WWUTT 689 The Reinstitution of Passover?

What we read in the Old Testament is a type and a shadow pointing to Christ who fulfilled all the

Law and the Prophets. So for example when we read about Passover in the Old Testament, that's pointing to Christ who is our

Passover Lamb when we understand the text. You're listening to When We Understand the

Text, an online Bible ministry so that we may know all the riches freely given to us by God.

For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our Old Testament study of the book of 2 Chronicles, we'll be looking at chapters 30 and 31 today, where King Hezekiah, King of Judah, reinstitutes the proper practice of Passover.

We started the reign of Hezekiah last week in chapter 29, when

Hezekiah cleansed the temple and restored those things that his father Ahaz had done.

Well he shut up the doors of the temple, would not allow the worship of God to happen there, and then he erected altars in the corners of Jerusalem, upon which he sacrificed to false gods, provoking the

Lord to anger. Hezekiah brought reforms to Judah and those things that Ahaz had taken out of the temple,

Hezekiah rebuilt. As a matter of fact, Hezekiah ended up making the temple larger and taller than Solomon had made it.

So this is the most beautiful that the temple has looked since its original construction.

Hezekiah would later expand parts of Jerusalem, and the city walls would be wider and further out than they had ever been under any other king.

And we'll read about that next week when we get into chapter 32. But for this week, as Hezekiah is continuing these reforms, he knows that contrary to the law of Moses, Passover had not been practiced in Judah for many years.

God had commanded that this would be an annual remembrance, and yet Judah had forgotten

Passover. So now after reforming temple worship, and re -consecrating the

Levitical priests as well, commanding them to consecrate themselves, now Hezekiah is going to bring about the celebration of Passover.

He's going to restore that to Judah once again. And so we begin here in chapter 30, where we read in verse 1,

Hezekiah sent to all of 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 to the Lord, the God of Israel. Now you'll notice here that in addition to sending letters to Judah, he also sends letters to Israel, including

Ephraim and Manasseh. Well, didn't we read that under King Jehoshaphat, his partnership with Israel actually became his downfall?

Why would Hezekiah do such a thing, trying to include sinful Israel in the proper practice of Passover in Judah?

Well, what's happened at this time that Hezekiah has sent these letters out, the

Assyrians have come against the Northern Kingdom, and they deported out much of its population.

Judgment has come upon Israel because of their sinful attitude before the

Lord. So now that there are many tribes that are in mourning and in fear of God because of this punishment that has come about by the hands of the

Assyrians, Hezekiah is inviting them to enjoy some of the reformation that is happening in the

Southern Kingdom, restoring right worship to the temple and the proper practice of Passover.

Are you repentant at heart? Do you want to be a part of proper worship before the

Lord once again, according to the law of Moses and the command of God? Then come here, come to Jerusalem, come to the temple where the people of God were instructed to worship

God and let us do so in a right way according to what God has said. So in verse two, for the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to keep the

Passover in the second month, for they could not keep it at that time because the priests had not consecrated themselves in sufficient number, nor had the nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem.

And the plan seemed right to the king and all the assembly. So remember, Passover was supposed to be kept in the first month.

They decided instead to keep it in the second month. And this is in keeping with a command that was given in Numbers chapter nine.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, this is numbers nine, beginning in verse ten. Speak to the people of Israel, saying, if any one of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body or is on a long journey, he shall still keep the

Passover to the Lord in the second month on the 14th day at twilight. They shall keep it.

They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any of its bones.

According to all the statute for the Passover, they shall keep it. But if anyone who is clean and is not on a journey fails to keep the

Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people because he did not bring the Lord's offering at its appointed time.

That man shall bear his sin. And if a stranger sojourns among you and would keep the

Passover to the Lord, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its rule, so shall he do.

You shall have one statute both for the sojourner and for the native. And that's the the part of the

Mosaic law that Hezekiah and Judah are keeping here because there were not enough priests consecrated for the first month to keep the

Passover in the first month. So it seemed right to them to do so in the second month. And notice that Hezekiah did not make this decision on his own.

It says in verse four, the plan seemed right to the king and all the assembly.

There are decisions that we should be making as the full church, the whole body of Christ.

It should not be just left up to the elders or the deacons. And this is part of right practice, even in Christ's church.

When it comes to disciplinary matters, as Jesus talked about in Matthew, chapter 18, it's the whole church together that decides whether or not a person is in such sin that they should be expelled from the church.

That's not a decision that's left alone to the pastor or the elders. The whole church needs to make that decision together.

