The Spirit of the Law In seeking to celebrate the Passover, Hezekiah faced a dilemma. The Passover, a celebration of Israel’s redemption from Egypt, was the first festival of Israel’s liturgical year (Exod 12:1-2). Hezekiah had worked to restore Israel’s worship of the Lord. But the time between the beginning of his renewal and the first month of the year did not allow the priests sufficient time to be prepared and to gather the people (2 Chr 30:2-3). As a result, he could not celebrate the Passover at the scheduled time. Hezekiah proceeded with the Passover, holding it a month late (30:15). He deemed having the celebration to be more important than holding it at the prescribed time. By deferring the date with the express purpose of allowing time for the people to gather at the Temple in Jerusalem, Hezekiah achieved harmony between Judah and the people from the northern kingdom and unified the celebration. The precise regulations were less important than ensuring that the Passover was observed and that all could participate. Also, when the festival began, many of the people were not properly purified, so they were unable to slaughter their own sacrifices as the law require...

Apostasy and Renewal During the divided monarchy, a distinction was often made between the apostate northern kingdom and the faithful remnant of Judah. When Jeroboam founded the northern kingdom, a number of righteous people went to Judah to escape Jeroboam’s wickedness (2 Chr 11:13-17). But eventually, the southern kingdom also fell into apostasy. Ahaz became like Jeroboam: He made metal images (28:2), worshiped the gods of Damascus (28:23), neglected the Temple (28:24; 29:7, 19), and spread false worship (28:24-25). His apostasy was so great that more righteousness was found in the north at that time than in Judah (see 28:9-15). The Chronicler wrote to inspire hope that God would restore Judah. He showed that God is always willing to forgive those who repent. Repentance can make restoration and reconciliation possible, as shown by the northern leaders’ response to the prophet who confronted the victorious northern army (28:8-15). The renewal of Judah under Hezekiah also provided a paradigm for restoration and unification, a time that could be compared with Solomon’s reign. In the first year of his reign, Hezekiah began to restore the Temple (29:3); and when Hezekiah celebra...