Lessons from King Hezekiah

Thank you again, Mr. Swope. Happy Sabbath, brethren!

Occasionally, I like to give biographies of significant biblical characters. We've talked about prophecy lately, the man of sin, we've talked about some wonderful doctrines. The Kingdom of God seminar was focusing on the Sabbath rest, and he had some prophecy in it, and we've also had a number of sermons on Christian living.

But I think it's good for us to learn from the lives and personal examples of significant Bible characters. After all, there's a reason that their lives are talked about in Scripture. The reason is so we can learn from them. We can learn warts and all, their good sides, their strengths, and also learn from some of their weaknesses. So today, I would like to talk about a man who was an ancestor of Jesus Christ from his mother's side of the family. Let's go to Matthew, chapter 1, verse 1, and we'll read the genealogy of Jesus Christ, and eventually we will get to this man. I just want to show at this point that he was an ancestor of Jesus Christ himself.

Again, Matthew, chapter 1, verse 1.

It says, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah, and his brothers, Judah begot Perez and Zira by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron and Hezron begot Ram, Ram begot Amenadab, Amenadab begot Nashon and Nashon begot Salman. All right, are you ready for the quiz now? I didn't think so, neither am I. Verse 5, Salman begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, Jesse begot David the king, David the king begot Solomon by her, who had been the wife of Uriah, that is Uriah the Hittite. Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, Abijah begot Asa, Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, Joram begot Yeziah, Yeziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah.

Took me a long time to get there, didn't it? Today we're going to look at the biography of King Hezekiah, of ancient Judah. We're going to piece together two major scriptures that talk about him, Second Chronicles, Second Kings, and they're a little divergent. Chronicles were written by priests, so Chronicles always has more of a religious slant on people's lives. Kings is more of a historical secular view of the king's lives, and when you put the two of them together, you usually get a pretty complete picture of individuals who lived in these ancient times.

So we're going to piece together a little bit of the life of Hezekiah today. He was the son of a very mediocre king named Ahaz, and Hezekiah's son was mediocre. So he was rather unique in that his father was a poor king, his son Manasseh would be a poor king, but he stood in a gap that shows that we all have free moral choice, doesn't it? And for many of us who may not have come from the best of families, like myself, it just shows that God can work with you no matter what kind of background you come from. If you make the right choices in life that God can use you as an individual, he can call you, he can use you no matter what kind of family background you come from. That's one of the things that we can learn from King Hezekiah. He was the son again of a mediocre king whose name was Ahaz. He was co-ruler with his father from 729 to 715 BC, and then at the age of 25, he ruled Judah for the next 29 years from 715 BC until his death and 687 BC. He was a good man. He was a good king. He was one of the three major kings of Judah who had a significant positive influence on the nation. He was a good man, a good king. God loved him. But you know what? Just like you and I.

He was a human being and he had flaws. There were issues in his character that he struggled with, just like you and I do. Maybe not the same issues he had, but he struggled with issues and challenges and difficulties in his life. But we need to realize in spite of those that God loved him and God worked with him, and I think there are some great things that we can learn from his personal example. So let's begin by going to 2 Chronicles, chapter 29 in verse 1, and we'll begin to look at the biography of him, picking it up when he's 25 years old and he takes control of the throne. 2 Chronicles, chapter 29, verse 1, and again for most of the sermon we will be going back from 2 Chronicles to 2 Kings back and forth to put the puzzle pieces together to learn more about this remarkable king. Chapter 29 in verse 1, 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. David wasn't his actual father, it would be more like, you know, great-great-grandfather, but his ancestor David had done. He was a lot like David in many ways. Verse 3, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, so out of the gate, as soon as he is coronated, as soon as he's now, he can call the shots. He's no longer a co-ruler with his father. Now that he can make the decisions, here's what he does. He opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.

Then he brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them in the east square and said to them, 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. For our fathers have trespassed and done evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and have turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord, and have turned their backs on him. They have also shut up the doors of the vestibule, put out the lamps, have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. Verse 8, Therefore the wrath of the Lord fell upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he has given them up to trouble, to desolation, to jeering, and as you see with your eyes. All the things he said, the problems we have around us because we abandoned God. Give us a little historical background. His father Ahaz became a vassal to the king of Assyria and was sending tribute monies to the king of Assyria. Judah was very weak at this point of time. A lot of poor people. It was a weak nation that was struggling. It was on the verge of collapse. It was only existed because of the mercy of the Assyrians who decided it was just easier to suck their wealth out of them rather than come and literally conquer Jerusalem and take it over. Verse 9, For indeed, Because of this our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons, and our daughters, and our wives are in captivity, by this time the northern tribes had already been taken into captivity by the Assyrians.

