2 Chronicles 29:20-29
Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered the city officials together and went up to the temple of the LORD. They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven male lambs and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Judah. The king commanded the priests, the descendants of Aaron, to offer these on the altar of the LORD. So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar; next they slaughtered the rams and sprinkled their blood on the altar; then they slaughtered the lambs and sprinkled their blood on the altar. The goats for the sin offering were brought before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them. The priests then slaughtered the goats and presented their blood on the altar for a sin offering to atone for all Israel, because the king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel. He stationed the Levites in the temple of the LORD with cymbals, harps and lyres in the way prescribed by David and Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet; this was commanded by the LORD through his prophets. So the Levites stood ready with David’s instruments, and the priests with their trumpets. Hezekiah gave the order to sacrifice the burnt offering on the altar. As the offering began, singing to the LORD began also, accompanied by trumpets and the instruments of David king of Israel. The whole assembly bowed in worship, while the singers sang and the trumpeters played. All this continued until the sacrifice of the burnt offering was completed. When the offerings were finished, the king and everyone present with him knelt down and worshiped.”
Among the most eminent of the kings of Judah was Hezekiah. Of several indeed is it said, that they did that which was right in the sight of the Lord; but it was a high commendation of Hezekiah, that he did so “according to all that David his father had done.”
Hezekiah came to the throne under the greatest disadvantages. His father had exceeded in wickedness all the kings that had been before him; and had caused all public acknowledgment of Jehovah to cease from the land. Under such circumstances it might have been supposed that Hezekiah, at the age of twenty-five, would have been infected with the prevailing impieties of his father’s court, or, at all events, that he would not have dared to stem the torrent of iniquity that had borne down all before it; but no sooner was he placed upon his father’s throne, than, even in the first year, and the very first month of his reign—he ordered the temple to be opened, and all the defilements that were in it to be removed, and the worship of the Most High God to be restored. Though there was not that alacrity among the priests that might have been expected, the work was soon executed, and in sixteen days the temple, with all its vessels, was prepared and sanctified for the service of God.
The very next day, Hezekiah, having his heart set upon the blessed work, “rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the Lord.” The service which they performed on this occasion is related in the words which we have read; and it will serve as an excellent pattern for us on this occasion. [On the re-opening of a Church after it had been shut up for repair, in 1802.]
There are three things in particular to which we would call your attention:
I. Their humiliation, as manifested in their numerous sacrifices.
For the sin of a priest or of the whole congregation, only one bullock was prescribed to be offered by the law, Leviticus 4:3; Leviticus 4:14. But the impieties of the nation having exceeded all bounds, and been of long continuance, Hezekiah judged that seven bullocks, and an equal number of rams, and lambs, and he-goats, should be sacrificed as a sin-offering to the Lord; and of all of them in succession it is particularly recorded, that “their blood was sprinkled on the altar.” When the he-goats were offered, it is further noticed, that “the king and the congregation (by their representatives) laid their hands upon them.” Such was the way in which “an atonement was offered, and reconciliation made for all Israel.”
And who does not here see the gospel method of reconciliation with God through the great Sacrifice which was once offered on Mount Calvary? This it was which the sacrifices under the Law shadowed forth; and this it is which opens a way for our restoration to the divine favor. “We are reconciled to God through the blood of the cross.” By this one offering there is a new and living way consecrated for us through the veil; and by it sinners of every description may draw near to God with full assurance of faith!
But here let me particularly call your attention to those two points:
1. the sprinkling the blood upon the altar,
2. the laying of their hands upon the victims.
Never must we draw near to God on any occasion without adverting to these significant emblems, or rather without realizing that which was here figuratively proclaimed.
1. We must sprinkle the altar of our God with the Redeemer’s blood; we must actually bear in mind, and expressly declare before God, that all our hope of acceptance with him is through the sin-atoning death of Christ. That sentiment must be so fixed in the mind, and rooted in the heart, as never to be lost sight of for one moment. The repetition in our text shows us what must be continually repeated by us in every approach of our souls to God. As “without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins,” so without an express trust in that blood as the only ground of our hopes there can be no application of that remission to our souls. O that this might be duly borne in mind by every one of us!
2. The laying of their hands upon the victims. Just so, we must also with deep penitential sorrow transfer our sins to the sacred head of Jesus. “On him were the iniquities of all laid by God himself;” and we also must lay our iniquities upon him in the exercise of humble faith. It is by the mutual transfer, if I may so speak, of our sins to him, and of his righteousness to us, that we are to be freed from all our guilt, and to be made righteous in the sight of a holy God, “He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we (who had nothing but sin) might be made the righteousness of God in him! 2 Corinthians 5:21.”
