Hezekiah, the Praying King, Tuesday

0:00Hello friends, welcome to the SeenPod for Kids. Thank you for joining me today as we spend time with our friend Jesus. Spending time with Jesus is the best way to start your day. Let's begin our time together, praising Him. Do you know what a blessing is? It's something that gives us happiness or helps our life to be better. Jesus gives us blessings every day. Talk together as a family and name some of the blessings that He has given you. It's important to take time to remember and thank God for His blessings. To sing thy praise, streams of mercy, never ceasing,

1:05O pours of thought that is praise. Teach me a verse to adore thee. Hey, I still am iron with His proof. All that love and this glory is my heart with joy and love. Don't you grace, how great a debtor, daily life goes straight to me. Let by goodness like a fatter, I need closer self to thee. Brought to order, Lord, I feel it. Brought to live on our home. Here's my heart, I'll take and seal it. Till it for life forms out of.

2:06Hello, hello, we're learning about Hezekiah this week. A king who reigned in Judah, that's the southern kingdom of Israel. You had Israel in the north and you had Judah in the south. So he was the king in Judah. And now we're going to find out some of the good things that He did to help His people follow God. But first, let's pray. Lord, we ask for you to help us today that we will draw close to you. We will study and learn more about how much you love us and that we will make good choices in our day-to-day lives in Jesus' name, amen. The temple was clean again. Everything was back to the way it was supposed to be. Hezekiah had cleaned it all up. Have you ever seen when maybe a building hasn't been used for a while, what happens? Dust, cobwebs, maybe some broken windows or broken glass.

3:07Yeah, it can get kind of dilapidated looking. But when you have somebody who comes and starts cleaning and making repairs, it just makes you feel so much better, doesn't it? Well, now it was time for everyone to know about a great big event that Hezekiah was planning. Let's see what that event was. Let's go to 2nd Chronicles, chapter 30. So we're in our Bibles, opening up our Bibles in the Old Testament. First and second Chronicles. If you get to Ezra, you've gone too far. We're in 1st Chronicles, chapter 30. And then we're going to read. Do I say 1st Chronicles? 2nd Chronicles. Chapter 30. And then verse 5. Here we go. Okay, I found it right here. 2nd Chronicles, chapter 30. Those are the big numbers. And then the little numbers underneath those are the verses. We need verse 5. Let's see what they plan.

4:07So they resolved to make a proclamation throughout all Israel. From bear sheba to dam. That they should come to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel, Jerusalem. Since they had not done it for a long time in the prescribed manner. They were going to keep the Passover. It was a time of celebration, a spiritual time to think about God and to spend time with Him. From the north to the south, all the tribes were invited. Even though the northern 10 tribes, they were all in the land of Israel. They were still invited to come to Judah to worship God. Everyone was invited. Look at verse 6. Then the runners went throughout all Israel and Judah with the letters from the king and his leaders. And spoke according to the command of the king. Children of Israel. Return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Then he will return to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.

5:14The people in the northern kingdom had become so wicked that God let the Assyrian army come and take many thousands of them prisoners to Assyria. Assyria, do you know the story about Jonah and the fish? And God had told Jonah to go to Nineveh? Nineveh was actually in Assyria, isn't that neat? Well, this is not the story of Jonah. But I'm just that's where the Assyrians were from, that area where Nineveh was. And so some of the Israelites had been taken to the Assyrian kingdom. Of those who were left, some accepted has a kaya's invitation to come to the Passover. Most of those who probably went had never celebrated the Passover before, even though God had told his people to do it every single year. It was like a memorial, a remembrance day of how God had led and protected and brought them out of the land of Egypt.

6:18And so they were supposed to remember that every single year, kind of like a birthday, or like Christmas. It was a time to remember God's leading. Have you ever been to a camp meeting? Camp meeting is a time where local conferences will plan for speakers to come and musicians and meetings for people. Kids can go to their meetings and learn all about Jesus and do crafts and games and have lots of fun. And the adults can go and hear from speakers about how much God loves them and cares for them. And it's a time when you kind of put aside all your work and you spend time together studying the Bible and worshiping God. That's sort of like what Passover was, where they would come together and they would remember how God had worked. It was a grand celebration. It was a big deal. And it would last, not one day, not two days or three, but seven days.

7:22Let's look at verse 21 and 22. So the children of Israel, who were present at Jerusalem, kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness. And the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing to the Lord, accompanied by loud instruments. And Hezekiah gave encouragement to all the Levites who taught the good knowledge of the Lord. And they ate throughout the feast seven days, offering peace offerings and making confession to the Lord God of their fathers. The priests would teach the people about God, because remember back then they didn't have Bibles, that they could sit and read and study and learn. They would be taught by the priests. So the priests would teach them about God, they would sing praises to God. The musicians would play and the people would confess their sins. The feast was wonderful and the people didn't want it to stop.

8:27In fact, when the end of the seven days, when they came to the end of the seven days, what did they decide to do? Look at verse 23. Then the whole assembly agreed to keep the feast another seven days, and they kept it another seven days with gladness. They said, let's do it again. Let's celebrate another seven days. And so that's what they did. After the feast, what did the people do? Let's look at verse 31, or chapter 31. So we were in 2 Chronicles, chapter 30. Now let's look at 2 Chronicles, chapter 31. Verse 1. What does that say? Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke the sacred pillars and pieces. Cut down the wooden images and threw down the high places and the altars from all Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all.

9:35Then all the children of Israel who returned to their own cities, every man to his possession. It was a revival. They were turning back to God. They wanted to make sure that the idols were taken out of their lives, that they cleaned up, they got rid of all the idols, all of the sacred pillars and the wooden images and threw down the high places all over the land. He has a kayak that didn't start something and then not finish what he started. He worked hard to change the many wrong things that the people had been doing. He brought them back to God. Let's skip to the next. Well, I have to go to the next page, you might not. But to verse 21. So we're still in 2 Chronicles, chapter 31. Now verse 21. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law, and in the commandment to seek his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered.

10:40I love how it says he did it with his whole heart. And did God prosper him? Yes, he did. God was blessing Hezekiah and the people. Why? Because they were turning back to God, because they were doing it with all their heart. They were putting all their energy, all their focus into God and who he was. We're going to find out what happens next time when a big destroying army decides that they're going to come take over Judah. What did Hezekiah do? And then what did God do for them? Let's bow our heads in prayer. Lord, thank you for your blessing of Hezekiah. He helped to turn the people's hearts and their minds back to you. They broke down all the idols and the places of worship in their country. And he did it with all of his heart. Thank you for prospering him. Help us to learn of him. Help us to stand for you no matter what. In Jesus' name, amen.

11:46Proverbs 29. 25 The fear of men means a snare. The fear of men means a snare. Why do you ever trust in the Lord? Shall be safe. The fear of men means a snare. What you ever trust in the Lord shall be safe. Proverbs 29. 25 My daughter has used her sabbatical materials since she was a baby. And as a result, she is well grounded in many of the truths of God's Word.

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