The Recurring Need for Reform

MEMORY SELECTION: “He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.” —II Kings 18:5

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: II Chronicles 29:3-6, 10; 30:23-27

HEZEKIAH was reckoned as one of the best kings who ever sat on the throne of Judah. He compared favorably with David and Josiah. He was the son of Ahaz, who was one of Israel’s most wicked kings.

When Hezekiah took the throne he was only twenty-five years of age, but from the very beginning he demonstrated a real zeal to please the Lord. In II Chronicles 29:3 we read: “He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them.” But it is noteworthy that before the Temple itself was restored he “brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs.”—II Chron. 29:4-6

It is important to note that before the king would allow the priests and Levites to cleanse the Temple he ordered that they cleanse themselves. It was true then as well as now that those who bear the vessels of the Lord must be “clean.” (Isa. 52:11) No one is properly ready to render service to God in any form or work until he himself has come into a proper relationship of heart and mind to the Lord. It is this aspect of our lesson that we feel is most important.

The real temple is to be composed of Christ and his church. (I Pet. 2:4,5) And just as the typical priests were required to wash at the laver in the court, so the antitypical priesthood is required to wash at the antitypical laver. In Titus 3:3-5 we read: “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing [or laving] of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

The laver of regeneration, as used in our text, refers to a cleansing through the Word of God. Just as the typical priests washed at the laver, so also must the antitypical priests cleanse themselves before serving God. As indicated also in our text, this washing is made effective through the Holy Spirit. The word “renewing,” as used in the text, could be better translated “renovation.” It is the power of the Holy Spirit operating on the minds of those called to be priests that enables them to discern the Lord’s will and to renovate their minds from things pertaining to the flesh and self-interest to things relating to God and his plans and purposes.

The Apostle Paul, in Romans 12:1,2, states the matter thus: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present [yield] your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” It was the apostle’s earnest hope that those who had indicated their desire to serve the Lord in his temple (that is, those who had already given themselves in consecration to God) carry out their vows by yielding themselves fully to God as an acceptable sacrifice. They were made acceptable and holy by having washed in the laver of regeneration, and they were justified by the blood of Christ. This was necessary before the cleansing work of the antitypical temple could begin.

In the 2nd verse of this text the apostle tells us about the cleansing work that must be accomplished. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” The work that must be accomplished in each one who aspires to be a priest is a complete reversal of the normal mode of thinking. As normal human beings, we find our minds were geared to think of the flesh and of material things, the emphasis usually focusing upon self.

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