It Starts With the Heart

Well, thank you, Mr. Rusnak, and happy Sabbath, brethren! It is a pleasure to have all of you with us on this rainy day in Northern Ohio, but your smiling faces are warming up the hall. So that is always wonderful greetings from our brethren in Cleveland. They have an opportunity to hear from Mr. Miller today, and that's a good thing. And we have an opportunity to visit with all of you that we're very pleased and happy to be able to do that. Occasionally, I like to give biographies of significant biblical characters that we can learn lessons from. After all, their lives are in the Scriptures so that you and I can glean from their life lessons. We can learn some of the positive things that they did and emulate those things. And then we can also learn from the weaknesses, the character flaws, and the weaknesses they had. And as a form of caution, learn to avoid those things, learn not to imitate those things in our lives. And that's what I would like to do today. I'd like to talk about a man who was the ancestor of Jesus Christ. He was a king, and he was an ancestor from his mother's side of the family. We won't turn to the book of Matthew, but in the first chapter of the book of Matthew is the genealogy from Mary. And it says, Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah. So today what I would like to do is have a little biography of the life of Hezekiah. This is going to be a little different sermon in that we're only going to be going to two different chapters of the Bible. We're going to be comparing 2 Chronicles, which is the priestly version of the life of the kings, written from a little more of a religious aspect. And then we're going to be turning in this case to 2 Kings, and the Kings were written more as a secular aspect of a King's history. And we're going to put those two together to flesh out and learn a little bit more about the strengths and the weaknesses of King Hezekiah of Judah. We will see that he was the son of a mediocre king. His father's name was Ahaz. He was the co-ruler of Judah with his father from 729 to 715 B.C. And then when he reached the ripe old age of 25, he became ruler of Judah for the next 29 years until his death in 687 B.C. As I mentioned about everyone that you see in the Scripture, except for Jesus Christ, every other individual mentioned in Scripture has strong points. They have great character in some ways, and in other ways they struggle with being human, just like you and I do. So I think that looking at these biographies are always a good thing. He's a unique king in that his father was a poor king, and his son Manasseh would also be a poor king. So he stood out sandwiched in between the reign of two kings who were evil. And it just shows us that life is being a free moral agent. Life is about making choices. And no matter what our lineage, no matter what kind of background that we come from, if we make the right choices as individuals, we can be blessed. We can turn things around. Good things can happen in our lives. So let's go to 2 Chronicles 29 if you'll turn there with me, and we'll begin to look at the life of King Hezekiah and see what we can learn. 2 Chronicles 29. We're going to begin in verse 1. It says Hezekiah became king when he was 25 years old, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah, and he did what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father, David, had done.

Actually, David was more like his great-great-great grandfather. But he was a good king. He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Verse 3. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them in the east square. And he said to them, Hear me, Levites, now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord your God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place. You know, we are the temple of God's Holy Spirit. Is there rubbish in our lives that needs to be called out? Is there garbage in our own lives that needs to be removed that's holding us back from having the deep, abiding relationship with God that we could have, that we should have? Verse 6. He says, For our fathers had trespassed and done evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and turned their backs away from the dwelling place of the Lord and turned their backs on him. They have also shut up the doors of the vestibule, put out the lamps, and if not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. Therefore the wrath of the Lord fell upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he has given them to trouble, to desolation, and to jeering, as you see with your eyes. Let's take a little bit of background from these scriptures. His father was a wicked king, and because of his wickedness he literally had shut down the temple. And no longer was the temple the focus of worship in Judah. Everyone worshipped everywhere, in the groves, just everywhere. Incense was burnt wherever people felt like it. Everyone did that which was right in their own eyes. And the temple had been abandoned and literally shut down. And why did he do this? Because his father had become a vassal of the Assyrians. And the Assyrians did not want Judah to worship the true God. So to give in to the Assyrians, his father had closed the temple and allowed all kinds of pagan worship to begin everywhere in Judah. And they had been punished for it, and the nation was in decline at that time. And again, they had to answer to Assyria. They had to pay an annual bribe to Assyria in order for their existence as a nation to even continue. And this is what he's been talking about here. Let's pick it up here in verse 9. For indeed, because of this our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons, our daughters, and our wives are in captivity. Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel that his fierce wrath may turn away from us. My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, that you should minister to him, and to burn incense. The king is saying, and I want you to notice, he does this immediately when he ascends to the throne. It said, the first year, the first month, as soon as he's in charge, he says, there need to be some changes around here. Get the garbage out of the temple of God. The time to change is now. And that's a message that you and I should receive as well. A very important message. Again, I want you to notice that virtually as soon as he ascends to the throne, first month, first year of his reign, he begins his reforms. His father closed the temple, and pagan worship was everywhere in Judah to placate the Assyrians. The temple had been abandoned. It was used as a storage shed. Can you imagine the temple of God being used just basically to store junk in, like a garden shed in your backyard?

As soon as he became king, he didn't waste time getting started to clean things up. How about you and I? Is there that piece of junk in our lives that we've been holding off on, that maybe we just put a blanket over it so we don't have to look at it? Is there something right now that we need to get out of our lives that's holding us back, a piece of junk in the temple of God? Maybe it's time for us to clean house, like Hezekiah told the Levites to do. And they obeyed him, and they did that. They began the process of sanctifying the Levites in the temple so it once again could be used for holy purposes. The temple was cleaned. It was purified. The animals were once again sacrificed on the altar. And Hezekiah began to re-center the worship of God in the temple and to eliminate the paganness that had infiltrated the areas of Judea. Let's read about some of this, dropping down to verse 23. Read about some of the things that he did. It says, they brought out the male goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them, and the priest killed them, and they presented their blood in the altar as a sin offering to make an atonement for all Israel. Now, at first glance, that may not seem to be very important, but here's what you may have forgotten. By this time in history, the northern tribes had already been conquered. The Assyrians had already taken most of the people in the northern tribes of Israel and had sent them to another land and repopulated northern Israel with a group of people later to become known as the Samaritans. But the king reached out. The king just didn't think of Judea alone. He thought of his fellow brothers and sisters who now were scattered, who now were slaves, who now were captives somewhere, and he had the sin offering made for all Israel. Continuing, for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering be made for all Israel.

