Bringing Heaven to Earth

Yesterday, we looked at the beautiful promise-prophecy in Isaiah 11 where He speaks of the blessing and the sense of "Heaven on Earth" that the coming of God's "Anointed One" would bring:

 The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them. (Isaiah 11:6)  

Although Jesus is the full realisation of this hope, we know that king Hezekiah, born a few years after this prophecy, was a partial fulfilment it this hope for "heaven on earth".

One of the beautiful moments of Hezekiah's rule that must have felt like the "leopard lying down with the goat" is described in 2 Chronicles 30.

Hezekiah realised that it had been a long time since the Israelites had celebrated the Passover and so he wanted to reinstitute it. But there were some difficulties:

• The official date for the Passover was very soon, too soon for all the practical arrangements and messages to go out.
• The priests weren't properly consecrated and there weren't enough of them.
• The people weren't properly consecrated and wouldn't be able to make the required sacrifices themselves.
• Many of the people shared in the Passover without consecrating themselves.

Hezekiah handled these difficulties with incredible grace and compassion:

• He moves the Passover Feast a month later—that's like sending out a letter to the nation in November and telling people that Christmas has been moved to 25 Jan!
• The invitation was sent out, and while some mocked and criticised, a large number of people responded in faith and with great devotion.
• The Levites and Priests who had been holding back their support were convicted by the response of the people jumped in and started serving. Hezekiah prayed that God would bless them even though they hadn't gone through all the processes of preparation.
• Hezekiah prayed for the people who had come to celebrate but had not had time to consecrate themselves and God healed them.

In these acts of sheer grace (rather than strict law) the people experienced great joy and mercy as we read in 2 Chronicles 30:26.

This is just a small foretaste of the joy and grace that Jesus came to bring to us!

We, like Hezekiah, can be agents of this grace!

May you be blessed as you celebrate this great God in corporate worship on Sunday!