since they had been unable to observe it at the regular time, because not enough priests had consecrated themselves and the people had not been gathered in Jerusalem. Sermons
I. THAT A RIGHT COURSE WILL PROVE ONE OF SPIRITUAL ENLARGEMENT. Had not Hezekiah been a faithful servant of Jehovah, he would not have concerned himself about the moral and spiritual condition of Ephraim and Manasseh. He might have rejoiced in anything that would degrade and therefore enfeeble them. But as the servant of God, and therefore of the truth and of righteousness, he looked with sorrow upon the separation of those tribes of Israel from the God of their fathers, and it was "in his heart" (2 Chronicles 29:10) to take a step that might restore them to the faith they had abandoned and to the favour they had lost. His "heart was enlarged toward them" (2 Corinthians 6:11). There was nothing that was singular, but everything that was natural and usual in this. Let a man determine to take the right course, to set his whole life as well as rule his whole nature by principles which he believes to be Divine, and for him there will be a very blessed spiritual enlargement. He will come to see truths which had been quite out of sight, and to cherish feelings to which he had been a stranger, and to proceed upon lines high and far above the old levels. His life will be lifted up, himself will be enlarged and enriched abundantly. II. THAT ADVANCES TOWARDS ESTRANGED RELATIVES ARE PECULIARLY HONOURABLE. It probably cost Hezekiah and his counsellors some considerable effort to make overtures to Israel. These tribes had revolted from the kingdom; they had lately inflicted a most severe and humiliating defeat upon Judah (2 Chronicles:6-8). It may be taken that there existed a strong, if not an intense, animosity between those so nearly related to and yet so distinctly divided from one another (see John 4:9; Luke 9:52, 53). Nevertheless, they were regarded and treated as brethren. It is here where we so often fail in the illustration of Christian principles. We can show magnanimity toward those who are afar off, who belong to a different nation, or to another Church, or to a separate family; but we find it hard, perhaps impossible, to make advances toward those of our own people, of our own community, of our own family, between whom and ourselves some estrangement has come. Truly said the wise man, "A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city." And wisely says our English poet that "... to be wroth with one we love "They stood aloof, the scars remaining, III. THAT WE SHOULD NOT BE DETERRED FROM THE NOBLER COURSE BY THE POSSIBILITY OR EVEN THE LIKELIHOOD OF REPULSE. Hezekiah and his council faced this probability, and they ventured, notwithstanding. Their messengers did meet with much scornful rejection (ver. 10); but on this they must have Counted, and by it they were not moved. In spite of all the mockery they encountered, they went through the land as they proposed. If we are careful to Count all the possible consequences to ourselves, we shall never do noble deeds. The soldier does not weigh the chances of his being wounded as he goes into the battle; he does not mind if he goes home with some sears upon his countenance. Nor will the good soldier of Jesus Christ. IV. THAT WE SHALL NOT GO UNREWARDED IF WE TAKE THIS GENEROUS COURSE. "Nevertheless divers... humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem ' (ver. 11). The mission was not altogether a failure, even judged by its visible and calculable results. Any serious and generous attempt to heal old wounds and restore broken friendships, or to bring back to God those estranged from him, will not be unrewarded. 1. If it does not succeed wholly, it will in part. If it does not win affection and reopen fellowship, it may weaken resentment and make return easier another time. It may avail with one or two, if not with all. It may succeed in time, if not at once. 2. It will certainly result in some spiritual advancement on our own part. No true act of Christian love is ever lost to the agent himself. 3. It will win the smile and benediction of the magnanimous Saviour. - C. 1. Some were kept away by defilement.(1) The dead in sin lie all around us; contact with their ways and motives, unless we are continually cleansed by Divine grace, is defiling in many ways.(2) The mass of sin within our own selves is a constant source of defilement. 