Enough Is Enough!

“In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the LORD and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites, assembled them in the square on the east side and said: ‘Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the LORD, the God of your fathers…Now I intend to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel...My sons, do not be negligent now, for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to burn incense.’” 2 Chronicles 29:3-5, 10a, 11.

A few months ago, I was babysitting Carson at his home. He repeatedly asked me for something for which I continued to refuse. After much frustration on his part, he crawled under the breakfast room table and screamed out, “Emmy, I am the king!” In other words, “You may tell me what to do out there but under here I rule!”

We finally have a king who gets frustrated enough that decides to define his reign in a much different way than those who preceded him. Finally, a king who feels enough is enough! There is so much to examine in these verses but first and foremost is the immediate and absolute decision to return to grace. King Hezekiah, the son of the vile and wicked Azab decided to break the cycle. He had watched his dad through the eyes of a child who quickly chose to step out of his earthly father’s footsteps and into the loving footsteps of our Father. We can assume from the urgency of turning every practice on its head in the kingdom that Hezekiah detested the practices of his father. I am amazed at how much spiritual maturity this young man had at age 25 after witnessing dear old dad and the evil ways in which he ran the kingdom.

The second point important to make is the urgency of this passage. In his plea and command to his audience he tells them to clean up their act now, clean up the temple now, he will make a covenant with the LORD now and for them not to be negligent now. That is how we should approach any thing for which we are attempting to accomplish. Notice he had to tell the priests to return to righteous living, return to their position before God as a servant and return to ministry. We are all positioned to lead our own ministry once we clean up our act. Our kingdom will always have territories that need to be torn down, cleaned up and returned to a God-focused state.

In a society much like Hezekiah’s, we are called with urgency to clean up our act NOW, ask God to make covenant with us NOW and show us how we can stand before Him and fulfill our destiny of serving Him while ministering to others.

We all have set up our own kingdom through choices we make in our lives. There are many people who watch the manner in which we rule. Do we allow God to rule in our kingdom or do we allow our kingdom to rule us?