Hezekiah’s Faith in Action

Transcript

GRS 2-113
6/1/2008
Hezekiah’s Faith in Action
2 Kings 18-19
Gil Rugh

All right, Second Kings Chapter 18 in your Bibles. Second Kings Chapter 18, history of Israel has moved to a shattering climax for the northern kingdom. We had Saul, David, and Solomon who ruled United Kingdom. Then under Solomon’s son Rehoboam in 931 BC the kingdom split. Northern ten tribes, southern 2 tribes; Judah and Benjamin comprising the southern kingdom, the northern kingdom comprised of the other ten tribes. 722 BC, the event recorded in Second Kings 17; the Assyrians carried the northern ten tribes into captivity. Assyrian practice was when they conquered a region they deported large numbers of people from that region including all the leading people who might be key in providing any kind of leadership for later rebellion out of that land and resettle them in another part of their empire, brought people that they had conquered in other regions and resettle them in this area.

The northern ten tribes never returned as a unit again that doesn’t mean there aren’t people from those ten tribes. That will be part of the restoration in the times of Ezra and Nehemiah, but as an entity the northern ten tribes do not return. The southern kingdom will go on for another 136 years or so to 586 BC. They have opportunity to learn from the discipline and judgment God has brought on the northern ten tribes, but it does not bear fruit and Israel in the southern portion known as Judah will stumble along if you will.

They have some high points, the king we are going to look at now Hezekiah; he is one of their best kings, most godly kings but then he will be followed with his son who is one of the worst of Israel’s kings Manasseh. Now referring to Israel; the southern kingdom since the northern kingdom doesn’t exist any longer. Chapters 18, 19 and 20 of Second Kings are about the reign of Hezekiah. He is used of the Lord and he turns Judah back to the Lord and for the first part of his reign he overlaps, so we go back as we have seen in this overlap, Chapter 17 records the captivity of the northern ten tribes.

Now when you pick up with Hezekiah and his reign in the southern kingdom over Judah, we back up a little bit before the northern ten tribes were taken into captivity because Hezekiah’s reign in the southern kingdom begins before the northern kingdom went into captivity. And we will see as he begins a spiritual restoration in the southern kingdom he invites the northern ten tribes to join in that spiritual restoration and a few people from those tribes do but by and large he is marked in the northern ten tribes. As the northern ten tribes refuse to listen to the prophets when God sent them so they refused to listen to Manasseh as well.

Now the events of these chapters, Chapters 18, 19 and 20 of Second Kings. Material that is covered here is also covered in Second Chronicles Chapters 29 to 32 and there you have some details. More details filled in since Chronicles focused more on the southern kings. Interestingly Isaiah the Prophet who was also ministering during this time, Chapters 36 to 39 of the Prophet Isaiah’s writing also covered the same material. We will be going to Isaiah’s chapters because most of what is covered in Isaiah Chapters 36 to 39 is recorded here and we will be looking at Kings and then supplementing with Second Chronicles but it is a great time in Israel’s history.

Isaiah has been prophesying already in the days of Hezekiah’s father Ahaz. So Isaiah has a ministry from 740 BC to 680 BC. So you can look on your list of the kings there and you get an idea so Isaiah is prophesying in these days, Micah prophesied from 740 to 690, so contemporary with Isaiah. Hosaiah the Prophet from 755 to 715 has been a prophet in the northern kingdom. Isaiah and Micah, prophets in the southern kingdom during this time. Hosaiah, prophet to the northern kingdom. These writing prophets, we can read of their ministry. Hosaiah being from 755 to 715, so just beyond the captivity of the northern ten tribes.

Chapter 18 opens up by connecting and showing where we are in the history. It came about in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, King of Israel, the king of the northern ten tribes. Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, King of Judah became king. Hezekiah’s father was the godless Ahaz. You can read about him in Second Kings Chapter 16. He is one of the southern kingdom’s worst kings, a godless man. He made alliances with Assyria that will come to the fore here and impact Hezekiah. He promoted corrupt worship in Israel. He put a stop to the worship at the temple in fact by the end of his reign he had closed down the temple as a place for worship, you remember.

So Ahaz was a godless man but his son Hezekiah who will reign for 29 years over Judah was a very godly king, he also had a time when he reigned as co-regent with his father but he reigns on his own for 29 years from 715 to 686, if you have your list of Judah’s kings, you can see. So we are told in verse 2, he was 25 years old when he became king; he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. He did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.

