Hezekiah--A King of Faith

Matthew 1:6b-9

English Standard Version Chapter 1

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah

Story found in 2 Kings 18-20

also in 2 Chronicles chapters 29-32

Hezekiah was the 11th King of the southern kingdom of Judah

He had inherited a mess from his father, King Ahaz

You can read his story also in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah

And you will find that he was an extremely wicked King

We don’t have time to go into everything that he did…not the point anyway

But he had gotten his kingdom into a mess

Because of his wickedness, he found himself being threatened by the King of Israel, the northern kingdom, and the king of Syria

These two kings had made a treaty and were threatening Ahaz if he didn’t join them

Ahaz was scared. He was smart enough not to take them up on that offer

But beyond that, he didn’t know what to do

But God had sent the prophet Isaiah to encourage him to repent, turn to God and cry out to God for help.

But instead, Ahaz in a very stupid move turned to the King of Assyria to make a treaty with him and help him conquer Syria and Israel

Well, the king of Assyria was only too happy to comply for a hefty sum of money

And Ahaz, by the time he died found himself in the ugly situation of being taxed heavily by Assyria

They were like the Mafia. For a sum of money, the would “protect” you

And it’s into this situation that young King Hezekiah steps.

25 years old and with a mess on his hands

The kingdom being heavily taxed—the revenue of the kingdom just pouring into the hands of the Assyrians

And on top of that, The people caught up in some pretty terrible idolatry

But Hezekiah was a man of faith

Even though his father was terribly wicked, Hezekiah was a man of great faith in God

Given what we know about his father Ahaz, I don’t know how Hezekiah became such a man of faith

Maybe it was through his father-in-law…we don’t know anything really about his father-in-law

Maybe he saw the horrible things that his father had done and decided he wanted nothing to do with it

We just don’t know.

But for me as a father, this is an encouragement.

I sometimes get discouraged about the mistakes that I make in my role as a father

And I think, man I’m really blowing it right now

But you know, God is a God of mercy and redemption

And even though I might blow it on occasion, God has the ability to redeem those situations for His good and for His glory

And He has the ability to take my children and continue to draw them to Himself

this is apparently what happened with Hezekiah

God somehow got ahold of him and drew him to God

However it was, he was a man who followed God, even at a young age

In fact, the Bible says this about him:

2 Kings 18:5 “5 He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him.”

A pretty incredible statement to make since this would have included King David who, the Bible says, was a man after God’s own heart

It goes on to say

English Standard Version Chapter 18

6 For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses. 7 And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered.

So, today I would like to spend some time looking at the life of Hezekiah

This sermon is going to be a bit different, because not everything that Hezekiah did points us toward the Messiah

There is not a prophecy or blessing given to him as was given to Judah which gives us a picture of the Messiah

He is not necessarily a type of the Messiah as Boaz was, yet there are some things that we can glean from his life

Because I see in this king, a man of great faith and a man of great love for God

And I want to strive to have the same passion for God that Hezekiah did

But Hezekiah was also very…human. And he did some very human things that maybe in hindsight weren’t so smart.

He was prone to worry and to act out of desperation

And I get that. I can be the same way

But we are going to just skim the life of Hezekiah and pick out some high points

Restored the worship of God to the Temple. 2 Chron. 29

2 Chronicles 29:3 “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.”

This is a picture of a young king who knew what was important and what should be done

If we were to go back into chapter 28, we would see that King Ahaz had led the people into terrible idolatry

And Ahaz had found himself in such debt to the king of Assyria that he began to take money that belonged to the Temple, to care for and maintain the Temple, and to support the priests

And he used that to pay the king of Assyria

But, it says, this did not help him.

After that, it says, he turned to sacrificing to the gods of Syria, because, he reasoned, it was those gods who had conquered him. So maybe they were powerful enough to defeat the Assyrians as well

but, of course, that didn’t help

And finally, we read that Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, cut them to pieces

And he shut the doors of the house of God

And began to build shrines of idolatry on every street corner in Jerusalem

Oh boy, there is a sermon in here!

Isn’t this the way we can be as people?

