Mon.’s Devo - Reopening the Temple

Read: 2 Chronicles 29:1-36; Romans 14:1-23; Palm 24:1-10; Proverbs 20:12 Hezekiah brought back the worship of the Lord into the Temple. In the very first month of his kingship he reopened the doors of the Temple and repaired them. He met with the priests and Levites and had them purify themselves and the Temple. He told them that he would make a new covenant with the Lord to so that His anger would turn away from them. *** The leaders of the priests and Levites got right to work and summoned all their families and purified themselves then began the work in the Temple. They began to do this on the first day of Nisan, the month of Passover. It took eight days to cleanse the courtyard and take all the defiled things used to worship Baal and other gods. They carted them all out to the Kidron Valley where they would burn them. Then they began in the inside the the Temple. It took eight more days to cleanse it ending on the 16th of Nisan. Passover was suppose to start on the 15th. They sent news to Hezekiah that the job was done. *** Early the next morning Hezekiah gathered all the city officials to the Temple and offered 777 offings on the altar to the Lord. They used the blood of the offerings to sprinkle on the altar offering atonement for all Israel. *** They offered the burnt offerings to the sound of praise to the Lord accompanied by the trumpets and other instruments. Then the people brought their own offerings and the priests offered them to the Lord. There were so may offerings and so few priests so the priests had to get the Levites to help them. The Levites had been more diligent about purifying themselves than the priests had. *** Hezekiah and the people rejoiced that this had been done so quickly and how God had helped them become pure again in his sight. *** What a picture of how quickly a nation can go from evil to good, or corrupt to cleansed in such a short time. This is our hope for our nation. It just takes having the right leader. We pray for just and righteous leaders. *** In Romans Paul was dealing with merging two people into one: the Jew and the Gentile. The Jews came with their strict laws about everything and the Gentiles came with total freedom in their lives. Paul told them not to judge one another because all of that was trivial. Every man had to do what was right in their own heart. In the end God will judge everyone according to their hearts. He did tell them to live in a way that wouldn’t cause their brother to stumble. The Kingdom of God was not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Everyone needed to live by their own convictions. *** Lord, help us to judge ourselves and not others. Thank you that you are our king and your judgments are right and true.