He removed the high places, broke down the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah, broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made because it had become a cause of idol worship. Leave a marker in Second Kings and jump over to Second Chronicles 29, because Second Chronicles Chapters 29, 30 and 31 go into some extensive detail on the reformation brought about under the reign of Hezekiah, give you a sense of godly character and his impact on the nation. We are just going to summarize some of the events found in this section, in Second Chronicles; Chapter 28 verse 24 tells you in the days of Ahaz, Hezekiah’s father, verse 24 of Second Chronicles 28, moreover when Ahaz gathered together the utensils of the house of God he cut the utensils of the house of God in pieces and he closed the doors of the house of the Lord.

So if you remember in our study of Ahaz’s life progressive deterioration as he moved the worship of God out of the temple, replaced it with pagan worship that it came to the point; he just shut the temple down altogether. Now we mentioned that because when you come into Hezekiah and his reforms down in Chapter 29 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. So you see the contrast with the reign of his father, immediately when Hezekiah assumes full role as king over Judah one of the first things he does is pick up a reformation to restore the worship of the true God.

So it is interesting, the Bible doesn’t fill in the details, with a godless father with whom he would share the reign over Judah for a time and yet as soon as Hezekiah has opportunity as sole ruler in Judah, he begins to attempt to undo what his father has done and restore the true worship of God in the southern kingdom. So let me just list several things, half a dozen things he did that are in these verses. He opened the temple that becomes foundational; he restored the Levites to their priestly ministry because the Levites have been set aside they are associated with the worship that God has established in the worship of the temple.

Ahaz didn’t want any of that, he appointed his own priests to minister at all areas except the temple which is no longer a place of worship. So he said in verse 5 Hezekiah, then he said to them; listen to me O Levites consecrate yourselves now, consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, carry the uncleanness out from the holy place for our father have been unfaithful, have done evil in the sight of the Lord our God, have forsaken him, turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord, have turned their backs, they have shut the doors of the porch, put out the lamps, have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.

Therefore the wrath of the Lord was against Judah and Jerusalem, he has made them an object of terror and on it goes. As Hezekiah delivers this strong message of the absolute necessity of turning back to God and recognizing the hand of God that has been against them and brought discipline upon them. Down in verse 15, he purifies the temple so that it can be worshipped, has to go through the ceremony of cleansing as it has been defiled. So verse 15; they assembled their brothers, consecrated themselves, went in to cleanse the house of the Lord according to the commandment of the king by the words of the Lord. The priests went in to the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it.

Every unclean thing which they found in the temple of the Lord they brought out to the court of the house of the Lord, then the Levites took it, carried it out to the Kidron Valley and so on. So you see the restoration of the temple and the Levites consecrated to reinstitute the worship of the Lord. He reinstitutes the Passover Feast when you get down into Chapter 30 and you see what goes on here. Chapter 30; now Hezekiah, verse 1, sent to all Israel and Judah and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover of the Lord, to the Lord God of Israel.

For the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month. There had to be a delay because the priests were not consecrated so they had to go through a cleansing process, a ceremony to render them fit again, to serve in the presence of the Lord but you see here Hezekiah has such a burden for the spiritual restoration of God’s people, he even reaches out to the northern ten tribes to invite them to come to the Passover. Remember, the northern ten tribes are being corrupted by their calf worship. They have their own centers of pagan worship; Bethel and Dan but Hezekiah invites all Israel along with Judah so the northern ten tribes as well as Judah are invited to come and share in this Passover Feast.

Down in verse 5 they establish a decree to circulate a proclamation throughout all Israel from Beer Sheba even to Dan so he will encompass all the 12 tribes here going from Beer Sheba in the south all the way to the north to Dan. They are all invited that they should come and celebrate the Passover to the Lord, God of Israel at Jerusalem. They had not celebrated in great numbers as the Lord had indicated that they should, so the couriers -- he sends his messengers out throughout all Israel and Judah and they say; O sons of Israel, we are in the middle of verse 6, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel; who is Jacob Israel, that he may return to those of you who escaped and are left from the hands of the kings of Assyria.

Do be not like your fathers and your brother who were unfaithful to the Lord, God of their fathers, so he made them a horror as you see, now do not stiff in your neck like your fathers but yield to the Lord and enter his sanctuary which is consecrated forever. Serve the Lord your God that his burning anger may turn away from you, for if you return to the Lord your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land for the Lord you God is gracious and compassionate, will not turn his face away from you if you return to him.