We can get ourselves into a world of hurt because of our own sinfulness

And then we get mad because God isn’t getting us out of our jam

And so then we say, “Fine, God! If you aren’t going to help me, I’m through! I’m done with this Christians stuff!”

And we can try to get rid of the sacred things in our life, and turn 100% to idolatry

This was the situation that Hezekiah inherited, and he knew exactly what he needed to do

He needed to restore the worship of The One True God

And in chapters 29-31 of 2 Chronicles, we read in detail everything that Hezekiah did. He was very thorough

He opened the Temple doors and repaired them—chapter 29, 3

He gathered the priests and Levites and commissioned them to restore the worship of God, verse 4-11

Verses 12-19, the priests and Levites clean out the Temple, carry all the dirt and junk out and throw it into the Kidron brook

And for 8 days, they consecrate the Temple

In the rest of chapter 29, Hezekiah restores the sacrifices and appoints musicians and people to sing, so that when the sacrifices began, the song to the LORD could begin as well

In chapter 30, they finally get enough priests consecrated that they can celebrate the Passover

So, they send couriers out not just over the Kingdom of Judah, but over the Kingdom of Israel as well!

Saying, look, if you are still around here, that means you have escaped being taken captive by the King of Assyria (by this time, the King of Assyria had conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel and had taken a bunch of them captive)

And they said, look, you need to turn back to the worship of God if you have any hope of receiving His mercy

So these couriers went out. And in some places they were mocked and laughed at

But many other people listened to them and came to Jerusalem

and some had not consecrated themselves properly, but Hezekiah interceded to the LORD for them

And you see this huge celebration with countless animals being sacrificed

And the priests continue to be consecrated and restored back to leading the worship of God

So, it is amazing what all Hezekiah did to restore the worship of God. There was nothing half-hearted about it

And in this sense, Hezekiah does point us forward to the Messiah

Because one of the major themes of Scripture is the worship of God

God desires to be worshipped by His creation

Relationship with God and the worship of God go hand in hand

One of the first things that disappears from our lives when our relationship with God is broken and not where it should be, is our worship of Him

It was true of the Israelites, and it is true of us now

We can’t say that we are in good standing with God, yet we don’t actively worship Him

And the mission of Jesus was to restore relationship between God and His people

And with it restore the worship of God by His people

This is why Jesus went in and cleansed the Temple. It was part of this picture of restoring relationship and restoring worship

God’s heart is that all people everywhere are worshipers of Him

One of my favorite quotes is by John Piper who said this: Therefore, worship is the goal and the fuel of missions: Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Missions is our way of saying: the joy of knowing Christ is not a private, or tribal, or national or ethnic privilege. It is for all. And that’s why we go. Because we have tasted the joy of worshiping Jesus, and we want all the families of the earth included.

So, Hezekiah points us toward the Messiah by restoring what God desires, just like Jesus did, the worship of God by His people

Hezekiah decides to stop paying tribute to Assyria 2 Kings 18:7

This was an act of incredible faith

Because he knew good and well what Assyria had done to the kingdoms of Syria and Israel. He knew they were a powerful nation and completely capable of conquering Judah

Not only were they powerful, they were incredibly cruel. Their cruelty was their power

they ruled with fear and intimidation

The Assyrian kings kept records of their military exploits, and you can read their braggings of what they did to their enemies

It was aweful!

No doubt, Hezekiah was well aware of what the Assyrians had done to the people of Israel

But, yet, in an act of great faith and courage, he said to the Assyrians, “No more! I’m not paying you another penny”

We can draw some spiritual lessons from this.

When your heart is turned toward the LORD, and you decide to stop giving our enemy, Satan, a place at the table in your life

What can you expect? You can expect opposition, right?

Hezekiah had to have known without a shadow of a doubt that things were not going to be easy if he rebelled

Nevertheless, Hezekiah did rebel against Assyria

Well, by the 14th year of his reign, this had landed him in hot water as Sennacherib, King of Assyria had enough of him and marched into Judah

Began conquering the cities of Judah

And finally ended up outside the walls of Jerusalem

Here is where we start to see some cracks in Hezekiah’s armor, because he gets very scared

And he says to Sennacherib, “Man, I really messed up! I’m really sorry!”

