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Aug 05, 2012

What Revival Looks Like

Passage: 2 Chronicles 28:1-32:33

Keywords: revival, renewal, evil, social failure, temple, seeking god

Summary:

God's greatest revivals often happen on the heals of great evil. This message looks at the long, evil line of kings that lead up to Hezekiah, especially evil king Asa. His leadership led to the same sorts of social and religious evils evident in our own culture today. But God brought a new, young king who did what was needed to bring revival to God's people. The same can happen today. God still does great revival in the presence of great evil.

Detail:

 

Sermon on Hezekiah

Saturday, August 04, 2012

10:54 AM

THEME:  What does revival look like?  How does it start?  What does it bring about?

 

Hezekiah was a king in Judah.  Hezekiah's coronation took place when he was 25 years old in the third year of the reign of Hoshea king of Israel.  And, he reigned for 29 years, until he was 54 years old.

 

Hezekiah has a substantial amount written about him.  Comparatively, only the reigns of David and Solomon were documented more.

 

Hezekiah's royal lineage:

  1. Saul (man's choice- bad)
    1. Name means - asked of God
  1. David (God's choice - good)
    1. Name means - doubtful
  1. Solomon (good - but started construction of high places for his wives and worshipped there himself )
    1. Name means - Peaceful
    2. Also named Jedidiah which means - beloved of the Lord
  1. Rehoboam (Bad - Israel and Judah split)
    1. Name means - Expansion of the People
    2. Interesting name considering that Israel broke into two during his rule
  1. Abijah (bad)
    1. Name means - Yahweh is father or my father is Yahweh
  1. Asa (good - but didn't remove the high places)
    1. Name means - doctor or healing
  1. Jehoshaphat (good - but didn't remove the high places)
    1. Name means - Yahweh has judged
  1. Jehoram (bad - married Ahab's daughter)
    1. Name means - Yahweh is exalted
  1. Ahaziah (bad)
    1. Name means - Yahweh has grasped
  1.  Athaliah (bad - queen mother reighed after her son Ahaziah was killed)
    1. Name means - Yahweh is exalted
  1. Joash (good - aka Jehoash - did not take away the high places)
    1. Name means - Yahweh has given
  1. Amaziah (good - did not destroy the high places)
    1. Name means - Yahweh is mighty
  1. Uzziah (good - aka Azariah - did not take away the high places)
    1. Name means - Yahweh is my strength
    2. Azariah means - Yahweh has helped
  1. Jotham (good - did not remove the high places)
    1. Name means - Yahweh is perfect
  1. Ahaz (bad - sacrificed his sons with fire)
    1. Name means - he has grasped
  1. Hezekiah
    1. 14th king of Judah after the split under Rehoboam
    2. Name means - Yahweh is my strength

 

Setting the Stage:

  • David was described as a king after God's own heart  (1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22)
  • King Solomon was a great and prosperous king, but his actions started a downward slide I Kings 11:1-8
    • 1 Kings 11:1–8 (ESV) - 1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.  4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.  5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.  6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done.  7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.  8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.
  • Then there is a long line of good and bad kings after Solomon
    • They did not follow the Lord as their father David had, with all of their heart
    • The good kings always fail to follow through on one thing...removing the HIGH PLACES
  • King Ahaz of Judah was a particularly bad actor...

 

Ahaz King of Judah:

  • He really lived out his name:  "he has grasped"  which in our present slang could probably be reinterpreted "he has grasped at straws"
  • Ahaz rejected the protection of the Lord for the protection of men
    • Sought help from the king of Assyria Tiglath-Pileaser for aid against the Syro-Israel alliance of Rezin king of Syria and Pekah king of Israel
  • Ahaz rejected the Lord for other gods
    • 2 Chronicles 28:22–27 (ESV) - 22 In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the Lord—this same King Ahaz. 23 For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, “Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel. 24 And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and he shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem.
    • Walked in the ways of the kings of Israel (paganism)
    • Made metal images for the Baals
    • He sacrified and made offerings on the high places and on the hills under every green tree (nature worship)
    • Burned his sons as an offering (child sacrifice)

 

At about this same time Israel (Northern Kingdom) under king Hoshea was besieged by the king of Assyria

  • Eventually the Israelites were carried away by the Assyrians
  • And, the Assyrians were beginning to threaten Judah (Southern Kingdom)

 

Group discussion:  Thinking about Judah at this point, can you see any parallels with our country/culture?  Make a list and we will discuss them?

 

Into the scene comes Hezekiah…

  • Think about his view of the world under these circumstances...
  • 2 Chron 29:2 (ESV) - And, he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to ALL that David his father had done.
  • 2 Chronicles 29:3–11 (ESV) - Hezekiah Cleanses the Temple - 3 In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them. 4 He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east 5 and said to them, “Hear me, Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the Holy Place. 6 For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the LORD our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD and turned their backs. 7 They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel. 8 Therefore the wrath of the LORD came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes. 9 For behold, 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 my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us. 11 My sons, do not now be negligent, for the LORD has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and make offerings to him.”
  • 2 Kings 18:4-6 (ESV) -  4He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). 5 He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him.  6 For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses.

 

Hezekiah's efforts to return Judah to God provide the following results:

  • The Lord delivers Judah from the king of Assyria
    • 2 Chron 32:9-23
  • The Lord blesses and propsers Judah
    • 2 Chron 31:6-11
    • 2 Chron 31:20-21

 

What does this say about where we are as a country/culture?

  • If we restore our worship to focus on God…
    • We will be delivered from our enemies
    • We will again receive God's blessings

 

 

High Places - Elevated places of worship outside the temple that were associated with pagan worship, typically Canaanite in origin.

 

Hezekiah is only mentioned in the New Testament as it relates to the genealogy of Christ (Matt 1:9-10).