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Episode 654: In this episode, we dive into the fascinating story of King Hezekiah's efforts to restore worship in Israel after years of neglect. We discuss the various offerings made during the temple's rededication, including burnt offerings and sin offerings, and how these rituals symbolize the people's return to God. I explain the significance of these sacrifices, emphasizing that they represent the innocent dying for the guilty, foreshadowing the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Well, good morning everybody. Well, and what a surprise or good evening, What a nice surprise all these people showed up. There's a guy who works out in the evening every night, about ten thirty at night, and he listens to the Bible Guys as he works out. So to him, good evening. Good evening. Yeah, and then we can we got a guy who works out like three in the morning who listens to us too. Oh that's true. Well, good morning for him. Yeah, it's not morning morning. That's not three in the Morning's not good morning. It's just morning. But isn't the lawyer in your head saying good morning? It's not good morning though. That's not saying three in the morning, nothing good at the Oh, I see the good right, right part right, that's the lawyer in me. Yeah, there you go, the bad morning. Yeah, we're just gonna say morning to you, tiresome morning. Morning. Technically, morning that's. Good doesn't start until like six thirty or seven. Yeah, I agree. After a good night's think. So hey, this is a social minute Desiree says, we love hearing what our listeners have to say. We have to really think that they're onto something here. Oh she's trying. Yeah, yeah, there we go. Let's take a moment to read some of the comments that stood out to us lately. Oh, let me let me read. The first one. Sure from Kelly R. Hi. Kelly, She says, Hi, Jeff, you really have a good singing voice. It was nice to hear you sing good Morning with Chris. I actually think that you should sing it together. Oh ironic. I said this yesterday. And the theme song and the theme song, Jeff, it's all you. I'll keep coming up with the lyrics for the theme song. Chris is the singer. No, Kelly wants you to sing? Yeah. Yeah, Well people want all kinds of stuff they don't get Kelly, so get used to it. Wow what a response? Wow? Tough? What Kelly? Tough? What Kelly says Jeff? Oh, very nice words, very nice words. Yeah yeah, and she cares and she typed them really nice. Yeah. Well it looks nice to me. He could have cleaned it up. Yeah, maybe she could have miss misspell everywhere. You would have known. We don't know, all right, go ahead, next one. Donna L says, I also love it when Chris sings good morning. There's a theme here today, Jeff, you guys should sing it together. Just do it, Donna L. Wow, just do just do it, just do it. Here we go. Wow, that's good. Well, let's see what the next one is. Come on the next one, all. Right, the next one. This is from Sharma. Sharma. Hey, Sharma, come on, Sharma, you're supposed to be on my side. She says. I love to watch Jeff laugh, which is nice. That's nice. I love that this was Jeff's idea. Oh, I think that's the theme the thing. Yeah, and yet he keeps skirting around it. And Chris, who did a great job singing and thank you great job, not just a job or a good job. And he just wants to keep singing. She's referring to the fact that I wanted to sing the second versions cheers one. You guys really made me laugh. Great episode, that's awesome. Last thought. Yeah, the people what they want, Smiley fish. So here's the thing. Here's the thing. You know, we we we don't like to brag about it, but we're pretty proud of how humble we are. Yes, we are very but both of us, we're the most humble. Both of us, both of us slightly more humble than you. But there's nobody more humble than. Us, pinnacle the top of humility. But well, yes, of course I do, and and so because of that, because of the outrageous ability. I'm just like, if I start taking the few things Chris has, what will Chris have left? What made Chris mad? Yeah, well I can. Start getting mad about stuff. Too, that's true. Yeah, just as the staff they said, Jeff, So, I see, so I don't want to steal it from you. That's your thing, man, No, it's it's your Bible guy's persona. I see you see what I'm saying. So if I start singing really, then I take it from. Only not giving the people as they want because of your dedication to. Me, my unbelievable humility, you're combined with my magnanimous benevolence, courageous, right, that's all it is, magnanimous, benevolent. Wow. So, if you're new to this, what's happening here is some of the are our writer people who've written in their commenting on the fact that over the last few weeks we've been doing. We've been trying to find a good theme song, and so we've been getting lyrics from goofy songs like the tune to Cheers, and then we'd get lyrics yeah, yeah, that kind of stuff, and then you sing them. So you just take take a flyer at. Trying to sing these new lyrics. It's not gonna last very long because