Worship Established Suddenly Text: 2 Chronicles 29:20-36
Introduction: The Debris of Apostasy
We come now to a scene of glorious restoration. But to appreciate the glory, you must first understand the ruin. Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz, was a piece of work. He was a prodigious idolater, a man who had boarded up the doors of God’s house and set up pagan altars on every street corner in Jerusalem. He had taken the holy instruments from the Temple and smashed them to bits. He even sacrificed his own sons in the fire to pagan gods. Judah was a spiritual junkyard, a desolate wasteland of apostasy. The worship of the one true God had been systematically dismantled and outlawed.
Into this mess steps a twenty-five-year-old king named Hezekiah. And in the very first month of his reign, he doesn't form a committee or conduct a feasibility study. He gets to work. He throws open the doors of the Temple, summons the priests and Levites, and commands them to clean house. The first part of this chapter details the sixteen days of spiritual fumigation, of hauling out the accumulated filth of his father's rebellion.
Our text picks up after the cleaning is done. The house is swept, but it is still empty. It is not enough to stop doing what is wrong; we must begin doing what is right. Reformation is not just about tearing down idols; it is about restoring true worship. And what we see in this passage is the re-establishment of the central act of God's people: corporate, sacrificial, joyful, and scripturally regulated worship. This is not a quaint historical account of how they used to do things. This is a paradigm, a blueprint for every true spiritual awakening. Revival doesn't begin with a feeling; it begins with repentance. And repentance doesn't end with sorrow; it ends with sacrifice and a song.
Hezekiah understood that the life of the nation flowed from the altar. If worship is corrupt, the nation will be corrupt. If worship is abandoned, the nation will be abandoned. The political, social, and economic health of a people is downstream from its worship. And so, with the Temple cleansed, Hezekiah leads the nation back to the only place where their sins could be dealt with and their relationship with God could be restored: the altar of burnt offering.
The Text
Then King Hezekiah arose early and gathered the princes of the city and went up to the house of Yahweh. And they brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats for a sin offering for the kingdom, the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he ordered the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of Yahweh. So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and splashed it on the altar. They also slaughtered the rams and splashed the blood on the altar; they slaughtered the lambs also and splashed the blood on the altar. Then they had the male goats of the sin offering approach before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them. And the priests slaughtered them and purged the altar with their blood to atone for all Israel, for the king ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel... Thus the service of the house of Yahweh was established again. Then Hezekiah and all the people were glad over what God had prepared for the people, because the thing came about suddenly.
(2 Chronicles 29:20-24, 35b-36 LSB)
Corporate Atonement for Corporate Sin (vv. 20-24)
The first order of business is to deal with the sin problem. Notice the urgency and the leadership.
"Then King Hezekiah arose early and gathered the princes of the city and went up to the house of Yahweh." (2 Chronicles 29:20)
True reformation is always led from the top down. Hezekiah doesn't delegate this; he leads it. He gets up early, full of zeal, and gathers the civil magistrates to go to church. This is a beautiful picture of the magistrate's duty. The king's first job is not balancing the budget, but ensuring the nation is rightly related to God. Hezekiah understood that he was a lesser king, ruling under the authority of the great King, Yahweh. All authority is delegated, and the first responsibility of anyone in authority is to point his people to the ultimate authority.
And what is the first thing they do? They bring a massive sin offering. Seven of everything, the number of perfection or completion. This is a comprehensive confession of sin. It is for the kingdom (the civil realm), the sanctuary (the ecclesiastical realm), and for Judah (the people themselves). This is corporate repentance. They understood that the sin of Ahaz was not just his private affair; it had polluted the entire nation. The land was defiled. The government was defiled. The priesthood was defiled. And so the atonement had to be corporate.
We live in a radically individualistic age that has lost this concept. But the Bible is clear: there is such a thing as corporate guilt. Daniel confessed the sins of his fathers. We are part of a people, a covenant community, and the health of the whole affects every part. When our nation sanctions abominations, we are all implicated. When the church tolerates heresy, we are all weakened. Hezekiah is not saying, "My dad messed up, but I'm fine." He is saying, "We have sinned."
Notice the procedure. The leaders lay their hands on the heads of the goats for the sin offering. This is the symbolic act of transference. They are identifying with the animal, confessing their sin, and placing that sin onto the substitute. This is the gospel in picture form. This is imputation. The goat has done nothing wrong, but it will bear the penalty. The leaders have done everything wrong, but they will go free. Why? Because the blood is shed. The priests take the blood and splash it on the altar. "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Heb. 9:22). The life is in the blood, and life must be given for life. This bloody, messy, brutal business at the altar was a constant, visceral reminder that sin is deadly serious and forgiveness is costly.
The Symphony of Redemption (vv. 25-28)
Once the sin is dealt with, the song begins. This is the proper order of worship. Atonement, then adoration.
"He then caused the Levites to stand in the house of Yahweh with cymbals, with harps, and with lyres, according to the command of David and of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for the command was from Yahweh by the hand of His prophets." (2 Chronicles 29:25 LSB)
This verse is crucial. Hezekiah is not inventing a new worship style. He is not trying to be relevant or contemporary. He is carefully restoring the pattern of worship that God Himself had commanded through His prophets. Worship is not a matter of personal taste or pragmatic results; it is a matter of divine command. The regulative principle of worship is right here in seed form: what is not commanded is forbidden. David, Gad, and Nathan did not dream this up; the command was "from Yahweh." God is very particular about how He is to be worshiped. Nadab and Abihu learned this the hard way. Hezekiah's reformation was a success because it was a return to the Word of God.