And he stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals and stringed instruments and with harps according to the commandment of David, of Gad the king's seer, and of Nathan the prophet. For thus was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets. The Levites stood with the instruments of David and the priest with the trumpets. So he was able to go back and look at the records that David had made about the order of the Levites and how the trumpets would be blown and how the offerings would be done.

All the details that David had left, combined with what the scriptures told him, he was able to reconstruct, purify and reconstruct the sacrifice and the worship of God in the temple, picking it up in verse 27. Then Hezekiah commanded them to offer the burnt offering on the altar, and when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord also began.

It had been many years since there had been singing in the temple of God. And with the trumpets and with the instruments of David, king of Israel, so all the assembly worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. All this continued until the burnt offering was finished, and when they had finished offering the king and all who were present with him bowed and worshipped. So again, I want you to notice that the king thought of the people of the northern scattered tribes of Israel as his spiritual brothers.

You know, we have spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ, and the truth is that some of them have been captive. They've been captive the following ministerial charlatans who think that they're some kind of kings, and give themselves names like Apostle, that prophet, one of the two witnesses, who make all of these silly proclamations about themselves and have captured some of our brothers and sisters in Christ. And we need to think about them, we need to pray for them, we need to love them, we need to reach out to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, wherever they may be.

And a good example here again by what Zachariah did. The sacrifices were for the sins of northern Israel as well because he considered even the scattered, even those who were in captivity, to still be his brothers and sisters.

Another thing that he did is he restored music and singing in the temple and reestablished the pattern that was there by his forefather David. Second Kings chapter 18 and verse 4. Something else that he did that was very important. These are beautiful scriptures because he begins to go throughout Judah and everywhere that paganism occurs in the groves, in the valleys, anywhere, whether they're pillars or wooden images. And he begins to tear them down.

And he even does something very significant that occurred around the temple. Let's pick it up here in verse 4. Second Kings 18 verse 4. And he removed the high places and he broke the sacred pillars. And he cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made. For until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it and called it Nahushtan.

And he trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah nor who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but he kept his commandments which the Lord had commanded Moses. I want to make a few comments about this image that they had worshipped, Nahushtan. This was an object that Moses had fashioned to relieve a plague in the Israelite camp during the Exodus.

You could read about it in Numbers chapter 21. We don't have time to go there today. But as usual, Israel began to take Moses for granted and began whining and complaining. And during that plague, God had little snakes. He had poisonous serpents come up and fight people. And the people who were bitten would die. God told Moses, He said, I want you to make an image of a serpent.

And I want you to put it on a pole. And I want you to lift it up. And when people are bitten and they look at that image on the pole, they will be healed and they won't die.

Now, the whole purpose of that was to picture something that would occur in a future time. It pictured a time when God lifted up His Son, Jesus Christ, on a stake. Christ bore our sins and He became sin for us. And those who were called by the Father and looked to Him in faith are healed of their sins. So all it was was a representation of something that Jesus Christ, who would become sin for mankind, would do many, many years later. But like all human beings, they began to use it and abuse it and to substitute true worship for what was false.

And the people were idolizing the image in place of God like many do with the symbol of the cross today. And it became an image of veneration of worship and they even burnt incense to this image of this bronze serpent. And thankfully, the King tore it to pieces. Let's now pick it up here in 2 Chronicles 30. 2 Chronicles 30 beginning in verse 1. Hezekiah was faithful to the commandments, but he did have some character flaws like all of us do in one way or another. And we'll see those as we go along. 2 Chronicles 30, verse 1. I want you to notice how he reached out and how inclusive he was.

It says, and Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel. And again, this is important because the northern nation had been destroyed in 722 B.C. Just a few years earlier and the nation no longer actually existed, the few remaining Israelites who were behind had to coexist with pagan peoples that King Shalmaneser had brought in to live in their land.

And the former people of God must have been confused. And they were compromising and they were disconnected from God, yet Hezekiah reached out to them. Brother, you and I have spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ, some of whom are very confused with what they've experienced in their lifetimes. Some are disillusioned, some have compromised, some have been disconnected from God, but we've got to love them, we've got to reach out to them. Someone has to do it and God has called us as His flock to be the people who do that.

Let's go to verse 2 now. For the King and His leaders in all the assembly in Jerusalem had agreed to keep the Passover in the second month. If you turn, I won't ask you to turn there, but if you would turn to Numbers 9, verse 11, you would see that there was a provision to keep a second Passover. If you touched the dead corpse or in some way you were ritually unclean and couldn't keep the first Passover, God had given provision to keep a second Passover.

And that's Numbers 9, verse 11. But I want you to realize something before we read the next few Scriptures. There was not a provision to establish your own days of unleavened bread. There was no provision in the law to keep the days of unleavened bread in the second month rather than the first month. Now let's read what the Scriptures say beginning in verse 3. It says, well, let's go back to verse 2. For the King and His leaders in all the assembly in Jerusalem had agreed to keep the Passover in the second month.