Verse 10, 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, and that you should minister to him and burn incense. So I want you to notice that virtually as soon as he secures leadership, sits on the throne, he begins his reforms. His father had closed the temple, and pagan worship was everywhere throughout Judah. It was about everywhere but the temple. It was all over Judah. No longer was worshiping the true God centralized in a temple. Now they were worshiping their various brands of paganism through groves and altars and stuff all over the nation of Judah. The temple, again, had been virtually abandoned and it was filled with rubbish, and he said they needed to get the rubbish out.

Well, you know, my brothers and sisters in Christ, we are the temple of God's Holy Spirit, aren't we?

God's Spirit dwells in us. Do some of us need to get the rubbish out?

Has God's Spirit been dormant in some of our temples because it's been neglected?

Because we haven't gone to God in prayer and fasting and meditation? Do we have rubbish and garbage in our lives that are hindering us from reaching the potential that God's Holy Spirit wants to develop in our lives? It's a good question, and I think a fair question for us to ask.

Is there too much junk in our lives that we need to remove out of our temple? Too much stuff going on in our heads? Maybe watching the wrong stuff, listening to the wrong stuff, reading the wrong stuff, and what's the result of that? It's garbage in our brains, isn't it? If we're focusing on the wrong things in life. So as soon as he became king, he didn't waste a day getting started to get the garbage out of the temple. Maybe it's time for some of us to clean house, like Hezekiah told the Levites to do. And that's what they did. They began a process of sanctifying the Levites in the temple so they could once again use the Levites in the temple for holy purposes. The temple was cleaned, it was purified, and animals were once again sacrificed on the altar. And Hezekiah began to eliminate all of this pagan stuff going on everywhere, and he began to re-center the worship of God in the restored temple, the way that it should have been, the way that God intended it from the beginning. Verse 23, then they brought out the male goats for the sin offering and the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them, and the priest killed them and presented their blood in the altars of sin offering to make atonement for all Israel. I want you to think about that. They wanted to make atonement not just for Judah, but even for the tribes who no longer existed, informally known as the nation Israel of the northern tribes, who by now were already in captivity, who had been displaced.

He also wanted to make an atonement for them as well. For the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering be made for all Israel, not just Judah. 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. Let's pick it up continuing here in verse 27 and see that he restored music in the temple because it had died. The temple had been closed. There hadn't been music there for a generation. Verse 27, then Hezekiah commanded them to offer the burnt offering on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, a song of the Lord also began with the trumpets and the instruments of King David, David, king of Israel. Verse 28, so the assembly worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. All of this continued until the burnt offering was finished, and when they had finished the offering, the king and all who were present with him bowed and worshiped. So they purified the temple so it could be used for holy reasons again. I want you to notice that the king thought of the people of the northern scattered tribes of Israel as his spiritual brothers. Now over the years we've had many spiritual brothers and sisters who have drifted, who have become scattered out there who knows where in many cases. I'm told it would be good if I turned the microphone on. You want me to start over again? No. It's so hard to find good help these days. Where was I? Oh, okay. We too have many spiritual brothers and sisters who over the years have been dislocated, who have been scattered. Some of them we may not even know where they are today. Do we pray for them? Are we concerned for them? Do we think about them? Do we want God to intervene on their behalf like the example given here by the king? Hezekiah again also restored the music and the singing of the temple following the pattern that had been established by his forefather David. Let's say 2 Kings chapter 18. Let's go to 2 Kings now, chapter 18 and verse 4.

And see something else that he did. 2 Kings chapter 18 and verse 4.

You know, human beings, because of the way that we are, oftentimes we'll be given something by God and we'll make an idol out of it. God will have a symbol and we'll tend to make an idol out of the symbol and worship the symbol instead of worshiping God. Mankind has a proclivity to do that and that's exactly what ancient Israel did. 2 Kings chapter 18 and verse 4 says he removed the high places and he broke the sacred pillars, high places that were scattered throughout Judea, 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. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him there was none like him among the kings of Judea, nor 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. Let me talk about this Nahushtan for a minute. This was an image that Moses had fashioned to relieve a plague in the Israelite camp during the Exodus. It's spoken of in Numbers chapter 21. You may remember the story. Yet another incident where God had done so much for Israel and he began to complain about God and he'd had enough. So he decided to have poisonous snakes come out of everywhere and bite them. And these were lethal poisonous snakes and people began dropping like flies. The people repented and they went to Moses and God told them to take an image of this snake and put it on the end of a pole and that those, after they were bit, who, if they would look up at the top of that pole to the snake, that they would be healed. Now he never intended that to become an image of worship or burning incense to it or it being an idol. It was simply a prophecy. All that that did was represent the fact that there would come a time when God would lift up his son Jesus Christ on a stake. That his son Christ bore our sins and became sin for us. And those called by the Father look up to him in faith that we may be healed of sin. That's what that was all about. But it was never intended to become an object of worship.

