I recently came across a book titled “The Glorious Revival Under King Hezekiah” by Wilbur M. Smith. It has a copyright date of January 1937. The copy I have also says there was a revised reprint edition in October, 1954.
Here are some quotes from it.
not for years has there been such a consciousness of the need for a real revival in our country as at the present time. Our religious papers are talking about it, ministers are speaking of it from their pulpits, young people at Bible Conferences are encouraged to pray and labor for a great advance in the Church of Christ. Even our secular papers, now and then, give expression to a longing to see a great renewal of religious life in our land, e.g. the “Wall Street Journal,” which, a few weeks ago, in an editorial, said:
What America needs more than railway extension, Western irrigation, a low tariff, a bigger cotton crop, and a larger wheat crop is a revival of religion, the kind that our fathers and mothers used to have, a religion that counted it good business to take time for family worship each morning right in the middle of the wheat harvest, a religion that made men quit work a half hour earlier on Wednesday so that the whole family could get ready to go to Prayer Meeting.
this was from page 5
On pages 6 and 7 he lists 9 revivals found in the Old Testament
1 in the household of Jacob (
Gen 35;1-15)
2 under Asa, king of Judah (
2 Chron 15:1-15)
3 under Jehoash,king of Judah (
2 Kings 11, 12;
2 Chron 23, 24)
4 under King Hezekiah (
2 Kings 18:4-7;
2 Chron 29-31)
5 under king Josiah (
2 Kings 22, 23;
2 Chron 34, 35)
6 under Zerubbabel in which the prophets Haggai and Zechariah played a part (
Ezra 5, 6)
7 in the days of Nehemiah in which Ezra was the outstanding figure (
Neh 8:9; 12;44-47)
He also includes two more but says there are not many details available. These would be
8 revival under King Jehoshaphat (2 Cron 17:6-9)
9 Revival at Nineveh at the time of Jonah.
On pages 7 and 8 he lists nine outstanding characteristics of each of the first 7 revivals in the above list:
1 they occurred in a time of deep moral darkness and national depression
2 they began in the heart of one consecrated servant of God who became the energizing power behind the revival, the agent used of God to quicken and lead the nation back to faith in and obedience to God
3 each revival rested upon the Word of God and of preaching and of proclaiming the law of God with power
4 all of the revivals were marked by a return to the worship of Jehovah
5 each revival witnessed a destruction of idols (except the last two, which occurred after the Exile, when no idols were to be found in Judah)
6 in each revival there was a separation from sin (there is one single exception and that is in the revival under Asa, where, though we believe there was such a separation from sin, the brief account of the revival does not record it)
7 in every revival there was a return to the offering of blood sacrifices
8 almost all of the revivals resulted in a period of exuberant joy and gladness among the people of God (the only two revivals where such joy is not recorded, though it easily may have been manifested, are those in the house of Jacob, and during the reign of Josiah)
Threaded Mode
