a complete one point eighty and Judah goes
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Speaker 1: from a nation in deep trouble with attackers on every side,
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Speaker 1: to a nation that is actually very, very prosperous. So
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Speaker 1: he tells the priests about his discovery, starting in verse
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Speaker 1: for it says he brought in the priests and the
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Speaker 1: Levites and gathered them together into the wide place on
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Speaker 1: the east, and he said to them, listen to me.
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Speaker 1: You Levites, sanctify yourselves and sanctify the house of Yahweh,
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Speaker 1: the God of your father's and carry the filthiness out
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Speaker 1: of this holy place. Now, I'm sure that Hezekiah was
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Speaker 1: probably talking about both physical filthiness like just the house
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Speaker 1: being in disarray, but also idols that people had started
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Speaker 1: erecting inside of God's temple, because that is what Satan
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Speaker 1: always wants to do. Satan hates God, so he wants
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Speaker 1: to destroy anything that belongs to God, and he tempts
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Speaker 1: the people to do this. And unfortunately this is true
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Speaker 1: even today. We can see idols in our churches right now.
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Speaker 1: Maybe it's an idol of money, maybe it's an idol
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Speaker 1: of a pride flag. Maybe it's an idol of always
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Speaker 1: trying to see signs or see miracles or healings or
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Speaker 1: something like that. Even now there are idols in our churches,
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Speaker 1: and Hezekiah wants to remove all of this filthiness out
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Speaker 1: of God's holy place. He says in verse six, for
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Speaker 1: our fathers were unfaithful and have done that which was
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Speaker 1: evil in Yahweh, our God's sight. They have forsaken him
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Speaker 1: and have turned away their faces from the habitation of
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Speaker 1: Yahweh and turned their backs. Also, they have shut up
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Speaker 1: the doors of the porch and put out the lamps,
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Speaker 1: and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in
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Speaker 1: the holy place to the God of Israel. Therefore he
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Speaker 1: always wrath was, and he has delivered them to be
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Speaker 1: tossed back and forth, to be an astonishment and a hissing,
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Speaker 1: as you see with your eyes, and there you go.
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Speaker 1: Maybe that's what caused Hezekiah to have his heart be
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Speaker 1: so in lined with God was because he could see
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Speaker 1: what was happening in Judah. And that's exactly why God
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Speaker 1: would take his hand of blessing off of Judah if
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Speaker 1: they stopped worshiping him. Was to show the nations, to
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Speaker 1: show the people that he was their God, that if
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Speaker 1: they started worshiping other gods and abandoning Yahweh, God would
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Speaker 1: be like, okay, okay, fine, the hand of blessing is gone.
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Speaker 1: Have your gods help you see if they can help you.
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Speaker 1: If that's what you want, if you want to pray
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Speaker 1: to these idols, then they can help you out. Hezekiah
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Speaker 1: saw the problems that took place in Judah because of
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Speaker 1: the idolatry. He saw that no matter how much the
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Speaker 1: Judaites prayed to these false idols, these idols would not
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Speaker 1: and could not answer, because they were fake. They could
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Speaker 1: not hear, they could not see, they could not talk,
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Speaker 1: they couldn't do anything to help the people. Hezekiah saw
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Speaker 1: all of this, and that was the reason God would
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Speaker 1: take his hand of blessing off the people when they
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Speaker 1: stopped worshiping him, to show them what it was like
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Speaker 1: to not have Yahweh. Verse nine, Hezekiah continues, for behold,
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Speaker 1: our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons,
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Speaker 1: and our daughters and our wives are in captivity. For
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Speaker 1: this now, it is in my heart to make a
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Speaker 1: covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, that his fierce
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Speaker 1: anger may turn away from us. My sons, don't be
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Speaker 1: negligent now, for Yahweh has chosen you to stand before him,
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Speaker 1: to minister to him, that you should be his ministers
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Speaker 1: and burn incense. And of course this is Hezekiah talking
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Speaker 1: to all of these priests, these levites. So the Levites arose.
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Speaker 1: In verse twelve, it says, and from verses twelve through
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Speaker 1: thirteen it mentions all the names of these different levites
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Speaker 1: and I am not going to attempt to repeat them.
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Speaker 1: If you want to hear my first attempt, you can
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Speaker 1: go back and listen to when I read this portion
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Speaker 1: of scripture. But a whole bunch of Levites stood up
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Speaker 1: and started doing this thing that Hezekia commanded them to do.
