Frosted Glass and a Deep Clean

“Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place.” 2 Chronicles 29:5 NKJV

My husband and I have been through an extended season of fixing up houses. We make a pretty good team for cleaning…what one of us misses, the other will find and attack it!

One of our recent episodes involved a light fixture. When I looked up at it, I suggested that my husband take off the frosted glass globes hanging from it so I could wash them. After I put them under hot water with a soapy rag, the glass turned out to be beautifully clear with little air bubbles in it. It only looked “frosted” because it was so filthy!

There’s a difference between cleaning and deep cleaning. The first is superficial. The second requires more elbow grease along with cleaning solutions that have more power. It means getting deep into corners, too. 

The Judean king Hezekiah found himself in a situation that required deep cleansing for God’s holy place, the Temple in Jerusalem. His predecessors had neglected the Temple, abused it, robbed from it, and worshipped idols in it. Hezekiah called the Levites to resume their priestly duties and commanded them to go on a deep clean.

When they opened the doors, sunlight revealed a big mess. Rubbish was everywhere, even in the holy-of-holies place in the Temple where the ark of the covenant should have been.* The priests first carried all the trash down to dump it at the Brook Kidron. Then they worked on cleaning not only the building but also the furnishings for sacrifices and worship.

Hezekiah’s desire, however, wasn’t just for a deep clean—he wanted restoration of the Temple to its original purpose as a place for community worship of God. When his priest workers finished (in only two weeks), Hezekiah called for a big sacrificial offering as atonement for his people. Everyone gathered for worship, with trumpets and loud instruments, singing, bowing, and praising. Then they invited others from among God’s people in Israel and Judah to join them at a Passover feast.

The Temple cleansing was just part of the preparation. The priests had to consecrate, sanctify, purify, and cleanse themselves before they could enter service for the Lord. 

Isn’t that true of our own lives? Hezekiah’s story reminds us that we can think we’re doing great and then…we find out things aren’t as clean as we thought. As in the case with our light fixture, we’ve been looking through frosted glass.

Scriptures say that our bodies are “temples” of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). We need to keep up regular deep cleaning for our hearts, or we’re going to find things in a mess. Even when places are shut up and unused, they get dirty just sitting there.

What needs throwing out from our souls? Ugly words, jealousy, laziness, violence, gossip, crude joking…it’s easy to let these creep in and build up dust bunnies around the baseboards of our minds. What else needs cleaning up? Bitterness, anger, greed, unforgiveness, selfishness need to be scrubbed off our perceptions so we can have unity with God and His people. 

Ultimately, we need to continually prepare ourselves for worship, praise, communion, and service to our Lord. Our prayers should implore Him to open the doors of our hearts, shine His light into every corner, and reveal what needs to be done. Then we need to make the sacrifices necessary to exalt Him and His glory, not ours.

Don’t have the strength right now for that kind of self-examination? Enlist your godly friends to help. Ask them to hold you accountable for your Bible study, prayer time, and other spiritual disciplines that continually place you in God’s presence. Ask them to pray for you as you tackle a particular problem. Take time away, too, for mini-retreats alone to seek God’s presence and will for the road ahead. 

It’s important to note here that you don’t have to clean yourself up to be saved. When Jesus called You to be His own, He created a new “you”—born again to live with Him, on earth and in heaven. His salvation is permanent, and He will never leave you, no matter how big a mess you make. But He’s also in the business of sanctification, with His Holy Spirit teaching us and preparing us for His kingdom work. He gives us the desire to follow Him and become more like Him…which means we’re meant to pursue a life of holiness and service.

Deep cleaning is never easy. But what a blessing to know you’ll find joy, purpose, and renewed energy for honoring God in the process. Nothing will hold you back when You seek to please Him. And His light won’t be diluted by any “frosted glass” around your heart!

Jesus, Holy Son of God, I praise You for Your cleansing power in Your gift of salvation. Shine Your divine light into my heart to reveal the dark corners where I’ve been harboring secret sins. Give me the discipline to attack these issues with gusto and sweep them out. Open my heart to be more like Yours in love, praise, and compassion. Prepare me for worship—make me ready to praise You loudly in song and joy! In Your name, Amen.

Nancy C. Williams is a Christian wife/mom with a writing career spanning more than 40 years in business and journalism. Williams is the author of the novel To Love a Falcon and the devotional book A Crocus in the Desert: Devotions, Stories, and Prayers for Women Experiencing Infertility. Her blogs are featured on Crossmap.com and AriseDaily. To follow Nancy’s posts and news, go to her home page at NancyCWilliams.com and subscribe at the bottom. 

© Copyright 2026 Nancy C. Williams (text and photography). Unless otherwise noted, Scripture verses are taken from the New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. #deepclean #hezekiah #temple #jerusalem #lightfixture #frostedglass #arkofthecovenant #sanctification #levites

*It’s not certain where the ark was at this point—it might have been there since Hezekiah went to the temple to pray to his God who “dwelled between the cherubim,” but King Josiah commanded it to be returned from the Levites to the Temple a few chapters later. See the whole story in 2 Chronicles 29-35.