God Can Use You to Bring Reformation | King Hezekiah | 2 Chronicles 29:3-17

Show Notes

Episode 653: 
In this episode, we dive into 2 Chronicles 29. We discuss Hezekiah, a king mentioned in 2 Chronicles, who takes significant steps to reform the temple and restore worship in Judah. We highlight his immediate actions upon ascending to the throne, including reopening the temple doors and purifying the sanctuary, which had been neglected due to previous kings' unfaithfulness.

What is The Bible Guys?

Whether you’ve been following Jesus for years or you’re just starting to ask questions, there’s a seat for you here.

Join Jeff and Chris for honest conversations about Scripture, faith, and the everyday stuff we all navigate. With humor, personal stories, and plenty of back-and-forth, The Bible Guys explore what the Bible says and how it connects to your life.

Subscribe, bring your questions, and get to know the Bible one conversation at a time. Head over to TheBibleGuys.com for more information!

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Good morning, good morning, we talked the home met through good morning, good morning to you and you and you. I did a little slower that just I know, and it was even better, so much more soul. Yes, actually slow slower than the movie. It was so good, you know. I think I think people would like it if you say it one day it's. Not happening, it's not happening. Well, it's yours. I can't steal it from you, No, I see, people would rather have you do it. Speaking of rather, would you rather? Yeah, it's one of our favorite segments, not necessary transition, but thank. You, necessary transitions. That's one of our new things, not necessary transitions. Yeah, Would you rather? One of my favorites because it gives you a choice of ridiculous things and it's fun to think about. There's the first one. Would you rather run into an alien? Or would you rather run into Bigfoot? Yeah? Like actually run into them, or like. Encounter them, probably just encountering down to them. I don't think like, oh excuse. Me, road, Yeah, the night, Yeah, yeah. I don't think hit them with the car. Yeah, run into me and the count truck. That's why I'm gonna interpret it. Flying down the road through the woods about seventy miles an hour and just blast bigfoot, denali I haven't. I have an answer. I have an answer, and you know what it is? It aliens or no, excuse me, it's bigfoot. Oh me too, bigfoot total top of the line there. I want Bigfoot to be real. Yeah, and I don't care about aliens, but I want Bigfoot. Yeah. Well, not only that, but like if one alien is actually finally proven to be real, which which by the way, side note, no aliens are proven. We had a couple guys recently get on the witness stand and say, uh, we we think that we saw some things, and you're like, who are you? What did you see? Yeah, well you know what I'm talking about, right, Whereas like remember then then then the media said, uh, we just proved aliens are real, and nobody cares. No, we didn't prove anything, but a couple of guys get there and talk about stuff and it wasn't as if they said we met an alien and his name was fred h. Yeah. We we we need Nailien to come to like a press conference meeting. Right, That's that's when I'll believe it. Right anyway, boom, yeah, as you said, boom, Bigfoot, Yeah, totally cool. Bigfoot would have less implications about the universe, but it would also, you know, satisfy your theory that Bigfoot is always blurry. Yeah, always blurry. Ye, he lives in a state of blurryness. That's right. That's why all the pictures are blurry, right, everyone, because there's lots of pictures of him. Right, but always blurry. You want to the next one, I do you do. You think big Foot's real? Uh? No, I don't. I kind of hope you is. Okay, you would you rather have a one conversation with your past self or your future self? Oh, this is a great question. If you can go back in time and have a conversation with your past self, or if you can go forward in time and have a conversation with your future self. Go back and help myself out, or go get some help for your current self. It's essentially the same, it is. That's essentially the same. You know, we just got into a loop, right, it's a loop. Well, it also depends on whether you believe the timeline works like Back in the Future or the Avengers, because because do you remember do you remember that conversation and endgame where ant Man comes back and says something about, hey, let's go back and do a time heist, and then somebody says something like, well, then we'll never know because it will affect our current reality. And then the Hulk jumps in and says, time doesn't work like that, and he gives this incredibly awful explanation, just a terrible explanation, and he goes, just. Think about it. He goes, if you go back in the past and that past is your current reality, he goes, then the how could the past be the past when it's actually your future? And really, all he really did was he actually took the timeline and made it about yourself from your perspective, which is a horrible, horrible way too. And that's the only thing I just loathed about the whole thing. I loathed it. But anyway, during. That funny