Passover (2 Chronicles 30:31:1)

This covers the first Passover after the temple is re-dedicated. King Hezekiah sent couriers throughout Judah and even Israel, now an Assyrian colony, to invite people to come to Jerusalem. Many of the people in Israel scorned the invitation, but some remnant of the northern tribes and foreigner living among them came. Hezekiah's invitation to the northern tribes stated that if they returned to God, then the northern tribes will return from Assyrian exile.

They were not able to have Passover on the proper date because they too few priests had consecrated themselves. However, they used the back-up Passover date a month later which the Mosiac code allowed for people who were sick during the first Passover. Also, it seems that the Days of Unleavened bread were pushed back to coincide with the second Passover date.

The king offered thousands of animals for sacrifice for the people. They were so many animals sacrificed, that there was a labor shortage of priests clean enough to sacrifice. They had further problems with people consecrating themselves and being unclean during the festival. So, Hezekiah prayed for them and God "healed" them of their uncleanliness so they could take part in the festival.

Here, we see a lot of the ceremonial rules being moved around, but God seemed to have been impressed with the magnitude of the hearts in celebration. The entire nation of Judah, a remnant from Israel, and even foreigners all participated in this celebration. In some ways, this begins to fulfill some of the prophecies about the Israelites in the north returning to God. Plus, it seems that people who were brought from other parts of the Assyrian empire (non-Gentiles) were participating as well.

The Israelites left Jerusalem and smashed the Ashereth poles in both Judah and in parts of the north.