God’s Word for You
2 Chronicles 31:2-8 Piles and piles
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, May 29, 2025
2 Hezekiah appointed the priests and Levites to divisions—each of them according to their service as priests or Levites—to offer burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, to minister, to give thanks and to sing praises at the gates of the LORD’s dwelling.
David had made divisions of the priests and Levites (1 Chronicles 23:6), including the twenty-four divisions of priests, each division serving two weeks in the temple each year (1 Chronicles 24:7-18). Now Hezekiah did the same thing with the priests and Levites that were available to him. Some of the family divisions, and perhaps their Davidic placement in order, remained the same into New Testament times (Luke 1:5).
The role of the priests is summarized by four main duties. First, they offered the burnt offerings. These were the means by which God offered forgiveness for sins: “They will be forgiven” (Leviticus 4:20). Second, they offered fellowship offerings. Unlike the burnt offerings which were burned completely and entirely, only a portion of a fellowship offering was burned up. The rest, if it was meat, was roasted in the altar, along with other things such a fruit, bread, wine, nuts, and more, which were then shared by the person or family bringing the offering and the priest or Levite that was serving them along with their families. Fellowship offerings were a way of thanking God and for celebrating blessings in life, like a marriage, the birth of a baby, a good harvest, and other things.
The third duty of the priest was to minister. This included preaching, teaching, reminding the people of what they had learned, and so on. A wise professor once told me, “Ninety percent of what a pastor does is reminding the saints of what they already know.” Finally, the priests gave thanks and sang praises. Part of this was prayer; this included public prayers in worship and private prayers for their people. And part of this was leading worship in song. Music stays in the head and in the heart longer than most spoken words; it’s a good way to pray, praise, and proclaim the Word of God.
3 The contribution of the king from his own possessions was for the burnt offerings—the morning and evening burnt offerings, the burnt offerings on the Sabbaths, the New Moons and the appointed feasts as written in the Law of the LORD. 4 He ordered the people living in Jerusalem to give the portion due the priests and Levites so they could devote themselves to the Law of the LORD. 5 As soon as the order went out, the people of Israel generously gave the firstfruits of their grain, new wine, oil and honey and all that the fields produced. They brought a great amount, a tithe of everything. 6 The men of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought a tithe of their herds and flocks and a tithe of the holy things dedicated to the LORD their God, and they piled them in heaps. 7 They began doing this in the third month and finished in the seventh month. 8 When Hezekiah and his princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD and his people Israel.
Beginning with King David, it was the regular practice of Judah’s kings to provide many of the necessary sacrifices for the sanctuary (1 Chronicles 29:20). Even when David’s son Adonijah rebelled against his father and tried to seize the throne for himself, he provided a great many cattle, calves and sheep (1 Kings 1:18).
The people also gave their offerings to the priests—another thing that had been abandoned, at least in the days of Ahaz, if not earlier. Part of these offerings included a tithe, or ten-percent gift. Tithing is no longer required for New Testament Christians, and although it is held up as a goal by many churches, it should never be a requirement, or done with coercion or pressure of any kind, otherwise is ceases to be a gift, and therefore it ceases to please God.
The giving went on for five months. We should look at this in practical terms according to the Hebrew calendar and not make applications that are inappropriate. We live in a culture where we might only need to wait for a paycheck to make a larger donation. They did not. The third month of the sacred year, Sivan (late May and early June) was when their wheat harvest was under way. Therefore they could begin to bring their offering of wheat. The next few months saw the maturation of grapes, figs and olives, which were harvested and processed in the sixth month, Elul. The final harvest was complete by the seventh month (Tishri), because that’s when the first autumn rains began and it was time to plow so that wheat and barley could be planted before winter set in.
When everything was brought in, each thing according to its month, laid in heaps and tucked away into storerooms all around the temple, the king was delighted with the generosity of the people. First, he blessed the Lord, and then he blessed the people.
To bless the Lord is a phrase that sometimes catches Bible readers by surprise. To bless someone is to proclaim God’s blessing, forgiveness, grace, and every Gospel promise upon that person. One of the great joys of ministry is to be able to bless children and repentant sinners. To bless the Lord is to praise him, thank him, and in the same way he blesses his people, to proclaim our desire that nothing but good comes to him, including through our own lives, sinful though they are. May we always act in faith and love and be prepared to bless one another and bless the Lord day by day by day.
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.