"Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered the city officials together and went up to the temple of the Lord. They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven male lambs and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Judah. The king commanded the priests, the descendants of Aaron, to offer these on the altar of the Lord." (2 Chronicles 29:20-21)
In the Old Testament law only one animal is specified to be brought for the sin of a priest, for the sin of a king or other official, for the sin of a nation, or for the sin of an individual citizen. (See Leviticus 4 for examples of this.) But this type of offering was specified for unintentional sin---cases where the priest, leader, or average citizen realized they had made a mistake after they had made it. In the case of the people of Hezekiah's father's generation and in the case of many of the people of his own generation, the sin was intentional. Idolatry abounded during that era. The people knew the Lord's commandments against idolatry but engaged in it anyway. It makes sense that Hezekiah would make a larger offering for sin that was deliberate. It also makes sense that he would make a larger offering for sin that was widespread throughout the nation. The people have engaged in individual idolatry and they have engaged in corporate idolatry. This is why the author tells us that the offering was made "for the kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Judah": it was made for all the people of the land, it was made to rededicate the temple they had defiled, and it was made for the nation (the land, the name) of Judah itself.
We naturally feel repelled by the idea of animal sacrifice. As an animal lover, it's always difficult for me to read passages like the one we are reading today. But I don't think we are intended to be comfortable with the idea. Death is the penalty for sin---our sin---and although the Lord allowed substitutionary deaths I do not think He intended the sacrificial system to be pretty or to be comforting or to rest easy in our minds. If man had never sinned, no animal would ever have been sacrificed. If man had never sinned, nothing bad would ever have existed in this world, but sin is a pollution that affects everything.
Our sin brought imperfection into a perfect creation. We see the acknowledgement of this when the assembled people lay their hands on the goats who are serving as stand-ins for them. "So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and splashed it against the altar; next they slaughtered the rams and splashed their blood against the altar; then they slaughtered the lambs and splashed their blood against the altar. The goats for the sin offering were brought before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them. The priests then slaughtered the goats and presented their blood on the altar for a sin offering to atone for all Israel, because the king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel." (2 Chronicles 29:22-24)
I am grateful we no longer have to perform animal sacrifices for atonement, for, "We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all...By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." (Hebrews 10:10,14)
Now King Hezekiah and the people celebrate the temple being put back to its intended use. "He stationed the Levites in the temple of the Lord with cymbals, harps and lyres in the way prescribed by David and Gad the king's seer and Nathan the prophet; this was commanded by the Lord through His prophets. So the Levites stood ready with David's instruments, and the priests with their trumpets. Hezekiah gave the order to sacrifice the burnt offering on the altar. As the offering began, singing to the Lord began also, accompanied by trumpets and the instruments of David king of Israel. The whole assembly bowed in worship, while the musicians played and the trumpets sounded. All this continued until the sacrifice of the burnt offering was completed. When the offerings were finished, the king and everyone present with him knelt down and worshiped. King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed down and worshiped." (2 Chronicles 29:25-30)
In addition to the offerings commanded by the king, he encourages the people to participate by bringing their offerings as well. The temple is for everyone, not just for the king and the priests and the Levites. "Then Hezekiah said, 'You have now dedicated yourselves to the Lord. Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the temple of the Lord.' So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings." (2 Chronicles 29:31) You'll recall that a burnt offering was an offering for atonement and that it signified a complete giving up of something to God. It symbolized denying oneself and submitting oneself to God. After the sacrifice had been slaughtered by one swift stroke across the jugular with a knife specially designed to kill as instantaneously and humanely as possible, the bringer of the sacrifice gave it up entirely to the Lord, not retaining any part of it for himself in the way he could with other types of offerings.
"The number of burnt offerings the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams and two hundred male lambs---all of them for burnt offerings to the Lord. The animals consecrated as sacrifices amounted to six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep and goats. The priests, however, were too few to skin all the burnt offerings; so their relatives the Levites helped them until the task was finished and until the other priests had been consecrated, for the Levites had been more conscientious in consecrating themselves than the priests had been. There were burnt offerings in abundance, together with the fat of the fellowship offerings and the drink offerings that accompanied the burnt offerings. So the service of the temple of the Lord was reestablished. Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for His people, because it was done so quickly." (2 Chronicles 29:32-36)
You'll recall that when Hezekiah's father was on the throne of Judah, all the regular sacrifices and offerings were still being made, only he had commanded them to be made at his pagan altar to his false gods. There was no atonement to be had in that. There was no fellowship to be had in that. But now revival has broken out in the land because of the faith and example of Hezekiah---and it has broken out quickly and it has accomplished a lot already---so the people give thanks.
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