Who would've Thought

Do you remember the game, that we play often called sword drills? if you have spent much time at all in church I’m sure you have done sword drills. It is something we often do at camp. I remember playing as a kid and I was bad at it. I could never seem to get my fingers to work as fast as others in my group of kids. although I would try hard, I knew where most of the books of the Bible were I just wasn’t very fast.

If you have played you have probably heard some leader call out to turn to Hezekiah 1:7, right? problem is I would look so hard just to find out that there was no book of Hezekiah.

Actually, because of sword drills, for years the only thing I knew about Hezekiah was that he was definitely not a book of the Bible. I knew all about David and Solomon and other larger than life kings whose stories are recorded in God’s Word- but who was Hezekiah? Even today, many people you ask can’t tell you who Hezekiah was or what he did. and the first time I typed Hezekiah on my computer, I got that weird little squiggly red line because not even my software recognized his name!

AS it turns out, Hezekiah was pretty awesome. He was the king of Judah responsible for ridding the nation of idols and reestablishing worship at the temple, bringing spiritual reform to the people. It’s of King Hezekiah that the Bible speaks in this verse in 2 kings.

2 Kings 18:5 KJV 1900

He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.

Basically, the Bible says that Hezekiah was one of a kind- in a good way. Yet, when Hezekiah was young and even when he first became king, I doubt many people have predicted that God would use him to do great things. In fact based on his background Hezekiah was a pretty unlikely candidate for greatness. But if there’s one thing I hope you can learn for this study , it’s God uses unlikely candidates to demonstrate His unfailing power. He’s not concerned about our ability; He’s looking for our availability.

Hezekiah can teach us a thing or two about what it means to trust God and be used by Him to do what we could never accomplish on our own.

Throughout this series of lessons, I hope you will be inspired by Hezekiah and use your life to do great things for God.

2 Kings 18:1-8

November 6, 1860, and a bitterly divided nation headed to the polls to determine its next leader. The Republican candidate for president was former one- term congressman who was still relative political unknown despite failed attempts to win a seat in the U.S. Senate; in fact, his name didn’t even appear on the ballot in nine states. Nonetheless, against three other contenders and with 40% of the popular vote, by the end of the day Abraham Lincoln had been declared the 16th President of the United States, and he would go on to become one of the most well-known and well-loved leaders in all of American history.

History is full of stories like that of Abraham Lincoln. What do they all have in common? each of them tells of a somewhat unknown or unlikely candidate who comes from behind to unexpectedly succeed. While we might call this type of person an underdog, Merriam- Webster’s dictionary gives a more intriguing name: dark horse.

one thing I love about the Bible is that it’s filled with dark horse stories. David was an unknown shepherd, Gideon, an unlikely choice for an army general, even Esther was unlikely to help free her people.

With all these stories we can only conclude that our God loves to to demonstrate His power and bring victor through the most unlikely “dark horse” candidates. and Hezekiah was no different. We will see that despite all of obstacles placed in Hezekiah’s path, he would chose to trust God and do right, and as a result he was blessed far beyond anything he - or anyone else- could’ve imagined.

The Obstacles He Faced

The verses of 2 kings 18 introduce us to Hezekiah and let us know the timing of his becoming king of Judah.

2 Kings 18:1–2 KJV 1900

Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.

Obstacle #1 His Culture

The Bible includes the detail of Hezekiah became “in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel.” A brief look to other passages shows us what else was going on during this time. 2 Chronicles tells us that Judah was in pretty bad shape:

2 Chronicles 28:19 KJV 1900

For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord.

Hezekiah ascended to the throne at a dark time in his nation’s history. As a punishment from God for the wickedness of Hezekiah’s father, Judah had been attacked by its enemies and many of its people had been taken captive. What’s worse, the people that were left in Judah were not praying for God’s mercy. Thanks to Ahaz, the temple of God had been closed, and instead, altars had been built in “every several city of Judah” for the people to worship false gods and engage in all sorts of other wicked acts.

if you think Hezekiah’s situation of begin surrounded by a corrupt culture was unique to him, take a look around you. People who stand and say, “I am a Christian,” are at an all time low in our nation, while those that don’t not believe in a god are at an all time high. meanwhile, crime and wickedness abound, making more and more Americans afraid for the future of our nation. Just like Hezekiah, we live in a time of confusion and corruption, but Bible warned us this was to be expected:

2 Timothy 3:1–5 KJV 1900

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Obstacle #2 His Father

Have you ever been embarrassed of your parents? With a dad like Ahaz, Hezekiah must certainly have been reluctant at times to admit whose son he was. All of our passage tells us is Ahaz’s name, but earlier in 2 kings we read:

2 Kings 16:1–4 KJV 1900

In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord his God, like David his father. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

Ahaz wasn’t just an embarrassment; he was a selfish man and a wicked king. He disobeyed God’s commands, actively participated in idol worship, and led his people to join him, going so far as to destroy the vessel of worship in the temple and close down the temple so no one could worship there. But if you skimmed of those verses, go back to verse 3. Did you see what made Ahaz maybe the worst dad ever? That verse tells us that Ahaz ritually sacrificed his own children to pagan gods. He was killing his won kids in some act of false worship. in fact, some suggest the only reason Hezekiah did not die like his siblings before and after him was because his mother saved his life. Can you imagine?

In comparison to Ahaz, I bet your parent don’t seem that bad anymore. If you are being raised by parents or a family who love and protect you, and above that, who love God, I hope you know how blessed you are. and be thankful to God for it.

But maybe like Hezekiah you come from a difficult family background. Maybe your parents aren’t Christians or maybe they were never there for you as parents should. One thing I want you to take from this chapter is that Hezekiah didn’t let his family past determine his future. He realized that he still had the power to choose whether or not he would obey God for himself.

You too should realize that although your earthly family situation may be difficult, you have a heavenly Father who loves you more than you could ever dream and wants to use you in a great way like Hezekiah.