Understanding Grace; Spiritual Return – Recovery. 2 Kings 18; 2 Chronicles 29-31; Leviticus 8-9

What has concerned a lot of Christians down through the ages is the issue of what in the world can we do with the whole problem of sin and guilt? Sin is that which violates the standard of God. In the Old Testament there are some four or five different words that describe sin. The basic word indicates missing the mark, falling short of God’s standard, not hitting the target. Then there is another word that indicates a violation of God’s law, a trespass. Another indicates more the nature of sin itself, iniquity. Then there are some lesser words that are also used at different times. So there is a full sense of sin expressed in the Old Testament, and this is visualized in the Old Testament in the ritual of the tabernacle and the temple because every time a worshipper would come to the tabernacle or the temple in order to come before God and in order to worship God they had to bring a sacrifice. They all focus upon the fact that before a worshipper can come into the presence of God something has to be done. There is the problem of uncleanness, sin, guilt, unintentional sins and intentional sins. So it was all of these various sacrifices that were brought to the tabernacle that provided ritual cleansing for sin. In the process of most of the sacrifices there is the sacrifice of a lamb, a ram, a bull, a goat, and in some cases of those who were poor and could not afford to bring one of these they would bring a bird, a dove. Each one of these sacrifices depict certain aspects of what needs to be done in order to solve this enormous problem of sin that hinders the relationship between the individual and God. What God was pointing out in all of those individual sacrifices was that there is nothing the individual can do on his own, that all sin has to be dealt with on the basis of a death.

The day of atonement in Israel was a national day of atonement, but it had to go year after year, it only covered the nation until the next year. It was a highly instructive ritual because the priest would take two goats and place his hand on it, and this was a picture of identification, a picture that the sin of the worshipper was being passed to the sacrificial animal. The penalty was then going to be paid by that sacrificial animal. The high priest would take the two goats on the day of atonement, place his hand upon those goats, picturing the transfer of the sins of the people to the goats. One goat would be killed because the penalty for sin is death and the other one would be let go. This scapegoat would be taken out into the desert far enough to where the goat couldn’t find his way back. The picture of that was that when God removes the sin of the believer it is removed permanently and is not going to come back, and God is the one who can completely deal with sin.

The other problem we have with sin is guilt, and we used the term “guilt” in one of two ways. We use it in an objective ways and we use it in a subjective way. The objective way refers to guilt for breeching the law, violating a standard: you are guilty. The other kind of guilt is guilt feelings. This is when we beat up on ourselves because we’ve done something we shouldn’t have done and we’ve gotten caught and have to take the penalty. Then there are people who just feel guilty because they should—the trend of their personality or sin nature—and just whatever happens they feel guilty. That weighs a person down. It is like a psychological or emotional shackle and it is very destructive to spiritual life. When the sin penalty is paid it wipes out both. It pays the penalty for the infraction which covers the sin so that the violation is dealt with. Objective real guilt has been paid for and is removed. But if we act guilty, think we are guilty, respond in a subjectively guilty state of mind, what we are saying is that the payment really didn’t do it and we have to add something to it by our own acts of remorse and contrition and guilt feelings. That is just a denial of the objective reality of the payment and when it comes to spiritual things it becomes a sin because what we are basically saying is that on the one hand we believe Christ paid for my sins but on the other hand I’ve got to add a little remorse, guilt and contrition to it because if I don’t add something to what Christ did then something must be wrong. The whole point in the gospel is that Jesus Christ paid it all. When he died on the cross He said, tetelestai [tetelestai], It is finished! The payment was made in full; you can’t come back and add more to it.

