2 Chronicles 28-29: Getting Back on Track

We trace Judah’s fall under Ahaz—idolatry, closed temple, failed alliances—and the swift, grounded reform of Hezekiah, who reopens the doors, restores worship, and leads a nation back to covenant. Practical steps close the episode: Scripture, prayer, praise, and costly, honest change.

• Ahaz’s idolatry and national humiliation
• Prophetic rebuke and mercy toward captives
• Foreign help fails and pride deepens
• Hezekiah opens the temple and repairs
• Consecration of priests and Levites
• Sacrifice, music, and communal worship restored
• Practical habits to return to God
• Repentance as reopening, not performance

Today’s the day to get back on track.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage In Chronicles
• 1:48 Ahaz’s Idolatry And National Decline
• 4:39 Prophetic Rebuke And Mercy To Captives
• 6:41 Foreign Alliances Fail And Pride Deepens
• 8:33 Hezekiah’s First-Year Temple Renewal
• 11:16 Consecration, Worship, And Restored Service
• 13:39 Practical Steps To Get Back On Track

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:11

Welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. This is Mike. We're reading through the book of 2 Chronicles. Last episode we read about a few kings who generally were good kings, and that has been the case with 2 Chronicles as we follow the line of the kings of the southern kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of Judah. Generally, they've been good kings with longer reigns. They followed the Lord for the most part. As we saw last time, sometimes they follow the Lord and the Lord gives them success, and then that success goes to their head, and that results in pride, and then that results in their downfall and a bit of a tainted legacy that seems to be unfortunately common with these kings. But for the most part, they've been good kings that are following the Lord. And the book of 2 Chronicles really only focuses on these southern kings of Judah, which come from the line of David. And it's really a great book to see every king in line here is an answer to God's promise. It is an evidence of God's promise to David that his covenant, that he would always have a king on the throne. And that goes all the way to Jesus, who ultimately will remain on the throne forevermore. So the promise will never be complete. It will always just be Jesus on the throne, ultimately in the end. Until then, we've got some king problems. And while God is faithful, his people and his kings are not always faithful. And today, well, we're going to read about a bit of a slip, a little bit of a bump here in the line. We're going to read starting with King Ahaz, who is the son of King Jotham, who was a good king. Jotham was a good king. Now we're going to read about his son. And well, it makes you wonder what happened. But we'll go on from there and start the story of Hezekiah in chapter 29. Now, next episode, we're going to talk about Hezekiah more because we know more about him. We've got more story to tell. We'll get to that next time. But uh for right now, let's check out this little bit of uh uh getting off track and then starting to get back on track here in the line of the kings of Judah from 2 Chronicles 28 through 29 in the New English Translation. Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem, and he did not do what pleased the Lord, in contrast to his ancestor David. He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel. He also made images of the Baals. He offered sacrifices in the valley of Ben Hinnam, and he passed his sons through the fire, a horrible sin practiced by the nations whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites. He offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. Isn't it noticeable, by the way, how these satanic sins just stand in stark contrast to what God says? That's all Satan does. If God says something, he runs and does the opposite and drives people to do the same. They say, Don't worship any other gods before me. Satan's like, here, look at all of these gods that you can worship. God says you will offer sacrifices in the temple in Jerusalem and nowhere else. Well then he goes and offers sacrifices anywhere else, under any given green tree. If God says children are uh your arrows and your quiver and a blessing from the Lord, and you raise them right, Satan says kill 'em. Gee whiz. Alright, just makes me mad. Back to verse five. The Lord his God handed him over to the king of Syria. The Syrians defeated him and deported many captives to Damascus. He was also handed over to the king of Israel who thoroughly defeated him. In one day Pika, son of Ramaliah, who by the way was the king of Israel and was a very evil king, he was actually a general who assassinated the king and took over, so he's not a good dude, but God's using him anyway. He killed 120,000 warriors in Judah because they had abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors. Zikri, an Ephraimite warrior, killed the king's son Masaya, Azrachan, the supervisor of the palace, and Al Kanah, the king's second in command. The Israelites seized from their brothers two hundred thousand wives, sons, and daughters. They also carried off a huge amount of plunder and took it back to Samaria. Oded, a prophet of the Lord, was there. He went to meet the army as they arrived in Samaria, and said to them, Look, because the Lord God of your ancestors