The Liturgy of Abundance: Hezekiah's Reformation Text: 2 Chronicles 31:2-10
Introduction: Revival Follows the Rubble
We live in an age that is desperate for what it calls revival, but it wants the fire to fall on a cluttered, disobedient, and disordered altar. We want the feeling of God's presence without the form of God's worship. We want the blessings of obedience without the bother of obedience. But this is not how God works. True revival, the kind that reshapes a nation and leaves a legacy, does not begin with a feeling. It begins with repentance, and repentance begins with a house cleaning. Before the events of our text, Hezekiah had led the people in a great Passover. But immediately after that high point of worship, the people did something instructive. They went out and smashed the idols. They "brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars" (2 Chron. 31:1). Revival always follows the rubble.
The modern church often tries to build its programs on top of the rubble. We leave the idols of pragmatism, entertainment-driven services, and theological compromise standing in the high places, and then we wonder why the heaps of blessing are nowhere to be seen. Hezekiah shows us the divine pattern. First, you tear down. Then you rebuild according to the blueprint. First comes the iconoclasm, then comes the liturgy. First, you get rid of what God hates, then you restore what God loves.
What we see in this chapter is the necessary second step of any true reformation. It is not enough to have a great worship service. It is not enough to feel a momentary spiritual high. True reformation sinks its roots deep into the ordinary, into the structures and patterns of life. Hezekiah understood that the worship of God was not a one-off event but a perpetual rhythm. And for that rhythm to be sustained, it had to be ordered, funded, and taken seriously. This passage is about the practical, logistical, and glorious nuts and bolts of a nation returning to God. It is about the relationship between liturgy and liberality, between right worship and overflowing blessing.
The Text
And Hezekiah set up the divisions of the priests and the Levites by their divisions, each according to his service, both the priests and the Levites, for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister and to give thanks and to praise in the gates of the camp of Yahweh. He also appointed the king’s portion of his goods for the burnt offerings, namely, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths and for the new moons and for the appointed times, as it is written in the law of Yahweh. Also he said to the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, that they might be strong in the law of Yahweh. As soon as the word spread forth, the sons of Israel provided in abundance the first fruits of grain, new wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of all. Now the sons of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of the holy gifts which were made holy to Yahweh their God, and put them in heaps. In the third month they began to make the heaps, and completed them by the seventh month. Then Hezekiah and the rulers came and saw the heaps, and they blessed Yahweh and His people Israel. Then Hezekiah inquired of the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. And Azariah the chief priest of the house of Zadok said to him, “Since the contributions began to be brought into the house of Yahweh, there has been much to eat and be satisfied with and have left over, for Yahweh has blessed His people, and this great quantity is left over.”
(2 Chronicles 31:2-10 LSB)
Order Before Overflow (v. 2-3)
The first thing Hezekiah does is not to pass the offering plate, but to restore the divine order.
"And Hezekiah set up the divisions of the priests and the Levites by their divisions, each according to his service... to minister and to give thanks and to praise in the gates of the camp of Yahweh." (2 Chronicles 31:2)
Notice the emphasis: divisions, service, order. Hezekiah is not inventing a new way to worship. He is restoring the old way, the one prescribed by God through David. True reformation is never an innovation; it is always a restoration. The priests and Levites had specific jobs: sacrifice, ministry, thanksgiving, praise. Worship is not a free-for-all. It is a structured, ordered, liturgical conversation between God and His people. God speaks, and we respond in the ways He has appointed. Hezekiah knew that for the spiritual life of the nation to flourish, the public worship of God had to be rightly ordered. This is a direct rebuke to the sloppy, man-centered, "do-what-feels-right" approach that characterizes so much of modern evangelicalism. God is a God of order, not of chaos, and His worship should reflect His character.
Next, Hezekiah leads by example. He doesn't just command; he contributes.
"He also appointed the king’s portion of his goods for the burnt offerings... as it is written in the law of Yahweh." (2 Chronicles 31:3)
The king puts his money where his mouth is. He personally provides for the great national offerings from his own substance. Leadership begins at the top. Hezekiah understands that he is not above the law but under it. He submits himself, and his checkbook, to what "is written in the law of Yahweh." He doesn't see his wealth as his own, but as a stewardship to be used for the glory of God and the good of the kingdom. This is the principle of the tithe in action. The civil magistrate, the king, recognizes that a portion of the national wealth belongs to God for the maintenance of His worship. This is God's tax, and the king is the first to pay it.
The Command and the Consequence (v. 4-5)
Having set the pattern, Hezekiah now issues the command to the people.
