Our Bodies, God's Temples (Hezekiah Part 1)

As you probably well know by now, I have really been getting into studying the lives of the Biblical kings lately. I've been richly blessed as I've studied and written about Rehoboam, Asa, and Jehoshaphat. I sincerely hope and pray that you've been blessed, too! The next king that I'd like to talk about is Hezekiah. I know, I know, we've skipped over Joash, but maybe someday we'll get back to him! For the next few weeks I'd like to concentrate on Hezekiah and see what lessons we can learn. Here goes!

For starters, I'd like to point out that Hezekiah is eight generations down the line from Jehoshaphat. And while his grandfather was a godly man, his father Ahaz sure wasn't. Here's just a slice of what Ahaz did:

Ahaz gathered together the furnishings from the temple of God and cut them in pieces. He shut the doors of the LORD’s temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. In every town in Judah he built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and aroused the anger of the LORD, the God of his ancestors. ~ 2 Chronicles 28:24-25

By the way...why don't you grab your Bible and follow along? I'll be posting the crucial passages in this article, but there's nothing like holding God's Word in your hands and reading it for yourself. I won't go into detail, but basically Ahaz did everything in his power to not worship the one true God, and to promote the other false, idol "gods". Read more about that in 2 Chronicles 28!

As Hezekiah grew up, he had two examples to look to: his godly grandfather Jotham (see 2 Chronicles 27) or his very wicked father Ahaz. Hezekiah determined that when he became king, he would follow the one true God with all of his heart.

Hezekiah's chance came, too, when he was anointed king over Judah at age 25. Let's read what he did right after he became king:

"In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the LORD and repaired them." ~ 2 Chron. 29:3

"The first month of the first year of his reign". I don't know if you read between the lines there, but as plainly as possible the Bible is trying to say that getting Judah back on track with the one true God was Hezekiah's numero uno project!

As you just read a few moments ago, one of Ahaz's many treacheries was the fact that he totally closed down Jehovah's temple. Not only was that a slap in the face of God, but that put the priests out of work as well. If you remember, back in the days of Moses the priests were called to be the special people to care for God's temple and its services. That's all the priests did; when the temple was shut down the priests were out of work and had to procure menial, regular jobs. And, of course, the people who wanted to couldn't worship the one true God.

But when Hezekiah ascended the throne, he called the priests back to their true calling. Their first task was cleaning out the temple, and restoring everything to their original positions. For eight days the priests hauled the junk out of the temple and into the Kidron Valley dump. For the next eight days they consecrated the temple. Finally, after sixteen days, the priests reported to King Hezekiah that the temple was all cleaned out. It was ready to be used again.

The very next morning Hezekiah summoned all the city officials and citizens. They brought bulls, rams, lambs, and goats to sacrifice as sin and burnt offerings. The king and his people worshiped their God, praised him for His forgiveness, and dedicated themselves to His service once more. In fact, there were so many offerings that the priests couldn't handle it by themselves! Their fellow tribesmen, the Levites, came to the rescue and helped the priests execute all the animals. Everyone praised the Lord.

I've been reflecting on this story lately, and how we could apply its' lessons to our own lives today. And then it struck me: our bodies are God's temples, too! Check out 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:

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. 

What do you fill God's temple (you) with? Is it stuff that you should put into it? That God would be happy with? Do you think about the books you read, the TV shows you watch, the websites you visit? Would you want to show Jesus all of that? In other words, are you going to act like Ahaz or Hezekiah? Will you desecrate God's temple that's in you, or will you glorify God with it?