A Heart for Worship
A fourth thing I like about King Hezekiah is his heart for worship.
When he took over, the temple had been closed, and the people of Judah were kept from worshipping their God in their usual ways.
And so he reopened the temple, cleaned it up as we saw on Tuesday, and then we read this: “Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh (the two main tribes in the Northern Kingdom), inviting them to come to the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel. The king and his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month.” (2 Chronicles 30:1–2 NIV11)
And so they all came and worshipped, there was much singing and celebrating, and we read: “The whole assembly then agreed to celebrate the festival seven more days; so for another seven days they celebrated joyfully… The entire assembly of Judah rejoiced, along with the priests and Levites and all who had assembled from Israel, including the foreigners who had come from Israel and also those who resided in Judah. There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place.” (2 Chronicles 30:23–27 NIV11)
Rediscovering the Joy of Corporate Worship
Hezekiah’s great legacy was that he reopened the temple for the people to worship again.
Worship was central to the identity of the Jewish people. Remember the Exodus? The Jews were slaves in Egypt and their great desire was to be able to go and worship their God together. God told Moses to tell Pharoah: ‘This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” (Exodus 8:1)
WORSHIP was essential in their lives. It was fundamental to Jewish identity. Gathering together to give God glory and sing and pray and honour him - this was so important to them. Hezekiah led them back to that sort of lifestyle.
Worship has changed in these times, since COVID. We are happy to live stream services, to listen to Christian music and a devotion by ourselves - and we must do that. Personal and private worship is beautiful, and helpful.
But I fear that in today’s world, we have lost our heart for worshipping with the community! We’ve lost that drive to come together and worship together as a family in faith!!!
Jesus Worshipped With Others
Constance Cherry wrote a wonderful book called Worship Like Jesus in which she says this: “Something very different happens when worshipers assemble for public, rather than private, occasions of worship. Worship is the unique and essential gathering of God’s people as a local body of Christian disciples.”
She goes on to talk about how Jesus was involved in communal worship… he played the role of reader during worship, of interpreter, of lead singer… he would pronounce blessings, he would lead prayers… he was a communal worshipper. He loved communal worship!
The chapter ends with this great paragraph: “How would Jesus worship if he were here among us today? He would enter in as a full participant within a local fellowship of worshipers. He would take up his formal leadership roles in the community. He would engage in informal occasions for worship. In short, he would invest totally in worship, as one of the community but also for the sake of the community, contributing to the rich experience of all. Do you hear the call—the call of Jesus? “Come follow me . . . by participating fully in the community of worshipers where God has placed you.”
Hezekiah reintroduced this to his people. Jesus fulfilled it perfectly later on. Maybe today, we learn from them in this way. Maybe today we commit to becoming part of a worshipping community! Not just to consume church related content, but to come alongside others, worship with them, identify with them as worshippers of the one true God.
Be a worshipper at heart… like Hezekiah, and indeed like Jesus.