And there was provision for that in the book of Numbers. For they could not keep it at the regular time because a sufficient number of priests had not consecrated themselves, nor had the people gathered together at Jerusalem. So there weren't enough priests, and not everybody was there in time for the Passover to be correctly observed on the first month. Verse 4. And the matter pleased the King in all the assembly, so they resolved to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from there, Sheba to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem, since they had not done it for a long time in the prescribed manner.

Then the runners went throughout all Israel and Judah, with the letters from the King and His leaders, and spoke according to the command of the King. Here's what they said. Children of Israel, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. And do not be like your fathers and your brethren who transpressed against the Lord God of their fathers, so that He gave them up to desolation as you see.

Now do not be a stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord, and enter His sanctuary, which He has sanctified forever, and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you. And then verse 9 is very comforting. Verse 9 says, So think about the message that these runners said to the remnants of northern Israel. They said, come back to God.

And He's so merciful, He's so compassionate, that He will intervene so that a king will arise in Assyria that will say, it's time for the northern tribes to go home. And God will intervene in world history and bring you back from captivity if only you return to the Lord your God. That was part of the message. Now sadly, that never happened because the people did not repent. The people did not come back to God, and Israel is scattered and lost and scattered among the nations to this very day.

But this was an encouraging word from the king. Verse 10, And they laughed at them and mocked them, nevertheless some from Asher, and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. Also the hand of God was on Judah to give them singleness of heart, to obey the command of the king and their leaders. At the word of the Lord, now many people of great assembly gathered together at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month. You know something? The law never gave provision, never gave allowance for anyone to keep the days of unleavened bread the second month.

It's the first month, the Sabbath of Ebib, when the days of unleavened bread were commanded to be observed, aren't they? See further. Verse 14, And they arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and took away all the incense altars and cast them into the brookidron. Then they slaughtered the Passover lamps on the fourteenth of the day of the second month, the priests and the Levites were ashamed and sanctified themselves, and brought the burnt offerings to the house of the Lord, and they stood in their place, according to the custom, according to the law of Moses, and the man of God the priest sprinkled the blood received from the hand of the Levites.

And now verse 17, For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves. It's the second Passover, and many still are not sanctified, and according to the law of Moses, could observe it. Therefore the Levites had charge of the slaughter of the Passover lamps for every one who was not clean, to sanctify them to the Lord, for a multitude of people. Many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not cleansed themselves yet eight of the Passover, contrary to what was written.

But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, May the good Lord provide atonement for everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of their fathers, though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary. And it says in verse 20, And the Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people. There's a lesson here.

And the lesson is that our hearts and our attitudes are more important than technical things. The generation in the Church of God before mine, I came in in 1972, the generation before mine kept the Pentecost, they have Pentecost, on a Monday. And I personally don't think Pentecost should be observed on a Monday, but that generation did.

Some who were called into the Church in the 60s and 70s and died in the mid-70s always kept Pentecost on a Monday. Did God love His people? Of course He loved His people. Did God love them? Will they be in the kingdom of God? Of course He loved them, and they'll be in the kingdom of God. Because their hearts were right. And with the knowledge that they had at the time, they worshipped God with a willing heart. And even though they technically kept the Day of Pentecost on the wrong day, again in my opinion, that didn't make them any lesser of God's people than anyone else.

Because we are judged according to our hearts and according to the knowledge that we have at the time. And even though technically many of these people came in and they kept the Passover and they were not sanctified, and then they celebrated the Days of Unleavened Bread for seven days, the second month, in which there is no provision for in the law, God loved their attitude. There was plenty of time for them in future years to learn to do the right thing, to learn the law of God and to be prepared and to do it the way God wants.

But God loved the heart because their hearts were right. They wanted to do what was right even though they were technically wrong. You know, in 1 Samuel 16, verse 7, you may remember the story when Jesse's sons were parading before the prophet. And Jesse brought one of David's older brothers and he thought he would be perfect, tall, good-looking, strong. And God said to the prophet, he said, he's not the one. He said, you see, the problem, Samuel, is that you people, you look on the outside, you look at physical appearance.

The Lord God looks at the heart. That's how God looks at us and that's how God looks at things, what our attitude is, where our heart is. So let's pick it up here now, again in verse 21. So the children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept a feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness, and they were blessed for it, I might add.

And the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing to the Lord, accompanied by loud instruments, and Hezekiah gave encouragement to all the Levites who taught the good knowledge of the Lord. And they ate through the feast seven days, offering peace offerings and making confession to the Lord, God of their fathers. Then the whole assembly agreed to keep the feast another seven days.

Is that in the law anywhere? Ever read that anywhere in the Pentateuch? I haven't. What was God excited about? What was He pleased about? He was pleased about their zealousness and their enthusiasm to worship Him. Now, I'm not saying that we should keep any day that we want. I'm certainly not saying that we can abandon God's law. What I am saying is that there are times and situations, according to the knowledge that God reveals to people, where they may not be technically correct.

But because their hearts are right before God, He patiently works with them, and He loves them and He cares for them until they come into a fuller knowledge of His truth. It says, they kept the feast another seven days with gladness. For Hezekiah, the king of Judah, gave to the assembly a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep, and the leaders gave to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep, and a great number of priests sanctified themselves.

The whole assembly of Judah rejoiced. Also the priests and Levites, all the assembly that came from Israel, the sojourners who came from the land of Israel, and those who dwelt in Judah. So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.

Then the priests, the Levites, arose and blessed to the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling to heaven. So again, I want to emphasize that Hezekiah knew what was really important to God. Even though the Israelite visitors were not physically and ritually clean to participate in the worship, it was their attitude, their hearts, with zeal and enthusiasm that was important, not technical rules and regulations. There will always be time to learn about the law and the rules and the regulations and conform to what God wants us to do.