I only know so many themes. Well, there's there's plenty of TV theme songs, so you're gonna be able to And then the other one is good morning what you sang for us yesterday. Yes, you're saying good morning, So we can't do good morning twice in the same week. I see. Well, although you have done it before before and it was a little overwhelming, it was it was more than we could handle that week. It was yourself, that's right. Well we had to break take a break the next week, right, and we don't want to do that. I see, I see. Does it makes sense? Well, Jeff, thank you for laying out your inner. Thoughts so I would if I could. Yeah, I'm sure we're all amazed at your humility and your dedication to me personally. To you, to you. Yeah. Thanks, I shouldn't want to shake it from you. You know, and speaking of dedication, the damn that is going to literally dedicate the temple today? Dude? That was perfect. It was perfect. It was a perfect Because. We're always looking for transitions, but I am nearly I'm nearly perfect. Nearly, yeah, practically perfect in everything. You could have sung that transition. It would have been movie, practically perfect in every way. I don't know. Oh, well, good, She. Pulls up the measuring taping. She goes, just as I suspected, Mary Poppins practically perfect in every way. Oh okay, well good, Yep, I didn't know that. Yep, Well, now you know, I would guess. It's been forty five years since I watched Mary Poppins. It's been probably about a month since I've seen it. You know why. It's one of Lizza's favorite movies. Oh really, Yeah, she loves Mary Poppins and we like Mary Poppins's returns, which is not a popular sentiment. People like boo, But I didn't. I didn't say boo at all. You didn't hate it, No, I loved it. No, No, I just didn't hate it. I loved it, loved it. Yeah, okay, yeah, Emily blunt did a great job. Talking about being blunt. There's a comes and goes. We are not going in the direction of our old ancestors. Nothing back, that's right. So in Second in Second Chronicles, chapter twenty nine, we can continue because yesterday, if you missed it, he decided to lead his people back to worshiping God after decades of throwing God away. And so then they they took them sixteen days to clean out the entrance to the temple, and to readdicate. It amazing what you can get done in the first few days of administration. Yeah, verse thirty days, it says. So then the Levites went to King Hezekiah. This is in chapter twenty nine of Second Chronicles, verse eighteen. The Leevites went to King Hezekiah and gave him this report. We have cleansed the entire temple of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table of the bread of presents with all its utensils. And we've also recovered all the items discarded by King AHAs when he was unfaithful and closed the temple. They are now in front of the Altar of the Lord, purified and ready for use. Early the next morning, King Hezekiah gathered the city officials who went to the temple of the Lord. They brought seven bulls, seven rams, and seven male lambs as a burnt offering, together with seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the temple and for Judah. The king commanded the priests who were descendants of Arran, to sacrifice the animals and the altar of the Lord. So they kill the bulls and the priest took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. And next they killed the rams and sprinkled their blood on the altar, and finally they did the same with the male lambs. The male goats for the sin offering were then brought before the king and the assembly of the people who laid their hands on them. Priests then killed the goats as a sin offering and sprinkled their blood on the altar to make atonement for the sins of all Israel. The king had specifically commanded this burnt offering and sin offering should be made for all Israel. King Hazekiah then stationed the leevites at the temple Lord with symbols and leers and harps. He obeyed all the commands that the Lord had given to King David through God, the King's seer, and the prophet Nathan. The Leevites then took their positions around the temple with the instruments of David, and the priests took their positions with the trumpets. Then Hezekiah ordered that the burnt offering be placed on the altar. As the burnt offering was presented, songs of praise to the Lord were begun, accompanied by the trumpets and the other instruments of David, the former King of Israel. The entire assembly worshiped the Lord as the singer sang and the trumpets blew until all the burnt offerings were finished. Then the king and everyone with him bowed down in worship. King Hasekiah and the officials order the lee btes to praise the Lord with the psalms written by David and by Asaf the Seer. So they offered joyous praise and bowed down in worship. Then Hazekiah declared, now that you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord, bring your sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings to the. Temple of the Lord. So the people brought. Their sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings, and all whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings too. The people brought to the Lord seventy bulls, one hundred rams, two hundred male lambs for burnt offerings. They also brought six hundred cattle and three thousand sheep and goats as sacred offerings. But there were too few priests to prepare all the burnt offerings, so their relatives, the levites, helped them until the work was finished, and more priests have been purified, for the lie btes have been more conscientious about purifying themselves than the priests had been. There was an abundance of burnt offerings along with the usual liquid offerings, and a great deal of fat from the many peace offerings. So the temple Lord was restored to service and has a ki and all the people rejoiced because of what God had done for the people, for everything had been accomplished so quickly. Yeah, yeah, wow, what a great chapter after a lot of chapters of wicked kings right and wicked practices. It's nice. It feels great, you know. The first thing that stood out to me was the different types of offerings. He said, there's. Abundance of burn offerings along with the usual liquid offerings, and a great deal of fat from the many peace offerings. So can we talk about that for a minute. There was different types, the different types of offerings. Yeah, So in the Bible, there was there was different ways to worship God, and there was there were there were offerings that were done all the way up until in including Jesus' time, where they would sacrifice offerings for the individual sins of families. Each family would bring an offering and then they would actually sacrifice an animal that represented all of Israel. Right, So there was there was there was one that represented all of Israel. Those are different kinds kinds of offerings in the Bible. It refers oftentimes to liquid offerings. You remember when David poured out the drink and it said and he did so as a liquid offering, right, And so he was going to drink the water that the men had, you know, gone down. They fought the Philistines to bring out back a drink that he longed for. He was just dying to have a drink from his home well in Bethlehem, and he was so grateful for his loyal friends that he said, even though I want this more than anything else, I'm gonna pour it out and uh. And then there's it says there's peace offerings. Uh. And there's many different animals representing these offerings. So there's bulls, there's goats, there's cattle, there's sheep, there's oxen. There's many different types of animals too. Ye. So the first big offerings those seven bulls, seven seven lambs. They can say place stuffs, but those first ones the seven bulls, seven rams, and seven male lambs along with the seven goats. So the the. Bulls, rams, and lambs were burnt offerings and those were like establishing God, we're coming back to worship. Right, that's that's that's what they're establishing there. And then the king commands that they they bring the goats in and these are sin offerings. So usually the sin offerings would be like a goat kind of a thing where it represented the fact that he's sacrificing this saying God, we're confessing our sins as a nation. And it starts from the king. Right, That's what good leaders do. Good leaders don't put responsibility on the people, going Hey, the people are sinners. He's saying, hey, I'm going to lead you in this. We are confessing our sins as a nation. And so then they sacrifice the goats that way, and it's it's they sprinkle the blood right on the altar to make atonement. So the altar. Is represents the place where the sin of the people could be covered over because of course the sacrifices of animals did not forgive sin, but it covered the sins of the people, and it represents ultimately, the innocent one is dying for the guilty ones. So the innocent animal is dying in order that the sinner can live. And so they're re establishing this and it's a picture of Jesus. Someday Jesus would come and he would be literally John the Baptist when he points out Jesus the first time he goes look at behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. By the time you get to the Book of Revelation, almost all the times that mentions Jesus, it calls him the lamb right, and he's the Lamb of God. And they're singing. The angels are singing around the throne the Lamb of God, and all of the saints from all the generations are around the throne worthy as the Lamb who is slain right, and they're singing, they're celebrating. And so this picture inside the temple is we see again over and over and over again until finally we get to the end and you and I will be part of a celebration like this. The music, the grandeur of it, worshiping the Lamb, not the sacrifice here that represents the Lamb, but the actual Lamb himself, Jesus Christ. And so the worship in the temple was a picture of the bigger mission that God was on. And so this didn't save them, but it put it demonstrated the fact that they were putting faith in the Messiah that was coming, who would be the ultimate