2 Chronicles 29:12

2 Chronicles 29:12 says, Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites: and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehalelel: and of the Gershonites; Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah:  This is the beginning of a list of some of the Levites who began to arise to do their duty.  Verse thirteen adds, And of the sons of Elizaphan; Shimri, and Jeiel: and of the sons of Asaph; Zechariah, and Mattaniah:  Verse fourteen continues, And of the sons of Heman; Jehiel, and Shimei: and of the sons of Jeduthun; Shemaiah, and Uzziel.  If we have been spiritually asleep and neglecting our calling as Christians, we need to awaken and rise up and get back to doing what God has called us to do, just as these Levites did.  Verse fifteen states, And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord.  These Levites mentioned then gathered their brothers, who are not named, and they sanctified themselves and did what the king had called on them to do, but more importantly they did what the word of God told them to do and cleansed the temple.  It might be good to do what the people in power tell us to do, but only if it is not against God's commandments.  We need to make sure that our lives are cleansed for God today as followers of Christ.  Verse sixteen adds, And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron.  The priests went into the inner part of the temple, where only priests were allowed to go, and brought out all the uncleanliness that they found there.  The Levites took it to the brook of Kidron.  When Jesus Christ died, he removed the restriction of who could come to God for people, and all people now can once they accept His gift of salvation, but we need to remove any uncleanliness from our lives as Christians, since our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Until we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, we can only come to God to do so.  Verse seventeen continues, Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the Lord: so they sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.  It took them eight days to cleanse the temple, which would indicate that it was in pretty bad shape.  We need ask God to cleanse our lives spiritually every day so that we don't allow them to become filled with sin and corruption.  Verse eighteen says, Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the Lord, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread table, with all the vessels thereof.  The priests and Levites then went to Hezekiah the king and told him they had cleansed the temple and the altar and vessels of the temple.  As Christians, we need to be able to go to our King, Jesus Christ, and tell Him that we have cleansed our lives of all sinful acts by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Of course, we can never restore ourselves except thorough putting our faith in Jesus Christ and being cleansed by His blood, but we can then live by the leadership of the Holy Spirit to keep sin from coming into our life again.  Verse nineteen adds, Moreover all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away in his transgression, have we prepared and sanctified, and, behold, they are before the altar of the Lord.  They also said that they had prepared and sanctified all the vessels that Ahaz in his sin had cast away.  Ahaz may have cast them away, but the priests and Levites who were in charge during his reign had either gone along with him and had not done their duty to protect the protect the things of God.  As Christians, if the church is being destroyed or corrupted today, if we have not taken a stand for God, we are part of the problem.