But what's first and foremost is important is the attitude of our hearts. After this, He continued reforms in the priesthood, in the service of the priesthood to the nation, and how they were supported financially. 2 Chronicles 31, verse 20. 2 Chronicles 31, verse 20. Dropping down here, "...Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God." I want you to notice what it says about Him after He took it upon Himself to have these allowances regarding the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread.

It says that He did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God, and in every work that He began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandments to seek His God, He did it with all His heart. Because that, my friends, that, my brethren, is what is first and foremost of importance to God, is what is in our hearts. And then following this verse, it doesn't say many words, but it's the first test that Hezekiah is going to receive. Things are going well. The reforms are working. But God tests the heart.

God tries us. God wants us to see the stuff that we're made of. And the next verse just simply says, with the finishing of this particular verse, So He prospered. The King prospered. He's exalted. He began to acquire wealth. He began to acquire praise, preeminence among His people and among many nations. So again, regarding the temple and worship and placing an emphasis on the law, Hezekiah did it with enthusiasm and He did it well.

But He was human. But He had some flaws. And the first of His flaws will be revealed because it says, So He prospered. And that shouldn't shock us because it is human nature that when people are prospered and blessed and exalted, that they begin to think too much of themselves.

They begin to think that it's because of their own skills and abilities that they receive these things, rather than giving the credit where it is due. That is, the credit to God. So let's take a look now at 2 Chronicles 32, verse 1. The first one of His flaws are revealed here in the next chapter, beginning in verse 1. After the deeds of faithfulness, it's amazing how God works. You get a period of time in which you're blessed and things go well, and then boom! A test. Boom! A trial.

After these deeds of faithfulness, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and entered Judah. He camped and camped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them over to himself. And when Hezekiah saw his leaders and commanders, I'm sorry, saw that Sennacherib had come and that his purpose was to make war against Jerusalem, he consulted with his leaders and commanders. To stop the water from the springs, which were outside the city, and they helped him.

So he receives word that the powerful king of Assyria has already entered Judah. What do you think is the first thing he should have done? Rather than to consult with his leaders and commanders. You know what he should have done? He should have went and consulted with the Lord God, shouldn't he? But it doesn't say that. It says he consulted with his leaders and his commanders to stop the water from the springs, which were outside the city, and they helped him.

You know, a large army needs plenty of water to drink for themselves or their horses to keep their army going. And so they dried up the dam to the springs around Jerusalem so that it would be difficult for an invading army to find and locate water. Verse 4, Thus many people gathered together, who stopped all the springs and the brook that ran through the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water? Why should we make it easy for him?

And he strengthened himself, and he built up the wall that was broken, the walls of the city, and raised it up to the towers, made it higher, and built another wall outside, and he repaired the millow, which was a stone terrace, in the city of David, and made weapons and shields in abundance. And he said, Military captains over the people gathered them together to him in the open square of the city gate, and he gave them encouragement. He did lots of things here to prepare for war, but you know one thing it says that he didn't do? He didn't go to God, did he?

He didn't consult with the Lord. He decided he was going to do it his way. But he makes a powerful, almost Church Hillian speech here. But there are words, because we will see by his actions that what he would say usually was one thing, but when it came time to make a decision, he lacked faith. He usually would do the wrong thing. Here's what he says in verse 7. And again, this is very powerful, very beautiful. He says, Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria, nor before all the multitude that is with him.

For there are more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us to fight our battles. Sounds powerful, but we'll see if he really lives up to these kinds of words that he says in a minute. Again, just to recap, his father, Ahab, had become a vassal of the king of Assyria. And that king at that time was King Sargon, and he died in battle in 705 BC, and he was succeeded by Sennacherib, the king who now was invading Judah.

And at this time, many small vassal nations like Judah rebelled against Assyria because it was considered a time of transition. The death of an old king, a new king, and Assyria certainly noticed that Hezekiah had these religious reforms, and they considered that to be disobedience. They considered that to be rebellion against their dominance of Judah. So did they want independence? Would they rely on God and faith for protection?

Let's go to 2 Kings chapter 18 and verse 13, if you'll turn there with me. 2 Kings chapter 18 and verse 13. His speech was powerful. He had prepared for war, built up the city walls, made shields.

2 Kings chapter 18 verse 13. Then in the 14th year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Syria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. According to the secular records that were left by the Assyrians, it says Sennacherib took 46 walled cities in Judah.

That's pretty powerful. He claimed to have taken 200,000 captives from the nation of Judah during this invasion. Then Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria at Lake Ish. That's a Judean city only about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem.

He was close, saying, here's what Hezekiah said to the king of Assyria, I have done wrong. Turn away from me. Whatever you impose on me, I will pay. Now, if we were to look at verse 4, we won't go back to verse 4, but this was actually a bribe.

He first went to the king of Assyria and said, what's it going to cost to pay you off? And the king told him the same amount that he's going to give him right here as a bribe. Whatever you impose on me, I will pay. And the king of Assyria says Hezekiah of Judah, 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. That's about 10 tons of silver, one ton of gold, approximately $50 million.

Verse 15, so Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord in the treasures of the king's house. At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the pillars which Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.

What? After all the efforts He made to rebuild the temple, now He's dealing, He's literally taking the precious metals from the temple and giving it to someone who hates Him. Verse 17, then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, that's the commander and chief of the king of Assyria, and the Rav Saras, he was a diplomat and ambassador, and the Rav Shaka, he was the chief cup bearer. These were three ambassador-type people who were very close to the king and had the authority to speak for him from Lachish with a great army against Jerusalem, the king Hezekiah. And they went up and they came to Jerusalem and when they had come up, they went and stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, which was on the highway to the folders field.

One of the other things he had done as a building project is he had had an aqueduct, a huge tunnel built underground so that the city of Jerusalem, even if it was besieged, could continue to receive fresh water and hold out longer.