"Also he said to the people... to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, that they might be strong in the law of Yahweh." (2 Chronicles 31:4)
This is crucial. The portion is "due" to them. This is not a matter of optional charity; it is a divine obligation. The tithe is not a tip we give God if the service was good. It is the foundational means by which God provides for His ministers. And notice the purpose: "that they might be strong in the law of Yahweh." A poorly supported ministry is a weak ministry. When the priests and Levites are worried about where their next meal is coming from, they cannot devote themselves to the study and teaching of God's Word. A people who starve their pastors will themselves be spiritually starved. Generous, faithful giving is not just about funding a budget; it is about fueling the engine of biblical instruction for the whole nation.
And what is the result of this clear, authoritative command rooted in God's law? An immediate, overwhelming, joyful obedience.
"As soon as the word spread forth, the sons of Israel provided in abundance the first fruits... and they brought in abundantly the tithe of all." (2 Chronicles 31:5)
The people were not coerced. They were not manipulated with emotional stories or guilt trips. They were taught God's standard, and their hearts, having been renewed by true worship, responded with explosive generosity. Notice the two categories: first fruits and the tithe. The first fruits are the first and best of the harvest, given to God in faith before the full harvest is known, acknowledging that He is the source of all of it. The tithe is the ten percent, the baseline of covenantal giving. They brought both, "in abundance." This is what happens when people's hearts are right with God. Generosity is a fruit of revival, not a cause of it. When people truly love God, they love to give to His work.
Heaps of Blessing (v. 6-10)
The response was not a trickle; it was a flood. The generosity was so great it created a logistical problem, a glorious problem to have.
"Now the sons of Israel and Judah... also brought in the tithe... and put them in heaps. In the third month they began to make the heaps, and completed them by the seventh month." (2 Chronicles 31:6-7)
For four months, the tithes and offerings kept coming. They piled them up in heaps. This is a picture of God's economy. When His people obey Him in the matter of the tithe, the result is not scarcity but overwhelming surplus. The world's economy is a zero-sum game based on scarcity. God's economy is a covenantal system based on His infinite abundance. You cannot out-give God. The lie of the devil is that if you give God His ten percent, you will have to scrape by on the ninety. The truth of God's Word is that He will bless your ninety percent so that it goes further than the hundred percent ever could have.
When Hezekiah and the leaders see this, their response is exactly right.
"Then Hezekiah and the rulers came and saw the heaps, and they blessed Yahweh and His people Israel." (2 Chronicles 31:8)
They don't praise the people's generosity; they bless Yahweh. They recognize that this outburst of giving is not a testament to human goodness but to God's grace working in the hearts of His people. God gets the glory. Then they bless the people, because a generous people is a blessed people.
Finally, the chief priest, Azariah, gives the theological explanation for the heaps.
"Since the contributions began to be brought into the house of Yahweh, there has been much to eat and be satisfied with and have left over, for Yahweh has blessed His people, and this great quantity is left over." (2 Chronicles 31:10)
Here is the divine logic in plain terms. The people brought the tithe. As a result, the priests and Levites had more than enough. Why? Because "Yahweh has blessed His people." The heaps were not the sum total of what the people gave; the heaps were what was left over after God had already poured out His blessing. This is the principle of Malachi 3:10 played out in history: "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse... and test Me now in this... if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows." The heaps in Jerusalem were the evidence of an open heaven.
Conclusion: The Tithe and the New Covenant
Now, it is at this point that someone will object that the tithe was part of the Old Testament law and does not apply to us today. But this is a profound misunderstanding. The tithe predates the Mosaic law by centuries. Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, a type of Christ, four hundred years before the law was given at Sinai (Genesis 14:20). Jacob vowed a tithe to God at Bethel (Genesis 28:22). The tithe is a creation ordinance, a principle of worship woven into the fabric of reality. The Mosaic law did not invent the tithe; it simply regulated it for the nation of Israel.
In the New Covenant, the principle is not abolished; it is elevated. We are not called to give less than Israel, but more, because we have been given more in Christ. Our giving is to be cheerful, regular, and proportional (2 Cor. 9:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). The tithe remains the floor, not the ceiling, of our giving. It is the training wheels for New Covenant generosity.
The story of Hezekiah's heaps is a permanent testimony to a simple truth: God's work, done in God's way, will never lack God's supply. The problem in the church today is not a lack of resources but a lack of obedience. We have adopted the world's principles of fundraising, which are rooted in fear and scarcity, instead of God's principle of tithing, which is rooted in faith and abundance.
When we as a people restore right worship, when we order our services according to Scripture, when we hear the law of God taught faithfully, and when we respond by returning to God the first fruits and the tithe that are rightfully His, we will see the heaps again. Our churches will have more than enough to do the work of the ministry, to care for the needy, to plant new churches, and to be a blessing to the nations. The question is not whether God is able to do it. The question is whether we are willing to obey.