Thursday after the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 2, 2023 by under
Scripture: 2 Chronicles 29:1-11 (NKJV)
29:1 Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. 2 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.
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 Then he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them in the East Square, 5 and said to them: “Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place. 6 For our fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord our God; they have forsaken Him, have turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord, and turned their backs on Him. 7 They have also shut up the doors of the vestibule, 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 fell upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has given them up to trouble, to desolation, and to jeering, as you see with your eyes. 9 For indeed, because of this our fathers have fallen by the sword; and our sons, our daughters, and our wives are in captivity.
10 “Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that His fierce wrath may turn away from us. 11 My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and that you should minister to Him and burn incense.”
Devotion
Hezekiah called upon the Levites to set themselves apart from the unclean world for the task of, and by means of, restoring the Lord’s Temple to fulfill His purpose. The things that didn’t belong to the worship of the one true God were to be removed and the things essential to His worship reinstated.
Their fathers, he said, had brought destruction to Judah and Jerusalem—and the captivity of its people—by turning their backs on the Lord, and that chiefly by their lack of appreciation for His Means of Grace. They had not rightly esteemed the offerings that were made, the returning to God what was given by Him, and what such rites prefigured. The One given by Him would be returned to Him for their sake; One whom the unfaithful would sacrifice to the false god of works-righteousness, yet Who in truth sacrificed Himself to God in their place, as payment for the sins of all.
The wrath of God comes upon those whose worship is not fixed on the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! That is why we have the liturgy; it radiates out from the celebration of His body and blood, and every bit of it is to keep our hearts so fixed.
Prayer: Lord, we beseech Thee to keep Thy household, the Church, in continual godliness; that through Thy protection it may be free from all adversities, and devoutly given to serve Thee in good works, to the glory of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