But we see here, what we read in chapter 18, that Hezekiah makes a big mistake.

He had prepared for war, he gave great speeches, he had prepared to defend Jerusalem, and he spoke like he was a courageous warrior.

Then he goes and offers a bribe to Sennacherib to leave the nation alone.

There's a little bit of symbolism here. I don't know if you've ever thought about it. But the king of Assyria is a lot like Satan in our lives.

Satan will sometimes won't leave us alone. Are we giving in to him? Are we, in essence, paying off Satan, giving him our time, giving him our attention, thinking about things we shouldn't be thinking about just in order to be left alone?

Is that contradiction also in our life? The king has a kind of... He said the right things. But when it came time to make a decision, he made the wrong decisions.

Inspirational words came out of his mouth. But his actions spiritually were deficient.

The king of Assyria, as I said, is kind of like Satan in our lives. Are we compromising with Satan when trouble or a crisis arrives at our door?

Are we waiting for us to be besieged before we go to God? Or are we going to God each and every day through a committed relationship of prayer and study and meditation?

Do we have an ongoing and loving and deep relationship with God? Or do we just go to God when Satan is at the city gates of our lives?

I think it's a fair question for us to ask ourselves. Again, think of the contradiction here.

After spending all the money and resources to beautify the temple, he now strips it of its precious metals and gives it as a bribe to his enemy.

Are we also, in our own lives, in our own Christian lives, taking one step forward and then two steps backward?

Never seeming to go forward in faith and character? Maybe the right words come out of our mouths, but our actions don't reflect the right things.

They don't reflect the kind of things that God wants us to do.

And if all of this isn't bad enough, the fact that he offered a bribe to the king of Assyria, and he gave the king exactly what he wanted, and he stripped the precious metals from the temple to give to him, as if all of that weren't bad enough, the bribe didn't work.

Sennacherib still sent his army to conquer Jerusalem and Judah anyway. Perhaps there's a lesson there.

We don't have time to go to the book of Isaiah, but Isaiah had warned Hezekiah not to make political alliances, not to rely on other nations or their armies or their politics for protection, but to rely on the Lord God.

So he relied on the king of Assyria being a man of honor, a man who would keep his word. There is no honor among thieves.

Verse 18.

And they had called to the king, these were the three ambassadors that were sent to the city, three ambassadors from Assyria we had mentioned earlier, and when he had called to the king, Eliakim, the son of Hezekiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, so these are three representatives of the king of Judah, meaning the three representatives of Assyria.

Now say to Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, what confidence is this in which you trust?

You speak of having plans and power for war, but are mere words.

And in whom do you trust that you rebel against me?

Now look, you are trusting in the staff of this broken reed Egypt?

Egypt did have a political alliance with Judah, and Egypt actually was on its way.

It arrived too late, but Egypt was on its way.

And here's what the king of Assyria said about the might of the Egyptian empire at this point in history, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it.

He said he's such a rickety old cane. He's like an old man with a rickety cane that if you lean on it, it snaps and it'll pierce your hand.

Is you're relying on Egypt for your protection?

So is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who trust in him.

But if you say to me, we trust in the Lord our God, is it not he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and said to Judah and Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?

They obviously didn't understand that this was a reform, that the Lord God wasn't in all of these pagan things that were scattered throughout the land of Judah.

And what Hezekiah was doing was actually good.

And then the trash talk starts. Ever see athletes? Athletes like to have trash talk?

The boxers before that when they go in the way in, boxers like to get to each other face to face, have little trash talk. The trash talk begins. He says, Now therefore I urge you, give a pledge to my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses if you are able in your part to put riders on.

He says, Tell you what, I'll equalize the field a little bit. I will give you two thousand horses. Just that's like one hand tied behind my back. If you can even find two thousand talented enough people to sit on a horse, then, here's what He's going to do. Verse 24, How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master's servants and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? I'll give you these horses, and I'll send out my weakest troops, and they'll still kick you all the way home.

This is the trash talk of the ambassador of Assyria now. Verse 25, Have I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it. So to rub salt into the wound, this is a lie, but to rub salt into the wound, he says, Look, do you think I'm here on my own?

I'm here because it's the Lord's will that you be destroyed. God is against you, and he's for me. This is what the representative is saying. So again, this is an ancient version of trash talk. The ambassador of Assyria tells the king's representatives that Hezekiah is all talk, but he's a coward. He's nothing beyond big talk. He states that Egypt will not save them and that it is by God's will that Assyria come and destroy the nation of Judah. But then he makes a grave error.

It's one thing, the trash talk, a mere mortal human being. It's another thing when your trash talk offends the great God and becomes blasphemy. And this is what saved the nation. This next statement, verse 26, Then Eliachim, the son of Hezekiah, Shebna, and Joah, said to Repshekah, Please speak to your servants in Aramaic. The three of us, we understand Aramaic, but don't speak in Hebrew to the hearing of the people.

You're going to terrify them. You're going to make them anxious. You're going to make them afraid. So please, just tell us in Aramaic these harsh words. Well, what do you think? How would you respond to that? But the Repshekah said to them, Has my master sent me to your master, and do you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat and drink their own waste with you? Not a very pleasurable thought, I might add.

Verse 28, Then the Repshekah stood and called out, and a loud voice in Hebrew, he said, No, everyone needs to hear what I have to say. All of your people, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you from his hand, nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying the Lord will surely deliver us.

The city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, Make peace with me by a present, and come out to me, and every one of you shall eat from his own vine, and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you shall drink the waters of his own cistern. Oh, doesn't that sound comforting? It almost sounds millennial. Just give me another big bribe, and you can live in peace.