What a stirring message from the King of Judah, to call the nation as God’s nation, all 12 tribes to return to the Lord and you see verse 10; the couriers passed from city to city, through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh; they are the northern kingdom tribes as far as Zebulon. But they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. You know the spiritual decadence particularly in the northern kingdom is so complete yet not absolute. Nevertheless some of the men of Aser, Manasses, Zebulon humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

You get the sense here that they are small numbers that come out of the northern ten tribes in response to this call of return to the Lord; general attitude is one of scorn and marking of Hezekiah’s desire. The hand of God was on Judah to give them one heart to do what the King and the princes commanded by the word of the Lord. You see the hand of the Lord is particularly upon Judah here, so the northern ten tribes, you see Hezekiah’s godly character, restoring the worship of the temple with Levitical priesthood reinstituting the Passover as a feast for all Israel.

A feast for all Israel was to come to celebrate and he restores the offerings for the support of the priests and Levites also as you go on down through the rest of Chapter 30 and into Chapter 31. Come back to Second Kings 18. Second Kings 18 doesn’t go into all those details that you have in Chronicles, just summarize the fact that he did right in the sight of the Lord, verse 3 and verse 4; he removed the high places, broke down the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah then that statement he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it and it was called Nehustan.

Here an item that had been used greatly in Israel’s early history, had become an object of idolatrous worship so it has to go and here is a significant item that ought to be preserved but Hezekiah’s zeal for the Lord makes clear that you can’t keep it. Now this goes back hundred of years, 1445 you had the Exodus, this occurs in that time following the Exodus. Come back to Numbers Chapter 21. Numbers Chapter 21; we are back 700 years, in verse 6 of Numbers 21, the context in verse 4; the people became impatient because of the journey numbers 21:5; the people spoke against God and Moses, why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. They had no food, no water, we loathe this beloved this miserable food.

The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, they bit the people so that many people of Israel died, so that people came to Moses and said; we have sinned because we have spoken against the Lord and you. Intercede with the Lord that he may remove this serpents from us, Lord interceded for the people then the Lord said to Moses; make a fiery serpent, set it on a standard, it shall come about that everyone who is bitten when he looks at it he will live. Moses made a bronze serpent, set it on the standard; it came about that if a serpent bit any man when he looked at the bronze serpent he lived.

And they had preserved that serpent, bonze serpent, was significant in Israel’s history for these 700 years. Problem is people began to worship the bronze serpent. Hezekiah breaks it in pieces and destroys it. He is getting rid of idolatry; whatever form it takes. The fact that God had used this bronze serpent so that those who trusted him and his word could experience healing by obeying him didn’t mean it could be worshipped. Only God can be worshipped so that item that had become an item of idolatry for worship is done away with. That is mentioned here, come back to Chapter 18; it shows Hezekiah’s zeal not only to those things that are purely pagan but those things that have taken on the pagan context.

That serpent is not a necessary part of Israel’s life, and it should not be part of Israel’s worship. It could serve as a reminder of God’s graciousness to Israel in delivering them from judgment but when it turned into an item of worship it had to go. Verses 5 and 6 of Chapter 18 summarize Hezekiah’s faithfulness and God’s blessings upon him. He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah nor were there before him. For he clung to the Lord, he did not depart from following him, kept his commandments which the Lord had commanded Moses. Does not mean that Hezekiah will not stumble, particularly Hezekiah will have problem with pride at certain points in his life but that the Lord will chasten him severely for it but the overall pattern of his life is godly character.

From Chapter 18 verse 7 through Chapter 19 you are going to have an account of Hezekiah’s confrontation with Assyria. Remember Hezekiah’s father Ahaz has sought the help of the Assyrians against Israel; the northern ten tribes and against Syria and the result of that is Assyria is brought into the region, Judah has now an alliance with Assyria as an ally paying tribute to Assyria in return for Assyria’s support and protection. Well what happens is Hezekiah rebels against this and that precipitates a confrontation. Verse 7; the Lord was with him Hezekiah, wherever he went and he rebelled against the King of Assyria and did not serve him.