When Christ is thus kept in view in all our transactions with God, we need not fear but that God will be gracious unto us, and seal upon our souls a sense of his forgiving love.
Let us next notice,
II. Their joyful praises.
Together with their humiliation, they offered unto God their praises and thanksgivings agreeably to the laws which had been prescribed by God himself. In this also are they worthy of our constant imitation, “In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, Philippians 4:6,” says the Apostle; and what God has so joined we ought not to put asunder.
But here also there are two things worthy of more particular notice, “When the burnt-offering began, then the song of the Lord also began;” and “all this continued until the burnt-offering was finished.” There was no need to wait; their hearts might well be tuned to praise the very moment they looked to their burnt-offerings as the means of reconciliation with God. Nor, as long as they continued so to do, was there the smallest occasion for relaxing in the expressions of their joy.
Just so, the very moment we look to the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, and plead with God the merit of his blood, we may begin to rejoice in God as our reconciled God and Father. It is said, “All who believe are justified from all things;” not all that are strong in faith, or, all that have exercised faith for such a length of time; but all who believe (provided their faith is sincere) are from that very moment justified from all things, and may instantly “rejoice in hope of the glory of God, Acts 13:39 with Romans 5:1-2.”
John, speaking not to fathers only, or to young men, but to the weakest babes in Christ, says, “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake! 1 John 2:12.” There are many who think it a mark of humility to put away from them all joy, until, as they imagine, the progress of their sanctification shall justify the entrance of joy into their souls. But this is altogether founded on ignorance and error. A sinner is not to look into himself for his warrant to rejoice in God; the mercy, the love, the truth, and faithfulness of God, together with the ability and willingness of Christ to save all who come unto God by him, are the proper grounds of joy, irrespective of any change actually wrought in us.
We do not say that a believer may not afterwards have much joy in the testimony of his own conscience that he has made a progress in the divine life; (for Paul himself experienced this joy, 2 Corinthians 1:12;) but the affiance of his soul on Christ interests him in all that Christ has done and suffered for him, and gives him an immediate title to partake of the fatted calf, which his heavenly Father has prepared for him! “Being delivered from the horrible pit, and having his feet set upon the rock, a new song instantly should proceed from his mouth, even praise and thanksgiving to our God! Psalm 40:2-3.”
Nor should that song ever cease; because the efficacy of his Redeemer’s sacrifice will never cease. We are bidden to “rejoice in the Lord always,” yes “again and again to rejoice.”
Indeed, humiliation and joy must be united in all our services to the very end of time; as they will be united even in Heaven itself, where we shall cast our crowns at the Redeemer’s feet, and sing to all eternity, “To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, be glory and dominion forever and ever! Amen.”
At the close of that solemn service we particularly notice,
III. Their reverential bowing.
When they had made an end of offering, “the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves, and worshiped.” This remarkable termination of their worship indicated a grateful sense of the inestimable privilege which they had enjoyed of drawing near to God—a humble acknowledgment that they, and all that belonged to them, were the Lord’s; and a determination of heart henceforth to dedicate themselves unreservedly to his service.
And thus it is that we should close our worship, whenever we draw near to God in his public ordinances. See that admirable pattern, 1 Chronicles 29:14. It is painful to see people going from the house of God without a due sense of the solemnities in which they have been engaged. The light and airy manner with which people renew their conferences with each other upon the common topics of the day, demonstrates, that their worship has been by no means such as God requires. Had they really felt as redeemed sinners ought to feel, the savor of that fellowship with Heaven would not so soon be lost. O, if men did but reflect on the mercy given to them, in being permitted to sprinkle the blood of Christ upon the altar, to transfer all their guilt to him, and to receive from him the gift of his unspotted righteousness; if they duly considered what a right the Lord Jesus Christ had acquired over them in having bought them with his blood, and how much they are bound to glorify him with their bodies and their spirits which are his—methinks they would depart from the house of God with a holy solemnity upon their mind, and would continue in their way homeward secretly to commune with their God, and to harrow in by meditation and prayer the seed which has been sown upon their hearts. For lack of this, religious people often lose all the benefit of the ordinances which they have been privileged to enjoy.
Earnestly would we entreat all people to attend to these suggestions; and to bear in mind, whether they enter into the house of God or depart from it, that it is the God of Heaven and earth with whom they have to do, and to whom they must shortly give an account of all these privileges which by the generality are so lightly esteemed!
How the people remembered the vows that were upon them, was evident from the zeal and liberality of the worshipers, verse 32, 33—may well be proposed as a pattern for us.
From the example of the Priests, and of the Levites in particular, we should exert ourselves in our respective callings to serve and honor God.
O let us give up our whole selves to him as a living sacrifice; and from a constraining sense of redeeming love, let us henceforth live, not unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us and rose again.
Charles Simeon