Getting Rid of What’s Bad
Even though Hezekiah didn’t see his life as a set of dos and don’ts, he certainly recognized what was dangerous and evil and got rid of it throughout the land of Judah.
Listen to what he did at the beginning of his reign: “He brought in the priests and the Levites, assembled them in the square on the east side and said: “Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the LORD, the God of your ancestors. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary…When they had assembled their fellow Levites and consecrated themselves, they went in to purify the temple of the LORD, as the king had ordered, following the word of the LORD. The priests went into the sanctuary of the LORD to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the LORD’S temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the LORD.” (2 Chronicles 29:4-5, 15–16 NIV11)
Cleansing Our Temples
Now remember, Jesus changed the Old Testament view of the temple. In Old Testament times, the temple represented God’s presence. Jesus changed this and said it doesn’t matter where you worship as long as you worship in spirit and in truth. Your HEART is where you worship, not a physical place. So in a sense, you are the temple.
And then Paul said it too: and “do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20 NIV11)
Hezekiah put in great effort to cleanse the temple in the Old Testament. What about us, and our temples, our bodies: are we cleansing them? Getting rid of the bad stuff that defiles us?
It reminds me of that kids’ song: oh be careful little eyes what you see… for the Father up above is looking down in love.
How about your eyes? Are there things you’re looking at that defile you? Do you need to cleanse your eyes of things that aren’t worth looking at on TV or the internet or somewhere else?
How about your ears? What are you hearing that defiles you? Music? Conversations with the wrong people?
How about your mouth? Are you speaking in ways that hurt and bring destruction to others? Or are you eating in a way that doesn’t honour God?
Or your hands, what are you doing that is dishonouring God and defiling your temple?
Now I know you may be thinking this sounds like a list of dos and don’ts. But it’s not about being legalistic here. It’s not about imposing a strict set of rules on Christians. It’s about making the most out of the life you’ve been given!!
Throwing Off That Which Hinders
Have a look at this verse from Hebrews: “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” (Hebrews 12:1–2 NIV11)
We get rid of the evil things in our lives, not to try and follow a set of rules but to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles so that we can run the race set before us!
Have you ever tried to run with stuff weighing you down? I know when people are training for big hikes they put books and heavy stuff in their backpacks to get used to walking with heavy weights. But if you’re running a race, you wouldn’t want to run with your backpack full of stuff! You wouldn’t try to run a race holding a bunch of bricks would you? You’d want to get rid of the things that weigh you down so that you can run more effectively…
This is what the writer to Hebrews was saying, throw off that things that hinder your walk with God! Isn’t this what Hezekiah was doing be cleaning the temple? He was cleansing it so that it could be a place that truly honoured God.
Take a Careful Look Within
Let’s take a careful look at our lives today. Let’s take an honest look and see what weighs us down, what we need to be rid of. Let’s cleanse our temples, with God’s help, so that we can be people who truly honour our God in all ways. Like Hezekiah.