And so you have the king himself consulting the assembly who agrees it would be better for us, given that there are not enough

Levites who are consecrated, that we should wait until the second month, according to the law of Moses in Numbers, chapter nine, and practice

Passover there. So you can see that as Hezekiah is reinstituting this practice of Passover, they're making sure they're doing it to the letter, according to how

God has commanded he is to be worshipped. So we go on here in verse five, they decreed to make a proclamation throughout all of Israel from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come and keep the

Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel at Jerusalem, for they had not kept it as often as prescribed.

Verse six, so couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes, as the king had commanded, saying,

O people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.

Do not be like your fathers and your brothers who were faithless to the Lord God of their fathers so that he made them a desolation as you see.

Do not now be stiff -necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the

Lord and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the

Lord your God that his fierce anger may turn away from you. For if you return to the

Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land.

For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you if you return to him.

So by the faithful practices of those Israelites that remained in Israel, the

Lord would look upon their repentant hearts and have mercy and restore to the land those who had been driven out by the

Assyrians. This is according to the word of Hezekiah. So in verse 10, the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.

However, some men of Asher, of Manasseh, and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the

Lord. And likewise, we as a church, we have been commanded in Ephesians chapter 4 to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4, 4, Paul says there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one

Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

And we see that that the grace of God was upon not only the people of Judah, but even those people of Israel who were cut to the heart over the sinfulness of their people and came to Judah to worship

God. Verse 13 and many people came together in Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly.

They set to work and remove the altars that were in Jerusalem and all the altars for burning incense.

They took away and threw into the brook Kidron and they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the 14th day of the second month.

And the priests and the Levites were ashamed so that they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of the

Lord. This is what Paul describes in second Corinthians as a godly grief, for it is a grief that led that was led to repentance.

Verse 16, they took their accustomed posts according to the law of Moses, the man of God, the priest through the blood that they received from the hand of the

Levites. For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves. Therefore, the

Levites had to slaughter the Passover lamb for everyone who was not clean to consecrate it to the

Lord. For a majority of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the

Passover otherwise than as prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying,

May the good Lord pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the

God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary's rules of cleanness.

And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people. And the people of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness.

And the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing with all their might to the

Lord. And Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good skill in the service of the

Lord. So they ate the food of the festival for seven days, sacrificing peace offerings and giving thanks to the

Lord, the God of their fathers. Now what is it that's being remembered when

Israel practiced Passover, when they when they kept the Passover as God had commanded them to?

They're remembering the exodus from Egypt, how God had delivered them out of the hand of slavery to the pagan nation of Egypt and had brought them into a promised land.

He had even brought them through the wilderness, though many of them were rebellious against God.

They were not allowed to come into the promised land. But the younger generation, because God was faithful to his promise, they were delivered to this land flowing with milk and honey, the land that they currently occupied that was promised by God to their posterity.

And so keeping the Passover, they remembered the miracles that were performed there in Egypt, the great plagues that afflicted

Pharaoh and the Egyptians who were hard -hearted against the Lord so that eventually

Pharaoh relented and released the Israelites from captivity. And so celebrating

God, their deliverer who ransomed them out of slavery, they had this practice of Passover.

And of course, it was it was instituted during that tenth plague when

God sent the angel of death into Egypt to strike down all of the firstborn. Those who had the blood of the

Passover lamb smeared on their doorposts, the angel of death would pass over and would not harm the firstborn of that house because the blood of the lamb covered that home.

And that's why this is called Passover. And likewise, we have a Passover lamb whose blood covers us so that on the day that we die, we will not be cast from God's presence into eternal death.

But though the body dies, our spirit will live forever with God because our sins have been covered over by the blood of the

Passover lamb, who is Jesus Christ. All of this is types and shadows, of course. It's pointing forward to Christ, who is going to be the perfect lamb of God.

Jesus took that Passover meal and he reinstituted it with his disciples to be what we call communion or the

Lord's Supper, breaking bread and drinking of the cup to remember the body of Christ that was broken for us on the cross and the blood that was spilled for the forgiveness of sins.

And every time we partake of those elements together as the body of Christ, we remember the great sacrifice that was needed to cover over our sinfulness so that we might have right standing with God.

All who believe in Jesus Christ are no longer under the wrath of God. But God's wrath has been appeased by the blood of his son.