Verse 9; now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah which was the seventh year of Hoshea, the son of Elah, King of Israel, Shalmaneser King of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it. At the end of three years he captured it. The ninth year of Hoshea, King of Israel, Samaria was captured, the King of Assyria carried Israel away into Assyria, realms of the Assyrian empire that they are resettled in. So you have the captivity of the northern ten tribes recorded here that was recorded in some detail in Chapter 17 but now it is put in the context of Hezekiah’s reign since we are following Hezekiah at this point.

Little bit of history here for Assyria, these mighty world empires; Israel was never a match for them, I’m talking about Israel as a nation, all the tribes. Even in their time of great splendor and glory they weren’t a world empire; under the time of David and Solomon, on the level of the Assyrians as a military power, not minimizing the splendor of the reign of David and then particularly of Solomon but it took place in the context of a relative vacuum in worldly empires.

And so when Assyria comes on the scene there are a dominant power and a military might far outstripping Israel, tremendously cool people in practice of impaling people on stakes and they do this by hundreds and thousands to set fear in anybody who would even think of resisting or rebelling against them. So an empire carried on by total brutality, so they did strike fear, when they came on the scene you realize, you either submit or your end will be brutal. At this period of time when Hezekiah rebels in 705 Sargon II, King of Assyria died in battle, he is succeeded by his son Sennacherib. Now this transition along with the fact that Assyria was having trouble in the eastern part of its empire caused it to pay less attention to the western part of its empire where Israel is and so these kind of settings probably provide the occasion for Hezekiah to decide; there is no sense in me paying this huge tribute to Assyria any longer.

So he stops paying tribute, he rebels, you have the review of the fall of the northern kingdom, what happened, some other kings fit in here but won’t mention them in Assyria. Come down to verse 13; things have moved along, Sennacherib I mentioned 701, by this time he had solidified his reign, he had put down the problems that Assyria was having in the eastern part of their empire, so he is ready to move against other trouble spots and so Sennacherib comes into the area and interesting this is one of those areas where as I have mentioned before, you can read; that form the Assyrian annals that record activities of certain of these kings like Sennacherib and he claims to have captured 200,000 people under Hezekiah’s reign, of Hezekiah’s people and 46 of his strong cities.

King of Assyria would never say he captured weak cities, he only captured strong cities, so he captured 46 strong cities that Hezekiah was king over and in addition he claims; he shut Hezekiah up in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage, so gives you some of the picture here, it supports what the scriptures says here. He never does say; he conquers Hezekiah because there is going to be a dramatic turn of events here for Assyria. Verse 13; in the 14th year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib King of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them, so he captured those cities that had been fortified by Hezekiah but they are no match for Assyria then Hezekiah King of Judah sent to the King of Assyria at Lachish saying; I have done wrong, withdraw from me, whatever you impose on me I will bear.

So the King of Assyria required of Hezekiah, King of Judah, 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. Hezekiah realizes that; I have no hope of holding out against the forces of Assyria, so he sues for peace, says; I was wrong to rebel, I was wrong to stop paying tribute, tell me what you want me to pay, I will do it. So you have here in verse 14; what the King of Assyria says he has to pay, 11 tons of silver and 1 ton of gold or what that comes to, and so Hezekiah does it. Verse 15; he gave them all the silver which was found in the house of the Lord, in the treasures of the King’s house, he cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, from the door posts. Gave it to King Assyria wherever he could find them, this is a tremendous amount of gold and silver, so we have to get those wherever I can, gathers it all together, gives it to the King of Assyria.

Sennacherib, once he gets all of that, given over to him, decides that is not enough, you get boxed in, now I got all your money, all your gold and silver, you know what, you rebelled against me, I’m not taking my armies home and then considering ask them to bring them back if you change your mind again. So I’m changing the rules, you have to yield to me and be deported. Verse17; then the King of Assyria sent Tartan, Rab-saris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. They went up, came to Jerusalem, they stand there and they call to the king; Eliakim who was the son of Hilkijah, who was over the household and Rabshakeh said to them; you have these three representatives of Hezekiah here.

Rabshakeh said to them; now say to Hezekiah; thus says the great king, the King of Assyria, what is this confidence that you have, you say and they are only empty words, I have counsel and strength for war, now on whom do you rely that you have rebelled against me. You see the gold and silver doesn’t calm the wrath of the King of Assyria for their rebellion. Now behold, you rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, or do you hope Egypt is going to come and support your defense. Egypt is like a broken staff; staff is broken off, you put your hand on it to support you and it just pierces right through your hand. That is what Egypt is, you will get no help against us from Egypt. Verse 22; if you say to me we trust in the Lord our God; is it not he whose high places, altars Hezekiah has taken away and said to Judah and Jerusalem; you shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem.

