The House of God Cleansed

“Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem.

In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. Then he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them in the East Square, and said to them: Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbishes from the holy place.” 2Chronicles 29. 1-5

Though king Hezekiah was very young God had trusted the whole city of Jerusalem along with its people into his hands, Hezekiah fully recognized that the main reason why the children of Israel were so weak while their enemies were so strong, to the point of making him come into the temple of God to cry out for help.

“The story says that they had trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord our God…” 2Cr.29.6

When Hezekiah started to reign in Jerusalem he had as his first priority to open the temple of God and repair it, he cleaned the temple from everything he knew that was not pleasing before God, no one had told him to do that it was his personal decision he knew that because of all that trash inside the temple God could by no means stand by their side and fight for them because God has no part with what is evil that’s why Hezekiah had the cleansing of the temple as his first priority.

Many people don’t understand why they can’t overcome their obstacles and their enemies? While they make chains of prayers, they, repeatedly write prayer requests and it seems that they’ll never overcome their situation, and instead, they see their problems becoming bigger and bigger. What is it? Is it fruit of evil sent by someone else who doesn’t like them? Is it because they were born to suffer until they die? Maybe you say yes or maybe you say no, but the truth is, many people are more likely to become excited with what they see in the world and with the things the world offers them than with what the word of God tells them to do. See that is much easier for people to accept and believe in what they hear outside of the church than what they hear inside of the church. To practice the word of God is like carrying a heavy burden on their shoulders but to follow what their friends or family say seems to be much lighter.

Hezekiah’s first priority was to purify the temple that means to clean up his heart and people’s heart too, he knew that by acting in this way God would find room in their lives for Him to bless them. Many people don’t have this same desire as their first priority they only think about solving their problems or what they are going to receive through their prayers but without cleaning up their hearts from grudges, rancor and resentment that they persistently keep in their heart against some one who hurt them in the past God will find no room or pleasure in blessing their lives and taking their problems away from them.

Let’s purify the temple of God which is our hearts and not only that we also have to see what’s wrong with us what we have done that is not in accordance with the word of God and let’s cast that out. If you really want to change your life in every aspect so you need to take this step of faith right away and after you have cleansed your heart and have repented of what is wrong you shall be baptized in waters for the remission of your sins.

Bishop Carlos E Da Costa