And I think that's very important to understand how we as human beings can do those kinds of things.

The Nehushtan shows how easy it is to substitute true worship for false worship.

The people were idolizing the image in place of God, just like many people do with the image of the cross today. They idolize the image. They don't think of God. And it's so easy for us as human beings to do that. We have to be very careful. Second Chronicles. Let's go back now to Second Chronicles chapter 30 and verse 1. As I said, Hezekiah was very faithful to God's commandments.

Second Chronicles chapter 30 and verse 1. I want you to notice how He reaches out to others who were not part, who He considered to be brothers and sisters spiritually, who were not part of the nation of Judah. It says in 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 of Jerusalem to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel.

Why is this important? The northern nation of Israel had been destroyed a few years earlier in 722 BC. It no longer existed. And the few remaining Israelites who were left behind there had to coexist with pagan peoples. The Assyrian king Shalmaneser had brought in, he took the cream of the crop of the northern Israelites, he sent them to another land, and eventually ended up going through Western Europe. And then, what did he do? He would take pagan peoples from other conquered lands, and he would bring them and transplant them to live there. They became known as the Samaritans, by the way. So the former people of God who were left there were confused and compromising, and they were disconnected from God. Yet Hezekiah reached out to them.

Verse 2, For the king and his leaders in all the assembly in Jerusalem had agreed to keep the Passover in the second month. For they could not keep it the regular time, because a sufficient number of priests had not consecrated themselves, nor had the people gathered together Jerusalem.

And the matter pleased the king and all the assembly, so they resolved to make a proclamation throughout all Israel from Beersheba to Dan, that they should come and 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 letters from the king and his leaders, and spoke according to the command of the king children of Israel, and said, He will return to the Lord God of Abraham and 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 trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers, so that He gave them up to desolation as you see. And that's what northern Israel was. The northern tribes, they were desolation at this point in history. Verse 8, Do not be stiff-necked, do not be stubborn, block-head, 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. He said, Repent, come back to God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you, for if you return to the Lord your brethren and your children will be treated with compassion by those who lead them captive, so that they may come back to Him. He's implying exactly what happened to Judah after it went into captivity. There were rows of Gentile kings who decided that the Jews could go back to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple.

And what the king was saying here to the northern tribes is, we serve a merciful God, and He'll intervene. If you do what's right, He'll intervene, and He will move a king.

To have all of those peoples who were deported as part of northern Israel come back home.

But unfortunately, they were unwilling to do that firsthand. So the runners passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun, but they laughed at them and mocked them. Nevertheless, some from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

The hand of God was on Judah to give them singleness of heart to obey the command of the king and the leaders at the word of the Lord. Now many people in a great assembly gathered at Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month. So again, I want to emphasize that Hezekiah reached out to those who in Israel had strayed from God. We have to be an inclusive people who reach out to others. And by our examples, show people that upon repentance, upon wanting to have a relationship with God, you are always welcome. That we welcome you. We care for you. He wasn't exclusive. He wasn't demeaning to others because they weren't just like Him. He wasn't arrogant to others who had drifted away. He was kind. He reached out and He offered encouragement to them to return to the Lord God and to worship God. Some laughed and mocked, but some responded.

Verse 14. Now we're going to read something and let things rather interesting. Because this was a man who obviously loved the law of God. Yet, his priorities were in the right place. Let's see what they were. Verse 14. And they arose and they took away the altars that were in Jerusalem. And they took away all the incense altars and cast them into the brook, Kidron. These are the pagan altars. Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the second month. There is a provision in God's law for the second Passover. The priests and the Levites were ashamed and sanctified themselves and brought the bird offerings to the house of the Lord. And they stood in their place according to their custom, according to the law of Moses, the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood received from the hand of the Levites.

Now let's take a look at this in verse 17. For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves. Therefore, the Levites had charge of the slaughter of the Passover lambs for everyone who was not clean to sanctify them to the Lord. What? There are people not technically and exactly keeping the purification laws of Moses. They're not keeping the full law of God. Or as the bloggers like to refer to, the law of God. Verse 18. For a multitude of the people, many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover contrary to what was written. What? 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 his fathers, though He is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary, and the Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people. You see, our attitude is more important than technicalities. I want you to think of what's actually going on here. They're observing a second Passover, which indeed is in the law. They're going to observe the second days of unleavened bread. I don't see where you get an alternative choice to the days of unleavened bread, yet they're going to do that. Yet that's not good enough. They're going to celebrate another seven days beyond the Feast of Tabernacles, and people that are not exactly prescribing to the law of God in every technicality, the law of Moses, is still going to take the Passover and be healed. Why? Because God is more interested in what's in our hearts. He's interested in our attitudes more than if we do things technically right and wrong.

