2 Crônicas 35

2 Crônicas 35

Wiersbe - In many respects, King Josiah was following the example of King Hezekiah in cleansing the nation of idolatry, repairing the temple and restoring the worship, and celebrating a great nationwide Passover in Jerusalem. While all the appointed feasts in Leviticus 23 were meaningful and important, the feast of Passover was especially significant. For one thing, Passover reminded the Jewish people of their national origin at the exodus when the Lord delivered them from Egyptian bondage. This was a manifestation of the grace and power of God. He took them to Himself as His own people and entered into a covenant relationship with them at Mount Sinai. They were God’s chosen people, God’s covenant people, a people to bring glory to His name Sara Japhet: Hezekiah's Passover is portrayed as a spontaneous initiative, the main purpose of which was to provide a cultic-religious framework for the integration of the people of the North into the Jerusalem cult; the approach to these Israelites, and the effort to bring them to Jerusalem, consume the major part of ch. 30. … Josiah's Passover is a different matter altogether. Josiah works to establish a permanent institution, built on solid administrational and organizational foundations, with a clear division of roles and an undisputed legal basis. (See I & II Chronicles: A Commentary - Page 1044) Raymond Dillard: Josiah’s Passover was a pilgrimage feast: just as Israel had received its identity as a nation in the great assembly before Yahweh at Sinai, the law provided that during the pilgrimage feasts the nation would assemble before his sanctuary at least in part as a visible reminder of a corporate national existence. In this way the individual Israelite learned afresh what it meant to be Israel: that Yahweh had chosen them as his own and that he dwelled in their midst. Centuries later Jesus’ parents annually made this same pilgrimage; they discovered that though he was still a child, Jesus knew more about the meaning of Passover than they (Luke 2:41–51; G. McConville, 260–61). Walter Gustafson - There are five points of special interest in this Passover account: (1) The necessity of returning the ark to its rightful place (2Ch 35:3). (2) The diligence of Josiah to have everything done according to the Word of God in the writings of David and Solomon (2Ch 35:4, 15) and Moses (2Ch 35:6, 12-13). "Just as Josiah acted on what he found written in God's Word, so the Biblical record of Jesus' Passover sacrifice at Calvary still offers a fresh dynamic for life and worship" (Selman). The Levites fervently served all the people first (2Ch 35:11-13). Afterwards, they prepared for themselves and the priests (v. 14) and then for the singers and the porters (2Ch 35:15). Their prominence is of special interest to the Chronicler. (3) Everyone was in his place. The king stood in his place (2Ch 34:31). The priests and the Levites were in their place (2Ch 35:10). The singers and the porters were in their place (2Ch 35:15). How good it is when everyone in assembly fellowship is in the place that God wants him or her to be. No one is seeking a place for which God has not fitted him or her. No one is shirking a place of responsibility for which God has fitted him or her and where he or she is needed. (4) No wonder then that there was no Passover like this one since the days of Samuel, about 500 years earlier ( (2Ch 35:10).18). As noted previously there was no Passover like the one kept by Hezekiah since the days of Solomon (2Ch 30:26), but it was necessary to go further back in history to find one like Josiah's because his was closer to the Word of God. (5) God wanted His people of old to keep the Passover in order to remind them of what He had done for them in delivering them. He had delivered them by the blood of the lamb from bondage and from the judgment that fell on the Egyptians. The Passover lamb is typical of Christ as 1 Corinthians 5:7 makes clear, "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us". "The Lord's Supper differs somewhat from the Passover in that it is not a mere memorial of a great deliverance, but a remembrance of the Person who wrought the deliverance for us. 'This do in remembrance of me', are our Lord's words in Luke 22:19" (Fereday). In Luke 22:15 the Lord expressed intense desire, "With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer". He knew with perfect divine knowledge the intensity of the suffering He would endure (Jn 18:4). We can thank God that this did not override the intensity of His desire to do His Father's will. (What the Bible teaches – 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles) INTRODUCTION: Andrew Hill: The Passover is the preeminent religious festival for postexilic Judah and the apex of temple worship for the Chronicler. The reason for the prominence of this feast in the Jewish restoration community stems from the Passover observed after the completion of the second temple in 516 B.C. and the understanding that the return from Babylonian captivity is a “second exodus” for God’s people (cf. Ezra 6:19-22). The Passover, more than any other Hebrew religious festival, drew the nation of Israel back to her roots since it was at Mount Sinai that the former Hebrew slaves were constituted as the people of God. Iain Duguid: In Chronicles the climax of reforms initiated by both Hezekiah and Josiah is national celebration of Passover (cf. ch. 30). The account of Hezekiah’s Passover focused on the people, recounting the invitation to participate sent throughout Judah and Israel and thus the welcoming of those from the newly terminated northern kingdom. The celebration prompted questions and ad hoc decisions regarding date and purification, and wide joyous participation ensued. In contrast, the focus in the account of Josiah’s Passover is on the organization and performance of the celebration itself (the “people of Israel” are the active subject of a verb only in 35:17). Attention in Chronicles centers on two areas: (1) the celebration was solidly grounded in the Lord’s past instructions, through Moses (vv. 6b, 12–13) and David and Solomon (vv. 3, 4, 15), and (2) further innovation was formalized by Josiah, as the Levites were prominent, with increased duties (vv. 3–5, 10–15) “according to the king’s command” (vv. 10, 16; cf. imperatives in vv. 3–6). The changes brought by David and Solomon flowed from the building of a temple and related to temple ministry as a whole, while Josiah’s instructions flowed from centralization “in Jerusalem” (v. 1). Adam