Hezekiah Finish Well Recently, I was at the local Bible book store and came across a book entitled, As Grandpa Says by Nick Harrison. It was a collection of sayings spoken from various grandfathers or fathers over the years and put together as a devotional. Here are just a few: Garbage in, Garbage out If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well Leave it better than you found it Measure twice and cut once You can t keep a good man down The best things in life are free Many hands make light work The only way to have a friend is to be one Perhaps you remember a few of these sayings growing up. I sure do. Our Heavenly Father has a principle that we should remember too: Finish Well. He put it this way in Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. So now turn with me to 2 Kings 18: 5 to see someone who finished well. Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before or after him. Once again, we come to that time when we honor fathers here at CBC and has been our tradition over the years, we will look at one of the men in God s Word, to find encouragement and hear God s exhortation. This morning, God has led us to one of the good kings of Judah, a man by the name of Hezekiah. Again, we read, there was no one like him among all the kings of Israel. Not that Hezekiah was perfect. As with all of us, there were areas in his life he needed to grow in. Nevertheless, we can learn from his example and apply it to our own life today. Let s begin. Like us, Hezekiah grew up and lived during a time of trouble. First, there was trouble in the home. Why? His father s name was Ahaz. 2 Kings 16:2-3: Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. And so his father was into demon worship. He also murdered his brother and destroyed the Temple. 2 Chron. 28:24-25: Ahaz gathered together the furnishings from the temple of God and took them away. He shut the doors of the Lord s temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. In every town in Judah he built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and provoked the Lord, the God of his fathers, to anger. So bad was he, that Ahaz was buried somewhere in Jerusalem other than the place for kings. 2 Chron. 28:27: Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of Jerusalem, but he was not placed in the tombs of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son succeeded him as king. Needless to say, Hezekiah grew up in badly dysfunctional home. Perhaps you did too. There may have been certain traits you wish weren t there, certain memories you wish you
didn t have. You may have said to yourself, I ll never be like him! But chances are very good, you will with one exception: when we allow the Lord to break the bent of our father and our grandfather. How? By surrendering our life to the Lord and allowing Him to change our heart from the inside out. We find that Hezekiah chose that path. 2 Kings 18:5: Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. Even with such a lousy home life, example and experience, He chose to change. We can choose to change too, by surrendering our lives to the God who makes all things new. And as a result we read in 18:6-7: He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. Hezekiah returned. Secondly there was trouble in the homeland. Obviously his father s choices as leader affected the direction of the nation. 2 Kings 16:4, 10-12, 18. He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree. Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath- Pileser king of Assyria. He saw an altar in Damascus and sent to Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar, with detailed plans for its construction. So Uriah the priest built an altar in accordance with all the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus and finished it before King Ahaz returned. When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, he approached it and presented offerings on it. He took away the Sabbath canopy that had been built at the temple and removed the royal entryway outside the temple of the Lord, in deference to the king of Assyria. He may not have deliberately destroyed all the elements of worship to the Lord. But he was so impressed with the ways of the world including its religion that he added one worldly thing after another until it obliterated true worship to the one true God. Again, his son Hezekiah had a choice: to continue on in the ways of his father or remove and restore the culture of his nation to honor God. We find that because he had a renewed heart, he led the way to a renewed national faith. 2 Kings 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.) Wait a minute! I thought the bronze serpent was good! Wasn t it a reminder of all the mighty acts of God and those who looked on it were healed. So why did he do this? The people worshiped it. So Hezekiah gave it an appropriate name: It was Nahushtan or simply a piece of brass. J.C. Whitcomb said it well. Instead of serving as a reminder of the blessed truth that salvation comes by obedient faith in God s promises (cf. John 3:14,15: Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The famous relic had become an idol before which men bowed and offered incense! Therefore the young king did to it what we should be prepared to do to anything that positions itself between us and God see it for what it really is (Nehushtan-a mere piece of brass, ASV margin), and destroy it! So it was that Paul s converts at Ephesus saw their books on magical arts in a new light, gathered them into a huge pile, and burned them in the sight of all so mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed. (Acts 19:19, 20). My little children, wrote an aged apostle, John, guard yourselves from idols. (I John 5:21) Solomon to the Exile, 1971 pg. 111