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Speaker 1: It says that they gathered their brothers in verse fifteen,
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Speaker 1: and they sanctified themselves and went in according to the
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Speaker 1: commandment of the king, by Yahwei's words, to cleanse Yahweh's house.
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Speaker 1: And then in verses sixteen through nineteen, that's exactly what
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Speaker 1: they do. It says they went into the holy place,
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Speaker 1: in the most holy place, and they got all the
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Speaker 1: filth out of there, and they put it in the
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Speaker 1: courtyard of God's house so that the people could see
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Speaker 1: it all. And then after this, it says they carried
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Speaker 1: it out to the brook Kidron. Now this brook you
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Speaker 1: might have heard me mentioned a handful of times because
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Speaker 1: we've talked about it before on the podcast. The brook
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Speaker 1: Kidron was historically where idols would get dumped because Asasaurus
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Speaker 1: started that when Asa began his religious reform one hundred
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Speaker 1: and fifty years before this, he took the asher a
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Speaker 1: pole out to the brook Kidron and cut it up
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Speaker 1: into pieces and destroyed it at that point. And this
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Speaker 1: is what Hezekiah does to all of these idols found
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Speaker 1: in God's temple. He takes them out to the brook
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Speaker 1: Kidron and does the exact same thing. And this all
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Speaker 1: took about eight days to complete, it says in verse eighteen.
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Speaker 1: They went into Hezekiah the king within the palace, and
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Speaker 1: they said, we have cleansed all of Yahway's house, including
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Speaker 1: the altar of burnt offering with all of its vessels,
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Speaker 1: the table of showbread, all of its vessels. Moreover, we
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Speaker 1: have prepared and sanctified all the vessels which King a
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Speaker 1: has threw away in his reign. Behold there before Yahwey's altar.
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Speaker 1: So Hezekiah is super excited, it says. He arose early
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Speaker 1: the next day, and he gathered the princes of the
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Speaker 1: city and went to Yahwai's house. They brought seven bulls,
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Speaker 1: seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats for a
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Speaker 1: sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Judah.
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Speaker 1: He commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer
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Speaker 1: them on Yahway's altar. So they killed the bulls and
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Speaker 1: the priests received the blood and sprinkled it on the altar.
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Speaker 1: They also did the same with the rams, the lambs,
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Speaker 1: and the male goats. Now specifically, it says in verse
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Speaker 1: twenty three that they brought near the male goats for
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Speaker 1: the sin offering before the king and the assembly, and
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Speaker 1: they laid their hands on them. Now, this was a
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Speaker 1: very important thing to note because I don't know if
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Speaker 1: you guys remember me talking about all of the different
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Speaker 1: sacrifices that were laid out in the Book of Leviticus.
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Speaker 1: It was like the first eight chapters where it went
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Speaker 1: through every single different type sacrifice you could bring to God.
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Speaker 1: You know. The first chapter I think discussed burnt offerings,
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Speaker 1: which that was a sacrifice of just complete giving to God.
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Speaker 1: And the second type of offering was a sin offering,
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Speaker 1: which that would be when you commit a sin before God,
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Speaker 1: you would bring an offering so that you could be
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Speaker 1: forgiven of that sin. Same with a guilt offering. People