I will tell you why you are in such bad shape, my master, the King of Assyria will make a bargain with you. I will give you 2000 horses if you get 2000 soldiers who could ride them into battle. I will help prepare you for battle if you think, I will give you the horses to come and attack us, to fight with us. Just showing how overwhelmingly confident the Assyrians are, I mean I will help you out, you are such a nothing. I will give you even horses to give you a start, you are nothing, so you better not even give a second though to not following through what I tell you to do. How then can you repulse one official, verse 24, of the least of my master’s servants, rely on Egypt for chariots, for horsemen.

Besides God set me here; there is an element of truth in that as we will see. But Assyria doesn’t mean that they really believe the Lord God of Israel has done this but of course the Assyrian as all the pagans did believe that they operated under the direction of God and the Lord did send them up, the Lord God of Israel sent them up but there is no recognition or submission to him. So this is the conversation going back and forth and it runs through the rest of the Chapter, this challenge. What happens, the representative, I can summarize this, the representatives of Hezekiah say; don’t speak to us in the language of the people because they are standing out here and there is people on the walls of the city and they hear the conversation and it is the intention of Rabshakeh representing the King of Assyria that everybody hears what he has to say because it is an intimidation time.

And so they say; just speak to us in Aramaic, we understand that; don’t speak in the language of the people, who understand Hebrew. So Rabshakeh gets blunt here, verse 27, he said to them; has my master send me only to your master and to you to speak these words, not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you, everybody in the city has a right to hear this. You are going to be reduced to such starvation, you will eat your own dung and drink your own urine, that is the only food and drink you will have. So you see the sense here to put such fear in these people that there will be no support for Hezekiah if he wants to resist, now here, where they crossed the line.

Hear the word of the great king, the King of Assyria Rabshakeh goes on; thus says the king do not let Hezekiah deceive you, he won’t be able to deliver you, nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord saying; the Lord will surely deliver us, this city will not be given into the hand of the King of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah for thus says the king of Assyria, make your peace with me, come out to me, eat each of his own wine, each of his own fig tree, drink each of the waters of his own cistern until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of green and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey that you may live and not die.

In other words look, yield to me and I will make preparations for you and you can stay here and eat your own food and benefit from what you have planted, then I will have my people come, my soldiers come and they will take you to a land that is prosperous just like your own. So all it is changing one place to another and you will have a great life. Do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you saying; the Lord will deliver us, verse 33, as any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the King of Assyria. Look at the nations, everywhere that Assyria has gone; they have conquered, they are the world power at this time. Where are the Gods and he mentions all these places, verse 35; who among all the gods of the land have delivered their land from my hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand.

Now there is the challenge to God. None of the other gods could deliver their people your God can’t deliver you either. Who is the God of Israel, he can’t stand against me, people didn’t say anything because Hezekiah had sent out the word nobody says anything. So representatives of Hezekiah come to him, they tear their clothes, sign of mourning. We come to Chapter 19, you see Hezekiah’s response, he humbled himself and he enters the temple where he seeks the help of the Lord, he put on sackcloth, enter the house of the Lord in verse 1 and he also sends his representative Eliakim to Isaiah the Prophet and asked Isaiah to pray for them, seek help from the Lord. Isaiah of course is recognized for his role as a leading prophet. He has played the role during the time of Hezekiah’s father Ahaz, so Isaiah is well known in Judah in these days.

So he sends a representative to Isaiah and he says to him verse 3; this is a day of distress, rebuke, and rejection for children have come to birth and there is no strength to deliver, what a terrible state. It is like a woman in child birth, those days of course with women who medically were unable to deliver the child and yet it is time for the child to be born. Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh 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 offer a prayer for the remnant that is left. A humble prayer, we don’t have any way to turn, we don’t have the strength to do anything, I mean Assyria is right, we are nothing but you see Hezekiah has confidence; the Lord can do something and you see a faith here because what can he do, he is well aware Israel cannot marshal an army to stand against the Assyrians but God can do something and it is God who has been rebuked and reproached.

