Hezekiah sends out an invitation to all of Israel and Judah and even wrote a letter of invitation to Ephraim and Manasseh to come to Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover, 2 Chronicles 30:1. Hezekiah’s invitation was to the faithful who remained in the northern territories. He believed that even those who were taken captive from the northern ten tribes would come again from their captivity.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘This wonderful invitation from Hezekiah is a remarkable testimony. It came following the fall of Northern Israel to Assyria in 722 B.C., a disaster that Hezekiah attributed to their forsaking the true worship of God in Jerusalem. This is proof that long before the times of Josiah God had commanded the centralization of his worship in Jerusalem.’
Notice he wants everyone to celebrate the Passover in the second month, 2 Chronicles 30:2, whilst God said it should be celebrated in the first month, Exodus 12:1-3 / Deuteronomy 16:1. Some commentators suggest that Hezekiah appears to have been so eager about gathering the people together to celebrate the Passover, that he actually violated God’s law.
We must note that Passover was to be celebrated in the first month, Numbers 9:1-5, but there were times when it could be celebrated in the second month, Numbers 9:5-14. Notice also the priests of Judah and Jerusalem hadn’t bothered to sanctify themselves for the legal Passover a month earlier, 2 Chronicles 30:3 / 2 Chronicles 20:34.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘It was, therefore, determined to defer it to the 14th of the second month, which allowed time for the priests generally to purify themselves, and for the proclamation of the festival to be made throughout all Israel.’
Because the Passover hadn’t been celebrated for such a long time, 2 Chronicles 30:4 / Exodus 23:14-17, Hezekiah wanted to put things right again. Beersheba and Dan, 2 Chronicles 30:5, were two cities, one in the south and one in the north, and here they are sued tod emote the whole land of Canaan. It had not been celebrated in large numbers according to what was written, 2 Chronicles 30:5.
At the king’s command, couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and from his officials, which read, ‘people of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, 1 Chronicles 29:18, that he may return to you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria, 2 Chronicles 30:6 / Isaiah 7.
Ellicott, in his commentary, says the following, concerning 2 Chronicles 30:6.
‘The words are a rhetorical reference to Tiglath-Pileser’s invasion of the northern kingdom, and the depopulation of Galilee and Gilead. The chronicler’s language may have been influenced also by recollection of the last fatal inroad of Shalmaneser II., in the fourth year of Hezekiah, 2 Kings 18:9 / 2 Kings 15:29.’
Notice Hezekiah acknowledges that Abraham’s descendants were unfaithful and disobedient but if they would repent and seek God, He would be found, 2 Chronicles 30:6-9. They were to return to the Lord God, 2 Chronicles 30:6, not to be like their parents and their fellow Israelites, 2 Chronicles 30:7. They were not to be stiff-necked, 2 Chronicles 30:8 / 2 Chronicles 29:6-7, submit to God, 2 Chronicles 30:8, enter God’s sanctuary, 2 Chronicles 30:8, and serve God, 2 Chronicles 30:8.
If they return to God, then their fellow Israelites and their children will be shown compassion by their captors and will return to this land, for the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate and He will not turn his face from them if they return to Him, 2 Chronicles 30:9.
Notice that the couriers were scorned and ridiculed by some people when they were given the invitation to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, 2 Chronicles 30:10. This tells just how far from God and His ways, some of those in the Northern Kingdom had gone. Their relationship with Him simply didn’t exist anymore.
However, some from the tribes of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun came to Jerusalem, 2 Chronicles 30:11, believing that their brethren who had been taken captive would return from captivity if they repented, Exodus 34:6. Notice they humbled themselves, 2 Chronicles 30:11 / Leviticus 26:40-43 / 2 Chronicles 7:14. This tells us that at least some in the Northern Kingdom still wanted to serve God and live by His will.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Five of the ten tribes certainly sent representatives. Two, Reuben and Gad were in captivity. One, Dan was absorbed into Judah. Simeon and Naphtali, which alone remained, seem to have been more than ordinarily idolatrous, 2 Chronicles 34:6.’