But, of course, Sennacherib is not in the habit of accepting apologies, and he demands that Hezekiah pay him 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold!

Almost 20,000 pounds of silver

over $9 Million!!!

And almost 2000 pounds of gold!

$77 Million!!!!

Of course, Hezekiah is desperate! Where is he going to get that kind of money?

Well, there’s gold in the Temple!

And even though he had just restored the Temple not so long before this, it says that he cleaned out all the sliver that was in the Temple

And he even stripped the gold off the door posts of the house of the LORD and gave it to the Assyrians

But this was not enough for Sennacherib because he marched his armies to Jerusalem and began to besige it

2 Kings 18 we read And he sent his men to taunt Hezekiah and the people of Judah.

They call for Hezekiah to come out, but Hezekiah sends 3 of his officials out.

And Assyrian generals begin to shower them with insults and taunts. and they are absolutely merciless in their taunting

They say, “Well, boys, what are you going to do? What do you have to fight with? Words? You think that is a strategy for war?”

Who you gonna call to help you? Egypt? They can’t do anything. Pharaoh is weak!

Oh, you’re gonna trust in your God? Hey, isn’t this the God whose alters your king broke down and forced you to worship only here in Jerusalem?

Then they get really brazen, and they say, “Oh, btw, it was your God who told us to come and attack you”

And they are doing all this taunting in the Hebrew language

And Hezekiah’s 3 officials plead with them and say, “Please, can we speak in Aramaic? We don’t want the general population hearing what you are saying”

But the Assyrians say, “Nope. Our message is for all of you. Because all of you are doomed to die a terrible death!”

and they begin to call out to the people of the city:

Don’t listen to Hezekiah!

Don’t listen to your God!

Instead, listen to our king, Sennacherib! Come out and make peace with us and things will go well for you!

You might as well, because things have not gone well for anyone that we have gone up against, so what do you have to lose?

And in 2 Kings 19, Hezekiah hears all these things, and he is desperate. He knows that the Assyrians aren’t just talk. They will act

And he tears his clothes and puts on sackcloth and goes into the the Temple

And he sends his officials to call for the prophet Isaiah

And they say to Isaiah, has God heard these words that have been spoken against Him? Pray for us! Pray for our King

And Isaiah sends this message in 2 Kings 19:6-7: Say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. 7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’ 

And later he reassures Hezekiah, this king of Assyria will never enter the city. He won’t even get close enough to shoot an arrow in the city

in chapter 19 verse 34:

I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for the sake of my servant David

Not for your sake, Hezekiah. Not for the sake of the people in this city.

But for MY sake.

For MY purpose

For MY glory

For the sake of my servant David

A nod forward to the coming Messiah

The throne of David

God said, I will defend this city because it is my plan to do so

And God did exactly as the prophet Isaiah had said

That night, the angel of the LORD went out and struck down the Assyrian army and killed 185000 soldiers

The people got up and looked out the next morning and there was nothing but dead bodies out there

And the Assyrian King Sennacherib went back to his capitol city of Ninevah and as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch, his god, 2 of his own sons came in and killed him

And doubtless King Hezekiah learned valuable lesson about God, just as we all should

You make a mockery of God’s name at your own peril. These Assyrians took His name in vain. They mocked Him and paid the price

What we see as God’s victories are for His glory and His purpose. They are for His name’s sake

So many of our worship songs nowadays are about God winning our battles, and breaking our chains and rescuing us.

And that’s true. He does those things. But never forget. What He does is for HIS sake

Hezekiah’s illness and recovery

Another example of Hezekiah’s humaness

chapter 20, 2 Kings, verses 1-11

Hezekiah gets sick and is at the point of death.

Isaiah comes in and says, “Get your affairs in order. You aren’t going to get better. This is a terminal illness. You are going to die”

Well, understandably, Hezekiah doesn’t take this news very well

He turns his face to the wall, and cries out to God: “Remember all the the good that I have done for you! I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart!”