sacrifice. Yeah, and if you want to dive into that comparison, the Book of Hebrews really does dive into that comparison in a. Really big way. You know. It's the Book of Hebrews describes and says that the sprinkling of blood. I know that we just read that chapter and it could be a little gruesome, but blood was very important to God and which is why Jesus spilled his blood. And it says in Hebrews nine twenty two without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sins. It's a requirement. And then it also says in the Book of Hebrews that these sacrifices in the Old Testament were temporary, but Jesus' sacrifice was once and for all. So the Bible says that the life is in the blood. And there's a so many things we can unpack on that idea scientifically, all that kind of stuff, but the life is in the blood. And then you know that God had said, if you sin, you'll die. Romans tells us that the wages are the ransom for sin is death. So the representation of this life being given is the blood itself, right, and so and then Jesus literally pays the price for our sin with his blood. So that's all that this is. It's pretty gruesome on one side. The other side, it's just reminding us of how gruesome our sin is. Right. We tend to think, boy, the. Sacrifice is gruesome, and God's like, you have no idea how gruesome your sin is. Right, If we could have the same repulsion towards our sin that we have towards these sacrifices, right, right, but we don't. We're like, ooh, gross, but we don't think of our sin in the same way a lot of times. But that's how God sees it, right. It's gross for gross, it's gruesome for gruesome, it's death for death. I just watched a Yellowstone yesterday. I finished it up, and they have this cook who's just constantly cooking for everybody, and all he does all day along is kill things. He kills things in chop. Butcher, you know, makes it. And I just have to believe, because I don't really do those things, I have to believe that if I was a butcher, I would probably feel way different about doing a sacrifice. It's just a job, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, then I would, you know, like you know, by the way, I'm glad that somebody does that for me. Sure. So I was just yesterday, I was in a restaurant and I said, hamburger please. I got a great hamburger. It was so good. It's called a smash burger. Oh yeah, so good. You were at my house last week. Yeah, and you made del Monico. We had a Delmonico steak. Oh was that a good steak? Yeah, it was great steak. And I'm really glad you did. Somebody cut it up. Somebody cut it up. Yeah. So you know, I'm a hunter and I hunt on the farm of a friend of mine and he was a professional butcher for forty something years. Holy cow. So you know, I've been hunting most of my life ever since I I think the first time I went hunting, I was like twelve or thirteen. I'm been hunting my whole life. And you know, I'll take an mo I'm going to try to get out and do some turkey hunting here in a couple of weeks. And I love that, right. So, whether it's catching a fish, shooting a turkey, taking a deer, whatever, that's part of life. And it's been a part of humanity for as long as we've existed, but the nearly as long as we since the Fall the Fall, and so. That's normal. But when I come down, you know, I'll dress a deer or something once or twice a year, three times a year, and it's not my favorite thing, but I do it because necessary and I've gotten used to it. Everybody's like, well, you know, they don't want to be around it, but. This is what you do. Should cut it here and do this, And there's a kind of a there's a process to it to not make the biggest mess, and to be efficient and to get it done quickly, all that kind of stuff. So you kind of immediately get into the work of it and you do it. But even then there's a little bit of repulsion to it. But my friend, he doesn't even think twice about it. Zip it's all done, all done that fast. Then he installed the bone saw, and he's got some other stuff there at the farm where he hunts, and he can do all the butchering right there at his farm, and it's it's like a work of art. It's so fast. So he doesn't even think twice about it. So for the people that are doing this, it's not a gruesome thing. It's just a thing, right in the same way that whoever made your chicken nuggets, they did the same thing. It was for chicken nuggets. So really it's about the heart of it, you know, for us that were so protected my grandmother. I told the story of my grandmother who butchered chickens every Sunday before church so they could have chicken dinner after church, you know. And then she lived in the house behind us, and we were butchering one hundred chickens, and she said we were doing the wrong way, and she just walked up, pulled the head off a chicken and just shocked me because I only knew my grandmother is like making apple pies and singing amazing grace and it was so nonchalant. It was just such a normal thing. So even most of us, you know, people my age, I'm fifty three, we're only one generation away from almost everybody. You