GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 29:1-3
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29:1 Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as with everything his father David had done. 3 In the first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah opened the doors of the House of the LORD and repaired them.
From Luther to Thiele, there have been many attempts at the chronology of the Israelite monarchy. One item that makes us scratch our heads and do a little digging is this statement that Hezekiah was 25 when he became king. If we take the stated fact that Ahaz his father was twenty when he became king, and reigned just 16 years (2 Kings 16:2), that would mean that Ahaz became the father of little Hezekiah when he was just about 11. A human male can become a father at any point in his lifetime, but only after he’s reached puberty– say, 13 or 14.
The issue is helped by some other information in the Bible. The reign of Ahaz, like that of some other kings of Judah, seems to have overlapped with that of his father, Jotham. This means that he could have been twenty, not when he first became crown prince (junior partner), but when he actually rose to the throne (senior partner), although his regnal years would count the “junior years” in the grand total. This would add three years to the age of Ahaz when he became Hezekiah’s father, meaning that he was about 14. When we remember that later on he actually killed some of his sons in his idol worship in Ben Hinnom (2 Chronicles 28:3) and that another son of Ahaz, Maaseiah, was killed by Zikri the Ephraimite (2 Chronicles 28:7), we see that Hezekiah may not have had very many rivals for the throne. In fact, judging from the way Hezekiah rebelled against his father’s wicked practices, we might wonder whether the slain Maaseiah was perhaps a younger brother to Hezekiah, but one who was being chosen by Ahaz to follow on the throne because he shared in his father’s idolatry.
So far in Chronicles, only Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah have been compared with their “father David” (see 2 Chronicles 17:3). The change from the ways of Ahaz happened right away. “The first month of the first year” isn’t just a reference to what month he became king, but the first month of any religious year: Nisan. It was the time for everyone to come to the temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. However, the temple was in no shape to host one of the three most important festivals of the year!
Nisan or not, it was time to get started cleaning up. And there were a lot of furnishings to rebuild, repair, or remake. Hezekiah began his time on the throne here at the temple of God. The first thing was to make a statement, and everything began with the doors.
Hezekiah went to the very doors that his father had closed in unbelief (both figuratively and literally), and he opened them– both figuratively and literally. He opened up the temple “for business” once again. After this, there would have to be a lot of work done, but the point was made for everyone to see. The temple was open, and it was their new young king who had opened it.
It is only by the grace of God that the true church was restored under Hezekiah. Ahaz had apparently lost his heir, and had wickedly murdered most of his other sons, leaving only the son of the patient and long-suffering wife Abijah to succeed him. Then, before the dust had settled on his grave, his son Hezekiah had flung open the doors of the temple that Ahaz had shut. When the church is persecuted and disturbed, attacked by the devil and by the world, this is the surest outward sign that the gospel preached there is the true gospel of Christ crucified. Luther says: “The world regards it as a sure sign that the gospel is a heretical and seditious doctrine when it sees the preaching of the gospel is followed by great upheavals, disturbances, offenses, sects, etc.” (LW 27:43). God shows himself in the weak things of the world, and the world trips and stumbles over such things. These are crosses we carry because we love our Savior, and we want his gospel to be proclaimed faithfully. Let the world think what it will. Pray for the success of the word.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church https://splnewulm.org/daily-devotions/ and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2025
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 29:1-3 Hezekiah opened the doors