And he wept bitterly as he prayed

And Isaiah had just left the house, and God told him, “Turn around and go back and give this message to Hezekiah

I’ve heard your prayer, I’ve seen your tears. I’m going to answer your prayer and heal you. in 3 days you are going to be up and around and you will live another 15 years

And that’s what happened

Which leads me to wonder. Why did God answer his prayer?

Why does God choose to extend the lives of some folks and not others?

I honestly can’t answer that question. I haven’t met anyone who can answer it

God doesn’t explain Himself here in this passage

And that’s really hard for us, isn’t it?

The Chosen: Jesus chooses not to heal one of His disciples who is crippled. “It’s not my Father’s will at this time.”

These are hard questions. But this is where we cling on to a God who is good

No matter what happens in our lives, we choose to believe in a God who is good, whether or not He “proves” that to us

and that what He does with us is His perfect will for us.

Hezekiah and the Babylonians—2 Kings 20:12-19

Here is another peek into the kind of man Hezekiah was

The Assyrians have been a major threat to Hezekiah for most of his life

but there is another empire on the rise out the east. That is the Babylonian empire

And the prince of Babylon heard that Hezekiah had been sick, and being an opportunistic kind of person, sent his ambassadors to visit Hezekiah and bring him a present

And Hezekiah welcomed them with open arms.

What did he have to be afraid of?

The Babylonian empire at this time wasn’t very strong

And best of all, these guys weren’t Assyrians! How bad could it be?

And Hezekiah gave them the grand tour. Showed them

His treasure house

The silver, the gold

The spices, the precious oils, his armory

It says, there was nothing that he did not show them

And after they left, Isaiah showed up.

And he said to Hezekiah, “Those guys, ummm who were they?”

And Hezekiah said, “Oh, they came from a place that you’ve never heard of. Some....Babylon, or some such place

And Isaiah said, you’ve made a big mistake.

You’ve opened the door to a danger more terrible than you can imagine

Because there is coming a day very soon when Babylon will grow into a mighty empire

And they are going to march on the kingdom of Judah. And all of those things that you showed them will be carried away

In fact, some of your own sons will be taken away and be made eunuchs and be made to serve the king of Babylon

And this indeed did happen. Not to Hezekiah’s sons, but certainly to his descendents

And what is Hezekiah’s response to this? Does he repent? Does he say, “Man, I’ve really messed up here! LORD, please forgive me and have mercy on me!”

No, that’s not how he responds

Instead he responds in a way that I think is common for us as humans.

Hezekiah says, “Hey, I can see what you’re saying. It’s a word from the Lord. But, hey, at least there will be peace and safety in my days!”

bummer for the people coming after me. Too bad for them, but at least I’ll be OK

He is very shortsighted and self-focused in his response

I believe Hezekiah was a man of great faith, but just like you and me, he was prone to mess up.

And that’s how we can be, too, right?

We think about the hear and now. We can have a tendency to think about what is good for me right now

“I didn’t know it was wrong. I wasn’t trying to do anything bad. Why does God have to be so upset?”

Well, it’s because our choices do affect those around us. They do affect the generations coming after us. Our choices do have consequences.

We don’t live on an island. We don’t have the right to say, “It’s my life. I’ll do whatever I want.”

And it’s really short-sighted of us to say, “Well, at least I’LL be ok, right?”

Matthew 6:19–21 “19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

We often view these verses in terms of our attitude toward material possessions.

But I think we can also consider these verses in terms of our choices and our actions

Do they reflect a heart for the things that God values, or do they reflect a hear that is near-sighted and self-focused

Even if we are not intentionally doing evil, it is a sobering thing to view all of our choices through the lenses of

Relationships

Eternity

Asking the questions

What is this choice doing to those around me?

What does this choice say about my focus on eternal things

So, Hezekiah.

A man of great faith. Yet a flawed man. Yet a man whom God used in the line to bring the Messiah into the world

As we leave this morning, here are some questions to think about

How does your worship of God reflect your relationship with Him? Is worshiping Him your top priority in life?

Is there an area in your life in which God is convicting you to stop giving the enemy a foothold? Are you ready to renounce that area and accept the challenge that he will bring?

Are your choices reflecting your heart for God