Friday 12th April
Read 2 Chronicles 35:1-9
“Josiah celebrated the Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month. 2 He appointed the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the Lord’s temple. 3 He said to the Levites, who instructed all Israel and who had been consecrated to the Lord: ‘Put the sacred ark in the temple that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. It is not to be carried about on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. 4 Prepare yourselves by families in your divisions, according to the instructions written by David king of Israel and by his son Solomon.
5 ‘Stand in the holy place with a group of Levites for each sub-division of the families of your fellow Israelites, the lay people. 6 Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves and prepare the lambs for your fellow Israelites, doing what the Lord commanded through Moses.’
7 Josiah provided for all the lay people who were there a total of thirty thousand lambs and goats for the Passover offerings, and also three thousand cattle – all from the king’s own possessions. 8 His officials also contributed voluntarily to the people and the priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah and Jehiel, the officials in charge of God’s temple, gave the priests two thousand six hundred Passover offerings and three hundred cattle. 9 Also Konaniah along with Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah, Jeiel and Jozabad, the leaders of the Levites, provided five thousand Passover offerings and five hundred head of cattle for the Levites.” (NIVUK)
Ponder what the Passover signifies. It reminds the people that they were saved from death and destruction through the blood of a lamb. Josiah finds and reads the Law of Moses and encourages the priests to serve the Lord and the people according to the words of Moses and David and Solomon. He then provides the lambs for the people. Josiah takes from his own to provide covering for the sins of his people. In context of the words of Huldah concerning these people and their imminent destruction it is a remarkable act of grace. One completed and fulfilled by Jesus.