Also in Judah the hand of God was on the people to give them unity of mind to carry out what the king and his officials had ordered, following the word of the LORD, 2 Chronicles 30:12. This doesn’t mean that God didn’t give them any choice on the matter, it simply means they already had unity in mind and God blessed their desires.
A large crowd gathered to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, 2 Chronicles 30:13 / 2 Chronicles 30:5 / Exodus 12:18. This festival followed the eating of the Passover lamb. They removed the altars in Jerusalem, 2 Chronicles 30:14. These altars would have been the altars which were used for Baal worship, 2 Chronicles 28:24 / 2 Chronicles 33:17 / 2 Chronicles 22:19.
They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month, 2 Chronicles 30:15, as God instructed Moses, Numbers 9:5-14. The priests and the Levites were ashamed and consecrated themselves, 2 Chronicles 29:5, and brought burnt offerings to the temple, 2 Chronicles 30:15, but we’re not told why they were ashamed of themselves.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following, concerning 2 Chronicles 30:16.
‘The priests in their place, and the Levites in theirs, in which they were ordered to stand when they offered sacrifice, the priests sprinkled the blood, which they received of the hand of the Levites, the blood either of the burnt offerings before mentioned, or of the Passover lambs, which the Levites slew, and received the blood of them in basins and which the priests took of them, and sprinkled, not on the doorposts of houses, as in Egypt, but on the altar round about, and which none but priests might do, Leviticus 1:5.’
Notice Moses is described as the man of God, 2 Chronicles 30:16, which is a phrase used often for Moses, Deuteronomy 33:1 / Joshua 14:6 / 1 Samuel 2:27 / 1 Kings 9:6 / 1 Kings 12:22 / 2 Kings 1:9-13 / 2 Kings 23:17 / Ezra 3:2 / Jeremiah 35:4.
Many in the crowd hadn’t consecrated themselves, and so, the Levites had to kill the Passover lambs for all those who were not ceremonially clean and could not consecrate their lambs to the LORD, 2 Chronicles 30:17.
Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written, 2 Chronicles 30:18. In other words, because this whole celebration was organised so quickly, a lot of people were still unclean and so because they were unclean, they couldn’t eat the Passover, John 18:28.
In Hezekiah’s prayer, 2 Chronicles 30:18-19, we learn that this was one time when a greater law prevailed over that which was written. It was a greater law that they eat the Passover. This law was greater than the law of being clean in order to eat the Passover. When God heard Hezekiah’s prayer, we read that God ‘healed’ the people, for this very special occasion, 2 Chronicles 30:20 / 2 Chronicles 7:14 / Matthew 12:1-8.
The celebrations lasted a total of fourteen days, 2 Chronicles 30:21-23. This was one of the few times when Israel was actually united as the twelve tribes again. They sacrificed their offerings to God and made confessions, 2 Chronicles 30:24, which could be either confessing their sins, Leviticus 5:5 / Leviticus 16:21, or confessing God’s greatness, 1 Chronicles 16:8 / 1 Chronicles 16:24.
The entire assembly of Judah rejoiced, along with the priests and Levites and all who had assembled from Israel, and notice, including the foreigners who had come from Israel and also those who resided in Judah, 2 Chronicles 30:25. These would be Jewish converts, Leviticus 17:12 / Numbers 9:14.
There was great joy in Jerusalem and nothing like this had happened since the days Solomon finished the construction of the temple around two-hundred and thirty years ago, 2 Chronicles 30:26 / 2 Chronicles 7:8-10.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘This was a voluntary addition to the requirements of the Law, the fruit and sign of the abounding zeal which characterized the time. Hezekiah and the princes probably proposed it to the people, and presented them with sacrificial animals.’
After blessing the people, 2 Chronicles 30:27 / Numbers 6:22-27, and despite being in the temple, the priests and the Levites knew that God didn’t dwell within it, they knew that God dwelt in heaven, hence why, the text said, their prayer reached heaven, 2 Chronicles 30:27.