Isaiah said to them; thus says the Lord, do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, which the servants of the King of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold I will put a spirit in him that he will hear a rumor, return to his own land, I will make him fall by the sword in his own land. And a couple of things take place here. King of Assyria is going to withdraw for a time, then he is going to return, then he is going to leave again and ultimately he is going to be murdered by two of his own sons while he is worshipping in the house of his pagan god in his own land. So you have that summarized here in verse 7. So verse 8; Rabshakeh returned and found the King of Israel fighting against Libnah, so what happens is when Rabshakeh returns from his interaction with the representatives of Hezekiah; he finds the King of Assyria has moved a larger portion of the army to deal with the rebellion that has broken out.

So it is necessary to pull the rest of the army away from Jerusalem, so Rabshakeh sends a message to Hezekiah, verse 10; thus you shall say to Hezekiah, King of Judah, do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you saying Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the King of Assyria. You see the paganism with multiplicity of gods and they recognize Judah has their own god but he is just like all the other gods that we defeat, they don’t recognize him as the sovereign God of all. Behold you have heard what the King of Assyria have done to all the lands destroying them completely so you will not be spared, did the gods of those nations which my father has destroyed deliver them, no, where is the King of Hamath, Arpad and on it goes.

So you have got a little reprieve, you are not rescued, we will be back. Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the Lord and you see the pattern of Hezekiah’s life here which is a good pattern and he do initially; he went into the temple, humbled himself, puts on a sackcloth, humbles himself in the presence of the Lord to seek the Lord’s help, sends a message to the Lord’s Prophet Isaiah, to ask Isaiah to intercede with the Lord and seek deliverance from the Lord. Now here again he has got this letter from Rabshakeh, verse 14; Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, read it, he went up to the house of the Lord, spread it before the Lord as though this is to you and it is because verse 10; the letter says don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you implying that he could deliver you.

Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said O Lord God of Israel, you are enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth. What a way to start your prayer, you are the sovereign God, the only God and I’m not influenced by all this talk about the power of the Assyrian god or gods and the weakness of the gods of other people, they are nothing because you are the God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, you made heaven and earth, you are the sovereign creator, incline your ear O Lord and hear, open your eyes O Lord and see and listen to the words of Sennacherib which he has sent to reproach the living God.

Then he says; what he says is true, true your Lord the King of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands, have cast their gods into the fire for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wooden stone so they have destroyed them. Now O Lord our God, I pray deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone O Lord are God. O you do this for your name, you do this because you are God, great faith here, as I read things like this and I read, I think; what did Hezekiah have to go on here. We are nothing, Assyria is a power that has crushed all the nations that have resisted and here now you have little Judah.

O God deliver us, how in the world is God going to do this, it doesn’t matter he doesn’t have to tell God how to do it, he just asks God to intervene and he has no doubt God can do it. So God sends the answer through Isaiah and God says; thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, he is the God of the world, he made heaven and earth, he has got over all the kingdoms in that sense but Israel is his special people, that is where he has chosen to manifest his name. These are the people called for himself, so the God of Israel says; because you have prayed to me about Sennacherib, King of Assyria I have heard you, this is the word that Lord has spoken against him. She has despised you and mocked you, the virgin daughter of Zion, she has shaken her head behind you, the daughter of Jerusalem, whom have you reproached and blasphemed, against whom have you raised your voice and haughtily lifted up your eyes, against the holy one of Israel.

Through your messengers you have reproached the Lord, you have set with my many chariots I came to the heights of the mountains to the remotest parts of Lebanon and I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses and I entered its farthest lodging place, its thickest forest, I dug wells, drank foreign wells, with the sole of my feet I dried up all the rivers of Egypt. Now God says what really has happened; have you not heard long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it, now I have brought it to pass that you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps therefore there inhabitants were short of strength, they were dismayed and put to shame, they were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb and as grass of the house tops is scorched before it is grown up but I know you are sitting down, you are going out, you are coming in and you are raging against me.

Because of you raging against me, because your arrogance has come up to my ears therefore I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, I will turn you back by the way which you came. Just as the Assyrians would do and you have seen from the relief carvings and so on, to lead captives they just put a hook through their nose and they connect them together like that. Nobody is going to get out of line, they are just treated like animals as they are led away into captivity. Here Assyrians are; we will just take you to a nice pleasant land, they are hauled away as cattle, hooks in their nose and bridles in their lips. You note verse 25; have you not heard long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it, now I have brought it to pass.