Verse 32, Until I come and take you away to a land that is not your own land, the land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive groves and honey, that you may live and not die.

He said, I'm going to do to you what we did to the northern tribes. We're going to take you captive and take you out of this land that you believe God has given you. So let's pick it up now here in verse, let's pick it up continuing in verse 32, I guess. But do not listen to Hezekiah, unless he persuade you, saying, The Lord will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

He says, There is no God who has been able to deliver their nation against the king of Assyria. Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of the Sepharim and the Henna and Iva? Indeed, have they delivered Jerusalem from my hand? All the pagan gods, the gods of Assyria, all these nations that we stomped down. He said, What did their gods do for them?

Nothing. And what's the Lord God of Israel going to do for you, since he's just another one of these tribal gods, made of wood or stone and temple? He says, He's not going to do anything to help you, to protect you. Verse 36, But the people held their peace and answered him. Not a word. For the king's commandment was, Do not answer him. Then Eliakim, the son of Helechiah, who was over the household, Shevna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Repshechah.

We are doomed. That when you tore your clothes, that was a sign of mourning. It was a sign of impending doom, of humility. You're in deep trouble. And they came to the king, and they were like whipped puppies. The line that the Repshechah crossed was taking God's name in vain. He implied that the Lord was useless and was not a true God like the other gods that Assyria had defeated, that he was just another tribal god of a little silly nation that Assyria would stomp into history. And this vain arrogance offended God, and Hezekiah knew it.

He perceived it. And the nation immediately went into sadness, and they went into mourning as reflected by the three ambassadors who came to see their king here. They were mourning over their impending doom. What the Repshechah failed to realize is that the nation of Syria, like any nation that has ever existed in the history of mankind, only exists because God allows it to exist. Not of their own great, not of their own might, but things only occur because God allows them to occur. Let's pick it up here, 2 Kings 19, verse 1. Let's pick up the sword. 2 Kings 19, verse 1.

It says, and so it was when King Hezekiah heard it. He tore his clothes. He covered himself with sackcloth. And he went into the house of the Lord. This is good. This should have been done a lot earlier, I might add, but this was good. And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos. And they said to him, thus says Hezekiah, This is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy. This man is blaspheme the Lord. For the children have come forth to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. The analogy he's using here, he's saying Judah is tired. Judah is all worn out. Judah is like a woman who's giving birth. And she needs one more push to bring that child into the world. And she is just so tired and so exhausted, she can't even push anymore. He says, that is how Judah is, a day of trouble and sadness and trial. Continuing, he says in this message to Isaiah, It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the Repshepka, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left. As I said earlier, even in the annals of Assyria, they said that 200,000 captives from Judah had been already taken out of the land. So the king asked the prophet to pray. And we won't go into all that the prophet says, we'll just take a look at verse 14 for the sake of time. And, well, I'm sorry, actually verse 28. But let's take a look at verse 14 before we see the prophet's answer. Because here's something else that Hezekiah did that's a good thing. Verse 14, he received a written letter from the king stating he was going to come. And take over Jerusalem and Judah, a letter of warning and threats. And Hezekiah received a letter from the hands of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and he spread it before the Lord. He opened up that scroll. He opened up that letter before God in the temple. He spread his problems out before God. He didn't try to hide it.

He was beginning to realize that this was something He couldn't solve Himself. All the allies in the world aren't going to help me. All the preparations for battle and building walls and making shields and spears. And all of those things are of no use to me. He gave the problem to God. And He said, in essence, as He opened up the scroll of that letter, He said, God, look at this! I can't solve this problem. This is beyond my ability to solve. Please have mercy and intervene on behalf of your nation. And that's what He said. Now let's go to verse 28. The king had gone to God with an attitude of humility and repentance into the temple. He sent messengers to the prophet Isaiah and asked him to pray for God's intervention. And Isaiah responded and reported that God indeed would. And again, we can't read it because it's so long. The dropdown in verse 28. He says, Because your rage against me, these are your words against Assyria, Because your rage against me and your tumult have come up to my ears, Therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back by the way that you came. Now this is important because the Assyrians were infamous for putting hooks in the noses of the people that they captured. And then they would tie all of those rings through their nose together. It was a way to humiliate people. They were known for putting hooks through people. And God says, You know what? He says, I'm going to put my hook in your nose.

He says, And you know what? I'm going to shut your big mouth. I'm going to put a bridle in your lips so that your trash talk is no longer heard in the world. And I will turn you back by the way that you came. You're going to be going home humiliated rather than as a conqueror. And that's why this particular scripture, this prophecy that Isaiah was inspired to write is so important. 2 Chronicles 32 and verse 20. 2 Chronicles 32.20. See what happens.

It says 2 Chronicles 32.20, Now because of this King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos prayed and cried out to heaven, and then the Lord sent an angel who cut down every mighty man of valor, leader and captain in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned shame-faced to his own land. And when he had gone into the temple of his God, some of his own offspring struck him down with the sword there. And secular history records that's exactly what happened. It was a number of years later after he returned home, but eventually he was struck down by two of his own sons. Now if we were to go back to 2 Kings 19, we won't do that at this point. But it states that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000 people. That is a significant number of people. It says, and when the people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses, all dead. So the angel of the Lord somehow spread a rapid plague or a rapid spreading virus, and overnight 185,000 soldiers died. So we see here that God intervened in Judah out of his mercy and compassion towards Judah. The nation was saved not by its strength, not by its wealth, not by its political alliances, but as a gift of God to an undeserving people. Hezekiah was human. And often what happens when humans are blessed and when they're exalted, and they're given a gift that is unexpected and undeserved, sadly, many people are led to pride because they begin to think too much of themselves. And Hezekiah himself took God's providence for granted. Let's take a look at something else that happened, dropping down to verse 24 here. That happened either at the end of this siege by Assyria or immediately thereafter. Hezekiah got very sick and he almost died. And it's possible that stress contributed to his illness. He's only 39 years old and he almost dies. Here's what happens. Verse 24, in those days Hezekiah, sick and near death. This was about 701 B.C., by the way. Sick and near death, and he prayed to the Lord, and he spoke to him and gave him a sign.

