Remove the Rubbish (2 Chron 29-31) – July 1

What a great way to begin the second half of the year! The reforms of Hezekiah are among the greatest revivals in the Bible.  We read today of this revival, and it starts with removing the rubbish from the temple and repairing all the articles of worship in the temple.  I was especially touched by the words “remove the rubbish.’  Ahaz was indeed a wicked king, and did all sorts of things wrong in the eyes of the Lord.  Because of this, the temple had been completely neglected, and even raided by the enemies.  They broke some of the articles of worship and just made a mess of the temple.  Hezekiah had all these things repaired, and then the priests sanctified themselves.

What rubbish is in the Temple of God that resides within my body?  Paul writes that we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit.  AM I providing a temple that is worthy of His presence,or is there a bunch of rubbish in this temple that needs t o be thrown out?  What kind of rubbish have I allowed to remain in this temple, even though I have asked Jesus to save me, and I have accepted His sacrifice on the cross as my redmptio\n.  I attest to the fact that He rose from the dead, and is seated on the throne next to His Father in heaven.  I know He has sent His Holy Spirit to me, to abide with me forever, to teach me, and to guide me.  

Even though I attest to all of this, there is rubbish in this house of the Lord.  My eyes don’t always look away from things I should not see, and my body doesn’t always turn away from things I should not do.  My words are not always delivering grace to the hearer, and my thoughts are not always pleasing to the Lord.  There are some sins that I do voluntarily, and not just because I made a mistake.  There is rubbish in this Temple, and I must clean it out.  God does not come in on His own and cleanse it.  This is my job.  God could have kept the Temple clean in those days by defeating the enemies of Israel.  But He allowed them to come and make a mess of the Temple, just as He has allowed me to make a mess of mine.  So it’s my job to clean it up.]

Once the temple was cleansed, Hezekiah ordered the priests to be consecrated and the Passover was kept.   Once I get the rubbish out of my temple, I can once again separate myself to the Lord and recommit my life to Him.  I serve Him glady now, but I still have rubbish in this temple;.  It’s time to remove all this rubbish and once again be set apart for the Lord.  I vow to do this today.  Will you also do the same?

The Heart of Worshi[ (Isaiah 12, 2 Chron 28, 2 Kings 16-18, Hosea 1) – June 25

In reading the account of Ahaz we see that their worship was flagrantly against the Lord.  First of all, He went to Damsacus to seek after their gods because Damascus had defeated Israel. Ahaz thought this was because their god was greater than the God of Israel.  When Ahaz saw the altar built to their Gods, he sent the pattern back to the high priest with an order to build a replica.  The high priest should have known better, but he built it anyway at the command of the king.  When the king returned, he broke in pieces the instruments of worship to the one true God, and worshipped at his new altar instead.  He not only disobeyed God, but completely turned his back on God.  What a tragedy!

How often do I turn my back on God?  How often do I put my trust in something other than God to supply my needs and give me victory in life?  This is a question I have to ask myself on a regular basis because I have failed so often to put Him first.  I lost a lot of money trying to make money in bitcoin several years ago.  I would have been much better off to give that money to God’s purpose, but I trusted in men who were wicked, and they took me for more than I care to share here.  Instead of trusting in God to supply my needs, I trusted something else, and I was ashamed of my decision.  I should have known better, just like Ahaz should have known better, but I made the mistake of believing a lie, just like Ahaz did.

Then we read of the reforms Hezekiah put in place and we see that he cast out the bronze serpent that Moses had made because the people were still burning incense to it.  This was in the temple and yet was an idol to the people all these years – almost 700 years by my recollection.  Even during David’s great reign, it was there.  And during the reign of Jeroboam and Joash, who the Bible says did good in the eyes of the lord.  It had become such a tradition that no one even thought it was an idol, but it was.

Do we have traditions in our church or in our lives, that are really idols and not honoring God?  I have been in churches where heaven forbid we should move the piano, or change the color of the carpet, or disrupt the order of worship.  Some things have become so ingrained into us that we do not even see them as an idol or displeasing to God.  We have to get back to the heart of worship, which is lifting up the name of Jesus.  He said if He is lifted up, He will draw all men to Himself.  But many of the songs the church sings are songs that lift me up instead of Jesus.  They are songs that talk of all the blessings we receive from God, and do not exalt the name of the Lord at all.

Please don’t get me wrong here.  These songs are beautiful songs, and I love to listen to them as much as the next person.  But they are not songs of worship. They are songs of victory maybe, or songs of blessing, but not of worship;.  Worship is lifting up God and His name.  listen to the words of the song and you will quickly see that they are not about God, but are more about me and my life and blessings.  Are we missing the heart of worship, just as the Israelites were?  I think so in some instances.  I think we have become like the image that Hosea was given, which is also a part of our reading today.  He was told, by God, to marry a harlot as a symbol of Israel’s harlotry with other gods.  May we, and may I in particular, make sure we are worshiping the one true God, because it should be all about Him!