And what happens when the burnt offering, the symbol of total consecration to God, begins? "The song to Yahweh also began." The music of worship is tethered to the work of redemption. The song starts when the sacrifice is offered. We do not sing to earn God's favor. We sing because His favor has been secured for us by the blood of the substitute. Our praise is a response to His grace. The trumpets, the instruments of David, the singers, it all erupts in a symphony of joyful worship, but only after the blood has been splashed. This is why our worship in the New Covenant is centered on the Lord's Supper. We come to the table, we remember the sacrifice, and then we sing our psalms and hymns. The cross is the source of all our songs.
Gladness and Bowing Down (vv. 29-30)
The response of the people is twofold, and it captures the essential posture of a true worshiper.
"Now at the completion of the burnt offerings, the king and all who were present with him bowed down and worshiped. Moreover, King Hezekiah and the officials ordered the Levites to sing praises to Yahweh with the words of David and Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness, and bowed down and worshiped." (2 Chronicles 29:29-30 LSB)
They bowed down. This is the posture of humility, of submission, of acknowledging the infinite greatness of God and our own creaturely dependence. But they also sang with gladness. This is the posture of joy, of delight, of celebrating the goodness and mercy of God. True worship holds these two things in perfect tension: awe and intimacy, reverence and joy, holy fear and heartfelt gladness. Modern worship often collapses this tension. Some traditions are so fixated on reverence that they become stuffy and joyless. Others are so fixated on expressive joy that they become flippant and irreverent. But biblical worship is both. We bow before the sovereign King of the universe, and we sing with gladness to our loving Father.
And again, notice the content of their praise. They sang "with the words of David and Asaph the seer." They sang the inspired psalter. They didn't just make up songs about how they were feeling. They sang God's Word back to Him. This is the safest and most robust form of praise. When we sing the psalms, we are using the very prayer book that Jesus Himself used. We are shaping our emotional lives by the divinely inspired patterns of praise, lament, confession, and thanksgiving.
The Floodgates of Gratitude (vv. 31-36)
The corporate, official worship is now complete, and it opens the door for the people to respond personally and extravagantly.
"Then Hezekiah answered and said, 'Now that you have become ordained to Yahweh, approach and bring sacrifices and thank offerings...' And the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all those who were willing of heart brought burnt offerings." (2 Chronicles 29:31 LSB)
The sin offering has been made. The relationship is restored. Now the people are invited to draw near. And they come in droves. The sheer number of animals is staggering: 70 bulls, 100 rams, 200 lambs for burnt offerings, plus another 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep for holy offerings. This is an explosion of generosity. It comes from a people whose hearts have been set free. Forgiveness produces gratitude, and gratitude produces generosity. This is not coerced; it is the offering of those who were "willing of heart."
In fact, the response is so overwhelming that the system is strained. "The priests were too few." This is a wonderful problem to have. The spiritual hunger of the people outstripped the capacity of the ministers. And notice the solution: the Levites, who were "more upright of heart to set themselves apart as holy," stepped in to help. This is a quiet rebuke to the compromised priesthood, but it is also a beautiful picture of the whole body of Christ working together. When revival comes, there is more than enough work for everyone to do.
The passage concludes with a summary statement that is full of gospel truth.
"Then Hezekiah and all the people were glad over what God had prepared for the people, because the thing came about suddenly." (2 Chronicles 29:36 LSB)
Their gladness was not in what they had done, but in what "God had prepared for the people." They knew this was not their own work. The repentance, the sacrifices, the willing hearts, the restored worship, it was all a gift. God prepared the way. God prepared their hearts. God provided the means. And it happened "suddenly." True revival is not the result of a five-year plan. It is a sovereign work of the Spirit of God. It can happen overnight. A nation can be steeped in apostasy one month, and the next month the house of God can be overflowing with joyful worshipers. This should be a profound encouragement to us. We may look at the ruin of our own culture and despair. But our God is the God of the suddenlies. He can turn the tide in a moment.
The Greater Hezekiah
This entire chapter is a magnificent foreshadowing of a greater cleansing and a greater restoration. The Temple in Jerusalem, made of stone, was a type of the true Temple, which is the body of Jesus Christ. He, too, came into a world where the worship of God had been corrupted by the traditions of men. And what did He do? He went to the Temple and cleansed it, driving out the money-changers with a whip of cords.
But that was just a preview. The ultimate cleansing happened at the cross. Hezekiah cleansed the Temple with the blood of bulls and goats. But Jesus, our great High Priest, entered the true sanctuary, not with the blood of animals, but with His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:12). He is the ultimate sin offering. We lay our hands on Him by faith, and our sin is transferred to Him. He is the ultimate burnt offering, wholly consecrated to the Father's will. His sacrifice was once for all, for all Israel, that is, the Israel of God, His church, drawn from every tribe and tongue and nation.
And because of His sacrifice, the song begins. The true worship of God is restored, not in a stone building in Jerusalem, but in the hearts of His people everywhere. We are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. And what is our response? We bow down in worship, and we sing with gladness. We offer ourselves as living sacrifices, our spiritual worship (Romans 12:1). We bring our thank offerings, not of bulls and sheep, but of praise and good deeds. And we do it all with willing hearts, overflowing with gratitude for what God has prepared for us in Christ.
The thing came about suddenly. On that first Good Friday, it looked like ruin. But on Sunday morning, suddenly, the stone was rolled away. Suddenly, the tomb was empty. Suddenly, the true worship of God was established forever. And now we, like Hezekiah and the people, are glad. We are glad because God has prepared everything for us in His Son. Let us therefore draw near, bringing our sacrifices of praise with willing hearts, until that day when we join the great assembly and sing the song of the Lamb forever.