In Israel in the period of the late eighth century, around 730-700 BC, there is a tremendous amount of guilt, especially because of the evil reign of Ahaz. This is described in 2 Kings 15 and also in 2 Chronicles 28. Ahaz was not the worst king in the southern kingdom of Judah, he was probably the second worst. His grandson Manasseh was the worst, the most evil of the kings in the south. Ahaz became king when he was twenty years old, he reigned for sixteen years, and from the very beginning, as soon as his father died—Jotham was very oriented to serving the Lord and was a good king—the restraints were off and Ahaz immediately took a high dive, deep into the idolatry of the northern kingdom. He burned his children in the fire—child sacrifice. As a result of that the southern kingdom was virtually brought to its knees, it was one of the most horrible times economically in the nation, personally, and there was military conquest again and again, and we are told: 2 Chronicles 28:19 ^NASB “For the LORD humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had brought about a lack of restraint in Judah and was very unfaithful to the LORD.” That is the reason for the collapse. The ultimate causation for everything in life is spiritual, not physical.

Ahaz, we are told, went even further. 2 Chronicles 28:23 ^NASB “For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him, and said, ‘Because the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.’ But they became the downfall of him and all Israel. [24] “Moreover, when Ahaz gathered together the utensils of the house of God, he cut the utensils of the house of God in pieces; and he closed the doors of the house of the LORD and made altars for himself in every corner of Jerusalem.” He had an altar constructed to go into the entry of the temple that was based on the pagan altar he found in Damascus, so he brought full pagan worship into the temple of God. He shut the doors of the temple so that nobody could go in there and thus basically removed God from having any presence, any reality in the life of the nation. Then he built his own altars all over Jerusalem. As a result God brought discipline on him and he died at a rather young age. The more God brought discipline upon him the more rebellious and the more hostile to God he became. We often see that happen in individuals as well as cultures.

The last few statements about him in 2 Chronicles 28 are in vv. 26,27 ^NASB “Now the rest of his acts and all his ways, from first to last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. So Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.” How Hezekiah got to be the man he was we don’t know because he got no example from his father. Maybe he asked the question: Why is this happening to us? And we know there were prophets in the southern kingdom at this time—Micah, Hosea, and especially Isaiah—and perhaps he came under their influence as a young man and believed their message that the reason the nation was in such a state of collapse was because of their spiritual condition. He decided to do things completely differently from his father and he was completely oriented to God’s plan and His Word. So Hezekiah’s reign is the highest point in the nation’s spiritual history and prosperity since the time of David and Solomon. In terms of the three greatest kings in the history of Israel and Judah there was David, Hezekiah, and Josiah. 2 Chronicles 31:20 ^NASB “Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah; and he did what {was} good, right and true before the LORD his God. [21] Every work which he began in the service of the house of God in law and in commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and prospered.”

Ahaz went after all of the ways to win friends and influence people and to produce prosperity by worshipping at the altars of the fertility gods and it brought him destruction. Hezekiah recognized that the real source of prosperity, not simply material prosperity, all starts with prosperity and health in the soul and is based on a relationship with God. If that is not right it doesn’t matter what else is going on. As a result of the fact that he put his dedication completely on God because it was the right thing to do God then blessed him and he prospered, and the nation prospered and had one of the greatest periods of prosperity they had ever known because he was oriented to the grace of God.

In 2 Kings 18 we have the introduction of the reign of Hezekiah. The first seven verses summarizes everything that is in 2 Chronicles 29-31. 2 Kings 18:1 ^NASB “Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king. [2] He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. [3] He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done.” He couldn’t get a higher rate of approval than that. Verses 4-6 focus on his spiritual values. [4] “He removed the high places and broke down the {sacred} pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan. [5] He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor {among those} who were before him. [6] For he clung to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses. [7] And the LORD was with him; wherever he went he prospered. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.”

