Daily Devotional For Wednesday, July 1, 2026
Good morning and we’re in July already. Today we come to one of my favorite kings in Judah, Hezekiah. He became king at the age of 25 and ruled for 29 years over Judah. His is a story of how you can have the worst ungodly parents in the world and still follow the Lord. If you have been reading these devotionals, his father was King Ahaz. He refused to follow the Lord and he led God’s people to worship the pagan idols of Baal, Molech and Asherah. Molech was the worst of these because people were expected to worship with infanticide.
They would take their newborn babies and place them on a fiery altar and burn them alive. Can you imagine the screams of those innocent babies? This is America today. We have aborted 63 million babies in America alone since 1973 with the demonic ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe vs. Wade. Globally, 73 million abortions take place every year. We have Hezekiah’s mother, Abijah, to thank for his relationship to the Lord.
We read about his reforms in 2 Chronicles 29-31 in the Old Testament. Hezekiah’s story is a story of hope. His idol worshipping, baby sacrificing, whoremongering, and demonic father did not have the last word or major influence in Hezekiah’s life. All it takes is one godly adult to help a child take a different path – a godly path. One of the first things Hezekiah does is reinstitute worship in the Temple. We are told this in 2 Chronicles 29:3, “In the very first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah reopened the doors of the Temple of the Lord and repaired them” (NLT). Worship of God had not only stopped, but had been banned.
So, Hezekiah had all the priests go through all the purification procedures laid out in the Mosaic Law before they began work on the Temple. Once purified, people went to work quickly and the Temple was purified and ready for people to come and worship God. According to 2 Chronicles 29-31 they came in masses. Not only that, they brought so many tithes and offerings they had to build bigger storage rooms for them. Can you imagine that in a typical church – the people tithed so much that the counters of the tithes had to get bigger money bags to take it all to the bank or they had to get multiple armored vehicles to take all the tithes to the bank?
Hezekiah did face several challenges. First, Hezekiah invited Jews from the northern kingdom Israel to come to the Passover celebration. He had no assurance they would come because of the hostilities between Israel and Judah. BUT, they came and they came in masses. The second challenge was purification of all the pilgrims who came. These pilgrims did not have enough time to purify themselves for worship in the Temple.
So, Hezekiah prayed to God to purify them since they had come with the right intentions from Judah and from the northern kingdom, Israel. Why did all these people come? The Bible tells us in 2 Chronicles 30:12, “At the same time, God’s hand was on the people in the land of Judah, giving them all one heart to obey the orders of the king and his officials, who were following the word of the LORD” (NLT).
The Lord united all the people in both countries to return to Him and celebrate for the first time in years the Passover Celebration. This was a festival where the Jewish people confessed and repented from their sins and where God atoned them for their sins. Can you imagine the celebration in heaven because of this? These former pagan idol worshippers, returning to one true God, had to be a cause of celebration in heaven. This reminds me of Jesus’ words in Luke 15:7, “In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!” (NLT).
Reflection Assignment: Who is it you know whose home or parents are not godly but you could let the Lord use you to help them have a relationship to Jesus Christ? When you look at your own temple (body), what needs purging? Cleaning? Removing? What could you do today in terms of worship, give your purified temple to God for Him to use for His glory?
Scripture To Meditate On: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, (20) for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, give me someone young to have an impact and influence in their life for you. I know that before I do this, I have to get my own house in order first. So, please show me what I need to purge and remove. Help me to be a Hezekiah in my day for You. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly