The Daily Audio Bible

Hezekiah rules Judah as king

29 Hezekiah was 25 years old when he became king. He ruled Judah as king in Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother's name was Abijah. She was the daughter of Zechariah.^{[a] 2} Hezekiah did things that the Lord said were good, as his ancestor King David had done.

The Levites make the temple a holy place again

³ In the first month of the year that Hezekiah became king, he opened the doors of the Lord's temple. He repaired the doors. ⁴ He brought together the priests and the Levites in the yard at the east side of the temple. ⁵ He said to them, ‘Listen to me, you Levites. Make yourselves clean to serve the Lord. Then you can make the temple a holy place again. It is the temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Take out of that holy place anything that is unclean.

⁶ Our ancestors did not serve the Lord faithfully. They did things that the Lord our God saw were evil. They turned away from him. They stopped worshipping him in his temple, where he lives. They completely turned against him. ⁷ They shut the doors at the entrance of the temple. They stopped burning oil in the lamps. They did not offer to Israel's God any incense or burnt offerings in his holy place. ⁸ So the Lord became angry with Judah and Jerusalem. He made them disgusting places which other people insult. You can see this with your own eyes. ⁹ You know that cruel enemies killed our fathers. They took away our sons, our daughters and our wives as their prisoners. That was God's punishment. ¹⁰ Now I want to make a covenant with the Lord, Israel's God. Then he will stop being angry with us.

¹¹ My sons, the Lord has chosen you to serve him in his temple and to offer sacrifices. So do your work well.’

¹² Then these Levites started to work in the temple:

¹⁵ Those men brought all the Levites together. They all made themselves clean to serve the Lord. Then they went into the temple to make it a holy place again, as the king had commanded them. They obeyed the Lord's command. ¹⁶ Then the priests went into the inside room of the Lord's temple to make it holy. They found some things in the temple that were unclean. They carried all those things out to the temple yard. Then the Levites took the unclean things out of the city to the Kidron Valley.

¹⁷ They began this work on the first day of the first month. On the 8th day of the month they reached the entrance room of the temple. They worked to make the temple a holy place for eight more days. On the 16th day of the first month they had finished the work.

¹⁸ Then they went to King Hezekiah and they said, ‘We have made the whole temple clean and holy. That includes the altar for burnt offerings and all its tools. It also includes the table for the special bread and all its tools. ¹⁹ When Ahaz was king, he removed many things from the temple when he turned away from the Lord. We have made all those things clean again. We have put them in front of the Lord's altar so that the priests can use them again.’

People worship God again in his temple

²⁰ King Hezekiah got up early the next morning. He brought the city's officers together. They all went up to the Lord's temple. ²¹ They took with them seven bulls, seven male sheep, seven lambs and seven male goats. They offered these animals as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the holy place and for the people of Judah. The king told the priests, Aaron's descendants, to offer sacrifices on the Lord's altar. ²² So they killed the bulls. The priests took the blood and they splashed it on the altar. Then they killed the male sheep. The priests splashed their blood on the altar too. Then they killed the lambs. The priests also splashed their blood on the altar. ²³ Finally, the priests brought the male goats in front of King Hezekiah and the people who were there. The king and the people put their hands on the goats. ²⁴ Then the priests killed the goats as a sin offering. They offered their blood on the altar as a sacrifice. Then all the people of Israel would no longer be guilty for their sins. This was because the king had said that the burnt offerings and the sin offerings would be for all Israel.

²⁵ The king told the Levites to stand in the Lord's temple with their cymbals, harps and lyres to make music. They stood at the places where King David, David's prophet Gad and the prophet Nathan had told the Levites to stand. This was the Lord's command that he had given to his prophets.^{[b] 26} The Levites held the musical instruments that King David had provided. The priests held their trumpets.

²⁷ Then Hezekiah told the priests to offer the burnt offering on the altar. When they began to offer the sacrifice, the singers started to sing to praise the Lord. The trumpets and the musical instruments of King David of Israel also started to make music. ²⁸ All the people there were worshipping the Lord. At the same time the singers were singing and the priests were making music with their trumpets. They all continued to do that until the priests finished making the burnt offering.

²⁹ When the priests finished offering the sacrifices, the king and everyone with him bent down low to worship God. ³⁰ King Hezekiah and his officers told the Levites to sing songs to praise the Lord. They told them to sing the songs that King David and the prophet Asaph had written. So the Levites praised God in that way. They were very happy and they bent down low to worship God.

