Hezekiah Sets The Example

During the time they celebrated the feast of weeks and the week following, the priests had spent a great deal of time teaching the people what God had commanded, and the people realized many of the things they had accepted as normal were in fact wrong.  For more than three hundred years, both Israel and Judah had accepted worshipping in the high places which frequently led to idolatry.  After two weeks of teaching, the people were inspired for the first time to try to stop it, as II Chronicles 31:1 describes.  “Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.” 

Other kings had tried to stop the Idolatry and worship in the high places.  Hezekiah approached the problem differently, spending time teaching the people God’s word.  As a result the people recognized changes they needed to make to please Him, and began to make the necessary changes.  As a result, they destroyed all the high places they had used for the last three hundred years, even in the states along the border of between Israel and Judah before returning home. 

Encouraged by the people’s reasponse, Hezekiah went further, restoring the old responsibilities of the priests and Levites, personally providing the sacrifices for the daily sacrifices and the specified special sacrifices for the nation each year, according to II Chronicles 31:2-3.  “And Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and the Levites after their courses, every man according to his service, the priests and Levites for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the tents of the LORD.  He appointed also the king's portion of his substance for the burnt offerings, to wit, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the LORD.”

With Hezekiah setting the Example, he had no problem getting the people to do more than their share, as we see in II Chronicles 31:4-8.  “Moreover he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of the LORD.  And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly.

And concerning the children of Israel and Judah, that dwelt in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of holy things which were consecrated unto the LORD their God, and laid them by heaps.  In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month.  And when Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD, and his people Israel.

Hezekiah had only asked the people in Jerusalem to tithe and give to support their priests.  People from outside Jerusalem heard and began to give as well, and it wasn’t long before they had more than they needed to at the moment.  Realizing that things could happen, Hezekiah commanded that the remainder be stored to meet future needs of the people, in II Chronicles 31:9-19.  “Then Hezekiah questioned with the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps.  And Azariah the chief priest of the house of Zadok answered him, and said, Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the LORD, we have had enough to eat, and have left plenty: for the LORD hath blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store.

 Then Hezekiah commanded to prepare chambers in the house of the LORD; and they prepared them, And brought in the offerings and the tithes and the dedicated things faithfully: over which Cononiah the Levite was ruler, and Shimei his brother was the next.  And Jehiel, and Azaziah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah, were overseers under the hand of Cononiah and Shimei his brother, at the commandment of Hezekiah the king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God.  And Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the porter toward the east, was over the freewill offerings of God, to distribute the oblations of the LORD, and the most holy things.

And next him were Eden, and Miniamin, and Jeshua, and Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, in their set office, to give to their brethren by courses, as well to the great as to the small: Beside their genealogy of males, from three years old and upward, even unto every one that entereth into the house of the LORD, his daily portion for their service in their charges according to their courses; Both to the genealogy of the priests by the house of their fathers, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, in their charges by their courses; And to the genealogy of all their little ones, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, through all the congregation: for in their set office they sanctified themselves in holiness: Also of the sons of Aaron the priests, which were in the fields of the suburbs of their cities, in every several city, the men that were expressed by name, to give portions to all the males among the priests, and to all that were reckoned by genealogies among the Levites.”

While one man was in charge of storing all the goods, all the priest were involved in seeing that the needs were met.  It was typical of Hezekiah that he did to everything he did for God the best he possibly could, as II Chronicles 31:20-21 tells us.  “And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah, and wrought that which was good and right and truth before the LORD his God.  And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.”  Because He set the example for serving God, the people followed.