King Hezekiah: Episode One
How would you like to have God say there’s no one like you anywhere who trusted Him completely; that’s how He described Hezekiah. This king of Judah (the southern kingdom) reigned during the time the Assyrian Empire was capturing Israel (the northern kingdom) and they were continuing south to Judah. Fortunately, Hezekiah had already established an intimate relationship with God through prayer following Him whole-heartedly and was encouraged; it wasn’t the time for their destruction, as the prophet Isaiah said.
The character of Hezekiah as he followed the LORD doesn’t mean he was sinless, far from it, however, he shows us that when times are scary God is faithful and listens to our cries. His name means Yahweh strengthens and we clearly see that in the account of his life in three books of the Old Testament: 2 Kings 18-20; 2 Chron. 29-32; and Isaiah 36-39: that’s impressive. Scripture compares him to David, his father and shows us Hezekiah is in the bloodline of David and Messiah will come from that line. At this point Hezekiah has no heir and that presents a problem. No heir means no Messiah promised to David.
Running parallel to Hezekiah’s reign of trust we find another main character in his story: the Rabshakeh which means the King of Assyria’s top military commander. His goal is to use every strategy available to capture Judah taking them into captivity as he did in Israel. We can never forget that our enemy, Satan, will use anyone at his disposal to destroy our lives; he hates the worship of God that much. Hezekiah threw more wood on his fiery anger when he tore down the places of idol worship, reinstituted the celebration of Passover, and restored Temple worship, consequently, he became Satan’s target of destruction.
The Rabshakeh used psychological warfare against the Hebrew people attempting to sow seeds of discouragement and questioned God’s destiny for them but Hezekiah had his own strategy: silence, don’t engage the enemy. I wonder how often we should take that advice and not respond to every method Satan uses against us. We can follow Hezekiah’s example; he began praying.
The two words that describe King Hezekiah are trust and prayer repeatedly displayed in his story. He was very courageous when he tore down the places of idol worship and instructed his people to come back to God worshipping Him alone, apparently that set the stage for a ‘suddenly’ (2 Chron. 29:36). I wonder how many of you reading this are hoping for ‘suddenly’ in your life; you’ve been praying for a long time with no results. My advice to you is to persevere in trusting God and praying as Hezekiah shows us knowing that when the time is right God will send a ‘suddenly’ into your life as well.
The enemies of Judah seemed insurmountable in man’s eyes but Hezekiah kept his eyes on the LORD and was strengthened: He’ll do the same for you.
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