And as we read in Romans 5 1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Even what we're reading about here concerning the Passover being reinstituted in Judah points us toward the

Passover lamb that would be sacrificed on the cross for our sins. It also calls our attention to right practice at the

Lord's table. For the Apostle Paul rebuked the Corinthians for improper practice at the

Lord's table, some of them getting sick and dying because they partook of the elements at the

Lord's table in an improper manner. And so the Apostle Paul says that we must be cleansed of heart when we come to the table, that there would be no division between us and any of our brothers and sisters in the

Lord. But we all come to this table as one body in one spirit under one father,

God, who is over all. And so just as Hezekiah prayed that the people of Israel, that their sins would be forgiven, even though they had not yet been consecrated.

And God heard Hezekiah's prayer and he passed over their sins. So we likewise need to prepare our hearts before the

Lord, before we partake in the Lord's supper, that we would do this in a proper way, not in any unconfessed sin or in a lifestyle of sin that would somehow prevent us from partaking in this in a proper way, but that we would do this regularly as the

Lord instructed and do so according to the commands of God that we have in his word.

Second Chronicles 30 verse 23 now, then the whole assembly agreed together to keep the feast for another seven days.

So they kept it for another seven days with gladness, two weeks of feasting as the

Lord or I was going to call it the Lord's supper as the Passover was reinstituted once again in Judah.

For Hezekiah, king of Judah gave the assembly a thousand bulls and 7 ,000 sheep for offerings and the princes gave the assembly a thousand bulls and 10 ,000 sheep and the priests consecrated themselves in great numbers.

The whole assembly of Judah and the priests and the Levites and the whole assembly that came out of Israel and the sojourners who came out of the land of Israel and the sojourners who lived in Judah rejoiced.

So there was great joy in Jerusalem for since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.

We remember the big feasting and celebration that went on for a full week after Solomon completed the construction of the temple and the

Lord blessed the work of Solomon. Verse 27, then the priests and the Levites arose and blessed the people and their voice was heard and their prayer came to his holy habitation in heaven.

Let's quickly do chapter 31 here. There's a section I'm going to skip because it's a big list of names.

Now, when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broken pieces the pillars and cut down the

Asherim and broke down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh until they had destroyed them all.

Then all the people of Israel returned to their cities, every man to his possession and Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and of the

Levites division by division, each according to his service. The priests and the Levites for burnt offerings and peace offerings to minister in the gates of the camp of the

Lord and to give thanks and praise the contribution of the king from his own possessions was for the burnt offerings, the burnt offerings of morning and evening and the burnt offerings for the

Sabbaths, the new moons and the appointed feasts as it is written in the law of the

Lord. And he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the

Levites that they might give themselves to the law of the Lord. As soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the first fruits of grain, wine, oil, honey and of all the produce of the field and they brought in abundantly the tithes of everything.

And the people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep and the tithe of the dedicated things that had been dedicated to the

Lord their God and laid them in heaps. In the third month, they began to pile up the heaps and finish them in the seventh month.

When Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and his people

Israel. And Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites about the heaps. Azariah the chief priest who was of the house of Zadok answered him, since they began to bring the contributions into the house of the

Lord, we have eaten and had had enough and have plenty left for the Lord has blessed his people so that we have this large amount left.

So this is just showing here how the reformation that Hezekiah was bringing to Judah and also into parts of Israel was down to the letter of the law.

And it shows that the people were so faithful in following it that there was so much abundance brought in.

The Levites did not even know what to do with it all. And so you see the abundance of repentance that was taking place in the land at this time.

So verse 11, then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare chambers in the house of the Lord and they prepared them and they faithfully brought in the contributions, the tithes and the dedicated things.

The chief officer in charge of them was Cananiah the Levite with Shimei his brother as second.

And then we have a full list of names there. I'm going to skip down to verse 17. The enrollment of the priests was according to their father's houses that that of the

Levites from 20 years old and upward was according to their offices by their divisions. They were enrolled with all their little children, their wives, their sons and their daughters, the whole assembly for they were faithful in keeping themselves holy.

And for the sons of Aaron, the priests who were in the fields of common land belonging to their cities, there were men in the several in the several cities who were designated by name to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to everyone among the

Levites who was enrolled. Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah and he did what was good and right and faithful before the

Lord, his God and every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments seeking his

God. He did with all his heart and he prospered. We have been commanded to love the

Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. And as Jesus said to his disciples, you will show me that you love me when you keep my commandments and we likewise will prosper, but not in material goods.

We will prosper spiritually as we grow in sanctification, being shaped more and more into the image of Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

The Lord is faithful to complete the work that he began in us until the day of Christ, by whose blood we have been consecrated to dwell with the

Lord our God forever. An adoption that we have received by faith.

Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.