was angry with Judah, he handed them over to you. You've killed them so mercilessly that God has taken notice, and now you're planning to enslave the people of Judah and Jerusalem? Yet are you not also guilty before the Lord your God? Now listen to me, send back those you've seized from your brothers, for the Lord's very angry at you. So some of the Ephraimite family leaders, Azariah son of Jehochannon, Barekiah son of Meshilemoth, Jezekiah son of Shalem, and Amasa son of Hadle, confronted those returning from the battle, and they said to them, Don't bring those captives here. Are you planning on making us even more sinful and guilty before the Lord? Our guilt is already great, and the Lord is very angry at Israel. So the soldiers released the captives and the plunder before the officials and the entire assembly. Men were assigned to take the prisoners and find clothes among the plunder for those who were naked. So they clothed them, supplied them with sandals, gave them food and drink, and provided them with oil to rub on their skin. They put the ones who couldn't walk on donkeys. They brought them back to their brothers at Jericho, the city of Date palm trees, and then returned to Samaria. At that time King Ahaz asked the king of Assyria for help. The Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah and carried off captives. The Philistines had raided the cities of Judah in the foothills and the Negev, and they captured and settled in Beth Shemesh, Igelon, Gedaroth, Succo, and its surrounding villages, Timnah and its surrounding villages, and Gimzo and its surrounding villages. The Lord humiliated Judah because of King Ahaz of Israel, for he encouraged Judah to sin, and was very unfaithful to the Lord. King Tiglath Palazar of Assyria came, but he gave him more trouble than support. Ahaz gathered riches from the Lord's temple, the royal palace, and the officials and gave them to the king of Assyria, but that didn't help. At this point you almost hope that, like, all right, now are you going to turn to the Lord? You went to the king of Assyria and he didn't help, but like now are you going to go to the Lord for help? Well, verse 22, during his time of trouble, King Ahaz was even more unfaithful to the Lord. He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus, whom he thought had defeated him. He reasoned, Well, since the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I'll sacrifice to them so they'll help me. But they caused him and all Israel to stumble. Ahaz gathered the items in God's temple and removed them. He shut the doors of the Lord's temple and erected altars on every street corner in Jerusalem. In every city throughout Judah, he set up high places to offer sacrifices to other gods. He angered the Lord God of his ancestors. The rest of the events of Ahaz's reign, including his accomplishments from start to finish, are recorded in the scroll of the kings of Judah and Israel. Ahaz passed away and was buried in the city of Jerusalem. They did not bring him to the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son, Hezekiah, replaced him as king. The son of that guy can't be any good, huh? Well, chapter twenty nine. Hezekiah was twenty five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty nine years in Jerusalem. His mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. He did what the Lord approved, just as his ancestor David had done. Phew. When the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the Lord's temple and repaired them. That's a good start. He brought in the priests and Levites and assembled them in the square on the east side, and he said to them, Listen to me, you Levites. Now consecrate yourselves so that you can consecrate the temple of the Lord God of your ancestors. Remove from the sanctuary what is ceremonially unclean. For our fathers were unfaithful, and they did what's evil in the sight of the Lord our God and abandoned him. They turned away from the Lord's dwelling place and rejected him. They closed the doors of the temple porch and put out the lamps. They didn't offer incense or burnt sacrifices in the sanctuary of the God of Israel. The Lord was angry at Judah and Jerusalem and made them an appalling object of horror, at which people hiss out their scorn, as you can see with your own eyes. Look, our fathers died violently, and our sons, daughters, and wives were carried off because of this. Now I intend to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel so that he may relent from his raging anger. My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him, to be his ministers, and offer sacrifices. The following Levites prepared to carry out the king's orders, from the Kohethites, Mahath, son of Amasai, and Joel, son of Azariah, from the Merites, Kish, son of Abdi, and Azariah son of Jehalelel, from the Gershonites, Joah, son of Zima, and Eden, son of Joah, from the descendants of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jael, from the descendants of Asaph, Zechariah and Mataniah, from the descendants of Hemon, Jehiel, and Shimi, and from the descendants of Jenathan, Shimei, and Uziel. They assembled their brothers and consecrated themselves. They went in to purify the Lord's temple, just as the king had ordered, in accordance with the word of the Lord. The priests then entered the Lord's temple to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the Lord's