“But the priests were too few and could not flay all the burnt offerings, so until other priests had consecrated themselves, their brothers the Levites helped them, until the work was finished – for the Levites were more upright in heart than the priests in consecrating themselves.” 2 Chronicles 29:34
In Matthew 9 the Lord is in the middle of His ministry on earth. We read in Matthew 9, “Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages,
teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When
he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
The Lord saw the tremendous spiritual battle that was going on; He saw grain that was ready to be reaped or else it would die and rot; and, He saw there were very few people out in the middle of those grain fields laboring to salvage the grain while there was time.
King Hezekiah faced this same situation after he became king and tried to restore Israel back to its right relationship with God. Hezekiah was serious in turning the nation back to God. He cleansed the temple of God. 2 Chronicles 29 said the priests consecrated themselves and then cleansed the temple. From all the defilement in it. (See the application to us as we separate from the sin in our lives?) They took the uncleanness to the Brook Kidron and washed it away for good. The instruments of service that King Ahaz had discarded were made ready to serve God. When that was done King Hezekiah called all the people, the priests and leaders to offer sin offerings to God. After burnt offerings and songs of praise were offered to God, Then the people were ready to offer sacrifices and thank offerings to the Lord. At that point we read the words of 2 Chronicles 29:34, “the priests were too few”. The hearts of the people were over-whelmed with praise to God knowing their sins were forgiven and, as a result, they gave generously. Their gifts were so great that
they overwhelmed the number of priests available. This would encourage our hearts for the love and generosity of the people until
we read “for the Levites were more upright in heart than the priests in consecrating themselves”.
What can we learn? We see from 2 Chronicles 29:32 that there were priests who should have been in the temple that day serving the Lord. They were called of God to serve Him, they were given the responsibility and the people needed them yet they were not available. Why were they not available? They were not diligent to sanctify themselves so that they could serve God. They knew the work was going on and they knew what was required to be prepare ones self to serve yet for some reason they put it off. Why? Maybe it was not that important or hey were too tired, or maybe they had
more pressing things to od. For whatever reason they were not prepared when the need arose. But then we read that the priests, who knew and studied God’s word, were not upright in heart. They did not want to serve the way God decreed. Thankfully the scribes took up the slack. They stepped in and served the Lord. Yet we see from this passage that God knows those who serve as God decreed and
He knows those who will not. Be upright in heart to obey the Lord like the Levites.