God had planned this long ago, he did it long ago, it is just being worked out now in the unfolding events of history. Long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it, now I have brought it to pass. And the plan was you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps and that is why their inhabitants couldn’t stand before you, I planned it. You are an instrument in my hands, take sometime to read something on the history of the Assyrians, find out what these people are like. They are instruments that God was using for the accomplishment of his purposes and he planned it. The nation of Reich and sometimes we as believers will say; what is going to happen, what is happening in the world, what is going to happen.

Haven’t you heard, long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it, I mean nothing is out of control, I mean you are in your hands, who is going to be the next President or Presidentas or whatever it is, I’m comfortable aren’t you. I have heard long ago he did it, from ancient times he planned it, now he bring it to pass, everything is under control, even in the most fierce of times when the Assyrians are devastating nation after nation, conquering the world. They are only doing it because God said; in my plan this is what I have determined to happen. This will be a sign for you so he gives a sign to Israel, verse 29; you eat this year what grows of itself, the second year what springs from the same, the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, eat their fruit. The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward, bear fruit upward. Out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, out of Mount Zion survivors, the zeal of the Lord will perform this, you aren’t going anywhere.

It had been a difficult time, Jerusalem has been under siege and so on that is alright, you will be eating from the land what is available, then you will be able to plant, then you will be harvesting, so your future is secure, future for the time. Assyria is not going to be your problem and when the southern kingdom does go into kingdom it will be into captivity, it will be after Assyria has fallen, after Assyria’s days of power are over as you are aware. Verse 34, I should read verse 32; therefore thus says the Lord concerning the King of Assyria, tell what is going to happen for Jerusalem and Judah, now he tell us what is going to Assyria. He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there, he will not come up before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it, by the way that he came by the same way he will return, he shall not come to this city declares the Lord.

He is done here, for I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake. God’s honor is at stake, I don’t know how people have the problem with the future of Israel, God’s honor is at stake today, he is the same God and he made the promises and the covenants with Israel that cannot be violated so it is his name that is at stake remember when he cut the covenant with Abraham, Abraham went to sleep and God passed through the divided animals. He is solely responsible for the provisions of all aspects of that covenant and all of its provisions, his honor is at stake. That won’t keep him from ultimately sending the southern kingdom into captivity either. But the last chapter has not been fulfilled yet. It is been written but it is not been implemented so Israel lives under judgment today but God’s honor requires that it is built, Israel be restored in all its blessing.

So what happens, how is God going to do this, well get Israel to assemble a mighty army and send them out and get a surprise victory. God could have done it that way but he doesn’t have to do it that way. So in verse 35; it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck a 185000 in the camp of the Assyrians and when men arose early in the morning, behold all of them were dead. I mean you get up, you look around, you shake your partner there, he is dead, 185,000 soldiers die in their sleep that night. So the remaining remnants of the army get up, everybody is dead. 185,000 lost in one night, think about that. We cannot -- our losses in war every life is significant, I mean you have lost a major army, what did it take for the Lord to do it, send the angel of Lord out through the camp, that’s it, no big deal. Don’t need to marshal an army, don’t need certain weapons, don’t need the 2000 horses to put men on. Angel of the Lord takes care of it at night while everybody is sleeping.

So Sennacherib King of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. It came about as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his God that Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword. They escaped into the land of Ararat and Esarhaddon his son became king in his place. By 701 when Sennacherib went back to Assyria, Nineveh is capital. 20 years later, 681 BC, two of his sons assassinated him while he was worshipping, they fled 300 miles north of Nineveh and a third son Esarhaddon became king, he will reign from 681 to 669 BC. You think well Isaiah had said in Chapter 19 verse 7; I have put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor, return to his own land, I will make him fall by the sword in his own land. He did leave, he comes back then he loses a large portion of his army, so he returns to Nineveh and won’t be back to Jerusalem, to Judah but the prophecy said; I will make him fall by the sword in his own land. Well 20 years later the prophecy of the Lord comes true.

He falls by the sword in his own land, you might say; O there is probably going to be a war then, no, his own sons murder him while he is in the house of his god Nisroch worshipping his god. You come down to what takes place within his own family, his reign is over, Israel has been spared. Chapter 20 contains two episodes from the life of Hezekiah from -- the time period is not designated, they will be before the events that delivered them from Assyria but we have to wait and talk about those in the next study. Just a couple of things to remind you of, we will start out at a good point here and a thing to note; we can be godly even if our parents weren’t, Ahaz was Hezekiah’s father. Every generation is accountable and responsible, we keep talking about this, but it keeps coming out.