But Hezekiah did not repay according to the favor shown him, for his heart was lifted up. And, brethren, there's a message here for all of us, because in my lifetime I have known many, many extremely talented people whose pride destroyed them because their hearts were lifted up, because they had been exalted, or because they prospered, or because people said good things about them or gave them titles. And it went to their heads and it literally destroyed them. It's a good lesson for us. It says, for his heart was lifted up, therefore wrath was looming over him and over Judah and Jerusalem. Then Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon him in the days of Hezekiah. Verse 27, here's the root of some of Hezekiah's problems. Hezekiah had great, very great riches and honor. And I want you to notice the wording here. And he made himself treasures for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of items. Storehouses for the harvest of grain, wine and oil, and stalls for all kinds of livestock and folds for flocks. Who did he make this for? It said he made himself these things. Verse 29, moreover, he provided cities for himself, not for the benefit of the people, not the glorifying God. It says he made cities for himself and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance, for God had given him very much property. God wanted to see the stuff of which he was made of. Like many successful people, the wealth and honor that Hezekiah received went to his head, and he deluded himself into believing that he had achieved these things because of his own abilities and talents.

Let's take a look at this account of his sickness back in 2 Kings 20. If you'll turn there with me, 2 Kings 20, verse 1.

This has a few more details that are not in the account from the book of Chronicles.

2 Kings 20, verse 1. In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, went to him and said to him, Thus says the Lord, set your house in order for you shall die, and not live.

Verse 2. He says a prayer here that God answers positively and affirmatively. But if you read the prayer closely, it's about what He eats done.

And it's not the kind of prayer, frankly, that a Christian should ever pray. That those of us who have God's Spirit should ever pray. He says, verse 3. Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in your sight, and Hezekiah wept bitterly. And it happened before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Return, and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people. Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father, I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears. Surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord, and I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for two reasons.

Here they are. For my own sake, meaning he had been blasphemede, right? And he was going to show the Assyrians who the true God really was, and for the sake of my servant David. He says, I'm not doing this for you Hezekiah. I'm doing this because of the promises that I made to my servant David, where I told him there would be someone who would remain on the throne. I'm doing it because of my promise to him. So again, I want you to notice that God doesn't say He'll save the city for Hezekiah's sake, but for his own sake because he was blasphemede, and for David's sake because of the promise he made to King David. Now verse seven. Hezekiah said, Take a lump of figs.

So they took it and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What is the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I should go up to the house of the Lord third day? It doesn't sound like a lot of great faith to me. The prophet just told him what's going to happen, but he wants a sign. Then Isaiah said, This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing which he has spoken.

Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or backward ten degrees? They had sundials actually in context according to Isaiah's account. There were steps called the steps of Ahaz. And as the day lingered on, the shadow would literally walk up the steps. And that's how you could get an idea about what the time was. Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or backward ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, It's an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees, to speed up time, he says.

But let the shadow go backward ten degrees. Verse 11, So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz. So here again God, in His mercy and His patience with Hezekiah, performs a local geographic miracle. He did not stop the earth from spinning on His axis. He did not reverse the rotation of the earth. This was a local geographic miracle. But this blessing, as we'll see, was soon be followed by another test.

Because God knew that every time Hezekiah is blessed with something, he stumbles. He soon forgets about God. Can that be said of us, brethren? When we're prospered, when we're blessed, when things start going well, do our prayers, our daily relationship with God, does it falter? Do we get a little heady?

Do we think maybe we don't need God as much when times are good, there aren't a lot of problems going on in our lives? Or are we there every day going to that throne of grace, continually building on that relationship? I want you to think what a wonderfully appropriate sign this was for Hezekiah. By making the shadow of the sundial move backward, it gave more time in a day, just as God gave Hezekiah more time in his life. A very powerful miracle. Verse 12, At that time, Berodok, Valadan, the son of Valadan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah.

For he heard that Hezekiah had been sick, and Hezekiah was attentive to them. It could be that he wanted them as allies against Assyria, maybe allies against Egypt in some way. But it says he was attentive to them. He listened to them. And that's not the worst of it. And he showed them all the house of his treasures, the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all of his armory.

This is how many weapons we have. These are how many chariots I have. I'm going to show you everything. All that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. You know what this is, brethren? This is the king's pride and vanity getting the best of him. He's showing off. He's gloating. It was none of their business how he had been prospered and how many weapons he had and how much wealth and gold that he had been prospered with. This is human pride. This was one of his character flaws that he struggled with his entire life.

He was proudly displaying how wealthy he was. And again, he may have thought that Babylon would be a potential ally against Assyria or Egypt if they should attack Judah. Let's go now to verse 14. The prophet Isaiah is not very pleased. Isaiah the prophet said to King Hezekiah and said to him, What did these men say and where did they come to you? So Hezekiah said, They came from a far country from Babylon.

And he said, What have they seen in your house? So Hezekiah answered, They've seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord.

Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget. And they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

This is a prophecy, and this prophecy was fulfilled about a hundred years after King Hezekiah died. The prophecy occurred about 585 BC, almost exactly a hundred years after the king died. A hundred years later, after his death, Babylon destroyed the nation of Judah and took some of the royal family sent to Babylon as captives. So this prophecy was fulfilled. And perhaps being startled, this is what Hezekiah said in verse 19. Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good. Now, I don't know about you, but every time I read that, I'm just dumbfounded.

