Once faithful worship of Yahweh had been restored, it had to be maintained. This is a lesson that applies in many areas of life: you can set things right, but they won’t stay right without ongoing attention. King Hezekiah understood this principle, and so he appointed the divisions of the priests and Levites, to serve their months of service in the system of sacrifices and offerings first established in Leviticus (II Chronicles 31:2-3).

The king himself provided the animals for the burnt offerings; but the people would need to provide the tithes and offerings for the support of the priests and Levites (31:4). That’s what they started to do, bringing in tithes of grain and all the produce of the field, which over the next few months began to heap up in abundance (31:5-7).

“When Hezekiah and the officials came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and his people Israel” (31:8). It must have been quite a sight, all that grain and produce heaped up like that: and King Hezekiah asked about it. Azariah the chief priest responded, “Since they began to bring the contributions into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat and have plenty to spare; for the Lord has blessed his people, so that we have this great supply left over” (31:10).

The servants of the Lord do experience times of struggle and hunger, but it is God’s good purpose to make sure that everyone has enough to eat. King Hezekiah himself would suffer illness (32:24), and the nation would suffer when the Assyrians invaded (32:1-19): finding favor in the sight of the Lord does not make us immune to the difficulties of this life. Yet God’s sustaining grace restored the humbled king to health (32:24-26), and defeated the Assyrians (32:20-23).

* * * * *

You have put us in a good land, O Lord, and given us heaps of blessings; yet we often feel impoverished, and we are hesitant in our tithes and offerings. Grant to us generosity of spirit, we pray, for the sake of your work and your kingdom, with the resolution that none of your people should go hungry.

If you find these studies helpful, please Like, Subscribe, Comment, and Share. Thanks!