You know, the generation that preceded mine, they all kept, in my humble opinion, they all kept Pentecost in the wrong day. The generation that preceded mine, and I came in in the early 70s, all kept the Day of Pentecost on Monday. So were they somehow people of sin? Were they somehow bad or inferior? Absolutely not. The point is, is that they wanted to zealously keep God's law. They wanted to keep God's holy days. They, through all the knowledge that they had at that time, kept the Day of Pentecost. They kept it on the wrong day. But as it says here, that God is interested in those who prepare their hearts to seek God. And these were good people. They were loyal people. They were faithful people. And even though they kept Pentecost on the wrong day, technically, they kept Pentecost. And they would zeal. They kept God's holy days because they did the best they could with the information that they had. And that was good enough for God.

And even though these people technically were not cleansed by the purification of the law of Moses, because their hearts and attitudes were right, it was good enough for God.

Verse 21, so the children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great gladness. And the Levites and the priest 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 throughout the Feast seven days, offering peace offerings and making confession to the Lord God of their fathers. Verse 23, then the whole assembly agreed to keep the Feast another seven days, and they kept it another seven days with gladness. Who gave them the authority to keep the Feast another seven days? Verse 24, then Hezekiah, 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 the great number of priests sanctified themselves. The whole assembly of Judah rejoiced, also the priests and Levites, and 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 the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place to heaven. In other words, in spite of them being technically off the mark in a number of ways, they pleased God because they did the best they could do with the knowledge that they had. So again, I want you to notice that Hezekiah knew what was really important to God, and even though the Israelite visitors were not physically and ritually clean to participate in the worship, including the Passover, it was their attitude that was important, not technical rules and regulations. They could learn about the rules and regulations. There's plenty of time to learn about the law. God looks at the heart. That's what Samuel told King Saul. He said, God does not look on the outside like men look. He told Saul that God looks on the heart. God looks at attitude, intent. God looks on the inside. So after he continued the reforms of the priesthood and their service to the nation and how they were supported financially, let's continue to pick up the story. 2 Chronicles 31, verse 20. It says, again, this is chapter 31, verse 20. Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the Lord is God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandment to seek His God, he did it with all his heart, meaning his attitude was right.

So he prospered. There's more to that word, so he prospered at this point than we realize.

Because, especially if you're a young person, being prospered can destroy you. The prosperity that he was receiving was a test. A test to see if it would go to his head. A test to see if some wealth and prestige and glory would destroy him, would drive him farther away from God instead of closer to God. Regarding the temple worship and placing emphasis on the law, he did it with enthusiasm, and he did it well. But like us, he was an individual who had some flaws. And one of those flaws is revealed in the beginning of the next chapter, 2 Chronicles 32. It says, After these deeds of faithfulness... Wow! Here's the test. Just like after you were baptized, sometimes the next day, boom! Something happens to challenge you. Right? After you do what's right, boom! The test comes. After these deeds of faithfulness, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and entered Judah. He encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them over to himself. And when Hezekiah 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. 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? So he's preparing for war, and the first thing they do, a huge army like the Assyrians had, needed to drink lots of water every day. So they stopped up all the streams and the brooks around Jerusalem. So if they were besieged by an army, it wouldn't be convenient to find water to drink. And continuing here, and he strengthened himself, he built up the wall that was broken, the city walls of Jerusalem. He raised up the towers so that you could look out for miles and miles and see the enemy coming and prepare. He built another wall outside. He also repaired the milo, which was a stone terrace that was filled in near the walls in the city of David, and made weapons and shields in abundance. And he set military captains over the people, gathering them together to him in the open square of the city gate, and he gave them encouragement. And here's what he said, 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. For with him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us fight our battles. As I mentioned before, his father Ahab had become subservient to the king of Assyria, and that king happened to be Sargon, but he died in battle in 705 BC, and he was succeeded by the present king of Assyria, Sennacherib. And many small vassal nations like Judah would rebel during this time of transition when someone like Assyria would go from one leader to another. And Sennacherib was suspicious because, as we'll see, he heard about all of these religious reforms going on, and he did not like it. It sounded like a king becoming a little too independent for Sennacherib, and he didn't like that idea.

So he came, and Assyria was testing Judah to see where they stood. Did they want independence? Would they rely on God for faith or protection? Let's see. 2 Kings 18, verse 13. And in the 14th year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities. Again, this is 2 Kings 18, verse 13. We're going back to the account of the book of Kings.

2 Kings 18, verse 13. And in the 14th year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all of the fortified cities of Judah, and he took them. According to Sennacherib's own account, he said he conquered 46 walled cities in Judah. Now, he may have boasted a little bit, but he claimed that he took 200,000 captives from Judah, captured 46 cities. Verse 14. Then Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish. Lachish is a Judean city about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem. And here's what the king said. The king of Judah, the king of Assyria, saying, I have done wrong. Turn away from me. Whatever you impose in me, I will pay. And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah, king of Judah, 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. In today's vernacular, that would be 10 tons of silver and one ton of gold. Now, this was a bribe.

And actually, if you go to the account in the book of Kings, Hezekiah said, how much do you want to leave me alone? Give me a figure. How much do you want? And that's how this figure was derived at. So let's pick it up here in verse 15. So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord. What? And the treasures of the king's house.

At this time, Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple. What? Doesn't that seem a little contradicting? After all the resources that he spent to rebuild the temple, to restore the temple, not to placate a physical king, he's stripping the wealth of the temple and sending it to a pagan king. Does that seem a little odd? 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 he gave it to the king of Assyria. Then the king of Assyria, he's going to send ambassadors here to talk to the nation. He sent the tartan, which in Assyrian means his commander in chief, the rab Saris, which in Assyrian means eunuch, which was a diplomat, and the rab Shekah, which means his chief cupbearer. So he sent these three important close individuals to negotiate and let the king of Judah know what was going on. He sent them from Lachish with a great army against Jerusalem to King Hezekiah, and they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they had come up, they stood by the aqueduct from this upper pool, which was on the highway to the Fuller's field. One of the wise things, by the way, Hezekiah had done was to create an aqueduct from outside, far outside of the city of Jerusalem, a tunnel to bring fresh water into Jerusalem, so that if it was besieged for a long time, they would at least have fresh water to drink.

But Hezekiah made a big mistake here. Though he had prepared for war, though he had prepared to defend Jerusalem, he built up the walls, he raised the towers, he did all of these things, and he spoke like a courageous warrior. He said, the Lord our God will help us fight our battles. Though he said and did these things, he tried to bribe Sennacherib to leave the nation alone. But there's a parallel here for you and I. The king of Assyria is symbolic of Satan and Satan in our lives. Are we compromising with Satan when trouble or a crisis is at our door?

Are we cutting costs? Are we cutting corners? Are we compromising?

Are we willing to give in to his control just to be left alone?

Think of how, again, the contradiction was here. After spending all the money and resources to beautify the temple, he now stripped it of its precious metals to give it as a bribe to an enemy, his enemy, God's enemy. Are we, as God's people today in the 21st century, kind of like King Hezekiah here, are we taking one step forward and then two steps backward in life, never seeming to go forward in faith and character? Do we have issues? Is there a crisis at our door that we've been compromising with? That we've been accepting of? Verse 18. Of course, if this wasn't bad enough giving all this bribe money, maybe the worst part was that the bribe didn't work. So, Nacareb sent his army to conquer Jerusalem and Judah anyway after taking all the loot. Of course, Isaiah had warned Hezekiah not to make political deals, not to do these kinds of things. And unfortunately, Hezekiah didn't listen to him. And the king of Assyria did not keep his part of the deal. There's no honor among thieves. Verse 18. And when they had called to the king, Eliakim, the son of Hezekiah, who was over the household of Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them, then the Reb Shekah, that is again the chief upbearer of the Assyrian, said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this which you trust? You speak of having plans and power for war, but they 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. And indeed, about this time, Egypt was sending an army to alleviate Judah.

But here's what this ambassador had to say about Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. 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 altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?

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 on your part to put riders on them.

Now this is mocking them. He's saying, If you even have two thousand people who can ride a horse, I'll make a deal with you. You come up with two thousand people that can ride a horse, and I'll give you the horses. And then I'm going to send my weakest battalions against you, and will defeat you. He says, 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? Have I now come up without the Lord against the place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it. Now, that obviously is a lie. And not only is that a lie, but even worse, as we're going to see the results of this, that is using God's name in vain, which violates one of God's commandments. It also happens to be blasphemy, because when you say God said, and God didn't say something, you're using his name in vain and you're committing blasphemy against God. This is an ancient version of trash talk. You know, we see it on sports today, boxers before when they go in their way in, or sometimes, you know, football players, they have this little trash talk among themselves. And the ambassador from Assyria tells the king's representative that Hezekiah is all talk, but he's really a gutless coward. He says, you can't put your trust in Egypt because they're weak. He says it's God's will, this God you worship, it's His will that we come and we take you over and we destroy the nation of Judah. But then, that's not good enough. He wants to make sure that He crosses the line and He incurs God's wrath by what He says next, verse 26. Then Eliakim, the son of Hezekiah, Shebna, and Joah, said to Rav Shekah, please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. And do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall. In other words, you are terrifying the average citizens who are hearing you speak in Hebrew. Don't upset them, they'll be afraid. Instead, talk to us in Aramaic because we understand Aramaic. Well, he's not about to do that. His whole purpose is to create fear and terror. But the Rav Shekah said to them, has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words and knock to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat and drink their own waste with you? Wow, you're glad we're not having a potluck today.

