January 2022

My dear friend,

Happy New Year! A new year is often a time of new resolutions.

What would God have us resolve to do in 2022?

The Book of 2 Chronicles records Hezekiah orders the priests to restore and purify the temple, since it had been desecrated during the reign of his father Ahaz. Hezekiah leads the people to rededicate the temple and to resume the practice of bringing sacrifices and offerings to the altar.

29 Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
² And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.
³ He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them.
⁴ And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street,
⁵ And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.
⁶ For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs.
⁷ Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel.
⁸ Wherefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.
⁹ For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.
¹⁰ Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.
¹¹ My sons, be not now negligent: for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense.
¹² Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites: and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehalelel: and of the Gershonites; Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah:
¹³ And of the sons of Elizaphan; Shimri, and Jeiel: and of the sons of Asaph; Zechariah, and Mattaniah:
¹⁴ And of the sons of Heman; Jehiel, and Shimei: and of the sons of Jeduthun; Shemaiah, and Uzziel.
¹⁵ And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord.
¹⁶ And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron.
¹⁷ Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the Lord: so they sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.

The work of sanctifying the temple began on the first day of the first month – the new year.

Matthew Henry comments:

They began on the first day of the first month, a happy beginning of the new-year, and one that promised a good year. Thus should every year begin with the reformation of what is amiss, and the purging away, by true repentance, of all the defilements contracted the foregoing year.

At the beginning of this new year, let us examine our hearts and repent of all the sinful habits and thoughts that we acquired last year.

Let us truly determine in our hearts to sanctify ourselves and the church: sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.

They did not just bring out the dirt accumulated by neglect, but Ahaz’s filthy idolatry and their equipment. Likewise, we must cleanse our hearts and our churches of idolatry. We must cast out the false prophets and false teachers and false preachers we have set up as idols: Rick Warren, Lance Wallnau, Hank Kunneman, Beth Moore, Joyce Meyers and others we worship as little gods.

Let us dedicate this year to establishing the pure religion of God in our ourselves and our churches that the Lord may be honored and served aright. Everything that pollutes ourselves and the house of the Lord must be carried out. Not some filthiness – all filthiness. All the pollutions and filth that have been brought into the house of the Lord must be carried out of the holy place. This includes rock music, "Christian" comedy and other entertainment, irreverent dress, false prophets and false preachers and false teachers - anything that profanes the holy House of God. We must sanctify ourselves and the sanctuary and perfect holiness in the fear of God.

It is our duty, to sanctify ourselves first (by repenting of our neglects, reforming our own hearts and lives, and renewing our covenants with God to do our duty better for the time to come), and then to sanctify the house of God, as his servants, to make it clean from every thing that is disagreeable and profanes it, and to set it up for the purposes for which it was made. The purpose of the Lord's house is to offer holy worship to a holy God.

This should be our New Year’s resolution…

Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2 Corinthians 7:1

Let us declare our resolution to revive pure religion and make it our business to promote it.

Have a blessed new year,

Karen Pansler Lam, J.D.
Liberty Advocate
http://www.libertyadvocate.com/