18:24
Speaker 1: aren't really sure what the difference between a sin offering
18:26
Speaker 1: and a guilt offering was, but they are considered to
18:29
Speaker 1: be different in scripture. In fact, even this chapter differentiates
18:33
Speaker 1: the sin and the guilt offering but no one's really
18:36
Speaker 1: sure how they're different, if that makes sense. But the
18:39
Speaker 1: people back in these days would have known that. And
18:42
Speaker 1: then there was peace offerings and free will offerings, and
18:46
Speaker 1: you know, wave offerings and drink offerings and grain offerings
18:50
Speaker 1: and first fruit offerings. There is a whole bunch of
18:52
Speaker 1: different offerings that people could bring to Yahweh. But some
18:56
Speaker 1: of the most important offerings that you could bring was
18:59
Speaker 1: obviously the sin and the guilt offerings, because those are
19:03
Speaker 1: the ones that sanctified the people. And there are specific
19:07
Speaker 1: rules that were laid out for how to sacrifice the
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Speaker 1: sin offerings. One of the rules was that you had
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Speaker 1: to lay your hands on the animal and then slaughter it,
19:19
Speaker 1: and this was done so that the people would have
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Speaker 1: to reflect on their sins. This innocent animal is about
19:27
Speaker 1: to die in my place. And also these sacrifices had
19:30
Speaker 1: to be perfect as well. No lame, or diseased or
19:34
Speaker 1: blind animals could be offered as a sacrifice. These animals
19:39
Speaker 1: were pristine and innocent, and the people would have to
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Speaker 1: lay their hands and reflect on their sins. We are
19:48
Speaker 1: doing this to this animal, and thankfully, this is exactly
19:52
Speaker 1: what Hezekiah did. In verse twenty three. It says that
19:57
Speaker 1: the Levites brought near the mail goats for the sin
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Speaker 1: offering for the king and the assembly, and they laid
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Speaker 1: their hands on them, and then the priests killed them
20:05
Speaker 1: and made a sin offering with their blood on the
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Speaker 1: altar to make atonement for all Israel. And the king
20:10
Speaker 1: commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should
20:13
Speaker 1: be made for all Israel. So this was done the
20:15
Speaker 1: correct way. This was done to make atonement not just
20:18
Speaker 1: for the king and for the Levites, but for all
20:21
Speaker 1: of Israel. Unfortunately, Judah had stopped doing these sacrifices during
20:27
Speaker 1: the days of King AHAs they completely stopped them. But
20:32
Speaker 1: this was God's law for the people. And God was
20:35
Speaker 1: not doing this because he enjoyed animals suffering. He was
20:39
Speaker 1: not doing this because he wanted people to just give
20:41
Speaker 1: him something. You know, God doesn't eat meat, He doesn't
20:44
Speaker 1: need our animals. Everything belongs to him. God was doing
20:48
Speaker 1: this because this was the way for the people to
20:50
Speaker 1: be forgiven before Jesus came down to earth. This was
20:54
Speaker 1: how it was done. It was called the law of
20:57
Speaker 1: sin and death. The wages of sin is death, meaning
21:02
Speaker 1: the payment for sin is death. If you sin, you
21:07
Speaker 1: have to pay something, and that payment you have to
21:09
Speaker 1: make is death. Now, you could either die in your
21:13
Speaker 1: sins and experience the unforgiveness and the wrath of God
21:18
Speaker 1: in that way, or you could transfer your sins onto
21:22
Speaker 1: an innocent animal in the Old Testament, where that animal
21:27
Speaker 1: would take your place and pay for your sins essentially. Now,
21:31
Speaker 1: of course, an animal, even if it is a perfect animal,
21:35
Speaker 1: is still not a perfect sacrifice, because it's just an animal. Jesus,
21:42
Speaker 1: who is God in human flesh and completely perfect, was
21:46
Speaker 1: the one who could truly remove the payment for sins
21:49
Speaker 1: for all time, past, present, and future. So now that's
21:53
Speaker 1: why people don't do animal sacrifices anymore. That is why
21:57
Speaker 1: Christians don't do animal sacrifices, because Jesus's sacrifice was enough.
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Speaker 1: We don't have to do any of this anymore. Our
22:05
Speaker 1: payment has been made by Jesus, if that makes sense.
22:09
Speaker 1: But back in these days of King Hezekiah, this payment
22:12
Speaker 1: had not been made yet by Jesus. It had to
22:15
Speaker 1: be made by these animals. And the last thing I
22:18
Speaker 1: want to mention about this before I move forward, is
22:21
Speaker 1: that Hezekiah also did something else right here. Besides the
22:26
Speaker 1: laying of the hands on the animal. He offered the
22:30
Speaker 1: correct amount of animals. It wasn't a bazillion like we
22:35
Speaker 1: see Solomon doing just a few hundred years before this.
22:40
Speaker 1: You know, Solomon had offered so many animals like it
22:43
Speaker 1: was crazy, the amount of animals he sacrificed. Hezekiah is
22:48
Speaker 1: offering seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and also seven
22:54
Speaker 1: male goats for himself, for the priests and for all
22:59
Speaker 1: of Israel. That's an appropriate amount, you know, because even
23:03
Speaker 1: when you see in the Old Testament, when God laid
23:05
Speaker 1: down the laws for how animal sacrifices were supposed to
23:08
Speaker 1: be done, it wasn't like a bazillion jillion animals that
23:11
Speaker 1: had to die. It was a lot less than people
23:15
Speaker 1: actually think. And so that's another thing that Hezekiah did right.
