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A good start to a new year . . .

If we can find men like Mahath, Joel and Kish etc!

“Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place,” 2 Chronicles 29:1-5.

I read this chapter on the morning of December 24th. As I read it I thought that the way Hezekiah started his reign provides us with a wonderful example of how we should start 2024!

King Hezekiah removes the idol of the bronze serpent during the cleansing of the temple

Of course, what King Hezekiah desired would never have been accomplished were it not for the faithful labours of the Levites who are named by the Lord in the verses 12-14. Surely the listing of their names and those of their fathers is a wonderful example of how God honours those who serve Him and the fathers responsible for the instilling of a spirit of concern for the testimony of God and the purity of His House in their sons!

I. THE LEVITES WHO TOOK ON THE TASK OF CLEANSING THE HOUSE OF THE LORD ACTED IN RESPONSE TO THE CALL OF THE KING. 

“He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place,” 2 Chronicles 29:3-5.

The state of God’s house and the conducting of the services within it are of great concern to our King, even the Lord Jesus Christ. We surely recall how it was He started and concluded His three year earthly ministry. (more…)

The Ulster Protestant and the Williamite wars in Ireland

Carrick Castle

Chapter 5: Enniskillen and the battling rector of Kilskeery

I have to say immediately that the resistance to James II that centred in Enniskillen was by no means mounted by Enniskillen men only.

The Inniskilleners (the old name for Enniskillen) were made up of Protestant men from the counties Sligo, Mayo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, West Tyrone and Fermanagh. The Protestant community combined into a disciplined and regimented force which not merely withstood the best of James’ military leaders but repeatedly defeated them most decidedly.

The actions of the “Inniskilleners” were sparked off, as was all Protestant resistance, by the actions of Lying Dick Talbot, the Earl of Tyrconnel, James II’s Viceroy in Ireland. Tyrconnel had turned 6,200 Protestants out of the army and had thrust Roman Catholics into positions of public trust, most of whom were totally unfitted for the positions they occupied.

The French Ambassador, Avaux, said of Tyrconnel’s actions in Ireland, “…the man who served the King of France as Tyrconnel served James II … would have lost his head…”. Tyrconnel’s bigoted actions raised the ire of the Protestant people and ultimately cost James II his throne.

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