Third, there was trouble in history globally. Rather than rely on the Lord, his father had trusted in alliances with foreign nations to deal with the threat from the Edomites and Philistines. Unfortunately aligning oneself with Assyria was like taking a tiger by the tail! 2 Chronicles 28:20-21: Tiglath-Pileser came to Ahaz. But he gave Ahaz trouble instead of help. Tiglath-Pileser was king of Assyria. Ahaz took some things from the LORD s temple. He also took some from the royal palace and from the princes. He gave all of them to the king of Assyria. But that didn t help him. The saying was true, the king of Assyria thought If some is good more is better. Again, Hezekiah had a choice. With a renewed heart and homeland, Hezekiah refused and relied on the Lord alone. 2 Kings 18:7: And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the King of Assyria and did not serve him. So guess what took place then? Surprise, surprise invasion from Assyria! First, they destroyed the northern nation of Israel and took them off as captives. Then they turned on little Judah. Hezekiah had his men stand firm. The spokesman for Assyria said to them: 2 Kings 18:31-33: Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, 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, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death! Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, the Lord will deliver us. Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria! But notice how they responded: 2 Kings 18:36: But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, Do not answer him. 2 Kings 19: 14-19: Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: O Lord, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God. It is true, O Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by men s hands. Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God. Hezekiah prayed. The Lord responded through the prophet Isaiah. 2 Kings 19:32-36: Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the Lord. I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant. That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. Just a note: Hezekiah also prepared. 2 Chronicles 33:30 It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and channeled the water down to the west side of the City of David. In other words, Hezekiah took Jerusalem s water source and moved it from outside the city walls to the inside. You can walk through this tunnel to this day. Above all, God was after Hezekiah s heart, just as he is with your heart and mine. He wants us to love Him with all our heart. And so we read Fourth There was trouble in his health. 2 Kings 20:1: In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said,
This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover. It s one thing to stand against the outward forces of evil. It s quite another to have your health fail suddenly. What was Hezekiah s response? He prayed. 2 Kings 20: 2-3: Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. It seemed so unfair that after all the good he had done, to die from a simple infection. Why did God allow this? God was refining his heart. There was the dross of pride deep within. 2 Kings 20:4-7: Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, this is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David. Then Isaiah said, Prepare a poultice of figs. They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered. Hezekiah had a proud heart and a weak faith. So he asked for a sign. And God answered and granted him 15 more years. Of course, during those 15 years a son would be born who would reverse everything Hezekiah had done ( see Chapter 21 ). His name was Manasseh, thus proving even in a good home, children must choose the Lord for themselves. God has no grandchildren only children. And during those 15 years of peace, the pride that had remained hidden in his heart, came forth with tragic consequences. Perhaps God in his wisdom and mercy desired to call him home early. Nevertheless God allowed him those 15 years. 2 Kings 20:12: At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah s illness. Now this was a welcome surprise. But in reality these messengers from the young kingdom of Babylon (the kingdom that would crush Assyria) only wanted to check out his power and wealth; for they would eventually come as an enemy against Judah. Again it was a test of his heart. 2 Kings 20: 13-19: Hezekiah received the messengers and showed them all that was in his storehouses the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine oil his armory and everything found among his servants treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, What did those men say, and where did they come from? From a distant land, Hezekiah replied. They came from Babylon. The prophet asked, What did they see in your palace? They saw everything in my palace, Hezekiah said. There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord: the time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. 2 Chronicles 32:24-25 tells us the whole story. In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. He prayed to the Lord, who answered him and gave him a miraculous sign. But Hezekiah s heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the Lord s wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. Pride. It can indeed go before a fall. God was after his Hezekiah s heart to refine it. Remember, He who began a good work in you will complete it. In the latter part of his life when things were good, Hezekiah took his eyes off of the Lord and placed them on himself. We even see this in his repentance in 20:19: The word of the Lord you have spoken is good, Hezekiah replied. For he thought, Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime? And God will continue to refine his heart as He does yours and mine. So keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Hezekiah in the end, kept his eyes on the Lord.
2 Chronicles 32:26: Then Hezekiah repented of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore the Lord s wrath did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah. So Hezekiah stumbled. So do we. But finish well. Let s keep on keeping on to the end. This Father s Day, finish well men. Hezekiah did. 2 Chronicles 32:32-33: The other events of Hezekiah s reign and his acts of devotion are written in the vision of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. Hezekiah rested with his fathers and was buried on the hill where the tombs of David s descendants are. All Judah and the people of Jerusalem honored him when he died. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king. That is my prayer for you today that you may indeed be honored by your children and your children s children. Dr. David W Martin June 19, 2013 Calvary Bible Church Manzanita, Oregon 97130