Steadfast Faith - 2 Kings 18:1-7a; 20:16-21
Steadfast Faith
2 Kings 18:1-7a; 20:16-21
I.
Hezekiah's Heritage, 2 Kgs.
16:2-4
1.
Hezekiah became the 13th king of Judah in 715 BC. He
was one of the best kings of Judah
2.
The Bible has this to say about the reign
of his father Ahaz:
2 Kgs 16:2-4 “Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and
he reigned in Jerusalem Israel
3.
To make matters worse his father had asked
for the Assyrians help during the siege on his city during a war with Syria Judah became an
Assyrian vassal state owing allegiance to Assyria because of this
action.
4.
If this had had only political
implications, it might not have been so bad. But not only was homage to be paid
to the Assyrian King but to their gods as well. And it was almost required upon
threat of military action that the new vassal state must erect temples and gods
of the Assyrians and incorporate them into the religious life of the kingdom.
5.
F.F. Bruce said this about Ahaz's actions:
"The record of apostasy thus inaugurated was to have devastating
consequences for the realm of Judah Israel
6.
Therefore, while Judah had gained
security from the threat of the Assyrians it almost bankrupt the nation in the
tribute that was required to be paid. This ultimately would mean higher taxes,
a poor economy, and daily subjection to idolatry.
7.
That an ungodly man like Ahaz could have
such a godly son can only be attributed to the grace of God. Hezekiah's father
had given the kingdom over to idolatry; but upon his accession to the throne,
Hezekiah decisively and courageously initiated wide sweeping religious reforms.
II.
Hezekiah’s Reign, 2 Kgs.
18:5-6
2 Kgs 18:5-6 “Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel LORD and
did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses.”
1.
Hezekiah receives the highest praise of
any of the kings of the Southern Kingdom except Josiah who receives the highest
of all.
2.
Out of 20 kings 7 others beside Hezekiah got
good reports:
1 Kgs 15:11, 14 “Asa did what was right in the eyes of
the LORD, as his father David had done… Although he did not remove the high
places, Asa's heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life.”
1 Kgs 22:43 “Jehoshaphat…
did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. The high places, however, were not
removed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
2 Kgs 12:2-3 “Joash did what was right in the eyes of
the LORD all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him. The high places,
however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn
incense there.”
2 Kgs 14:4 “Amaziah did what was right in the eyes
of the LORD, but not as his father David had done. In every thing he followed
the example of his father Joash. The high places, however, were not removed.”
2 Kgs 15:3-4 “Uzziah did what was right in the eyes
of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done. The high places, however, were not
removed”
2 Kgs 15:34-35 “Jotham did what was right in the eyes
of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done. The high places, however, were not
removed.”
2 Kgs 22:2 “Josiah did what was right in the eyes
of the LORD and walked in all the ways of his father David, not turning aside
to the right or to the left.; 23:25
Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to
the LORD as he did-- with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his
strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.”
3.
“Hezekiah trusted in the Lord” - The word “trusted” means “to confide, to place
hope and confidence in, and to be secure without fear”. He is the only
king that to have this character trait emphasized.
4.
“He held fast to the LORD” –
The phrase “held fast” or “cleave” as in the KJV means “to be closely joined
together, to adhere in affection, duty and fidelity, to follow hard after.
5.
In Jeremiah 13:11 the word is used as a metaphor to describe the
near union into which God had brought his people to himself in love and favor.
“For as a belt is bound
around a man's waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole
house of Judah to me,' declares the LORD, 'to be my people for my renown and
praise and honor.”
III.
Hezekiah the Reformer, 2 Kgs
18:4; 2 Chr 29:1-31:21
2 Kgs 18:4 “He removed the
high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke
into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites
had been burning incense to it. ( It was called Nehushtan.)”
1.
Hezekiah recognized that Israel
2.
As a godly king: his first act was to
purge, repair, and reopen the Temple
3.
He also assembled the priests and Levites
and commissioned them to sanctify themselves for service and to cleanse the Temple
4.
His task consisted of destroying all the
places of worship of Baal and Asherah.
5.
Hezekiah's reformation was so thorough
that he did not even spare "the high places". These were not high
places to Baal but to Jehovah, but they were unlawful after the Temple had been built
and they incorporated pagan practices.
6.