scene, he says, where did you learn that? Hulk says, where did you learn that? And he goes and they started naming they're like every movie Back to the Future. Somewhere in time time after time, time bandits, and they just started going on and on and on about every single movie, right that it affects Looper, right, just all those different things. And so anyway, it depends on how you believe the timeline works. Right, So if the timeline works like every other movie besides The Avengers, I would want to go back and actually talk to. My past self. Oh okay, and I. Would say, let's let's learn some things so that my current reality could be a lot better. That's what I would do. But you don't think having that same conversation with your future self wouldn't have the exact same result. Well, it would definitely change my things from fifty three on. But what if you went to your future self and you said, give you the one thing that you would tell your fifty three year old self, and he's like, hey man, you're. Going to get hit by a bus in two weeks. Right, No, he wouldn't exist, he mean in heaven. He'd be in heaven. So my point is is that hopefully I've learned enough right to where I mean, is there a big drastic things that my seventy year old self would tell me? What if you say, well, what would you tell yourself right now, at fifty three, what would you go back and tell your thirteen year old self. It would probably be. Well, I almost hate to say it, it sounds selfish, but it would be a financial thing. But then it would also be relationship things, right. Not not spousal in twenty sixteen, Yeah, do everything you can between now in twenty sixteen to save up as much money as possible and spend all of it on bitcoin, right, yeah, because you're gonna buy it for pennies and then it's going to be selling for one hundred thousand dollars, right right, yeah, And. Then and some of it relational, some of it some of the work related maybe, right, Hey, that's good. I like that. Maybe i'd take back a sports almanac. Oh right, yeah, Oh that's good. I like it. That's good for you, what about you? I'm splitty the way it feels good both directions. I'm more of a forward thinker than I am a backward thinker. Yeah, so okay, all right. Number three. Would you rather go a year without desserts or have to eat a spoonful full of with Sabbi every single day? That's easy for me, Actually, I don't eat a lot of desserts. So I don't want to eat a spoonful of sabi every day sixty five with Sabby's. I don't want to eat with sabbi ever. Oh I love a sabi, I don't like I just don't eat it straight. I don't like whatsabi. It's like Majer and cars too. I got a little piece of with sabi in the back of my throat, on that hanging down part in the back of your throat. I thought I was gonna die, like die die cars too. Yes, Major thinks it's ice cream and. He goes the ice cream has turned don't eat the ice cream? Okay, so I would too. All right. Number four? Would you rather have tons of mediocre friends or one really loyal dog? I already have both. That's hilarious. Oh thanks. The Baba guys with Christ and his mediocre friends have or no, sorry I said that wrong. Definitely, but one really loyal dog or tons of mediocre friends. If that's the choice, Wow, I don't even know. What the other options are. Like, Does that mean that you can't have a loyal friend if you have mediocre friends? It seems to be the implication, right. It seems I think that it's supposed to be exclusionary, like you won't have any really loyal friends, only tons of media friends. Seems to be, although the lawyer in me doesn't the lawyer may says, it doesn't say you don't have great friends, you just have a pile of mediocre ones. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, So I'm gonna have to choose one based on what you said, which is the assumption here. So I'm gonna say I would rather have a ton of mediocre friends than one really loyal dog. Really, I think I would do. Yeah, that makes sense your personality. Yeah, I'm a huge extrovert and dogs die, they do, they do friends, but longer, it takes longer. Yeah, I don't know what about you. Yeah, it would be the dog for me. Really yeah yeah, yeah, that's that's crazy. All right, last one, go ahead. Because I think the whole that that's that's basically your Facebook what Oh yeah, yeah, Okay, would you rather be the smartest or the funniest person in the room. I'm actually going to say the smartest? Me too, Yeah, me too. Yeah. Wisdom is the principal thing. Yes, that's what Solomon said. Yep, And I like smart, smart doesn't mean wise. But and by the way, it doesn't mean you're not funny. You're not the funniest. Right If you're the smartest and the second funniest. Then you're golden. Yeah right, Yeah, Smartest is a pretty great thing to strive to be, right, but. You can be. Have you met super smart people that aren't wise? That aren't smart people? Oh? Yeah, yeah for sure. So it's not saying wise, it's acknowledged. This is a knowledge based thing. So the one who knows all the facts or the funniest. Now, that reminds me of you know, the do you see the Hunger Games? Remember that? Remember the technology couple? Uh they were just so awkward socially. