Revival Gathers and Separates

During the first month of the first year of the reign of king Hezekiah, a revival began in Judah that lasted for twenty-nine years. There are several things that Hezekiah led the nation to do during the first year of the revival that set the momentum for it to last as long as it did. One of the most powerful things Hezekiah did was to reinstitute the Passover, and he invited Israel (ten tribes in the north) to come. Not only had Israel and Judah been divided for over 300 years, but they had also been enemies and had experienced several wars against each other.

         The Passover celebrated Israel’s deliverance by God, out of slavery in Egypt and into possession of the Promised Land. God brought them out in order to take them in. Israel’s twelve tribes became a nation as a result, God’s nation. God gave instructions to keep the Passover in order to remember their birth as a nation, their identity in relationship with Him, and of God’s faithfulness to His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The sacrifice of the Passover lamb was the first sacrifice God gave to Israel and it did not require a priest; it was a family sacrifice led by the father of the house.

         But following the death of Solomon, Israel’s third king, the nation split, ten tribes in the north and two in the south. The northern tribes called themselves Israel while the two tribes of the south took the name Judah. They had not celebrated the Passover as one nation in centuries and in 2 Chronicles 30 you see the impossible take place; Israel had the Passover as a nation just like they did when they came out of Egypt!

         Hezekiah invited the ten tribes in the north according to 30:6 – 12. Many rejected the offer and even mocked Hezekiah for even considering such a crazy idea. But others came. In fact, 30:13 describes the scene, “And many people came together in Jerusalem…a very great assembly.” Revival is the result of God’s people laying aside their differences and coming together in unity and in worship around the mighty deeds of Christ. But the only way to gather together is to separate from something else. The ones that gathered had to separate themselves from those who were mocking, from centuries of division and war, and from their heritage of their places of worship in the northern part of the Holy Land. Revival unites and it also divides!

         Hezekiah knew God’s word and God’s heart. He knew that remembering the way God delivered Israel from bondage, which was according to His word to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was to celebrate God’s faithfulness. Celebrating God’s faithfulness to His people included the ten tribes in the north. They could not be left out even though they had sinned by going away and by forming their own version of God’s word and worship. Hezekiah knew of God’s mercy and steadfast love and forgiveness, and that inviting them back would be an expression of God’s grace and loving-kindness. Hezekiah was willing to be divided from his own prejudice in order to unite with God’s people in worship. This is what revival looks like! The opposite is what we are all too familiar with in the church today.

         Some of the ones that came from the north had not followed the rules of cleansing when they arrived in Jerusalem for the Passover. Rather than excluding them over the cleansing details, it says in 30:18 – 19, “For a majority of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, ‘May the good LORD pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary rules of cleanness.” The lesson is clear: We must put aside our petty “sanctuary rules” in order to gather together as the people of God around the cross of Christ and His table, the Lord’s Supper.

         There was a strong moving of God’s Spirit and revival that swept across the United States during the 60’s and early 70’s. It was called the Jesus Movement. It reached many young people. Some had already gotten involved in the drug culture and sexual revolution of that time. But they were saved, delivered, and changed in the fires of revival! Their hearts and minds were transformed but their outward appearance remained.

They began singing of their new faith with their guitars and drums. They went to the churches in their long hair, granny glasses, bell bottom pants, and music, but so many of the churches would not let them in; too many “sanctuary rules.” As a result, they went underground and scattered into the culture, but they never lost the fire of revival that God had birthed them in! Today, they are scattered all over the world, still on fire for Jesus. What would happen if all of the “Jesus freaks” from the Jesus Movement were to come together like the nation of Israel did in Hezekiah’s day? How about a twenty-nine year revival? Anyone interested? Pray for it, today.