Lesson 260: "Leave It On the Altar"
Hezekiah was the twenty five year old king of Judah in 2 Kings Chapters 18 through 20. He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow Him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. The Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He destroyed the high places where the idol worshipers gave sacrifices to their ‘gods’ and smashed the sacred stones. He cut down the Asherah poles and broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made to stop the Israelites from burning incense in worship of the pole. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. However, he rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him as his father before him had done. The Assyrian king was attacking and capturing all cities around Jerusalem and now was within striking distance of Hezekiah’s city. Hezekiah understandably did not want to fight this strong army of Sennacherib who had been consistently successful against other members of his alliance. So he sent a message saying that he was wrong in siding with the other nations against Assyria and offered to pay whatever the king demanded to leave Jerusalem alone. To gather all the gold that Sennacherib asked for, Hezekiah had to strip off all the gold plating on the temple doors and the frames but this did not satisfy the king so he sent his messengers again to demand full surrender. These messengers, although Hezekiah would not talk to them, tormented the people of the city and tried to undermine their confidence in their king and the power of the Lord. Their messages did however distress the people and Hezekiah’s representatives came to the king with torn garments and anguished faces with the news-letter. “Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord” (2 Kings 19:14). There Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, God of Israel, the Lord heard his prayer and from 2 Kings 19:20-37 the Lord answers him through the prophet Isaiah.
Please pay strict attention to the fact that Hezekiah spread the letter of bad news on the Altar of the Lord and LEFT it there. He trusted God completely to take care of the problems and God honored this trust and faith. Too many times we gather up all of our sins, confessions and doubts and take them to the altar, spread them out before God and then gather them up and take them home with us. This reminds me of a lady changing purses. She first takes everything out of the old one and begins to carefully organize the “good” stuff into the new purse. Once this is done she discovers that there is still room in the new one so she puts the “trash” back in there thinking that she just might need this one day. Now for you men! This is also like my husband and his shop. He is a very organized man but seldom throws anything away. He filled one shop and instead of throwing away worthless things he just added another shop and then another. When you go in one of these shops you will find a “department” of usable items and workable machinery. Then there is a shelf filled with odds and ends that he is saving in hopes that something will “fit” them some day; you know? Like the lady who goes to the bargain basement sale and finds a blouse that will match a skirt at home that nothing matches? When she gets the skirt home it is so far off that now she has two mismatched items in her closet instead of one. Ok! Now back to the shop! The last few shelves are filled with broken parts such as a bolt without a nut, a wheel with no tire, and a water bucket with a hole in it. This is trash and needs to be tossed but is there as a constant reminder of things that once were.
These once were things will become our altar offerings if we are not careful. Do not kneel at the altar and start sorting or categorizing your confessions! We might start with the workable items in your life and give thanks and praise to God for these but when we come to the worthless things (grudges/hates/un-forgiveness) or the odds and ends (things we meant to do but never got around to it), it is best to let God do the organizing. You see, there are no little and big sins with God and He shows no favoritism to man so just give Him the entire sack of problems at once and trust Him to take care of them. We might be surprised at what God can do with the broken pieces of our lives (broken promises/unfilled dreams/plans down the drain) if we will only open up to Him. David petitioned God first for forgiveness then for inner renewal (Ps. 51:7-12), promising God that if He forgave him he would participate fully in His service. David is not bargaining with God but actually saying back to God what God had written in His Scripture. He also promised that if God forgave him he would sacrifice to God. David knew that God had no desire for animal sacrifice and he needed to find forgiveness before he could give a peace offering. The sacrifice he had to bring was a broken and contrite heart; a humbled spirit fully penitent for sin. That is what God desired from David and that is what God desires from us and what He will receive. “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual act of worship” (Rom. 12:1). This makes more sense when we realize that everything, including all our sins, shortcomings, confessions, guilt and the good stuff mixed in is within our body and our body is the temple of God. If our body is the temple, we don’t even have to make a trip to the altar; it’s right there with us (1 Cor. 3:16)! We kneel in reverent awe of the Lord and the Spirit will intercede for us in accordance with God’s will (Rom. 8:26-27).
With Hezekiah, since God was for him, nothing could stand against him and this same God is still on the throne and His Altar is still in the same place. “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Rom. 8:31)?