First I want you to notice authority for what I said a little bit earlier that this Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread, which are the focal point of a reform, a revival that occurred under Hezekiah, were done at the commandment of the king. It was not done at the commandment of God. They took advantage of a commandment of God that they were allowed to keep the Passover thirty days later, but as we are seeing here now, they not only kept the Passover, but they also kept the Days of Unleavened Bread. There was nothing like that said in the law.
I bring this up to you just to reinforce that we are dealing with an unusual circumstance here. Hezekiah sincerely felt that the lives of the people and their continued existence as a nation was on the line. He took the bull by the horns and he said, "We are going to make a covenant with God. We are going to repent. We are going to reform, and we are going to begin this by cleaning out the Temple."
After the Temple was cleaned out, they were past the Passover, and Hezekiah said, "We're going to keep the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread in the second month, beginning with the 14th day of the second month." This was an unusual situation, all done at the commandment of the king.
Taken at face value, I think we would have to say that Hezekiah was bending the rules. Considering the circumstance, I think we would also have to say it was justified. This Passover took place about 140 years after the captivity of Israel. Remember, Israel went into captivity, and Ezra, who is the author of I and II Chronicles, did not write until about 100 years after the captivity of Judah. Now why would Ezra write what he did? This is just to put a thought, a question, in your mind.
Again notice that these things were done according to the commandment of the king. Hezekiah is shown as being completely in charge. If we look at verse 1 again, the Passover is mentioned. In verse 13 we find the Feast of Unleavened Bread is mentioned. Here is the first time in Scripture that there is any indication that Passover and Unleavened Bread are linked together in an unusual way.
Notice these differences between this Passover kept and celebrated in the days of Hezekiah, at the king's command, with what we have learned from Exodus 12 and Exodus 25 through 40. This is the very first time in the Bible that we have these things appearing.
Ezra was faithful to let us know that even in the days of Solomon and David when the nation had God's favor, it was not done this way. You would think that if they had God's favor there might be more leniency. But no, even in the days of Solomon and David no Passover was kept like this. Even though it was a Passover to God, it was different from what was commanded in Exodus. The main reason is because of the total paganization of the Judeans. They were so steeped in Baalism that it was not possible to trust them to keep a Passover at home.
That is exactly what Hezekiah attempted. He attempted, through a centralization of the worship, to somehow bring about a purification. It failed, but it was one good king's attempt to try to do something to turn the people around, and I have no doubt at all that God accepted it. It was better than no Passover at all. Even though God accepted it, this does not mean God changed His original command. It is very clearly seen the people understood this, because I gave you readings from books by Philo and Josephus that clearly showed that in the days of Christ the people were still offering the Passover sacrifice in their own homes.
The Passover under II Chronicles does not give authority for a change. It is only recording a very unusual circumstance in which the king took control of the situation. He tried to turn the nation around by centralizing the worship so that he could keep track of what the people were doing. This Passover led to even greater reform, but it did not change things for very long.
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