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they were just they they it. Was just like they laughed to themselves and they understood everything, you know. So yeah, I think of like, you could be really really smart and be like completely awkward socially and yeah. You know who was really smart in the Bible? Oh Solomon? Oh has the kaya learned by watching the bad stuff happening in Israel direction? Speaking of smart? Yes, that's a good transition. Speaking of which we have to tell Desiree that we changed the pattern or the order. Yes, yes, so, yes, that's right. Hezekiah is mentioned in Second Chronicles, chapter twenty nine. So we've been reading a little bit with Isaiah. Isaiah warns Judah. Already, we have read some of Isaiah where he had warned Samaria and the northern tribes and then they get wiped out. We read that in Second Chronicles, and now here we are again. In Second Chronicles, chapter twenty nine, verse three. He says, in the very first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah reopened the doors of the Temple of the Lord and repaired them. So he's in his first hundred days. Yeah, and he's reforming. He's making changes, man. Yeah, that's that's welcomed. A whole bunch of executive orders right. Here, right on the first day he signs them. Yeah. First month of the first year of his reign, he summoned the priests and levites to meet him at the courtyard east of the temple, and he said to them, listen to me, you levites, purify yourselves and purify the temple of the Lord, the god of our ancestors. Remove all the defiled things from the sanctuary. Our ancestors were unfaithful and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, our God. They abandoned the Lord in his dwelling place. They turned their backs on him, and they also shut the doors to the temple's entry room, and they snuffed out the lamps. They stopped the burning incense and presenting offerings at the sanctuary of the God of Israel. That is why the Lord's anger has fallen upon Judah and Jerusalem. He has made them an object of dread, horror, and ridicule, as you can see with your own eyes. Because of this, our fathers have been killed in battle, and our sons and daughters and wives have been captured. But now I will make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger will turn away from us. My sons, do not neglect your duties any longer. Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to lead the people in worship and present offerings to him. Then these levites got right to work. From the klan of Kohath. It was Mayhaff the son of a Amesi, and Joel, the son of Azariah, from the clan of Mauri. It was Kish son of Abde and Azariah the son of Jahaleel. There's a name from the clan of Gershon. It was Joah, the son of Zima and Eden son of Joah from the family of Eliza Fan. It was Shimri and Jail from the family of Asaf. There's Zachary and Matt and Ayah from the family of he Man. What man. So Unnyman, Yeah, I don't know, it's spelled he Man. Which that's I'm just gonna leave it that man. I want it to be as. Probably is Hima all the powers of gray school Yea from the family of Himan. Probably Jehiel and SHIMII from the family of Jeduthan is Shama Ayah and Uzel Usaiel whatever. These men called together their fellow levites, and they all purified themselves. And then they began to cleanse the temple of the Lord, just as the king had commanded. They were careful to follow all the Lord's instructions in their work, and the priests went into the same where the temple the Lord declines it. It took out to the temple courtyard all the defiled things they found. From there, the levites carted it all into the kid Ron Valley. They began to work in early spring, on the first day of the new year, and in eight days they had reached the entry room of the Lord's temple. Then they purified the temple of the Lord itself, which took another eight days, so the entire task was completed in sixteen days. Yeah you want me to keep going, No, we can. We can dedicate the temple tomorrow. Yeah, well, we'll dedicate temple tomorrow. Actually, Hezekiah can dedicate it. We'll read about it. Okay, But hey, listen, I love the feeling of reform, and good. News is a great thing. And I you know, sometimes when you're in under a regime or an administration where you're just like when. Will it end? It's just more bad news, you know. And then somebody comes along and says, hey, I'm not going to waste any time. In this case, it's Hezekiah saying I'm going to finally listen to everything. Not only that was spoken by the Lord, our God, but for ancestors, but but what history dictates. We can look back and we can see what happened in history, and let's connect the dots to everything. God has said, And so he decides to, you know, tell the people like, you know, let me educate you. Right, let's learn from the history. Let's learn from the past. And and my sons, do not neglect your duties any longer. He's talking to the future generations about the past generations. Uh. And and by the way, there's a sermon in there somewhere where where you know, let's not learn the hard way. Let's learn from those who have gone before us. Right, let's learn from let's learn from those who've already. Made the mistakes. Yeah, exactly, let's let's get wisdom. And by the way, that's that could be both proactive and also reactive. And we could we could learn from past mistakes, but also we could we can go and seek people out and say, give me some advice. Have you ever have you ever done that? Have you ever done? Like yes, at a baby shower at your church, you know, there's a couple of you know, who are pregnant. They're having a baby shower, and you go around the room and you say, okay, let's all give them one piece of wisdom. Have you ever done that? Ye? Where you say, like, hey. If I haven't been to a lot of baby showers. Okay, we just do that. Yeah, when we're really really small, when our church was like two hundred people, my first church, we would, you know, have a celebration for this young couple and we would say, let's go around the room and let's give them one piece of advice. And I'm telling you it is some of the best. I was used to look around because I was younger at the time, and I thought to myself, Gosh, there's so much wisdom in the room, right from so many godly people. And if they're going to look back over thirty years of parenting and say, if you're going to learn one thing, learn this, it's like, you know, pay attention, grab a pen, write this down. And So Hezekiah is just doing wonderful things, opening the temple of the Lord. You know, he's about to dedicate it sixteen days, cleaning everything up, removing all the false, defiled things from the sanctuary. Gosh inspiring. Remember when we talked about how what was that guy's name? It's here you know now he man that was a cool name, tig Lath Policer. He was the one who invaded from Assyria and wiped out northern Israel. That was prophecy fulfilled. So it's not like the people in Judah hadn't already heard the prophecies. This is a small space, right, I mean from top to bottoms, ninety miles or so, from from well from Jerusalem up to the sea Galilee so to Samaria, so it's it's not a very big space. The prophets in the north were speaking and connected to the prophits in the south, and vice versa. Sometimes the prophets were going in both directions at the same time, right, Elijah did Elijah did? They were going in up north and down south the same time, so they would have heard these things. So to see this Assyrian king come in and wipe out Israel and then to pause and go, you know, Isaiah said that was going to happen, right, and then it did. Oh wait a minute, what did Isaiah say in chapter one? He said, it's gonna happen to us too, right, right, And it's in that context that Hezekiah goes, I don't want to learn by experience. I'm going to learn from the experience of others, and so he changes his direction. It's literally in the first month of the first year of his reign. He goes, listen, I'm cleaning house. We're gonna we're going to do everything the way that God said to do it. We're going to rebuild, We're going to re enlist all of the leaders. And you know, the lee Btes were pretty stagnant. They hadn't been doing anything. A lot of Christians will get that way sometimes they haven't been doing anything. And then it took them sixteen days from the time they finally opened the doors to the entrance into the town, just to clean out all the jump. So they had remember remember we had read about how that one with the One King, he'd put a new bowl. He had moved the sea, the big bowl of water over, he put it in a new altar, and he did all these things. They brought in all these other gods. They brought it out, and then it just turned into a warehouse. They weren't using it even for their bad worship. They just weren't using it right. They had gone completely secular with regard to the way that the government was doing things. They had left off all of their religious stuff. Well here in the temple, they were doing their religious stuff out. In the mountains. As did that because he saw the Assyrians, and. Yeah, he was one who brought in all the the fake altar and all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So Satan Chronicles twenty nine to eleven, there's a note in the Life Application of Study Bible says the Levites, chosen by God to serve in the temple, had been kept from their duties by Ahead's wickedness back in Satan Chronicles twenty eight, but Hezekiah called them back into service, reminding them that the Lord has chosen them to minister. And then there's another. Note that talked about Hezekiah's reforms, and it says he reopened the temple, orchestrated a national celebration of Passover, and reform the nation's religious practices by ordering the idols to be destroyed. This is one of the greatest revivals in history. Yeah. Isn't that great? Yeah? Yeah, I love it. And this is the demonstration that God's promises are true. Yep. Because with Israel, he said, if you don't stop, I'm going to send in your enemies and they're going. To wipe you out. And then it happened. And then Isaiah had said, listen, Israel, if you don't turn, God's going to send in your enemies. He's going to wipe you out. And Hezekiah goes, we're going to turn. We're turning back to God. And you know what God did. He held back judgment right. To the back God. God respected the fact that Hezekiah was willing to do