The details are in 2 Chronicles 29. In this chapter Hezekiah comes to the throne and his highest priority is a spiritual relationship with God. That has to be first. He understands that if that is not right it doesn’t matter what else he does it will be a failure. The first thing is to get right with God, and how is that done? It is done on the basis of what God has said ought to be done. God has already told the Israelites in the Mosaic law how they are to come into His presence and how they are to serve Him. So Hezekiah has to go back and look at what God says is the authority and to do things exactly as God said to do them, and then they will have spiritual renewal in the land. Once they have that spiritual recovery take place then they can worship God. Chapter 30 is when he reads and states the observance of the Passover. This is the first time in at least 16 years that there has been a national observance of the Passover because all of this was basically outlawed during the apostate reign of Ahaz. Then chapter 31 further describes all of the spiritual reforms that Hezekiah introduced as he carried out the implications of the law into the rest of the nation. These three chapters cover what is summarized in 2 Kings 18:1-7.

2 Chronicles 29:1 ^NASB “Hezekiah became king {when he was} twenty-five years old; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name {was} Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. [2] He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done.” Notice the first thing he did was to clean the temple ritually. This involved three things. There had to be a ritual cleansing of the temple, there had to be a cleansing of the priesthood, and then there had to be a cleansing of the people.

2 Chronicles 29:3 ^NASB “In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them. [4] He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the square on the east.” The front door of the temple faced east. [5] Then he said to them, ‘Listen to me, O Levites. Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place.” What this is referring to is all of the trash, and even at one time idols had been put in there by Ahaz. To understand what is going on here we have to have a good handle on three key words. The first is the word that is usually translated “atonement,” kaphar. The second is qadash, the third is tahar. These three words are always used in these ritual cleansing passages. The word kaphar is a word that is sometimes spoken to mean to wipe or to cover something, but it really doesn’t mean to cover. There is a word that means to cover but most linguists today believe that is a separate word. When you look at this particular word in the ritual context it has two different meanings. One is the idea of appeasing the justice of God in the sense of propitiating God or satisfying His justice and righteousness. Then it also has the idea of cleansing. What is interesting is that this word when it is translated in the Septuagint it is often translated with the word katharizo [kaqarizw], the Greek word for cleansing. What it refers to is the objective act that produces cleansing. That is how it differs from the third word we are looking at, tahar which has to do with the application of the atoning sacrifice, which produces cleansing. The other word is qadash which means something is set apart for the service of God. Immaterial object such as the censors in the temple could be holy. Holiness has nothing to do with morality, it has to do with service, how something is set apart for the service of God. In the NKJV qadash is often translated, at least in 2 Chronicles 29 & 30, with the word “sanctify,” whereas in the NASB it translates with the word “consecrate.”

Remember the situation is that nationally the people have been apostate and in rebellion against God, they are unclean, the temple is unclean. They can’t come before God’s presence, they can’t worship Him; something has to solve the problem. The first thing that has to happen is there has to be a cleansing, and it starts with the priesthood because the priests are the ones who oversee all of the ritual and all of the sacrificial system. Secondly, the priests have to sanctify the house of the Lord, the temple. This is going to involve various sacrifices that are described in Leviticus chapters 8 & 9. So the command is given in verse 4 to sanctify themselves and then the house of God. That doesn’t mean that they remove sin in their life; they can’t do that. We will continue to sin one way or another until the day we die. That is not a justification or a rationalization; that is a reality. But God has solved the problem, that is what the sacrifices are all about and that is what the payment for sin by Christ is all about; we can’t do it on our own and we are never going to solve the problem on our own. That doesn’t mean that we can’t have a measure of cleanup, but it is not the first thing that happens. The first thing has to be following the prescription of God for cleansing.

Then the reason is given: 2 Chronicles 29:6 ^NASB “For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the LORD our God, and have forsaken Him and turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the LORD, and have turned {their} backs.” There are a lot of different sins that are listed in the Bible. But they are not how the Bible is defining evil here, it is always in relationship to faithlessness toward God; it is always defined in terms of idolatry. The way that the fathers trespassed and did evil is foundational. They forsook [abandoned] God and they turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord, and they turned their backs on Him. The result was they shut up the doors of the temple and basically closed it down and went on to do other things.

