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Our Youth Ministry is being led by:
Youth Worker: Ps. Fui
President: Kendra Ang,
Vice-President: Jolene Tan,
with a group of Senior Leaders: Clement Eng, Doreen Soon, Chia Xin Pei, Suzanne Tan, David Soon, Teoh Ling Hui and Ding Ming Hui



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Led by Woo Hui Qi



Led by Doretta Soon


Led by Jessie Ma and Jonathan Lim



Led by Shannon Low



Led by Rachel Ma



Led by Chia Xin Hui and Kendrick Teo

Tuesday of the Third week in Lent
Cleansing the Temple

2 Chronicles 29: 1-11, 16-19

Hezekiah Purifies the Temple

¹ Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. ² He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done.

³ In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the LORD and repaired them. ⁴ He brought in the priests and the Levites, assembled them in the square on the east side ⁵ and said: "Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the LORD, the God of your fathers. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary. ⁶ Our fathers were unfaithful; they did evil in the eyes of the LORD our God and forsook him. They turned their faces away from the LORD's dwelling place and turned their backs on him. ⁷ They also shut the doors of the portico and put out the lamps. They did not burn incense or present any burnt offerings at the sanctuary to the God of Israel. ⁸ Therefore, the anger of the LORD has fallen on Judah and Jerusalem; he has made them an object of dread and horror and scorn, as you can see with your own eyes. ⁹ This is why our fathers have fallen by the sword and why our sons and daughters and our wives are in captivity. ¹⁰ Now I intend to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger will turn away from us. ¹¹ My sons, do not be negligent now, for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to burn incense."

¹⁶ The priests went into the sanctuary of the LORD to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the LORD's temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the LORD. The Levites took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month they reached the portico of the LORD. For eight more days they consecrated the temple of the LORD itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month.

¹⁸ Then they went in to King Hezekiah and reported: "We have purified the entire temple of the LORD, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table for setting out the consecrated bread, with all its articles. ¹⁹ We have prepared and consecrated all the articles that King Ahaz removed in his unfaithfulness while he was king. They are now in front of the LORD's altar."

Hezekiah ruled over the Southern Kingdom of Judah for twenty-nine years (715-686 BC). Of the twenty kings Judah had, only eight were either good or passable. The rest were bad. Hezekiah was a good king. He “did what was right in the eyes of the LORD” (v2).

He was a good king despite the fact that circumstances did not favour a godly rule. His father, King Ahaz (731-715 BC), had been a bad king. He desecrated the temple, introduced foreign gods, established pagan sacrifices. Hezekiah refused to be a captive of bad circumstances. From the first year of his reign, he was determined to set right what had gone wrong. He chose to do “all that David his father had done” (v2).

Hezekiah was a good king because he recognized the hand of God in Judah’s hardships. During the period of Ahaz’s mis-rule, the land had suffered defeat at the hands of the Arameans (NE Syria) and the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Thousands of Jews had been killed and many others had been taken away as captives.

Hezekiah saw in these events God’s hand of judgment (v5-9). He was prepared to learn from the lessons of the past. Restoration only begins when we recognize where we have gone wrong.
Hezekiah was a good king as he was determined to renew the ancient Mosaic covenant with the Lord (v10). He repaired the temple doors, abolished idolatry throughout the land, instructed the priests and Levites to cleanse the temple and restored proper worship. Later, he instructed the people to celebrate the Feast of the Passover. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob became again the focal point of their national life.
Commitment:
Like Hezekiah, I need to rise about bad circumstances.

Prayer:
Almighty God, help me to recognize that my “body is a temple of the Holy Spirit”. May I always glorify you in my body. Amen.



All Lent Devotion materials are taken from 'Take Up Your Cross' - Daily Devotion for Lent 2009 by Bible Society of Singapore.

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