Removable or non-removable “of the high
places” is a criteria used by the author for everyone of the 8 good kings and
only two, Hezekiah and Josiah were credited with removing them.
7.
A still more decisive act was the
destruction of the bronze serpent of Moses (cf. Num 21:9), which had become an
idolatrous object. The word “Nehushtan” means “the thing of brass”.
8.
His great reformation was followed by the
celebration of the Passover (2 Chr 30), to which not only all Judah was summoned
but also the remnant of the ten tribes.
9.
Although Isaiah is not mentioned much in our
account, in the Book of Isaiah, he records many of the occasions in which he
counseled Hezekiah on what to do, so Isaiah was probably instrumental in these
reforms as well.
10.
Not only was trust and reliance on God
alone stressed , but dependence on foreign powers was denounced as disbelief and
a lack of trust.
IV.
Hezekiah the Builder, 2 Kgs
20:20; 2 Chr 32:30
“As for the other events of
Hezekiah's reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel
by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of
the annals of the kings of Judah?”
1.
Hezekiah’s Tunnel
a.
Hezekiah is famous for the steps he took
to supply fresh water within the city walls of Jerusalem
b.
In Chronicles, it is appended that
"it was Hezekiah who stopped the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and
directed them to the west side of the city of David
1)
The intermittent spring of Gihon, Jerusalem Kidron Valley
2)
It was thus exposed to enemy attack.
Hezekiah completely covered over this ancient spring and diverted it through a
conduit 1,777 feet long and hewn out of solid rock into a reservoir within the
city walls.
c.
Hezekiah's tunnel receives scant treatment
in the Biblical record but it was made famous by its remarkable inscription,
discovered accidentally in 1880 by a boy wading in the pool and hence known as
the “Siloam Inscription”.
a.
The six-line memorial was beautifully cut
on the wall of the conduit in classical Hebrew characters about nineteen feet
from the Siloam end of the aqueduct. The inscription is translated:
"The boring through is completed. Now
this is the story of the boring through. While the workmen were still lifting
pick to pick each toward his neighbor and while three cubits remained to be cut
through, each heard the voice of the other who called his neighbor, since there
was a crevice in the rock on the right side. And on the day of the boring
through the stone cutters struck, each to meet his fellow pick to pick; and
there flowed the waters to the pool for 1200 cubits and 100 cubits was the
height of the rock above the heads of the stone cutters."
2.
The Pool of Siloam
a.
In addition to the tunnel, Hezekiah built
a larger reservoir, called the Pool of Siloam.
b.
The pool measures about 20 x 30 feet. In
Jesus' day, the blind man who was healed, was directed to go and wash in this
pool (John 9:7-11).
II.
Hezekiah’s
Illness, 2 Kgs 20:1-21
1.
When Hezekiah experienced a
serious illness, the prophet Isaiah informed the king that he would die.
2.
In response to Hezekiah's prayer
for recovery, God promised him 15 additional years of life. God also provided a
sign for Hezekiah as evidence that the promise would be fulfilled.
3.
The sign, one of the most
remarkable miracles of the Old Testament, consisted of the sun's shadow moving
backward on the staircase ten steps.
4.
The Fifteen “Songs
of Degrees”
a.
Fifteen years were added to the life of
Hezekiah. In the restoration of the second temple by Herod fifteen steps led
from the Court of the Women to the Court of Israel and on these steps the
Levites during the Feast of Tabernacles were accustomed to stand in order to
sing the fifteen “songs of degrees” (Psa 120 through 134).
b.
At the head of these same steps in the
gateway, lepers who had been cleansed from their disease presented themselves
to the priests. It has been suggested that Hezekiah himself was the compiler of
these fifteen “songs of the steps,” in thankfulness for his fifteen years of
added life.
c.
Five of them are ascribed to David or as
written for Solomon, but the remaining ten bear no author's name. Their
subjects are, however, most appropriate to the great crises and desires of
Hezekiah's life. His great Passover, to which all the tribes were invited, and
so many Israelites came; the blasphemy of Rabshakeh and of Sennacherib's
threatening letter; the danger of the Assyrian invasion and the deliverance
from it; Hezekiah's sickness unto death and his miraculous restoration to
health; and the fact that at that time he would seem to have had no son to
follow him on the throne - all these subjects seem to find fitting expression
in the fifteen Psalms of the Steps.
2 Chr 32:7 “Be strong
and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria
and
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