Bringing heaven to earth
Yesterday we looked at the beautiful promise-prophecy in Isaiah 11 where He speaks of the blessing and the sense of "Heaven on Earth" that the coming of God's "Anointed One" would bring:The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them. (Isaiah 11:6)
Although Jesus is the full realisation of this hope, we know that king Hezekiah, born a few years after this prophecy, was a partial fulfilment of this hope for "heaven on earth".
Here's one of the beautiful moments of Hezekiah's rule that must have felt like the "leopard lying down with the goat": (You can read about it in 2 Chron 30)
Hezekiah realised that it had been a long time since the Israelites had celebrated the Passover properly and so he wanted to reinstitute it. But there were some difficulties:
- The official date for the Passover was very soon, too soon for all the practical arrangements and messages to go out.
- The priests weren't properly consecrated and there weren't enough of them.
- The people weren't properly consecrated and wouldn't be able to make the required sacrifices themselves.
- Many of the people went ahead and celebrated the Passover without consecrating themselves.
Hezekiah handled these difficulties with incredible grace and compassion:
- He moves the Passover Feast a month later - that's like sending out a letter to the nation in November and telling people that Christmas has been moved to 25 Jan! The invitation was sent out, and while some mocked and criticised, a large number of people responded in faith and with great devotion.
- The Levites and Priests who had been holding back their support were convicted by the response of the people and jumped in and started serving. Hezekiah prayed that God would bless them even though they hadn't gone through all the processes of preparation
- The priests and Levites helped the people make the sacrifices (sacrificing on their behalf)
- Hezekiah prayed for the people who had come to celebrate but had not had time to consecrate themselves and God healed them.
In these acts of sheer grace (rather than strict law) the people experienced great joy and mercy and so we read the following:
The whole assembly then agreed to celebrate the festival seven more days; so for another seven days they celebrated joyfully. 24 Hezekiah king of Judah provided a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep and goats for the assembly, and the officials provided them with a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep and goats. A great number of priests consecrated themselves. 25 The entire assembly of Judah rejoiced, along with the priests and Levites and all who had assembled from Israel, including the aliens who had come from Israel and those who lived in Judah. 26 There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. (2Chronicles30:23-26)
This is just a small foretaste of the joy and grace that Jesus came to bring to us!
We, like Hezekiah, can be agents of this grace!
May you be blessed as you celebrate this great God in corporate worship on Sunday!