The basis for the cleansing is found in Leviticus 8 & 9. There is a specific order that is there. First, Aaron and his sons have to be sanctified, consecrated-chapter eight. Then, and only then, do they consecrate the people. That consecration involves washing with water, which was a complete body wash, a bath, which pictures the complete and total cleansing from sin. After that they never had to do a complete body wash again ritually, they just had to wash their hands and feet whenever they came into the temple. This pictures dealing with sins that have affected them since their initial full cleansing. In verse 10 they are anointed with oil. Leviticus 8:10 “Moses then took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and consecrated them. [11] He sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times and anointed the altar and all its utensils, and the basin and its stand, to consecrate them. [12] Then he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him, to consecrate him.” Then there is the sacrifice. There is a bull for the sin offering, v. 14, and they would take the blood from the sin offering and apply it to the bronze altar outside. That consecrated or set it apart, and then they had to apply that to all of the other articles of furniture. Then there is a ram that is offered as a burnt offering, v. 18, and a second ram offered, v. 22, a burnt offering in v. 28. All of these are consecration offerings. The picture of the burn offering was that the entire animal is consumed in the fire and the smoke goes up to God, picturing a complete dedication to God and His service. All of these took place in order to set the priesthood apart.

In chapter 9 we see the same thing. There is the seven-day period of the consecration of the priests and then a second week time period that follows that, so it took the first seven days to sanctify the priesthood and then there is the sanctification of the people. They have sin offerings and burnt offerings in verse 2, and notice these animals were always without spot or blemish. This prefigures the fact that Jesus Christ was sinless, without spot or blemish. In verse 7 there are various offerings “that you may make atonement for yourself and for the people; then make the offering for the people, that you may make atonement for them, just as the LORD has commanded.” These sacrifices involved an enormous number of animals and it was extremely bloody.

Hezekiah goes back to the law and instigates this cleansing action that takes place; it is all based on the prescriptions given in Leviticus. 2 Chronicles 29:15 ^NASB “They assembled their brothers, consecrated themselves, and went in to cleanse the house of the LORD, according to the commandment of the king by the words of the LORD. [16] So the priests went in to the inner part of the house of the LORD to cleanse {it,} and every unclean thing which they found in the temple of the LORD they brought out to the court of the house of the LORD. Then the Levites received {it} to carry out to the Kidron valley. [17] Now they began the consecration on the first {day} of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they entered the porch of the LORD. Then they consecrated the house of the LORD in eight days, and finished on the sixteenth day of the first month.”

Then Hezekiah came in to begin to restore the sacrifices, vv. 20, 21, “They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs and seven male goats for a sin offering for the kingdom, the sanctuary, and Judah. And he ordered the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer {them} on the altar of the LORD.” They followed all of the prescriptions given in Leviticus. There is a tremendous amount of gore taking place. What is the purpose of this? It is to drive home the point that sin is terrible and the consequences of paying for sin is also something that is horrible. Nevertheless those animal sacrifices could not permanently take away sin. Again and again the people had to keep coming back bringing sacrifices.

When come to the New Testament we realize that the only way we can be sanctified or consecrated to God is if there is a payment for sin, and that is what took place on the cross when Jesus Christ died as the sacrifice and as the one who paid the penalty for that. Hebrew 10:3 ^NASB “But in those {sacrifices} there is a reminder of sins year by year. [4] For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Only the sacrifice of someone perfect, a human being who could be a true substitute for human beings, could produce a true payment for sin. [11] “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; [12] but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, [13] waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. [14] For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified [set apart to God].”

So the picture we should be left with is that the people are being ritually set apart to God, the temple is being cleansed, so that now they can have a restored relationship to God. But the basis is not on what they do, not on the basis of their morality, not on the basis of their works; it is on the basis of a sacrifice that must be made in order to pay the penalty in order to provide that cleansing from sin. That can only happen because somebody else does it, and that is fulfilled in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Illustrations