Ahaz is one of Israel’s Judah’s worst kings, Hezekiah is one of Judah’s best kings. One of the most ungodly and his son is one of the most godly. Another observation, attacks against God’s people is attacks against God they become inseparable; we referred to this in our study this morning and it is a reminder. When the Assyrians are up here and attacking God’s people they are attacking God and people can’t sort that out. The Assyrians are more open in identifying their attack against Israel and their ability to conquer Israel as an ability to defeat Israel’s God. But we are God’s people, we belong to him and as we are serving him we are under his care, protection, whatever does happen, happens within the framework of his purposes and plans for us.

Need I remind you and myself that we are confronted with problems and difficulties, our solution should be the same; we bring it to the Lord. What did Hezekiah do, he humbled himself before the Lord and brought it to the Lord. Chapter 19 verse 1; when Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered him with sackcloth, and entered the house of the Lord that is where he would meet with the Lord, or God said he would meet with his people. Chapter 14; then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord and he prayed to Lord and said O Lord God of Israel, you are the sovereign God, I acknowledge that, so I’m placing myself in your hands, and acknowledging only you can bring deliverance.

Our situations are obviously different but you have not because you ask not. I mean we are encouraged to come with confidence before the throne of grace to receive what we need as Hebrews tells us. You know how much fussing and fretting and worrying and planning, I’m not against planning but first thing to do is; let us go to the Lord and lay it before him and allow him to guide and direct. Often the loss is overwhelming, I can’t see any way out of it, I don’t have to see a way out of it. I have a God who has everything under control. Hezekiah doesn’t have to come up with a plan to bring to the Lord, O Lord you see what they have said and done, now if you will just do this and enable us to do this and provide these kinds of armaments and give Egypt chance to get up here; I don’t have to come up with plans, as if the Lord didn’t know what to do, so if I bring something and tell him what to do, that only adds to my frustration because then I find out he doesn’t do what I told him to do in prayer, then I’m just further confused because I gave him such a good plan and he didn’t do it.

That is not humbling myself as Hezekiah humbled himself in sackcloth, he comes; I don’t have a plan Lord, you are my plan, you are enthroned beneath the cherubim, you are God, you are God alone, you created it all, that is my plan. So don’t put on you and then ask you to do what you will, good plan for all of us, casting all your care upon him for he cares for you, that is God’s plan for us. Reminder; God’s purposes are being accomplished in the world; we made reference to this in Chapter 19 verses 25 to 27. You got to have those highlighted or marked to write them down on a piece of paper, they are good to come back to. They will be good to come back to at election time, they are good to come back as you watch the news and see what’s going in the nation, as you watch the up and downs of the stock market as you, whatever.

Remind our self and I like to read it and say: have you not heard, long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it, now I have brought it to pass and it happens exactly according to my plan. None can stand against our God, verses 35 to 37 of Chapter 19. So here it’s the Assyrians but it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter that the mightiest army in the world now confronts Judah, and so just a reminder; my God, he is my God, he is God, he created everything, what is the problem. But you don’t know what my situation is, no I don’t, don’t you think the Lord does, you think it is something that he didn’t plan, I don’t know why he would do this, I don’t either but that is because he is God and we are not.

So I don’t have to know it all. There is a song; I don’t know what holds the future but I know who holds the future, I don’t know what the future holds but I know who holds the future, that idea, so we can rest and be confident. Any wonder we can have the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, stand guard at our hearts and minds. So good reminders for us.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for your grace. Lord, how gracious you were to raise up Hezekiah, a man in love with you, a man with a passion to serve you, zeal to honor you as God. Lord a man who manifested his godliness under great pressure, in the face of overwhelming opposition, potential disaster, yet Lord he manifests a humble reliance upon you. How good it is for us to have no options, to have no place to go so that we can ask where I could go but to the Lord. Lord, if we could only take hold of that earlier in the process, remind ourselves of the God that we serve, the awesome God that is our God, that sits enthroned, the glories of heaven, the one who alone is God over all the nations, and the one who works his purposes and plans in his creation. Lord, I pray this will be a week when our testimony for you shines bright and strong and the pressures and trials that are bound to come, may we find your peace standing guard at our hearts because we are trusting you with everything in our lives, we pray in Christ’s name, amen.