God’s Word for You
2 Chronicles 29:12-16 Consecration
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, May 20, 2025
12 These Levites stood to help: from the Kohathites, Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah. From the Merarites, Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel; from the Gershonites, Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah. 13 From the descendants of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel; from the descendants of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah. 14 From the descendants of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; from the descendants of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15 When they had gathered their brother Levites and consecrated themselves, they went in to purify the House of the LORD, as the king had ordered, following the word of the LORD. 16 The priests went into the sanctuary of the LORD to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the LORD’s temple all of the unclean things that they found in the House of the LORD. The Levites took all of that and carried it out to the Kidron Valley.
Our author jumps eagerly into another list of names, and the reader might take time to notice that each of the main three divisions of priests are accounted for: Kohath, Merari, and Gershom. The other divisions, Elizaphan, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, were added in David’s time (1 Chronicles 15:1 and 25:6).
The priests and Levites gathered together and consecrated themselves. When Moses first consecrated the people of Israel, before God gave them the Ten Commandments, this consecration involved three things: (1) To prepare the heart, showing repentance, (2) washing their clothes, (3) abstaining from sex (Exodus 19:14-15). In the days of Moses, this also took three days, but there is no mention of how many days were spent at this time. They were interested in consecrating themselves, of consecrating the house of the Lord, and of following the word of the Lord (verse 15).
They were now ceremonially clean, and they began to carry out all of the things that were considered to be unclean. The priests brought the things into the courtyard and the Levites carried them outside. We don’t know what kinds of things that they found. My guess is that there were four or five categories of unclean things.
1, Actual idols, statues and things associated with them such as bases or platforms and small altars. These things had to be completely removed and destroyed.
2, Ruined or defiled things. This would be anything that should have been used for regular temple worship but which might have been used for pagan worship, and was therefore defiled. Such things might be re-consecrated (such as the ark of the covenant) or remade (such as bowls and pans). Verse 19 shows that many of these thing were removed, consecrated, and brought back in.
3, Suspicious things. There might be charred items, old remnants of burned or partially burned incense, for example, or the remains of other offerings, that may or may not have been used in the worship of an idol. All of this had to be removed and either buried or burned.
4, Questionable things. This would include things that were man-made but might usually have nothing to do with worship, whether divine or pagan. A sandal, a veil, a towel, a water jug—anything like this needed to be removed and simply disposed of.
5, Garbage. By garbage I mean anything such as animal remains or droppings, bird’s nests, sticks blown in by the wind, and other things that needed to be removed and disposed of or burned as needed.
Our prophet says that all of these things were brought out into the Kidron Valley. What had to be disposed of or burned was disposed of or burned. What could be consecrated and brought back was left out in the Kidron Valley for the moment. It was not out there for very long.
This left some ordinary cleaning to be done—what we would think of as sweeping, scrubbing, dusting or mopping. This, too, was done, but could have been done rather quickly.
We are left wondering a little bit (at least, I am) about the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. The term “inner sanctuary” in verse 16 might be that room, or simply the Holy Place that was in front of it. What we’re told is that only priests went there and not Levites, but we still don’t know how the area behind the curtain was handled. What we know is that the account doesn’t say anything about God being displeased with what they did. Perhaps the ark was carried outside, covered as when David and Moses had moved it. Nothing else was supposed to be in the room, since the giant statues of the cherubim were not meant to be moved (1 Kings 6:23). Therefore the room could have been swept, perhaps washed, and re-consecrated. Then the ark could have been brought back in.
All of this preparation reminds us that the Lord cares about holiness. “Be holy,” he says, “because I the Lord your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). We carry sin along with us in this lifetime, but the Lord allows us means to atone for sin. They looked different in Old Testament times than they do now. Today we have repentance, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, as well as faith in Christ. They had a washing like baptism, but it had to be repeated again and again. But then, our Lord’s Supper is repeated, because we need to be reminded of God’s love. We are imperfect and sinful. God is perfect and holy. But he draws us to himself, and his mercy is eternal. Praise God who loves us and wants us to put our faith in him. He does not throw us away! He invites, he teaches, he corrects, and he loves us.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.