23:19
Speaker 1: I believe with these sacrifices, he was trying to get
23:22
Speaker 1: back to the Old Testament laws and the way things
23:26
Speaker 1: were done. And it also says in verse twenty five
23:29
Speaker 1: through twenty eight that he reinstated the musical priests. Something
23:35
Speaker 1: in verse twenty five that I found interesting. It says
23:38
Speaker 1: that he set levites in Yawa's house with symbols with
23:41
Speaker 1: stringed instruments and with harps according to the commandment of David,
23:44
Speaker 1: of God the King Seer, and of Nathan, the prophet
23:47
Speaker 1: for the commandment was from Yahweh by his prophets. And
23:50
Speaker 1: this was something I never realized before, was that when
23:53
Speaker 1: David actually instituted the musical priests way back in his day,
24:01
Speaker 1: he was doing it because that was God's command. I
24:04
Speaker 1: find that kind of interesting that God actually commanded the
24:08
Speaker 1: people to sing to him. God loves music. God is
24:11
Speaker 1: the great musician. We're going through the book of the
24:14
Speaker 1: Psalms right now with the members on Fridays, and oftentimes
24:19
Speaker 1: the psalms will start out by saying a psalm by
24:23
Speaker 1: David to the Chief Musician, and a lot of people
24:26
Speaker 1: actually do think that the chief musician is God himself,
24:31
Speaker 1: because he is the one who created music, and He
24:34
Speaker 1: is truly a musician through and through the Chief Musician.
24:39
Speaker 1: So I really like that that God actually commanded people
24:43
Speaker 1: to worship Him through music, and that show's right there
24:45
Speaker 1: that worship does not have to be boring, because when
24:48
Speaker 1: David instituted those levites to praise God, there was nothing
24:53
Speaker 1: boring about that. They were playing all sorts of instruments.
24:56
Speaker 1: They were playing trumpets and layers and horns and symbols
25:01
Speaker 1: and harps, and there was choirs that were performing this music.
25:06
Speaker 1: You know, this was not boring worship. I think a
25:09
Speaker 1: lot of people think that, you know, if a church
25:12
Speaker 1: service isn't boring, then it's not reverent. And that's absolutely
25:16
Speaker 1: not the case. So Hezekiah reinstates the musical priests, and
25:21
Speaker 1: it says that when he finished offering in verse twenty nine,
25:25
Speaker 1: the king and all who were present with him bowed
25:27
Speaker 1: themselves down and worshiped. Moreover, Hezekiah, the king and the
25:30
Speaker 1: princes commanded the levites to sing praises to Yahweh with
25:33
Speaker 1: the words of David and of Asaph the seer. They
25:36
Speaker 1: sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped.
25:40
Speaker 1: Hezekiah asks the people themselves if they want to bring
25:44
Speaker 1: sacrifices on their own, like either free will offerings or
25:49
Speaker 1: burnt offerings, or whatever else they might want to do,
25:52
Speaker 1: and it says that a bunch of people brought some offerings.
25:55
Speaker 1: The number of burnt offerings which the assembly brought was
25:58
Speaker 1: seventy bulls, one hund rams, and two hundred lambs. These
26:02
Speaker 1: were for a burnt offering to Yahweh. And it also
26:05
Speaker 1: says that the consecrated things were six hundred head of
26:07
Speaker 1: cattle and three thousand sheep. So I believe the consecrated
26:11
Speaker 1: animals were ones that weren't going to be used as
26:16
Speaker 1: sacrifices right then and there, but would go out to
26:19
Speaker 1: the pasture where the Levites would take care of them.
26:22
Speaker 1: And these animals would be potential sacrifices in the future,
26:27
Speaker 1: like for the morning sacrifice, in the evening sacrifice, and
26:30
Speaker 1: any other sacrifice that the priests would have to do
26:33
Speaker 1: on a day to day basis or something along those lines.
26:37
Speaker 1: So the people brought their animals forward and offered them
26:42
Speaker 1: to God. But it mentions right here in verse thirty
26:44
Speaker 1: four that the priests were too few so they could
26:47
Speaker 1: not skin all the burnt offerings. Therefore, their brothers, the
26:51
Speaker 1: Levites helped them until the work was ended and until
26:54
Speaker 1: the priests had sanctified themselves, for the Levites were more
26:57
Speaker 1: upright in heart to sanctify themselves and the priests. That's
27:01
Speaker 1: pretty sad because it's showing that the priests the paid
27:04
Speaker 1: professionals that understood God's laws were less upright in heart
27:10
Speaker 1: than the average Levite. And I mean that's not very
27:13
Speaker 1: much of a shock, especially if you read Second King's sixteen.