³¹ Then Hezekiah said, ‘Now you have made yourselves clean to serve the Lord. So come to the Lord's temple and bring sacrifices and offerings to thank the Lord.’ So all the people brought their sacrifices and their offerings to thank the Lord. Everyone who wanted to offer burnt offerings brought animals for that too.

³² For their burnt offerings, the people brought 70 bulls, 100 male sheep and 200 lambs to offer to the Lord. ³³ They also brought 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep to offer to the Lord. ³⁴ But there were not enough priests to prepare all the animals for the sacrifices. So their relatives, the Levites, helped them until they had finished the work. By that time more priests had made themselves clean to serve the Lord. (The Levites had been more careful than the priests to make themselves clean for the Lord.) ³⁵ The people brought a lot of animals for burnt offerings. There was also the fat from the friendship offerings. And there were drink offerings too. The priests offered all those with the burnt offerings.

That is how they started to worship the Lord again in his temple. ³⁶ Hezekiah and all the people were happy because God had helped them. They had been able to do the work on the temple very quickly.

Accept all Christians

14 It is difficult for some Christians to trust God completely about everything. You should accept people like that as your friends. Do not argue with them about what they think is right or wrong. ² Some people believe that they may eat all kinds of food. But other people are not so sure, so they eat only vegetables. ³ People who eat anything must not think that they are better than people who eat only vegetables. Also, people who eat only vegetables must not judge other people who eat anything. They are not doing anything wrong, because God himself has accepted them.

⁴ God is the master of all believers and they are his servants. You do not have authority to judge someone else's servant. The servant's own master will decide if he has done well or he has done something wrong. And he will serve his master well, because the Lord is able to help him to do that.

⁵ Some people think that certain days are special and more important than other days. Other people think that all days are the same. Each person should decide what seems right to him. ⁶ A person who makes a certain day special does that so that he can respect the Lord. A person who eats all kinds of food does that so that he can respect the Lord. He thanks God for the food that he eats. A person who refuses to eat certain foods also does that so that he can respect the Lord. And he also thanks God.

⁷ None of us lives only to please ourselves. And we do not die to please ourselves. ⁸ While we live, we want to please the Lord. And when we die, we want that to please the Lord too. So, while we live, or if we die, we continue to belong to the Lord. ⁹ Christ died and then he became alive again. That happened so that he could be the Lord of all people, those who have died and those who are still alive.

¹⁰ So then, if you eat only vegetables, you must not judge other believers. Also, if you eat anything, you must not think that you are better than other believers. Remember that all of us will have to stand in front of God. He will decide whether we have done what is right or wrong. ¹¹ This is written in the Bible:

Do not cause trouble

¹³ So we must no longer judge other believers. Instead, you must decide never to bring trouble to another believer. Do not cause them to do something wrong. ¹⁴ As for me, I am sure that we may eat any kind of food. God does not think that any food is unclean. The Lord Jesus has shown me that that is true. But someone else may believe that it is wrong to eat certain food. For that person, it would be wrong to eat that kind of food.

¹⁵ You should not cause another believer to be sad because of what you eat. If you do make him sad, then you are not really loving him. Remember that Christ died on behalf of that person. So do not let your food make him turn away from God. ¹⁶ You may think that something is good. But still you should not do it, if other people will say that it is bad.

¹⁷ We belong to God's people and he is our King. The things that we eat and drink are not really important to him. This is important: We should do what is right. We should have peace in our minds. And we should be truly happy. God's Holy Spirit helps us to live like that. ¹⁸ If anyone serves Christ in that way, they will make God happy. And other people will respect them.

¹⁹ So then, we should try to live in a way that brings peace. We should try to help each other so that we become stronger as God's people. ²⁰ Do not bring trouble to someone because of the food that you eat. Do not destroy what God has done in the life of another believer. God lets us eat all kinds of food. But do not eat anything that will cause another believer to do something wrong. ²¹ It is good not to do anything that might cause another believer to do something wrong. That includes if you eat meat or if you drink wine.

²² What you believe about these things should be a secret between yourself and God. You should do what you have decided is right for you. Do not feel guilty about what you eat. Then God will bless you. ²³ But someone else may not be sure whether it is right to eat certain kinds of food. If that person does eat that kind of food, then he shows that he is guilty. He has not trusted God that it is right for him to do that. Whatever things we do, we must trust God about them. If we do not trust God that something is right, then it is a sin.

This is a song that David wrote.

The great King^[a]