Kind of ruined my appetite, that one. Verse 28. Then the Rav Shekah stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew and spoke, 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. All capital letters Yahweh.

Saying the Lord, Yahweh shall surely deliver us, this 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 each one of you eat from his own vine, and each one from his own fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own sister. Oh, so far so good! That almost sounds kind of millennial. Until you get to verse 32. He says, Until I come and take you away to a land that is like your own land, a land of grain, a new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive groves and honey, that you may live and not die. He says, We'll do to you exactly what we did in the northern tribes. We will take you out of your land, and we will disperse you into a land that you don't know about. That is not your promised land. And then we will take pagan peoples from those lands, and we'll bring them down, and we'll settle them in Judah, just like we did to Israel.

Pick it up here now in verse 33. Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharotham and Hina and Iva? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of the lands had delivered their countries from my hand? That the Lord, that's all capital, the Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem from my hand. But the people held their peace and answered not a word. For the king's commandment was, Do not answer them. Elaiachim, the son of Heukiah, who was over the household Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph III came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Reb Shekha. Terrified. But again, blasphemy was committed because this individual said that God cannot save. The line that Rishabneh crossed was taking God's name in vain, implying that the Lord God was as useless as all the other tribal gods He had conquered. That God was only stone, and He was only a myth, and He was only an idol, and that He wasn't really a god. And that offended the Lord God of Israel. Let's now go to 2 Kings chapter 19 and verse 1. 2 Kings chapter 19 and verse 1.

So again, the Reb Shekha crossed the line, taking God's name in vain, implying that God was useless like other tribal gods Assyria had defeated.

And his arrogance offended God, and Hezekiah knew it. So the nation immediately went into sadness and mourning over their impending doom, and the Reb Shekha failed to realize that Assyria was only serving by divine appointment the God's will. They were only a mighty nation because God allowed them to be a mighty nation. They only had an army because God allowed them to have an army. 2 Kings chapter 19 and verse 1. And so it was when King Hezekiah heard it that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went to the house of the Lord. And he sent, like him, who was over his household, Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priest, 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. For the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. He was using an analogy here. The message to Isaiah is that this nation is like a woman who is in childbirth, but she is so weak she no longer has the strength to push. The other saying to the prophet, We need God's help. We need you to pray to God, to intervene for the nation. Continuing, 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. It says, And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it. And Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and he spread it before the Lord. So Hezekiah spread out his problem before God. He didn't try to hide it from God. He didn't try to hide the problem from himself. He didn't try to solve it himself. He took it, he opened it up, and he said, God, only you can solve this problem. Only you can intervene. He gave the problem to God, and he said humbly, Look at this. Look at this letter and the threats made and the blasphemy within it. And please respond in my life. And there come times in our lives when we need to do the same thing, when we need to go to God, and we need to open up before Him whatever it is that we're struggling with. Whatever problem, whatever crisis, whatever dysfunction that we're still struggling with, we need to open it up before God and say, I need your help and intervention on this. I can't do it alone. The king went with an attitude of humility and repentance to the temple. Hezekiah sent messengers to the prophet Isaiah, and he also asked the prophet to pray for intervention, and sure enough, God did. We'll just drop down to verse 28 and see for the sake of time just one brief sentence here from the prophet. Speaking to Assyria, Because your rage against me and your tumult have come up to my ears, therefore I will put a hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came. The Assyrians were famous, infamous, for putting a hook in the noses of their captives, and that was a sign of humiliation. They literally would put a hook through your nose, everybody, and they would lead them in a long line, and that was to humiliate them. And God said, I'm going to put a hook in your nose, and I'm going to shut your big mouth, your blasphemy, by putting a bridle in it so that you can't talk. And that's what God's condemnation was for the nation of Assyria. Let's go down to 2 Chronicles chapter 32 and verse 20. 2 Chronicles chapter 32 and verse 20. 2 Chronicles chapter 32 and verse 20. Pick up what the book of Chronicles say about this parallel account.

Now because of this, King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amos, prayed and cried out to heaven. 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 indeed, that happened. It happened a number of years later. Not immediately, but history records. That is exactly what happened. His two sons killed him while he was worshiping.

