King Hezekiah: Political Choices

King Hezekiah Recap: Religious Reform

The last two weeks we examined the state of the kingdom of Judah and its move to religious reform. This was the beginning of a young kings reign and it started off in a good direction. We examined the first acts of Hezekiah to reopen and reconsecrate the temple and the people to return to worship God.

They also worked to return to worship and a determination to celebrate the passover as a people, and to include all the people of Israel and not just the people of Israel. We saw that they faced a lot of challenges with this and that they had to figure out ways to make it work despite the challenges that they had to face. We also saw that Hezekiah recognized the shortcomings of what they were doing and that it wasn’t exactly as God would have prescribed them to worship. This lead to prayer and seeking forgiveness for the short comings. This change in heart and movement to recognize that God is essential in our act of worship and that we can rely that God is a god of grace and love and that he will provide us with forgiveness when our hearts and minds are focused on him.

So far everything seems to be going right for Hezekiah. I mean think about it if you stopped there I am willing to be many of us would think that Hezekiah was an amazing king and nothing else could have gone wrong. However, this isn’t the end of his story and we find that Hezekiah had only just begun in his reign and he had more to his story.

King Hezekiah and Political Challenges

The reality is that Hezekiah was faced with political opponents that were more powerful than him. He had hardshpis and challenges that many would not be able to face. He delt with these challenges in a variety of ways and I am sure if we took the time we could look into the various ways that he could have dealt with the situations.

This morning though I don’t want to spend as much time on that, however, i want to look at a specific incident that sparked some siginificant challenges for Hezekiah as King.

King Sennacherib of Assyria was the main protagonist for King Hezekiah. In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign he invaded and attacked some o fhe fortified cities of Judah. Now i am sure that King Hezekiah was concerned and he had made plans for what they would do if this was to happen as all good leaders do. I mean if we really think about that makes a lot of sense.

You see i think that for many of us we think of these kings of old and these people of faith that we get this romanticized vision in our heads that they just “relied on God”. I mean that is all a good leader would have done back then right. They didn’t have to give of themselves regularly so that their people could have freedom and a established Kingdom.

Reality is that just like leaders today we are expected to work and move and build and continue our actions while we trust and rely on God. I am sorry there isn’t this direct line to God that just gives us all the answers all the time. Yes, we can pray but we know that God doesn’t always show us exactly what we are supposed to do. He gave us reasoning and this allows us to do our best to lead.

This is the situation that we find Hezekiah in whwen we pick up in

Isaiah 36:2–22 NIV

2 Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field, 3 Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him. 4 The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: “ ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? 5 You say you have counsel and might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? 6 Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. 7 But if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”? 8 “ ‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! 9 How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the Lord? The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’ ” 11 Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.” 12 But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?” 13 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! 15 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ 16 “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, 17 until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 20 Who of all the gods of these countries have been able to save their lands from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” 21 But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.” 22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.

The Threats

Mocks their Plan (v 5-6)

Mocks their Trust in Yahweh (v 7)

Claims that Yahweh has sent them to attack and destroy this land (v. 10)

Tries to discourage the People of Jerusalem and shake their trust in Hezekiah (v 13-15)

Tries to Discourage their trust in Yahweh to Deliver them (v. 18-20)

This Commander came and stood before the people of Israel and delieverd what i call the Hollywood moment to the people within the City.

For those who may not know what i am talking about i am talking about that moment that the villain delivers the speech that is designed to make the people give up hope. They are supposed to throw down their weapons and surrender. Its funny when i think about speeches like that from different movies I always wondered how often they happened in real life. Here we have an actual example of someone trying to destroy the hope of a Kingdom not with force but with words alone.

This Challenge had to be so disheartening for the leaders who were listening to it. In fact we know that they recognized how bad the speech was going to hurt morale that they asked him to stop speaking in a language that the everyday people could understand and switch to a language that was more commonly used for diplomatic issues and not as common among the everyday people.

Let us look at some of the challenges that he attacked the people on

He mocks their plans to rely on Egypt for assistance because the Assyrian army had just defeated them in battle not that long before this.

He Mocks their new found trust in Yahweh in verse 7.

Isaiah 36:7 NIV

7 But if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”?

Yet this one is interesting becasuse it shows a fundamental misundertanding by the Assyrians in what happened with Hezekiah’s religious reforms. See they thought that when they tore down all the alters and places of “worship” that they were also rejecting Yahweh becuase people would still use those places to honor Yahweh and other gods. They didn’t know that the removal of these place was intended to refocus the idea that only Yahweh was worthy of worship and that other gods had not business being worshiped along side of Him.

Mocks their Plan (v 5-6)

Mocks their Trust in Yahweh (v 7)

Claims that Yahweh has sent them to attack and destroy this land (v. 10)

Tries to discourage the People of Jerusalem and shake their trust in Hezekiah (v 13-15)

Tries to Discourage their trust in Yahweh to Deliver them (v. 18-20)

V. 10 shows us that he beleives that Yahweh sent him. What is interesting is he has no idea that Isaiah had actually prophezied about this and that in many ways yes Yahweh actually did send them. However, his belief is founded in their rights as a great nation not necessarily as actual servants of Yahweh.

He moves to attack the people in their new found trust in Hezekiah in v. 13-15. He wants them to think that Hezekiah is a weak leader by asking his people to rely on Yahweh, and after the claims he has made that Yahweh has sent them this had to be particularly hard to hear.

The last attack is directed against Yahweh and his ability to deliver them from the King of Assyria. He calls out that all the gods of other cities and countries could not stand before him and they failed to protect their kingdoms and that he is mightier than them. They saw no possible way that they could be delivered from the hand of the King of Assyria.

The People’s Response

It amazes me that after this long speech and after all the things that were said to the people that they were able to do what they did next.

Isaiah 36:21 NIV

21 But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

They choose to remain silent. They heeded the command of their king to remain silent and not answer the challenges and threats of this commander. There was not cry of anguish there was no giving into this voice of the King of Assyria. Instead just like in those Hollywood moments i was talking about the people stood fast.

I have a feeling that many were standing there in that moment asking themselves how in the world are we going to get out of this one. They were looking and or wondering what the real plan was. Yet, they trusted in their King and his leadership. They found a strength to wait and to see what the response was going to be from their king.

The People’s Response

This had me thinking a lot about what that means for us today. The challenges we face when it feels like we are faced with hardship and defeat. This kept weighing out in my head as we look at what had to be going on in the minds of the people of Jerusalem as they were being challenged to stay firm.

One interesting note from this passage that isn’t mention is that where the commander stood and presented this message was also the place that just three decades earlier the prophet Isais challenged Hezekiah’s Father Ahaz to “stand firm in your faith” in the face of threat.

This is the question that Ahaz was challenged with. Would you trust in God or trust in someone or something else?

Now Hezekiah and his people are faced with the same challenging Question.

Are you trusting God?

This is the question we must always be ready to answer. This is the challenge that we face. This is the heart of the matter when it comes to our faith. There are going to be times that we don’t know what is going to happen and we are pushed and forced to make this choice. To step out on faith and realize that God has us and that any situation even the ones that seem impossible can be turned to the good for all mankind.