The Great King Hezekiah
2 Chronicles 29 – 32, 2 Kings 18 – 20
Regarding to king Hezekiah, 2 Kings 18:5 says
5 Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. 6 He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses.
Similar comments were given to king Josiah in 2 Kings 23:25.
25 Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.
Today let us study about King Hezekiah.
I. Faithfulness of King Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 29-31)
He lead people to purify the temple of God (2 Chronicles 29), celebrate the festival of Passover in large scale (2 Chronicles 30), destroy idols (objects of foreign gods) (2 Chronicles 31:1), and organize people and materials for on-going worship to God (2 Chronicles 31:2-21).
II. God’s Supernatural Protection (2 Chronicles 32:1-23)
After all the Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria threatened Jerusalem and blasphemed God based on the fact that any god of each nation invaded by Assyria could not save them from Assyria.
After King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah cried out in prayer to heaven about this, God sent an angel to put to death 185,000 in the Assyrian camp overnight (2 Chronicles 32:21, 2 Kings 19:35). We can see that God protects those faithful to Him.
III. Healing & Miraculous Sign (2 Chronicles 32:24, 2 Kings 20:1-11)
When Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death, the prophet Isaiah came and told him that he would die. After Hezekiah prayed to God in 2 Kings 20:3.
3 ‘Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of God came to him in 2 Kings 20:5.
5 ‘Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, “This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.” ’
God added 15 years to his life.
Hezekiah asked Isaiah the sign to confirm the above promise, and God made the sun move backward as the sign (2 Kings 20:8-11).
IV. Showing all to a future invader (2 Chronicles 32:27, 31, 2 Kings 20:12-21)
Hezekiah had very great wealth and honour (2 Chronicles 32:27).
Envoys together with letters and a gift were sent by the rulers of Babylon because they had heard of Hezekiah’s illness and wanted to ask him about the miraculous sign (the sun moving backward) (2 Kings 20:12, 2 Chronicles 32:31). When Hezekiah experienced the miracle from God, a remote country, Babylon heard the news! When Peter obeyed the word of Jesus and miraculously caught abundant fish, he and his companions were astonished (Luke 5:9). When one person obeys and experiences God, others are also influenced.
Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his storehouses (2 Kings 20:13).
Showing all to envoys from a foreign country looks unsound. Showing off is unsound in general. He should have focused on revealing God rather than his wealth or achievement.
Isaiah, the prophet asked King Hezekiah, ‘What did they see in your palace?’ (2 Kings 20:15)
Isaiah foretold that everything would be carried off to Babylon and nothing will be left (2 Kings 20:17) and some of his descendants will be taken away to become eunuchs in the palace of king of Babylon (2 Kings 20:18).
Only God can show true reality of things. So, we should always ask God first even when everything looks OK.
Hezekiah was confident on God’s grace that such things would not happen during his lifetime (2 Kings 20:19). Only concerning about the security of one’s own lifetime and disregarding the future generations is out of self-centeredness.
We can have such confidence on God’s grace if we have been got right with God. However, we should always keep humility before God no matter what.
References
[1] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Anglicised Edition, 2011). (2011). (Revised and updated edition, 2 Ki 18:5–6). London: Hodder & Stoughton.