2 Kings chapter 19. We're not going to go back there, but here's how it states this event that occurred. It says, "...and the angels of the Lord went out and killed the camp of the Assyrians, 185,000. And when people arose in the morning, there were corpses all dead." That's what the account from the book of Kings says. This obviously was due to a rapid plague or a virus that was spread by the angel of the Lord. And within 12 to 15 hours, just annihilated 180,000 warriors. For still, I believe in 2 Chronicles chapter 32, picking it up in verse 22, it says, "...thus the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all others, and guided them on every side.

And many brought gifts to the Lord of Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah, king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations thereafter." Sometimes being exalted is not a good thing, because you can be exalted, and if it goes to your head, you may begin thinking of yourself a lot more than you should. And we'll find that out in a minute.

So we see here, "...the God in His mercy intervened with compassion towards Judah, and the nation was saved. It wasn't saved by their own strength, wasn't saved by the walls that they built, by the shields of armor that they built, the towers or underground water. It wasn't saved by any of those things, but a gift from God to an undeserving people." But Hezekiah, as I said, was human. And sadly, when humans are blessed, when they are exalted, and oftentimes when they are given a gift that's unexpected and undeserved, it leads to pride. And one of his character flaws was that Hezekiah took God's providence for granted. The Scriptures also reveal that at the end of this very siegia we've been talking about, or immediately after, Hezekiah gets very sick. We're going to read that in verse 24. He got sick and he almost died, and it's possible that stress contributed to this illness. He's only 39 years old. He's still a young man when this happens, and he almost dies. Verse 24, "...in those days Hezekiah was sick and near death." This was about 701 BC. And he prayed to the Lord, and he spoke to him, and he gave him a sign. But Hezekiah did not repay according to the favor shown him, for his heart was lifted up. You see, that prosperity had made him vain. Nations sending him gifts and exalting him were making him vain. He was forgetting that his feet were supposed to be on the ground. He was forgetting that he was supposed to put God first in his life, in everything that he did. It says, "...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 them in the days of Hezekiah. Hezekiah had very great riches and honor. And he made himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of desirable items. Store houses for the harvest of grain and wine and oil, and stalls for all kinds of livestock, and folds for flocks. Moreover, he provided cities for himself the possessions of flocks and herds in abundance, for God had given him very much property." When God gives us gifts, when God blesses us, do we just take it for granted? There's always that temptation.

All you have to do is look at the newspaper virtually any day and what do you find? You find an athlete, who usually are in their 20s, far too young, who wake up one morning with more money than they ever dreamed that they would have. And what do they often do? They often trash their lives.

Entertainers, someone who's a movie star or singer entertainers, oftentimes become successful in their 20s and 30s. What do so many of them do? They become alcoholics, they get hooked on heroin, they do something that screw up their lives because they cannot handle the success. They cannot handle the prosperity. They cannot handle the glory.

And it's obvious that Hezekiah struggled with the same personal weakness. 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 talents. And he didn't give the credit to God. Let's go to 2 Kings chapter 20 and read the account from... read this account from 2 Kings chapter 20. Here's the account, same account from the book of Kings. In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And 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. That had to be pretty stunning to a 39-year-old man. Hear that from a prophet of God. Verse 2, then he turned his face toward the wall and he prayed to the Lord, saying, Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth and with a loyal heart and have done what is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And verse 4, and it happened before Isaiah, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, he's still walking, he's still leaving the facility, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Return. And El Hezekiah, the leader of my people, thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father, I have heard your prayer. I've 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 15 years and I will deliver you in this city from the hand of the king of Assyria and I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David. I want you to notice he doesn't say, I'm going to do this for your sake, Hezekiah. He says, I'm going to do it for my sake because I've been blasphemed and I need to show them who God is and I'm doing it because of my promise to David that there would always be someone who sat on the throne of David. He said, that's why I'm going to do this. I'm not doing this for your sake. Verse 7, when Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. So they took and they laid it on the boil. And the boil was probably some type of virus or infection and he recovered. And Hezekiah said, Isaiah, What is the sign that the Lord will heal me? That I shall go up to the house of the Lord in the third day. 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? This is a sundial.

Shall the day speed up a little bit or go backward? Shall the day the time go backward ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, It's an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees. That's to go forward. But let the shadow go backward ten degrees. 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.

Now in Isaiah's account that we don't have time for, because Mr. Swoke did not move the clock back 45 minutes. In Isaiah 38, the way the prophet describes this, it was like a stairway. It was eight called Ahaz stairway. And as the day went on, the shadow would go up the staircase step by step. And as the day went on, the shadow would get longer.

And what literally happened is that the shadow went backward on this staircase, which is kind of interesting. This was a local geographic miracle. God was not literally stopping the rotation of the earth and making it go backward. This was a local geographic miracle. But this blessing that he was given was to show him that God is provident in our lives. If we just heed to it, if we listen to it, that God performs miracles in our lives.

