(2 Kings 18-19)
Hezekiah was probably one of the best kings in the nation’s history. Not only did he rid the land of idol worship, but he removed the high places and smashed the Asherah poles, and reestablished the temple as the sole place of worship to Yahweh, consecrating it as holy. The high places had been a stumbling block to every generation, and almost every other king allowed the high places to remain, but not Hezekiah. We are told that “Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook.”( 2 Kings 18:5-7) This description of Hezekiah really stands out among the lists of other kings! He was a man who sought the Lord wholeheartedly and desired to worship Him alone.
This is especially noteworthy considering that Hezekiah’s father was king Ahaz, one of Judah’s most wicked kings, who engaged in all the most detestable pagan worship practices (including child sacrifices) and completely desecrated the temple of the Lord. It would have been easy for Hezekiah to repeat the sins of his father, and continue in the idolatry he grew up with, but he didn’t! He renounced his father’s wicked ways, and chose to serve the One true God.
As great a king as he was, Hezekiah wasn’t perfect. Like all humans, he had some pride and some impure motives. But there are also many things for us to learn from Hezekiah’s good example of faith and trust in Yahweh, especially when he was faced with overwhelming opposition.…
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, had come to attack. He had already captured all of Judah’s fortified towns, but king Hezekiah had temporarily pacified him with gifts of gold and silver. But now, the tyrant Assyrian king was back, issuing threats and hurling insults against not only Hezekiah, but also the God in whom Hezekiah trusted, against the King of Kings himself.
It’s important to understand that the Assyrians were the dominant world power at this point in time, and had taken over nearly every other nation, including the nation of Israel. Because they had forsaken their covenant with Yahweh and persisted in worshiping other gods, the northern kingdom of Israel had been captured by the Assyrian armies and exiled from their homeland.
And now the Assyrians have shown up to take control of Judah too. And Hezekiah would have had every reason to be afraid. He would have had every reason to believe that his little kingdom couldn’t stand against this powerful empire. And the Assyrians had every confidence that they could wipe Judah off the face of the earth, just as they had with Israel and many other nations. They boasted exactly that when their field commander brought this message for King Hezekiah:
“What makes you so confident? Who do you really think you can depend on to help you now? If you think Egypt is gonna rescue you, you’re sadly mistaken! And as for this God of yours, he’s the one who sent us to destroy your country in the first place!” (2 Kings 18:19-25, paraphrase mine)
And then in an attempt to intimidate the people into abandoning loyalty to Hezekiah and giving into fear of the Assyrians, he continued by saying,
“Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you by convincing you that God will really deliver you from the hand of our king! Don’t listen to him when he tells you such things! You’d be much better off just surrendering to us. We can give you lives of ease and wealth. Wouldn’t you rather live than die?! Hezekiah is misleading you when he says your God has the power to save you!! Have the gods of any other nation ever been able to stop us? We took over Samaria (Israel’s capital), didn’t we? What makes you think your God is any different?” ( 2 Kings 18:30-35, paraphrase mine)
When Hezekiah hears these blasphemous words, he sends messengers to the prophet Isaiah in sackcloth and great distress to ask for prayer and for mercy from the Lord. The prophet replies with a message of hope and encouragement. Isaiah tells Hezekiah not to be afraid of the commander’s words, because God will make him return to his own country. And true to the prophet’s word, the commander realizes that king Sennacherib had gone to fight in another area, so he leaves.
But some time later, king Sennacherib again sends messengers to Hezekiah with more of the same threats: “Don’t let the god you depend on deceive you by telling you that Jerusalem won’t be taken over by the king of Assyria. Haven’t you heard how the Assyrians have destroyed all the other countries? And you still think YOU will be delivered? Did the gods of the other nations I destroyed deliver them??” ( 2 Kings 19:10-13, paraphrase mine)
This time, Hezekiah went directly to the temple himself and prayed fervently to Yahweh. It’s such a beautiful prayer that for once, I won’t even try to paraphrase it!
Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God. It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.” ( 2 Kings 19:15-19)
And God answers Hezekiah’s prayer! He receives a message from the prophet Isaiah promising that the Lord would defend and save Jerusalem, and that the King of Assyria would not set foot (nor arrow nor shield nor siege ramp) in the city. That same night, the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian soldiers. When king Sennacherib woke up to find so many of his men dead, he withdrew and went back home to Ninevah, Assyria's capital.
Then one day, the Assyrian king was murdered by his own sons while he was worshiping in the temple of his god. You have to love the situational irony there...the king who defied Yahweh’s ability to save, finds that it’s his own god who is powerless to save him!!
