Second Chronicles 29–31 is the story of a king who stood in the gap of faithlessness and disobedience for the people of God at a crucial moment in history. King Hezekiah was a man who believed God on behalf of his people, whose faith and radical “all-in” obedience preserved his nation from disaster. His faith precipitated a national revival, and shows us five marks of any awakening.
1. Awakening happens when God’s people clean out the junk from their lives (2 Chr 29:3-5).
“In the first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah re-opened the doors of the temple of the Lord and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites and said: ‘Listen to me, Levites! Remove all defilement from the sanctuary’” (2 Chr 29:3–5). Hezekiah started this revival with himself, the priests, and the house of worship. This wasn’t an accident: revival always begins in the house of God.
We often think the problem is somewhere out there. “They” are the problem, whoever “they” happen to be. Hollywood is too immoral; the media is too liberal; professors are too cynical; millenials are too rebellious. Sure, the world is sinful. But their sin isn’t keeping God from pouring out his blessing. Sin in the church is. What prevents awakening in a community is a community of Christians that harbors secret bitterness, anger, and infidelity. Nothing drives out the presence of the Holy Spirit like unconfessed sin in the church. Revival and awakening always begin when God’s people get serious about their sin.
2. Awakening happens when God’s people re-center themselves on Scripture (2 Chr 29:25-30).
Scripture is the church’s life; without it the church dies. Scripture must be the basis of our sermons, the center of our songs, and the impetus behind our prayers. Remove the centrality of Scripture from any of these and the church will die the slow and painful death of malnourishment. Remove Scripture from the center of your family, your marriage, your relationships, or your job and they, too, will die.
But cling to Scripture, savor it, plumb its depths, saturate yourself in it until it shapes everything in your mind and heart…and life will begin to flow. When the Spirit of God begins a work of revival, he uses Scripture to do it. Our hearts may gradually harden as we construct petty defenses to keep him out. But the Spirit wields the Bible like a sword, cutting through any and every bulwark to achieve God’s purposes for us.
3. Awakening happens when God’s people re-center themselves on the gospel (2 Chr 30).
Study Israel’s times of spiritual decline, and you’ll find that they are always characterized by a “spiritual forgetting.” They forgot what God had done; they forgot his mighty works in the past. So Hezekiah makes a point of putting the Passover celebration front and center. “Remember what God has done for you!” he cries, “Remember, remember, remember!”
Spiritual amnesia wasn’t just an Israelite thing. If most Christians obeyed just half of what they already know, they would grow exponentially in their spiritual maturity. For most of us, the key to experiencing personal awakening isn’t gleaning a new precept, but becoming more intimate with the greatness of the salvation we already possess. As Martin Luther said, to progress in the Christian life is always to begin again.
So we go back to the gospel, again and again, because the grace we found at the start is the grace that will carry us to the finish. The gospel is like a well: you don’t find better water by widening the well, but by plunging deeper into its depths.
4. Awakening happens when God’s people devote themselves to intercessory prayer (2 Chr 30:18-27).
Hezekiah realized how feeble his reforming attempts would be without prayer. So he pounded on God’s door until he saw God’s healing. It’s not just that prayer brings the awakening; prayer is the awakening.
It is a contradiction to claim to want the power of God, but not to pray. Charles Spurgeon rightly said,
“Prayer pulls the rope down below and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so languidly; others give only an occasional jerk at the rope. But he who communicates with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously with all his might.”
5. Awakening happens when God’s people give extravagantly (2 Chr 31:5-10).
Under Hezekiah the Israelites “generously gave” of their firstfruits until “they piled it in heaps.” They weren’t cajoled into giving. They gave because of their excitement in seeing God move again. In fact, the people gave so much that there were heaps left over. Their generosity not only restored the temple; it also blessed their neighbors.
Extravagant giving is hardly ever the result of browbeating. It flows naturally out of a heart touched by grace. When we see what Jesus did as he stood in the gap for us, we have the courage to stand in the gap for others, and our hearts will overflow with generosity. When we see his perfect sacrifice poured out for us, we will pour our very lives out for him—and it won’t even seem like a sacrifice.
God isn’t waiting for the world to clean up its act. He isn’t waiting for a new strategy or a new leader. He’s waiting for those of us in the church to courageously confess our sins and stand on the gospel once again.
