Hezekiah's Great Passover

A runner races along a dusty road, a sealed letter in his hand. He reaches a village, reads it out in the square, and runs on to the next. And the next. All the way from the southern desert to the far north. It is an invitation.

Hezekiah has become king of Judah. His father, King Ahaz, had shut the doors of the temple and set up altars to other gods all over Jerusalem. Hezekiah, in his very first month, opened the doors again and had the temple cleaned and repaired. Now he wants more. He wants the people to keep the Passover, the great feast remembering how God rescued Israel from Egypt. It has been neglected for a long time. And Hezekiah wants to invite not only Judah, but the people of the north too, the tribes of Israel, whose own kingdom had been crushed by Assyria. Many of their families had been carried away. Those left behind were scattered and broken.

There is a problem with the timing. Passover should be kept in the first month, but not enough priests have made themselves ready, and the people have not had time to gather. So the king, his officials and the whole assembly agree to keep it in the second month instead. Then the runners go out, with letters from the king, from Beersheba in the south to Dan in the north. And this is the message they carry. People of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, so that he may return to you who are left. Do not be stubborn like your ancestors. Come to his sanctuary. Serve the LORD your God. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn his face away from you, if you return to him.

The runners go from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun. And people laugh at them. They mock them. Come to Jerusalem? After all this? But not everyone laughs. Some people from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humble themselves and come. And in Judah, God gives the people one heart to do what the king has asked. A very large crowd gathers in Jerusalem. First they tear down the altars to other gods that still fill the city, and throw them into the Kidron valley. Then they kill the Passover lambs. The priests and Levites, ashamed that they had not been ready, make themselves holy and take their places. But many of the visitors from the north have not had the chance to purify themselves as the law required. They eat the Passover anyway. So Hezekiah prays for them. May the good LORD pardon everyone who sets their heart on seeking God, the God of their ancestors, even if they are not clean by the rules of the sanctuary. And the LORD hears Hezekiah, and heals the people.

For seven days they keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread with great joy. Every day the Levites and priests praise the LORD with loud instruments. Hezekiah speaks encouragingly to the Levites who had served so well. And then, when the seven days are over, the whole assembly agrees to keep going for another seven days. Hezekiah gives a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep for the people to share. His officials give a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep more. Judah and the visitors from Israel and the foreigners living in the land all celebrate together. There was great joy in Jerusalem. Nothing like it had happened since the days of Solomon, more than two hundred years before. Finally the priests and Levites stand and bless the people. And their voice is heard. Their prayer rises all the way to heaven, God's holy dwelling.

Moving Passover to the second month was not something Hezekiah simply invented. Back in the wilderness, the book of Numbers records that some men could not keep Passover on time because they were ceremonially unclean. God then gave a rule. Anyone unclean, or away on a long journey, could keep the Passover one month later, in the second month, on the fourteenth day.

Hezekiah's great Passover. You'll find it in Second Chronicles chapter thirty. A king who invited everyone home, some who laughed, many who came, and a God who is gracious and merciful and does not turn his face away. So here is a question to carry with you. Who could you invite to come back to God, and how?