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The Word of God is so cool. If I were to mix some older slang with newer slang, I would say God’s Word is “straight up SIGMA!” But seriously, it’s really cool how God brought His Word together into one Holy Bible, and how “symbiotic” the Old and New Testaments are. His Word is awesome even though sometimes I read over details that I don’t (yet) understand why they were included. For example, one of the very first bible study lessons I did with my very first youth group here at FBC was pondering why Jesus allowed the demons (known as Legion) to enter a herd of swine, and then the herd ran off a cliff…?!?! The purpose of today’s writing isn’t to share my thoughts on that specifically, but I can remember being confused when I first read it thinking “….hmm….Lord, what was that all about?” There are also many times that I have read something before, several times in fact, and didn’t notice something big, but then all of the sudden I latch onto it. A recent example of this was reading through II Kings.
I’ve been following Pastor Anthony’s “One Year Bible Journey” again this year, and this will be my third trip through the entire Bible. While reading through 1st and 2nd Kings I’m starting to recognize and remember some of the kings more specifically. One, especially, jumped out at me this time. King Hezekiah. We meet Hezekiah in II Kings 18 (Additional details of his reign start in II Chronicles 29-if you’re curious). Throughout the books of “Kings” each King that is introduced is followed by either “he did what was RIGHT in the sight of the Lord” or “he did EVIL in the sight of the Lord.” Hezekiah was one that did RIGHT.
He restored a posture of honor towards God in the temple, and throughout the kingdom of Judah. He made sure all idols and pagan places of worship were torn down and destroyed. He understood the importance of only recognizing the True God and he had faith that God would keep his side of the covenant if he and the kingdom of Judah kept theirs; “He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him.” Now, as with any of us humans, he had flaws, and God’s Word points out a couple of times where he messed up.
One of those times is when the Assyrian King (Sennacherib) and his army were decimating the surrounding areas. The previous chapter in II Kings 17 tells of the King of Israel, Hoshea (remember, Israel became split into two kingdoms after King Solomon- if you didn’t know that, now you know, and knowing is half the battle. G.I. JOE!! I apologize, had a squirrel moment there). Hoshea was one of those kings that did evil in the sight of the Lord, as was the rest of Israel. God had enough of it and the Assyrian King conquered Israel (not including Judah) and took them into captivity.
Obviously, Hezekiah would know about this, so when the Assyrians started showing up in Judah, he panicked. He gathered up a bunch of silver and gold from the temple and used it to pay off Sennacherib. He robbed God’s House! The stuff wasn’t necessarily the problem nor where he took it from. Where he messed up was not seeking God’s Word first and instead acted in fear. Well, as you might imagine, the pay off didn’t work in the long run. The Assyrian King probably took this as a sign of weakness and showed up at King Hezekiah’s doorstep to fight anyway. However, the second time around, Hezekiah made up for his last mistake. He tells his servants to go see what the Lord God of Israel has to say about the situation through the prophet Isaiah.
Because of this, God assures Hezekiah not to be afraid of this dude. He’s going to take care of it. The Assyrian king was very puffed up and mocked God during this process, so God wasn’t having that. Longer story shorter, eventually an angel of the Lord goes out against the Assyrian army and wipes out 185,000 in ONE NIGHT! The defeated king and his decimated army return back home, and then one night the Assyrian king is killed by his own sons.
This is a very brief overview of King Hezekiah. Therefore, my encouragement for you this week is to go read all about him in II Kings and II Chronicles. There are valuable lessons to learn from him regarding trusting in God’s promises. While you do, remember that because of Jesus, we have a better covenant established on better promises than even the great King Hezekiah had during his reign. I expect a full report on King Hezekiah from everyone on Sunday morning. (J/K…but not really…seriously go read about him…)
Love you all,
Pastor Joel
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