2 lines
6.7 KiB
HTML
2 lines
6.7 KiB
HTML
|
<p>After the passover followed the feast of unleavened bread, which continued seven days. How that was observed we are here told, and every thing in this account looks pleasant and lively. 1. Abundance of sacrifices were offered to God in peace-offerings, by which they both acknowledged and implored the favour of God, and on part of which the offerers feasted with their friends during these seven days (<a class="bibleref" title="2Chr.30.22" href="/passage/?search=2Chr.30.22">2 Chron. 30:22</a>), in token of their communion with God and the comfort they took in his favour and their reconciliation to him. To keep up this part of the service, that God’s altar might be abundantly regaled with the fat and blood and his priests and people with the flesh of the peace-offerings, Hezekiah gave out of his own stock 1000 bullocks and 7000 sheep, and the princes, excited by his pious example, gave the same number of bullocks and a greater number of sheep, and all for peace-offerings, <a class="bibleref" title="2Chr.30.24" href="/passage/?search=2Chr.30.24">2 Chron. 30:24</a>. By this God was honoured, the joy of the festival was kept up, and the strangers were encouraged to come again to Jerusalem. It was generously done of the king and the princes thus plentifully to entertain the whole congregation; but what is a great estate good for but that it puts men into a capacity of doing so much the more good? Christ feasted those that followed him. I believe neither Hezekiah nor his princes were the poorer at the year’s end for this their pious liberality. 2. Many good prayers were put up to God with the peace-offerings, <a class="bibleref" title="2Chr.30.22" href="/passage/?search=2Chr.30.22">2 Chron. 30:22</a>. They <i>made confession to the Lord God of their fathers</i>, in which the intent and meaning of the peace-offerings were directed and explained. When the priests sprinkled the blood and burnt the fat they made confession, so did the people when they feasted on their part. They made a religious confession of their relation to God and dependence upon him, a penitent confession of their sins and infirmities, a thankful confession of God’s mercies to them, and a supplicatory confession of their wants and desires; and, in all these, they had an eye to God as <i>the God of their fathers</i>, a God in covenant with them. 3. There was a great deal of good preaching. The Levites (whose office it was, <a class="bibleref" title="Deut.33.10" href="/passage/?search=Deut.33.10">Deut. 33:10</a>) <i>taught the people the good knowledge of the Lord</i>, read and opened the scriptures, and instructed the congregation concerning God and their duty to him; and great need there was of this, after so long a famine of the word as there had been in the last reign. Hezekiah did not himself preach, but he <i>spoke comfortably to the Levites</i> that did, attended their preaching, commended their diligence, and assured them of his protection and countenance. Hereby he encouraged them to study hard and take pains, and put a reputation upon them, that the people might respect and regard them the more. Princes and magistrates, by owning and encouraging faithful and laborious preachers, greatly serve the interest of God’s kingdom among men. 4. They sang psalms every day (<a class="bibleref" title="2Chr.30.21" href="/passage/?search=2Chr.30.21">2 Chron. 30:21</a>): <i>The Levites and priests praised the Lord day by day</i>, both with songs and musical instruments, thus expressing their own and exciting one another’s joy in God and thankfulness to him. Praising God should be much of our work in our religious assemblies. 5. Having kept the seven days of the feast in this religious manner, they had so much comfort in the service that they <i>kept other seven days</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="2Chr.30.23" href="/passage/?search=2Chr.30.23">2 Chron. 30:23</a>. They did not institute any new modes of worship, but repeated and continued the old. The case was extraordinary: they had been long without the ordinance; guilt had been contracted by the neglec
|