2 Chronicles 29 brings us to a powerful turning point for good in Judah. King Hezekiah came to the throne, and from his first day, he brought about reform and restoration to Judah. Though they were in bondage due to their former sin, King Hezekiah had the priests consecrate themselves, and then to take all the non-consecrated items from the Temple and to restore it. The process took sixteen days, and when it was completed, the priests and Levites offered burnt offerings. They sang songs of praise. The people brought offerings and sacrifices, and the ministry of the Temple was reestablished. One of the interesting points in the process is, the priests and Levites used the instruments David had constructed for their worship. We have read of foreign occupiers coming in and taking the gold shields from the Temple, and other instruments of gold and bronze, but they didn’t take the instruments for worship. How ironic, that the instruments of worship, in one sense the most valuable items in the Temple were considered of little worth to the foreign powers who invaded and took the items of value away. Now, they were available to re-implement true worship in Judah.
In 2 Chronicles 30, Hezekiah re-established the Passover. In doing so, he invited the inhabitants of Israel to join them, because the Passover hadn’t been celebrated for many years in either Judah or Israel. Many among the tribes in Israel laughed at the idea of celebrating Passover, but a number humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem for the celebration. The Passover feast was a time of worship such as had not been seen in Judah since the time of King Solomon. We’re told during the feast, King Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to the people, and reminded them of their heritage. While Passover itself was a somber and sacred remembrance of God’s mighty deliverance of the people of Israel in a time of great distress, the result of it being celebrated in Judah was great rejoicing. The Passover was required to last for seven days, but as a result of their return to the LORD and to His Passover, the people decided to celebrate together for an additional seven days. This is what made the celebration unlike anything that had been seen in Judah since the days of Solomon.
2 Chronicles 31 records Hezekiah’s re-establishing the priests and Levites throughout Judah, and his continuing reforms that brought the priesthood back into favor, and the worship of the LORD to levels of former faithfulness. Hezekiah provided the animals for sacrifice for the celebrations in the Temple and commanded the people to bring their tithes and offerings to the priests and Levites. The response was so great that storehouses needed to be added to the Temple to keep the excess that came. When a people, as a people, are so faithful to the LORD He promises to be with them and to bless them, and we’re told that throughout Hezekiah’s reign he did everything in service to the LORD with all his heart, and he prospered.
As we turn to Matthew 28, we read Matthew’s account of the resurrection. Matthew gives us some details the other gospels don’t. He tells us an angel appeared and caused an earthquake which rolled the stone away from Jesus’ tomb. The result of this was the guards froze and “became as dead men.” The angel spoke to the women who had come to finish embalming Jesus and told them Jesus had risen and would meet His disciples in Galilee. As they went to tell the disciples, the women came across Jesus Himself! He told them to have the disciples come to Galilee, too. When the guards realized what had happened, they went to town and told the Jewish leaders. The leaders gave them money and told them to say they had fallen asleep and the disciples had come and stolen Jesus’ body. They also told the guards if the Roman authorities heard about this, they would take care of it. The story has a couple of problems with it. First, a Roman soldier who fell asleep on his watch was executed. That makes the story bogus from the outset. The other thing is if they had, indeed, fallen asleep, then how could they know what happened? In any case, the story was circulated and believed by many.
Jesus did appear to the disciples in Galilee. We’re told when they saw Jesus, they worshiped Him but some doubted. While it might seem at first that the disciples ought all to have believed in Him, we must remember people don’t generally rise from the dead, and as much as they wanted that to happen, it had to have seemed incredible when it did. Jesus gave the disciples what we call the Great Commission and then returned to heaven. While John tells us Jesus stayed on the earth for forty days after His resurrection, Matthew’s record makes it seem like the disciples only got to see Him briefly on this one occasion and then Jesus returned to heaven. That is not necessarily the case. For Matthew the important matters to record were that Jesus rose, the disciples saw Him and received commands from Him, and then He returned to heaven. For Matthew the overall time Jesus was with the disciples wasn’t an important detail, so he left it out of his record of Jesus’ life, teaching, death, resurrection and return to heaven. The details he did record give us a fuller picture of Jesus’ resurrection than if he had not left it for us. The key takeaway from Matthew 28 for us is Jesus is alive and He calls us to go into all the world and make disciples. I wrote this post originally from the “Lucky Guesthouse” in Sisiphon, Cambodia, while with a team of twenty-five people from New Life. That is one example of how nearly 2,000 years later, Jesus’ followers are still fulfilling that original command!