Song of Redemption by Lynn Austin Page A

yesterday?”
    “Yes, that’s the place,” Zechariah said. “We were reading about Moses and the plagues of Egypt.”
    Hezekiah smiled at his grandfather. “I remember the first time you told me the Passover story, when I was a child.”
    “Yes, you especially liked the plague of frogs, remember?”
    “That’s because I could imagine the panic in the harem if the ladies woke up with frogs in their beds.” They both laughed.
    Hezekiah had chosen the classroom where he had spent so much time with Shebna to begin his study of the Torah with his grandfather. They worked together every day, with Zechariah explaining God’s laws as Hezekiah copied the scroll in his own hand. The work bonded them even closer together than before.
    “I also remember how you begged me to take you to the Passover feast,” Zechariah said, “but of course there was no feast. In fact, there hasn’t been one for a long, long time.”
    “Now that the Temple has been purified and the daily sacrifices are being offered again, couldn’t we reinstate the feast days, too?” Hezekiah asked.
    “We certainly could. In fact, the Torah says … let’s see … where is it?” Zechariah unrolled the scroll and spent several minutes searching for something. “Here it is! This passage describes the first Passover feast, and it says, ‘This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to Yahweh.’ ”
    Hezekiah stroked his beard. “Then Yahweh commands us to celebrate it?”
    “Yes, and I think it would unify our people and strengthen their faith if we reminded them of this monumental landmark in our nation’s history.”
    Hezekiah felt a growing excitement. “When is Passover traditionally celebrated?”
    “It’s too late. The time has just passed.” Zechariah frowned. “It was supposed to be held on the fourteenth day of this month, but we were still purifying the Temple then.”
    “You mean, we’ll have to wait an entire year to celebrate it?”
    “I’m afraid so.”
    Hezekiah’s disappointment felt close to anger. “Celebrating this feast could have accelerated all our reforms, even more than the covenant sacrifice.”
    “Yes, I think you’re right. The people are ready for a fresh start. With Passover as a reminder of God’s deliverance, maybe they would have abandoned their idolatry for good.”
    Hezekiah rose from his seat and stood in front of the window that looked down on Jerusalem. Sounds from the city drifted up to him—children squealing in play, wagon wheels rumbling over the stone streets, shouted greetings and curses. He wished he could remind all these people what God had done for them in the past. “If only we didn’t have to wait an entire year!”
    “Wait a minute,” Zechariah said. “It seems to me I recall …”He picked up the Torah scroll and began searching through it again. “Let me try to find it.”
    As Hezekiah watched his grandfather squint at the tiny, handprinted letters, he noticed how tired Zechariah looked. His face was pale with fatigue, and his movements seemed slow and painful. He had worked hard to purify the Temple, then had pitched in to help with the covenant sacrifice. The task of slaughtering more than three thousand animals had tired the younger men—and Zechariah was nearly seventy. But he had never complained, nor had his enthusiasm for Hezekiah’s reforms waned.
    “Here it is!” A smile of victory spread across Zechariah’s face. “Here’s the answer! Some of the Israelites missed the first Passover feast because they were ceremonially unclean. They asked Moses what they should do and … Well, here. You read it.” He passed the scroll to Hezekiah, and Hezekiah sat down again to read aloud.
    “‘When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they may still celebrate the Lord’s Passover. They are to celebrate it on the fourteenth day of the second month at