2. When a man was on a journey he could not keep the Passover. The heart's blood of the Eucharist, is nearness to God; and when we are afar off, it is a poor dead ceremony. 3. You may have been in an evil case from unknown causes. You feel it is not with you as in days past. Marring influences not mentioned in the Book of Numbers may have been preventing you from eating the spiritual Passover to your heart's content. Among these causes are —(1) Little faith.(2) The absence of overflowing joy.(3) Spiritual weakness at all points.(4) A feeling of uselessness. Whatever your disqualifications, bring them and turn them into confessions of sin. II. THOUGH WE FEEL AND LAMENT OUR WANT OF PREPARATION WE MAY STILL COME TO THE FEAST. Let us to some extent follow in the track of the men in Hezekiah's time. 1. They forgot their differences. 2. They removed the idols. 3. They endeavoured to prepare their hearts. 4. They made open and explicit. confession unto God. 5. Confession made, let prayer ascend to heaven. III. IN SO COMING WE MAY EXPECT A BLESSING. At the Passover in Hezekiah's days there was — 1. Great gladness. 2. Great praise to God. 3. Great communion with God. 4. A great enthusiasm. 5. Great liberality. 6. Another great breaking of idols. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Essex Congregational Remembrancer. I. THE PRINCIPLE WHICH IS ESSENTIAL TO ACCEPTABLE WORSHIP. — Sanctification (Hebrews 10:22). Sanctification of heart is necessary if you consider —1. The character of God who is worshipped (Isaiah 6:1-5). 2. The nature of the worship required. 3. The design of all religious worship. (1) (2) II. THE ASSERTION THAT IN MANY THIS PRINCIPLE WAS WANTING. This charge is — 1. Comprehensive. 2. Tremendously awful.Connect it with the declaration of the Saviour, "If I wash thee not thou hast no part with Me." (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.) I. THE INDISPOSITION OR UNPREPAREDNESS OF THE PEOPLE." A multitude of the people had not cleansed themselves." 1. In these times in which there is much care had about the right celebration of a sacrament, there are many yet that are unworthy.(1) Because there is a great deal of laziness in people, and an unwillingness against such a soul-searching ordinance as the sacrament.(2) There is a great deal of hypocrisy in many men, and it is possible that they may carry their naughtiness so secretly that they may hide it from the most discerning eye. 2. If when much care is taken about the ordinances, many are unworthy to come, it serveth,(1) To show what need we in this land have to humble ourselves, as for other sins, so especially for our sacramental sins.(2) For a double exhortation:(a) To pastors, that they should use all diligent care to prevent this unworthiness, by instructing the people in the nature of the ordinances, and by admonishing them of the danger of their unprepared coming.(b) To the people. To stir them up every one to look unto himself whether he be not one of the number. A gracious heart is apt to suspect itself (Matthew 26:22). The unprepared, unworthy receiver is he that doth not come with answerable meet affections, and so holy and reverent a frame of spirit as God requires we should bring into His presence. They are — All ignorant persons that cannot discern the Lord's body. Those that do not judge and condemn themselves (1 Corinthians 11:31, 32). A gracious prepared heart is a self-judging heart: a wicked heart is loth to come to trial. Those that come in uncharitableness and malice. 3. There is no cause why men should abstain from the use of ordinances, for fear of communicating with wicked and profane men. II. THEIR PRACTICE NOTWITHSTANDING. "Yet they did eat the Passover otherwise than was written." Many rush on ordinances notwithstanding their unpreparedness. The reasons are — 1. The remissness, or abuse of the censures, of the Church, that do not restrain such persons from coming. 2. It proceedeth from ourselves, because —(1) There is a great deal of ignorance and unbelief in the hearts of most men.