Spiritual progress involves growth and learning, but mostly it is fostered by happy obedience.
The Passover, in spite of the obstacles, had been a glorious success. In fact, we’re told that “since the time of Solomon…there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem” (2 Chron 30:26), a period of almost 250 years! That would be like us saying today that nothing similar had happened since the founding of America! What happened next? Their pleasure in God turned to passion for God. As they wended their way home, woe betide any place of worship for a make-believe god! They “broke the sacred pillars in pieces, cut down the wooden images, and threw down the high places and the altars—from all Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh—until they had utterly destroyed them all” (31:1). When you’ve tasted the real thing, the rancid imitation turns your stomach. Taking full advantage of this spiritual momentum, Hezekiah continued his reforms. First, he restored the arrangement of priests and Levites that David had established under the eye of God. They had the happy duty “to serve, to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camp of the Lord” (v 2). Serving looks forward to the tasks needing to be done. Thanking looks backward to the gifts that have been provided. Praising looks upward to the Person we adore. Then next, Hezekiah put his money where his heart was: “The king also appointed a portion of his possessions for the burnt offerings: for the morning and evening burnt offerings, the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths and the New Moons and the set feasts” (v 3). Third, he gave the people the opportunity to give, and did they ever! We’ll see in the next episode what happens when, like the first-century Macedonians, God’s people “first gave themselves to the Lord” (2 Cor 8:5) and then gave Him of their substance.