whatever it took. And there's some political danger in this. There's a lot of just so many things, and he's like, I'm in. And then what's wonderful is he's not alone. So the reason why all these names, you know, we made fun of he Man and all these who is the other one that was kind of a weird hall? Right, He's got three els, four l's in his name. That's why I like you reading right. The reason why those names are important, it's not that we know those guys. But what's cool is Hezekai is not alone. He had a whole bunch of men that were willing to go with him on this. And you know there's something powerful when somebody decides to step out and go, I'm going to lead. There's lots of other good people who have not yet spoken up. Yeah, there's lots of other people around you, maybe in your in your office or at your school, you know, you've been a little nervous because there's been some some little group that's kind of bullying everybody else with some kind of philosophy that's anti God or anti Bible or whatever. And there's others around that you don't know yet maybe or that haven't had the courage to speak up. But if you're the one that's willing to step out and speak up, there's probably going to be others that will rally around you. That happened remember when Elijah was all depressed. Oh God, I just wanted to I'm the only person serving you, and got what are you talking about. There's hundreds of prophets, hundreds of profits here serving me. You're not alone. And so Hezekiah steps up, and that's why the Bible records all those that these men all together, they call together the rest of the fellow Leevites, and they all purified themselves. So heze Kaya steps out. Next thing, you know, a bunch of other leaders come and surround him and they go, hey, we're with you on this, and then they go and re enlist all the Leevites, and all the lee bytes come back, and this is the beginning of a movement. A real revival starts with usually just a few, but it spreads very quickly when people realize the direction would be going is the wrong way, and hey, I like the direction they're going. They're going the right way. And massive reform can happen with just a few people choosing to make the right turn having encourage you to do it. I'm gonna go deep in the archives here, But do you remember a song by Steve Green? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, you remember that chorus where he goes, Oh, man, all who come behind us, fund us faithful. Remember, May the fire of our devotion light light their way. May the footprints that we leave lead us to believe right and and and it's like it's got a really great conversation with him one time, did you uh? And the lives we live inspire them to obey right and and h Yeah, it's it's it's such a great thing. I always think about legacy and I and that little Churus always comes to my mind because Hezekiah says, uh, the God of our of our ancestors. And what he's really doing is he's. Referring to there are those who we want to follow in their footsteps, right and and but he's and then then he's speaking to their sons, saying, let's let those who come behind us find us faithful in the same way that he's trying to, you know, follow the footsteps of his ancestors. And I think about all the great people that have gone before me. Uh, you know, I didn't actually know that faith was a part of my father's life or my in a big way, in a big, significant, true way, and then my grandfather's life. Like I didn't know the history of faith in any of my family until after I became a pastor. And then and then I heard stories and then and come to find out like my father, who you know, sort of walked away from church and all these different things. You know, at one time he had incredible stories of faith when he was younger, and and sort. Of my mom. But then they just sort of lost their way, and I only knew them as people who sort of lost their way. And now they go to church every Sunday. I told you this, And here they are in their eighties. Uh. You know, they were divorced for forty something years and uh, you know, at one. Time they hate each other. They pitted themselves against each other, and uh, and then they became friends again, and then and all of a sudden, my my my stepmother passes away and my father, who's you know, all his friends are gone. Right, So now they're sort of hanging out every single day and they go. To church, which I never thought would happened in a million years. About I'm a Bible, I said, I said, I'm a Bible. And you know, to hear them say, oh, we went to church again today, and I'm thinking to myself, who are these people? They're together every day now, and I'm thinking to myself, I would never would a million years would have predicted I would have this conversation, you know. So just like this, they went into the temple courtyard. They hauled out everything that was defiled, and now they're filling it full of the worship yes of the King and that in heaven and that that's exactly where how revival begins. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's phenomenal. It is, and that's a great place to end. So we will go ahead and pick up tomorrow for the rededication to the temple. On the Bible Gush