27:18
Speaker 1: We just read that actually on Monday, where it mentions
27:22
Speaker 1: this guy named Eurija, the high priest who built a
27:27
Speaker 1: foreign altar to a Damascan god because a has Hezekiah's
27:34
Speaker 1: father had commanded him to do so. That was the
27:36
Speaker 1: caliber of priest that Judah had at this point in time.
27:41
Speaker 1: So it's really not shocking that the ordinary Levite was
27:44
Speaker 1: more upright in heart than these priests were. And that
27:49
Speaker 1: shows right there that sometimes the average humble person is
27:54
Speaker 1: more upright in heart than the pastor of a church, because,
27:59
Speaker 1: you know, pastors, they can get big heads, they can
28:03
Speaker 1: get greedy for money, they can start wanting to control people.
28:08
Speaker 1: A lot of things can go wrong with pastors. I mean,
28:10
Speaker 1: we've been talking about that like crazy over on the
28:13
Speaker 1: New Testament side of stuff, where Paul was, you know,
28:17
Speaker 1: teaching Timothy and Titus how to find good leaders for
28:21
Speaker 1: these churches and the qualifications that men needed to have
28:25
Speaker 1: in order to become a pastor or an elder or
28:28
Speaker 1: a leader in the church. And then to conclude this chapter,
28:33
Speaker 1: It says in verse thirty six that Hezeki and all
28:36
Speaker 1: the people rejoiced because of that which God had prepared
28:39
Speaker 1: for the people. For the thing was done. Suddenly, the
28:42
Speaker 1: people were happy to have God's house back in order.
28:47
Speaker 1: They were ecstatic about it because they knew deep down
28:50
Speaker 1: inside that God was their God. And also they were
28:54
Speaker 1: probably happy because the persecution of those who wanted to
28:57
Speaker 1: worship Yahweh was over with. And they probably saw the
29:01
Speaker 1: corruption that was happening with all this idolatry. They probably
29:05
Speaker 1: were terrified of all of these nations trying to conquer them.
29:10
Speaker 1: And now they see Hezekiah, who is a changed man,
29:14
Speaker 1: a different man from his father AHAs, and how Hezekiah
29:18
Speaker 1: wants to do things differently, get things back on the
29:21
Speaker 1: right track, do things the way David had done two
29:25
Speaker 1: hundred years prior to this. All right, faith for listener,
29:30
Speaker 1: Here is a quick word from a sponsor before I
29:32
Speaker 1: let all of you guys go for today. So I
29:36
Speaker 1: hope you guys enjoyed learning about Hezekiah today and discussing
29:40
Speaker 1: this very unique passage in scripture where we don't see
29:43
Speaker 1: this anywhere else. You know Hezekiah immediately from the minute
29:47
Speaker 1: he becomes the king pretty much opening the doors back
29:51
Speaker 1: to God's house and not just opening them, but we're
29:54
Speaker 1: storing everything inside the temple, getting all of the crap
29:58
Speaker 1: out and bringing the good stuff back in, you know,
30:01
Speaker 1: re dedicating the temple. So this really shows where Hezekiah's
30:05
Speaker 1: heart was and how he truly was in line with David,
30:10
Speaker 1: his forefather. There's not very many kings of Judas history
30:14
Speaker 1: that mention that they were similar to David. Hezekiah is
30:17
Speaker 1: one of them. So I'm excited to get more into
30:20
Speaker 1: the story of Hezekiah in the next coming chapters and
30:24
Speaker 1: discuss everything that he goes through, the good, the bad,
30:27
Speaker 1: and the ugly. So I hope you guys tune in
30:30
Speaker 1: for Monday's episode where we'll get into more of Hezekiah's
30:34
Speaker 1: story and discuss his life in more detail, but also
30:38
Speaker 1: tune in tomorrow because we're in the Book of Hebrews
30:40
Speaker 1: now and we started Hebrews yesterday that we've only talked
30:43
Speaker 1: about four verses so far in Hebrews. It's been a really,
30:46
Speaker 1: really great thing to talk about. So we'll get more
30:48
Speaker 1: into angels and how Jesus has power over the angels.
30:54
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about the angelic realm quite a bit,
30:56
Speaker 1: so I hope you guys tune in for all of
30:58
Speaker 1: that until tomorrow, happy listening, and God bless. I just
31:08
Speaker 1: want to take a second to thank the team at
31:10
Speaker 1: Life Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible
31:12
Speaker 1: Explain podcast. In fact, if you go to lifeaudio dot
31:15
Speaker 1: com you will find dozens of other faith centered podcasts
31:18
Speaker 1: in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting,
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Speaker 1: and more.