(2) Custom prevaileth with most rather than conscience. Custom usually eateth out the strength of any performance, and dissolves it into a mere formality. III. THE FAULT OF THEIR PRACTICE. They ate otherwise than was written. God's service is a written service. We offend in our duties when we do otherwise than is written. We do this — 1. When we do too much. 1. The essentials of a sacrament are set down in the institution; there is the rule. If we seek to patch it up with some zealous additions and pieces of our own, we go beyond the rule. 2. In the outward part of duty, in corporal service, and in the pomp and solemnity of his worship, there we may do too much — more than we need to have done. It is easy to be too pompous in a sacrament, and to sin against the plainness of the ordinance. Duties are like your coats of arms, best when they are plainest, and not overcharged with too many fillings; or like wine, then most generous and sprightly, when it is pure and uncompounded. The sacraments were to feed men's hearts, not to please their eyes, or tickle their ears. Ordinances nourish best when they come nearest their primitive institution. We may, then, do too much here. A sense-pleasing religion is dangerous, it is too much suitable to our natural inclinations; and that is the reason why country people are so much taken with these shows; they do not love the native beauty that is in duties half so well as they do the painting of them. It is a miserable thing when you will place religion in that for which you have no ground nor warrant. If you will find yourselves work, and not take that which is cut out for you, you know who must pay you your wages. Mark the question of the Saviour (Matthew 15:3). 2. When we do too little. When we come not up to the spiritual part of the commandment. Consider what is required about duty —(1) Something about the heart before duty. Preparation (ver. 19). We must come with faith and repentance and other qualifications; we must come with a desire to find the Lord (Psalm 93:1).(2) Something about the heart in duty. Stirring it up. A duty done without life and efficacy is as a duty not done at all. We come short of the rule if we come not with holy life and activity, with a working waiting spirit that will warm our hearts within us, and make them burn under the ordinances. See what a qualification James requireth in prayer (James 5:16). There is an expression (Acts 27:7). "Instantly serving God day and night," which means in the original, with the forcible putting to of all their might and strength, with their stretched-out strength. There can never be too much done in respect of the spiritual part of the commandment. 3. Something to be done after duty. Recollecting and running over all the carriage of the heart towards God in the duty, and the gracious intercourse that the soul had with God. ( T. Manton, D. D..) I. THE IRREGULARITY WHICH SOME OF THE PEOPLE WERE GUILTY OF.II. HEZEKIAH'S PRAYER FOR THEM. III. THE SUCCESS OF THIS PRAYING. Application: 1. Let this history engage us to seek the God of our fathers, by observing all His ordinances. 2. Let this subject make us solicitous to prepare our hearts for every religious solemnity. 3. Let this subject encourage those whose hearts are prepared to seek God. 4. Let this subject excite those who have the care of others to watch over them and pray for them. (J. Orton.). People Asher, Dan, David, Hezekiah, Isaac, Issachar, Levites, Manasseh, Solomon, ZebulunPlaces Assyria, Beersheba, Dan, Jerusalem, KidronTopics Able, Assembled, Celebrate, Consecrated, Gathered, Hallowed, Holy, Jerusalem, Numbers, Possible, Priests, Regular, Sanctified, Sufficient, Sufficiently, ThemselvesOutline 1. Hezekiah proclaims a solemn passover on the second month for Judah and Israel.13. The assembly, having destroyed the altars of idolatry, keep the feast fourteen days 27. The priests and Levites bless the people Dictionary of Bible Themes 2 Chronicles 30:3Library A Loving Call to Reunion'And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel. 2. For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep the passover in the second month. 3. For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Of Antichrist, and his Ruin: and of the Slaying the Witnesses. The New Temple and Its Worship Appendix v. Rabbinic Theology and Literature The Quotation in Matt. Ii. 6. Covenanting Performed in Former Ages with Approbation from Above. Covenanting a Duty. Chronicles Links 2 Chronicles 30:3 NIV2 Chronicles 30:3 NLT 2 Chronicles 30:3 ESV 2 Chronicles 30:3 NASB 2 Chronicles 30:3 KJV 2 Chronicles 30:3 Bible Apps 2 Chronicles 30:3 Parallel 2 Chronicles 30:3 Biblia Paralela 2 Chronicles 30:3 Chinese Bible 2 Chronicles 30:3 French Bible 2 Chronicles 30:3 German Bible 2 Chronicles 30:3 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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