And why is it good? We're going to see, because it's all about me. That's why he thought it was good. For he said, Will there not be peace and truth, at least in my days? I'm going to be all right. I'm going to be okay, aren't I? Now, the rest of the Acts of Hezekiah, all his might and how he made a pool and a tunnel together and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

So Hezekiah rested with his fathers. Then Manasseh, his son, reigned in his place. And Hezekiah was about 42 years old, sorry, 54 years old when he died. And his son Manasseh happened to be the longest reigning king of any king in the history of Judah, and he was a scoundrel. His son was not a good king at all. So, in conclusion, the next few minutes, I'd like to ask ourselves, what are some of the lessons we can learn from the kingship of Hezekiah?

He had good qualities that we should emulate that are really positive, and he had some other qualities that are just so typical of human nature that you and I can fall into the same traps that he did. Here's the first lesson. He was basically a good man, and he wanted to restore the faithful worship of God in Israel. I'm sorry, in Judah. He wanted to restore the faithful worship of God in Judah.

So, he was a good man, and that's a wonderful quality. It said that he was better than any of the kings before him since the time of David, and he was better than any of the kings that followed him.

So, in many ways, he was a man who restored, at least for a small period of time, the true worship of God in Judah. That's the first lesson, and that's a good quality. The second lesson we can learn from him is that he was inclusive of others who had strayed from God.

That's an outstanding quality. You may remember when he cleansed and purified the temple, he had sacrifices for all Israel, not just for his own people in Judah. That was being inclusive. That was reaching out. He invited Israelites to come and worship in Judah. He sent a messenger around, a runner, it said, who had a letter from him.

He said, Come to Jerusalem and worship the Lord God. He made provision for people who were ritually unprepared to worship and allowed them to participate in the Passover, even though technically they were not ready for the Passover because he was inclusive. He reached out. That's a good Christian quality that all of us should be living by. He prayed for those who weren't in his own flock, but were still his brothers and sisters.

And you and I need to pray for our spiritual brothers and sisters who are not in our flock because they need our prayers. Just like we need their prayers. The third lesson we can learn is that he respected God's law, but he was not a man of deep, abiding faith. All the right words often came out of his mouth. Oh, they sure did. As I said earlier, some of them were church-hylian. They were so motivational and inspiring. But it really wasn't a man of very deep faith. When Assyria came knocking in the door, he tried to bribe Assyria to make it go away. At first, he didn't even go to God until they were at the city gates of Jerusalem, even though he knew long before that they were invading Judah.

He fought political allies for protection. He would go to Egypt. Later on, we see he may have been trying to buy the friendship of Babylon by showing him all of his wealth and all of his goodies for protection because he lacked a deep, abiding faith in God's providence in his life. He prepared for a war physically, but he only went to God when annihilation was at the door.

And there's a powerful lesson for all of us here. Having truth and knowledge about God is meaningless if we don't have a real relationship with Him. I want to say that again because it's so important. Having truth and knowledge about God is meaningless if we don't have a real relationship with Him. Having truth and knowledge and not having a relationship with God just makes us smart fools. And we don't want to be smart fools. It starts with the heart.

It starts with a daily, intimate relationship with God. And sadly, that's something Hezekiah did not have. Another positive quality that he had? He was a builder. He built bridges among people. He built cities. He built an aqueduct. He was, by nature, a creative individual and a builder of things. And that is a good quality, and again, one that we can emulate. Another lesson we can learn from him is that he was humbled during times of crisis when he needed God.

But proud and lacking in gratitude were times when times were good. Like far too many people in this world, and sadly some in the history of the Church, he kept God far off when times were good. Only in times of crisis would he go to God and ask for help. In contrast to our understanding that we need to have a relationship with the Father and we need to be going to that throne of grace each and every day. He didn't tend to go to God first, but he went to God as a last resort.

And brethren, we need to go to God first. The next lesson we can learn, actually I have it numbered in lesson number six, is that wealth and prosperity clouded his thinking. He thought too much of himself and not enough of God's providence. And again, as people become comfortable in life, as they oftentimes are blessed and they receive accolades and they receive exaltation and all of these things follow in a physical way, it's far too easy to begin forgetting about God.

And that sad legacy is written throughout human history. And then finally, number seven, is he was very short-sighted. From a leadership perspective, to have said something like, well, the prophecy that this nation will be destroyed is good news. Peace and truth will happen at least in my day. Brethren, that's very sad, because he only thought of himself and his own generation. He wasn't thinking of the legacy that he should have left behind of faithfulness and of caring for generation after generation and generation. It should have been his goal to continue to reform himself and the nation of Judah so that that prophecy could have been rescinded, so that prophecy would not have been fulfilled.

But he didn't think of his own legacy. He thought only of himself. And that's a very negative quality. And I hope that's one that we are not emulating either as a church or in our own individual lives. So that, brethren, is our biography today of King Hezekiah, a remarkable man. Indeed, there are things that we can learn from him, things that he did well, that are good examples for us to follow and emulate. And because he was human, like each and every one of us, he also had some character flaws and issues that he needed to deal with.

And hopefully we've been prompted to realize that if we have those issues, like he did in the first month of the first year of his reign, when he took the garbage and got the trash out of the temple, that we will be inspired and motivated to realize that the time to change is now.

And the time to get the trash out of our lives, whatever that may be that's holding us back and cutting us off from a deeper relationship with God, that we need to get the trash out and get it out now.

A very valuable lesson for us to learn from a very influential and important king of the nation of Judah. Be sure to have a wonderful Sabbath.