We all enjoy stories like this one…the good king wins and the bad king loses, God miraculously saves His people and punishes their enemies, faith is rewarded and evil is avenged, the underdog is victorious and the tyrant is overthrown. But of course, it’s so much more than just an exciting and satisfying story. It has some valuable things to teach us about the God we serve, the Enemy we battle, and the people of faith we should be.
This story is a wonderful reminder that the Lord is the one and only true God. Yahweh alone has the power to save, heal, rescue and deliver. He is the One Sovereign Ruler over all the kingdoms of the earth. He is not a God created by human hands. He is the Almighty, Omnipotent, Uncreated, Transcendent One. And perhaps you’re thinking, “Well of course the Creator and Sustainer of all living things has power that idols of stone and wood don’t have! That’s a no-brainer.” But how often do we look to created things to satisfy our cravings and desires, rather than wholeheartedly seeking the Creator who is the only one with the power to bring meaning and significance into our lives, and give us the peace, hope, joy and rest our souls long for? It’s not enough to know that He is God alone. We have to make Him the King of our hearts, Lord of our lives, and the sole object of our affections.
I think this story also serves as a jolting reminder of the schemes of the Enemy of our souls. Satan’s main objective is to get us to doubt God’s character. The lies he whispers to us sound a lot like the words of king Sennacherib: “What makes you think God is really going to help YOU? Do you really think you can count on Him now? Just look at the destruction, disaster, and brokenness in the world around you! Who do you think you are to think that you’re going to be saved from the sin and decay that abounds everywhere else? God doesn’t really care about you! You’d be better off if you just do your own thing. Just think of all the people who have let you down. What makes you think God is going to be any different?”
We have an enemy who loves to intimidate us, and make us feel like our circumstances are bigger and badder than God’s ability to rescue and redeem. He tells us that we might as well just give in to temptation, because God’s way isn’t really going to be any better. He tells us that we are destined to fail, we’re too small to be successful, we’re too insignificant to be loved, we’re too inconsequential to be delivered. And most toxic of all, he tells us that God isn’t really who He says He is.
So how do we stand firm against the devil and his schemes? How do we trust in God’s goodness and power when the Sennacherib’s in our lives try to intimidate us and make us feel like God isn’t on our side?
I think there’s a lot we can learn from Hezekiah’s example of righteousness and faith. Before our story even begins, we see that Hezekiah got rid of the idols of the land, sought to live in obedience to God, and prioritized His holy Presence. If we are intentionally seeking to know, love and worship God when things are going well, then when attacks from the enemy come, we will already be in the habit of looking to Him. The more we can ground ourselves in knowing the truth of who God is, the more we practice following and obeying Him, and the more we make Him the only object of our worship, the better we can position ourselves to overcome the lies of Satan when he tries to bring us down. When we know who our God is, we can remain confident in Him even when our circumstances give us every reason to be afraid. We can remind ourselves in the dark what we knew to be true in the light.
Another thing we can learn from Hezekiah’s example is simply to run to God. When Hezekiah found fear crouching at his door, He turned to the One He knew was bigger. When we experience trials and opposition, what is our immediate response? Do we try to figure things out on our own? Do we go to our friends, or to our comfort items? Do we let ourselves become downtrodden and discouraged? Or do we humble ourselves before God and ask for His merciful deliverance, like Hezekiah did? The book of James tells us that we have not because we ask not. Do we ask God for help overcoming Satan’s schemes? Do we ask Him to keep us from temptation and protect us from the evil one? Do we turn our eyes to Jesus when the storms come? Do we cast our cares on Him when we are weary and heavy laden? We need to. I think we often make our own problems worse, and become our own worst enemy simply because we fail to get on our knees in prayer.
But I think the thing that makes Hezekiah’s prayer so powerful, is that he didn’t just ask God for deliverance from his enemies. He asked God to show Himself to be the One true God, so that all the earth would know that He alone is the Lord. It’s easy enough for us to plead with God to get us out of a sticky situation when we find ourselves in trouble. But the better prayer is to ask for Him to use the trial we’re in for His glory. Hezekiah wasn’t just trying to save his own neck, he wanted the name of Yahweh to be lifted high, and for all the world to know who He really is. When we pray for God to make Himself known, we can be sure that He will answer! When Satan tries to get us to doubt who God is, we can ask Him to prove Himself to us, and He will never fail us.
May we all stand firm and rest assured in the truth and knowledge of the One True God, remembering that He is who He says He is, and He can do what He says He can do. May we run to Yahweh, our refuge and deliverer in times of trouble, and may we build our lives on Him even before difficulties arise. And may we seek to not only be rescued from struggles, but to lift up the name of Jesus even in the midst of them. May our lives testify to all the kingdoms of the earth that He alone is God and He alone is worthy.
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