prepped your food that. Way, right, right, That's true, and so it's not as shocked it is shocking in our modern day because they hand us food and bags out windows. Hey did I tell you this? So Liz hired a surrogate hunter for us. Oh yeah, that's what she said. She said. She said, I want to I want to give somebody the opportunity to go get another deer and and uh and at the same time, we'll pay for everything with the deer. And so she chose Chris may our friend, who said, oh my gosh, I would love to do that. He said, love to go out and have another excuse to go find something for you, right, excuse me, bless you. So anyway, so Chris goes out, this is only a few months ago, and he goes out and comes home with something, and we paid for all that, and Liz is like, I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship because because now. We get the benefit. We got all these deer jerky things. It's organic, free range, organic meat that's incredibly lean. Right, right, and you know there's a need, there's a need to cut down the population. So anyways, we said all those words to say that this is not nearly as gruesome to them as it would be to us. And they're listing them specifically, describing them specifically for reasons, right. But it's a celebration. This is what's happening as the result of the fact that their hearts in the first twenty verses that we read yesterday or whatever it was for seventeen verses, their hearts turned towards God and they began doing the work. This work was weeks right to be able to clean up the temple. And then they're thrilled that they're able to dedicate it, and so they make the sacrifices it's not nearly as gruesome to them as it is to us. And then the band kicks in man and they've got the symbols. That's percussion, the leers, those that would be more like stringed instruments, they're going to be more like guitars. The harp is going to be more of a piano kind of a sound. You've got all these things going on right, lots of noise. They got the choirs going. They're singing and playing all the music that David and Asaff had written. So they're pulling back some of the old songs. You know, I think it's important for us, God says to sing a new song, but it's also appropriate to go back and say and find the old songs and remind us sure the goodness of God generation to generation of generation. And so that's what they're doing. And then he's ordering these burnt offerings, and he's doing all these So they offered joyous praise and bowed down and worship is I think the key of the whole thing. And then after the king is done and the leevites, So the king and then the leevites and the priests they step in and they do their thing then all the people follow in behind, and you see, like this revival in the nation, it begins to swing. But the saddest part is this, the leevites had to jump in and help prepare for these sacrifices because there were too few priests to prepare all the burnt offerings. The leevites had been more conscientious about purifying themselves than the priests had been, so there's an entire priestly class. But for whatever reason, maybe they didn't believe, maybe they were intimidated. They'd seen the political winds swing back and forth between worshiping God and not worshiping God. Maybe they just didn't they didn't believe what the Leevites believed. They didn't believe that this was going to change, and so they didn't change. They didn't purify themselves, and they missed out because they couldn't touch those sacrifices if they hadn't purified them. So there's always those people who miss out on a great move from God because they're not prepared. You know. It reminds me the great phrase. I was just talking to my son about this the other day. Was it Samuel Clemens Mark Twain? Was he the one that said, it's amazing how lucky I am. The more prepared I am, Right, the more prepared you are. The better you have for opportunities. And so being holy, staying holy, purifying yoursel helf, staying purified, would have made it so that they could have been part of the celebration too. Instead, they were on the outside looking in. And that's a sad moment for me. Of all the wonderful things happening here, it's kind of sad that the priests were not ready. Yeah, and the other said moment could be. There was definitely people who joined Hiszekayah. But my life application study Bible said, but most scorned his commands, his decrees. Many laughed or mocked or scoffed at it. But many joined. But that shouldn't ever deter you. Just because not everybody is going to follow, not everybody's going to agree. You know, if you decide to stand up as a Christian at your workplace or in your family, or praying at the table, or you know, or defending somebody when nobody else will that kind of thing. If not everybody agrees or follows you. It's okay, right, just do what is right and and rejoice with those who are going to come alongside you. That's a good way to end. I think, huh, that's great. Think that's right. So hey, that's our time, So we'll see you tomorrow, hopefully on the Bible. Gosh hm