Now let's go to verse 12. Because, you know, usually a blessing is followed by a test to see if we appreciate what we've been given, to see if we will use what we've been given in the right way. Verse 12, at that time, Barad-ek, the son of Baladan, the king of Babylon sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick, and Hezekiah was attentive to him and showed them all the house of his treasures, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious ointment, and all of his armory, and all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house, and all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

Once again, seeking political advantage, maybe I can have Babylon as an ally. God who? Maybe I can have Babylon as an ally if I impress them with all of my wealth. This was the king's pride and vanity getting the best of him, and he's showing off. Look at all the wealth that I have. Look how powerful I have. Look at the cities that I've built. It's all about me. And that was not a good thing. Verse 14, Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and said to him, What did these men say?

And from 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 have seen all that is in my house. There was 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 prophecy is the seed of what actually happened 100 years later. In 585 B.C., 100 years after this is set, this is exactly what happened. Babylon came in, they conquered Jerusalem, they took all the wealth of Jerusalem with them, and many people as captives. So this was a prophecy that sadly was fulfilled. Verse 19, let's see how Hezekiah responds. Is he interested in a legacy? Is he interested in Judah going on for a thousand generations?

Is he interested in a nation that serves God through his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren? Or is he interested in now, in me? So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good. Will there not be peace and truth, at least in my days? Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, all his might, and how he made a pool in a tunnel 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. So Hezekiah was about 54 years old. When he died and his son Manasseh happened to be the longest reigning king of any king who ever reigned in Judea. Unfortunately, he was very evil, like his grandfather he was. He was a bad king. So that's kind of a nutshell of the strengths of the good qualities of King Hezekiah and his human side.

So what are some of the lessons that we can learn from the kingship of Hezekiah? Well, we learned that he basically was a good man and he wanted to restore the faithful worship of God in Judah. That was a positive quality he had. And indeed it says there were no kings that ever came before him, that is since the time of David, nor was there a good king after him like this.

That's a positive quality. Like I said, he basically was a good man. He was patient and he was inclusive of others who had strayed away from God. He had sacrifices done for all Israel, not just for Judah alone. He invited the scattered, confused Israel likes to come down to Jerusalem to worship on the holy day, keep the Passover. He made provision for the richly unprepared to still worship and participate in the Passover.

That's a good quality. He was a fine man in that way. Another thing we learned is he respected God's law, but he was not a man of deep, abiding faith. He talked the talk a lot, yet God's on our side. God will save us. They're flesh, but we have the Almighty God. But when push came to shove, he tried to bribe Assyria, tried to buy them off, rather than just relying on God alone.

He physically prepared for war, but he only went to God when annihilation was at the door. It's only when there was a crisis, when annihilation was at the door, that he decided it was time to go to the prophet, or it was time to go to God. He should have gone to God, and he should have gone to the prophet every day, like you and I need to do, to go to the throne of grace and make that connection with God each and every day of our lives, not just when there's a crisis at our door.

A quality that he had that was positive is he was a builder. He built people. He had a very positive influence on people, including wanting to help those who were remnants of Israel. He built cities. He built an aqueduct to bring water underground into Jerusalem. He was a man who was a builder, and that's a good quality. He was humble during times of crisis when he needed God.

But he was proud, and he lacked gratitude when times were good. Are we that way? You know, it's natural to go to God when we're in a crisis, but do we forget about God when times are good?

When the times happen that we have some prosperity, that we are blessed. Do we suddenly stop praying? Do we suddenly stop studying the Word of God? Do we start thinking that, oh, I can do it myself. I've done this. I've achieved this all by me?

There's always, because of human nature, a potential in that that will happen, and that's unfortunately what happened to this king. He allowed wealth and prosperity to cloud his thinking. He thought too much of himself and not enough of God's providence. God wants a relationship with us each and every day, not just when there's a crisis, not just when the enemy is knocking at the door. And the last quality, which is not a positive one, is he was very short-sighted.

He didn't think of legacy. I think it's very sad when a prophet would say that your great, great grandchildren are all going to go into captivity and lose everything. You say, the word of the Lord is good, because it's not going to affect me. That's very selfish thinking. That's very short-sighted, very selfish, and not a positive quality. So today we've looked at the life of King Hezekiah, a remarkable king. We can learn some very positive qualities and traits that he had, and we can emulate those. And we can also learn lessons from the character traits and weaknesses that he had that he struggled with, because every one of us are human, and every one of us can fall into the same kind of traps that he did. So let us remember this remarkable man.

But when all was said and done, let us remember that he was considered by God to be a good king, a king who restored the faithful worship of Yahweh in Judah. Have a wonderful Sabbath.