Restoring the Temple

There are so many things I want to share with you. God has been showing me many things lately and he's been doing it right smack dab in the middle of chaos! That is what I love about Him! It hasn't been bad chaos though! You know, there is a difference! There is chaos and then there is CHAOS! Thankfully, this has just been plain ole chaos. Of course, those of you that know me, know that my life always has chaos! Okay, I'm just gonna go ahead and give you this study, I've been waiting over a week to do this! Here it goes: 2 Chron. 28:24-25 "Ahaz gathered together the furnishings from the temple of God and took them away. He shut the doors of the Lord's temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. In every town in Judah he built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and provoked the Lord, the God of his fathers, to anger". Ahaz was a very ungodly person. He was an ungodly king and led the people in Israel into Idolatry. He was also the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old. He reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. If you read in chapter 29, verse 2, it tells us that, "He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord". In 2 Chronicles chapters 29-31, the Bible tells us that Hezekiah led the Israelites back to the Lord their God. He had them consecrate themselves and rid the temple of all defilement. Then they purified the temple and all the articles of the temple and restored the altar of burnt offerings. After they purified all the articles that King Ahaz had removed from the temple, they placed them in front of the Lord's altar. Then they dedicated themselves to the Lord through sacrifices and worship. They bowed before the Lord and worshiped Him. The service of the temple of the Lord was reestablished. They also celebrated the passover and they destroyed the high places throughout the entire kingdom. Like Hezekiah, we may not have any Godly influence in our lives. People like to blame their actions on their surroundings. They put the blame on people or on their circumstances. Sometimes, we are victim to other people's actions, but we still have control over how we respond. All of us have a choice. Like Hezekiah, we can choose to follow God's teaching and restore our temple. We can choose to bow down and worship the One True God. We can destroy the high places in our lives, no matter how long they have existed. Hezekiah had been influenced his whole life, twenty-five years, to a life of idolatry and rebellion against God. However; he made no excuse, he made a decision to change the way things were, to bring himself and his kingdom, back into true worship of the Lord. When Hezekiah led the people into purification, it was a process. You should read the chapters for yourself. It didn't happen with a simple prayer and then it was done. NO! There were decisions made and then actions that followed. It was done prayerfully, but also done in steps. We often are quick to forget, that there has to be some action behind the decisions we make. There is usually a time of purification. There are often some sacrifices that have to be made. There are some things in our lives that need to be destroyed. There has to be some true worship. When I say worship, I mean bowing yourself before God and giving Him everything. Your whole heart. If you were to study the Books of Kings and Chronicles, you would see a difference in those who "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord", those that "did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord", and here's the kicker, "those who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord but did not do it wholeheartedly". Are we like Hezekiah? Maybe we have faced hard circumstances in our lives. Maybe we have been victims of abuse. Maybe we haven't really worshiped God wholeheartedly and still have some high places in our lives. Whatever the situation, I think we can all relate to Hezekiah. I pray that we would make the decision to restore ourselves and our kingdom to Him. I pray that we would follow God wholeheartedly. That we would bow down before Him and truly worship Him with everything that we have. "There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place." 2 Chronicles 30:26-27