temple every ceremonially unclean thing they discovered inside. The Levites took them out to the Kidron Valley. On the first day of the first month they began consecrating. By the eighth day of the month, they reached the porch of the Lord's temple, and for eight more days they consecrated the Lord's temple, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they were finished. They went to King Hezekiah and said, We've purified the entire temple of the Lord, including the altar of burnt sacrifice and all its equipment, and the table for the bread of the presence and all its equipment. We've prepared and consecrated all the items that King Ahaz removed during his reign when he acted unfaithfully. They're in front of the altar of the Lord. Early the next morning King Hezekiah assembled the city officials and went up to the Lord's temple. They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, the sanctuary, and Judah. The king told the priests, the descendants of Aaron, to offer burnt sacrifices on the altar of the Lord. They slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and splashed it on the altar. Then they slaughtered the rams and splashed the blood on the altar, then they slaughtered the lambs and splashed the blood on the altar. Finally they brought the goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly, and placed their hands on them. Then the priests slaughtered them. They offered their blood as a sin offering on the altar to make atonement for all Israel, because the king had decreed that the burnt offering and sin offering were for all Israel. Hezekiah stationed the Levites in the Lord's temple with cymbals and stringed instruments, just as David, Gad, the king's prophet, and Nathan the prophet had ordered. The Lord had actually given these orders through his prophets. The Levites had David's musical instruments, and the priests had trumpets. Hezekiah ordered the burnt sacrifice to be offered on the altar, and as they began to sacrifice, they also began to sing to the Lord, accompanied by the trumpets and the musical instruments of King David of Israel. The entire assembly worshiped, as the singers sang and the trumpeters played. This continued until the burnt sacrifice was completed. When the sacrifices were completed, the king and all who were with him bowed down and worshipped. King Hezekiah and the officials told the Levites to praise the Lord using the Psalms of David and Asaph the prophet. So they joyfully offered praise and bowed down and worshipped. Hezekiah said, Now you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord. Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the Lord's temple. So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and whoever desired to do so brought burnt sacrifices. The assembly brought a total of seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs as burnt sacrifices to the Lord, and six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep were consecrated. But there were not enough priests to skin all the animals, so their brothers, the Levites, helped them until the work was finished and the priests could consecrate themselves. The Levites had been more conscientious about consecrating themselves than the priests. There was a large number of burnt sacrifices, as well as fat from the peace offerings and drink offerings that accompanied the burnt sacrifices. So the service of the Lord's temple was reinstituted. Hezekiah and all the people were happy about what God had done for them, for it had been done quickly. Hezekiah showed us what it looks like to get back on track with God. Because look, I get it, we don't stay faithful all the time. Sometimes it's generational, and our parents and grandparents were not faithful to the Lord, but we feel compelled to write the ship, so to speak, in our own lives. Sometimes in our own life. Maybe it's been a man. Maybe there's a lot of mistakes we made and regrets we have from the past decades. And we feel the Holy Spirit nudging us to get back on track. What do we do? Well, Hezekiah started with you know what? Let's get back to the things that God wanted us to do in the first place. Get back into the Bible. Just voice a prayer. Go back to communicating with him. Even if just for a little bit. However raw, however uncomfortable it may feel at first, get back to that. And like Hezekiah led the people to do, sing, get into praise. If you're not into singing, then play some worship music. Have it around you. Replace whatever you were listening to with something that points attention back to God and can reflect your own heart and reflect God's heart back to you. And finally, you may need to make some sacrifices. You may need to give up some things that you had been doing. You may need to give some more time or even money or attention in ways that you had not been doing before. Something that costs you a little bit, but it's putting skin back in the game. And to be clear, none of this is about doing a checklist or doing the right things or works to get back into God's good graces. This is just the process of reopening the temple. This is just opening the doors and repairing them and putting God back at the center where he belongs. Take these steps today, and I think you're gonna be pleased with a result because God will be pleased with your heart. Today's the day to get back on track. Go out and do it. Journey on. We'll see you next time.