“In contrast to the constant trespassing of the kings and people of Judah, we are furnished with a glorious and instructive example of restoration of pure worship under the reign of Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 29. A few main points should be observed.
First, it began with the recognition that the people had trespassed against the Lord. What were the sins of the people?
1. Our fathers have trespassed [acted unfaithfully, treacherously]
2. They have done evil in the eyes of the Lord our God
3. They have forsaken Him
4. They have turned away their faces from His habitation and given Him the back.
5. They have shut up the doors of the porch-‘So He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.’ (Ezekiel 8:16)
6. They have put out the lamps
7. They do not burn incense or present any burnt offerings at the sanctuary of the God of Israel.
Second, it involved a careful preparation, in which all of the man-made impurities (‘rubbish’) were purged from the Temple, while the neglected elements of worship were restored to their rightful place.
Third, the worship service was arranged according to God’s explicit commands (vs.25). Even the musical instruments of David were used as
prescribed, only in connection with the burnt offering (vs. 27-28), while the psalms of David continued after the sacrifice (vs.29).
Fourth, the entire service centered around the offering of the prescribed sacrifices, thus highlighting the centrality of Christ, which was obscured by all of the innovations which the kings and people had added to God’s worship.
That same centrality of Christ’s finished work is to be the hallmark of the worship of the New Testament Church. With all of the aesthetic accoutrements of the ceremonial and sacrificial system stripped away, the Church is left to behold Christ in the reading and preaching of the Word-in the singing of the Psalms-in the prayers of the saints-and in the sacraments of the New Covenant. To add once again such aesthetic elements as was necessary under the Old Covenant is to obscure the centrality of Christ just as much as the omission of these elements was during the time of their necessity. When the purity of God’s worship is restored, all human innovations give way before Christ, the Living God.” (Comin, 141-142)
