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(The views expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
2 Chronicles 30:1–12, “And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel. For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep the passover in the second month. For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. And the thing pleased the king and all the congregation. So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written. So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see. Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you. For if ye turn again unto the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him. So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them. Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of the LORD.”
Hezekiah knew, from His understanding of the Law, that Israel should celebrate the Passover year by year. However, there is no record of the Passover being celebrated since the time of Joshua. (Josh 5: 10) As the representative of the true God of heaven, Hezekiah sent to the northern tribes and invited them to keep the Passover with him and his people. They had to wait for the second month rather than the first month because there were not enough priests sanctified to celebrate it in the first month of the religious year. Many of the people in the northern kingdom mocked the messengers that the king of Judah sent with the invitation to celebrate the Passover but there were some who decided to come down to Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover. It is important to remember that there were people from the northern tribes remembering the Lord and celebrating the Passover before the northern kingdom was taken away into Assyrian exile.
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