July 1st
Remove It
2 Chronicles 29:5
and said to them: "Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place.
There are times when we let things pile up. The yard is overgrown. The laundry piles up. The trash overflows. We notice it and usually take measures cut the lawn, do the wash and remove the refuse before it becomes rancid. If we don't remove the trash the stench will suffocate us. We have to take action to "carry out the rubbish" before it overwhelms us.
The children of Israel had suffered under the leadership of a the wicked king Ahaz. In his 16 year as king he, "made molded images for Baals . . . and burned his children in the fire" (2 Chron 28:2-3). He also was the one who "shut up the doors of the house of the Lord and made . . . altars in every corner of Jerusalem" (2 Chorn 28:24). He was pure evil and led the people to abandon the Lord to serve the gods of those around them.
At his death, his son, Hezekiah, took the throne. He was totally opposite of his father in that "he did what was right in the sight of the Lord" (2 Kgs 18:3). As a matter of fact one of his first acts as king was that "he opened the doors of the house of the Lord" that his father had closed 16 years earlier.
Before Ahaz "shut the doors" of the temple, he went through it and "gathered the articles of the house of the Lord" and "cut in pieces the articles" (2 Chron 28:24). Basically Ahaz left the temple trashed. The rubbish from his ransacking had remained in place untouched for 16 years. Now Hezekiah steps in to remove the rubbish, repair the damage and reopen the temple.
This is a story that should make us take pause. You see, as believers, we are a walking temple of the Holy Spirit. As Paul says, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?" ( 1 Cor 3:16). and later he adds, "Or, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you . . . " (1 Cor 6:19). So there is this sacred sense that we are like the temple of the Old Testament. It is our responsibility to maintain the Holiness and sanctity of God's temple. We should seek to enhance and enrich our temple of the Holy Spirit. We should never allow anything to "enter" into it that would defile us.
When Ahaz desecrated the temple he was defying God as he defiled the temple. His actions left the temple in shambles rather than sanctified. He allowed the "rubbish" of the world to infiltrate and infect God house. Paul warns believers, "If anyone destroys God's temple, God.will destroy them. For God's temple is holy and you are God's temple" (1 cor 3:17). Ours than is to recognize and remove those things in and around us that are "unholy". We can't let the rubbish of worldliness begin to pile up in "our" temple. We must be diligent to "carry out the rubbish" that will defile "our" temple. So don't let the trash pile up in your life, carry out the rubbish regularly.
Today thank God that he has made you a walking temple. Ask Him to help you daily carry out the refuge of sin that has invaded your life. Plead with Him to not let your "rubbish" pile up, but carry it out regularly.
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