Return to Blood Sacrifice (continued)
I had one week of Gospel meetings with the late Samuel Jardine, whose father was an ordained Baptist preacher. Samuel was also an ordained Baptist preacher before he came into assembly fellowship. He told me that his father was very careful as to who he allowed to speak in his church building. Listening carefully to a visiting Baptist preacher, whom he thought to be acceptable, Samuel's father thought he heard a phrase in a sentence that indicated this preacher believed that baptism cleanses sin. He went right up to the visiting preacher, and asked him if he believed baptism was essential for salvation. "Yes", he said, "no person will be in Heaven that has not been immersed in the waters of baptism!" Samuel's father turned to the audience, and said "This preacher believes baptism is essential for salvation, so while he is making his exit from the building we will all stand and sing, 'What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.'" The man went out of the church like a whipped dog, and he deserved to do so, for he should not have been preaching to any congregation, let alone a congregation believing that the blood of Christ alone cleanses from all sin!
Return to the Place where the Lord had Chosen to Place His Name
It is interesting to note that Asa (and Jehoshaphat after him) "took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places" (2 Chr 14.3) but, in 1 Kings 15.14 and 22.43, and in 2 Chronicles 15.17 and 20.33, it says that king Asa and king Jehoshaphat did not remove the high places. On the surface this looks like a contradiction but, in reality, it is not. There are only four writers (of 45 writers consulted) who recognise that some of the altars destroyed in 2 Chronicles 31.1 were altars for worshipping God (Alfred Edersheim, J Barton Payne, George Rawlinson, and William Rodgers). The best writer for clarity, simplicity, and profitable application on the high places is William Rodgers of Omagh, Northern Ireland, whose solution is simple and convincing. (Most of the rest of my comments on this aspect of return are based on Rodgers' clear solution for the use of the words 'high place'.)
There were two kinds of high places; high places where men worshipped idols, and high places where Israel worshipped "the Lord their God only" (2 Chr 33.17). In the first two references above where it says that they "took away the high places", there is also reference to the idols. In the other four places, where they did not take away the high places, nothing is said about idols. This makes clear that those two good kings destroyed the high places where idols were worshipped, but they spared the high places where they worshipped the Lord their God only. Hezekiah was the first king to destroy them all (31.1). This was so contrary to human thinking, that Sennacherib thought that Hezekiah's action was a reason why they could not expect God to help them: "Hath not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall worship before one altar, and burn incense upon it?" (32.12). Some of God's people in Hezekiah's day may have thought that Hezekiah was bigoted and narrow-minded, but it should never be forgotten that he had the authority of the Word of God for his actions: "Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest: but in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings" (Deut 12.13-14). Whatever anybody else thought of Hezekiah, God's thoughts about him are recorded in 2 Chronicles 31.20; "Hezekiah … wrought that which was good and right and truth before the Lord his God." God's commendation is the most important of all. Whatever God's people thought of Hezekiah while he lived, what they thought about him when he died is clear: "And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons of David: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honour at his death" (32.33). Hezekiah was the only king of which it is recorded that "they buried him in the chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons of David". Here is another illustration of the principle "them that honour me I will honour …" (1 Sam 2.30).
Of course, high places where idols were worshipped were much more dishonouring to God than the high places where Israel worshipped the Lord their God only. But both were alike in that they had no Scriptural authority for their existence. By application, today there are still two kinds of high places. There are places in Christendom that are honeycombed with so much that is contrary to God's Word, that any of God's people who know His Word (at least in measure) would not have anything to do with them. However, there are also high places that have so much good about them that good brethren, like Asa and Jehoshaphat, would spare them, and even attend meetings there. May the Lord help each one to abide by the Word of God. God does get delight from individual denominational believers, and some of them would put many of us to shame for their likeness to Christ. But, the only corporate gathering that has Scriptural support for its existence is composed of God's people gathered to the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ alone (Mt 18.20).
Return of Joy
There was a real return of joy during Hezekiah's revival. There are only two mentions of 'joy' in all the years of history of Israel and Judah prior to the books of Chronicles (1 Sam 18.6; 1 Kgs 1.40), and only two mentions of 'gladness' in 1 Chronicles (16.27; 29.22). Also, there are only two verses in the books of Chronicles where God is 'worshipped' (1 Chr 29.20; 2 Chr 7.3), prior to the reign of Hezekiah. By way of contrast (after the division of the nation into the ten northern tribes and Judah), in only four chapters that record Hezekiah's reign we read "Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people" (2 Chr 29.36), and "there was great joy in Jerusalem" (30.26). Also, the revival in Hezekiah's day greatly outshone that of all the other kings with regard to worship (29.28-30).
"And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also …" (29.27). Verses 28, 29 and 30 each record 'worship', and verses 27, 28 and 30 also have 'singing'. As Wilbur M Smith writes,
For three hundred years in Israel's history, since the days of David (1 Chr 25.7), we do not find a single reference to singing among the people of God until the revival that occurred under Hezekiah: "When the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also" (2 Chr 29.27). Indeed, "they sang praises with gladness" and, "Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people" (29.30, 36; 30.25). The joy was so abundant, its sources so deep, that the children of Israel "kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness … and the whole assembly took counsel to keep other seven days: and they kept other seven days with gladness" (30:21-23).
Being consciously in God's will always brings joy and happiness, as the Lord Jesus confirmed in John 13.17: "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." A similar thought is found in John 15.9-11. As the hymn writer put it,
When we walk with the Lord,
In the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey;
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.
There is no record of 'gladness', 'rejoicing', 'great joy' or 'worshipping' during Josiah's Passover, even though it was closer to the Word of God (2 Chr 35.18). Most likely there was more joy at Hezekiah's Passover, because in Josiah's day most of the people only turned to the Lord "feignedly" (Jer 3.10).
(Concluded)
