HEZEKIAH

In the Old Testament there is a record of a King of Judah and Jerusalem that endeavored to do what was
right and to bring back Judah and Jerusalem from worshiping other gods and for all of his efforts
Jerusalem was besieged by the greatest army in the World at that time. The king was Hezekiah and his
story has a lot to teach us today.
2 Chronicles 29:1-7 (KJV)
1 Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and
twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his
father had done.
3 He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD,
and repaired them.
4 And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street,
5 And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the
LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.
6 For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD our
God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD,
and turned their backs.
7 Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned
incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel.
2 Chronicles 29:20-21 (KJV)
20 Then Hezekiah the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the
house of the LORD.
21 And they brought seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats, for a
sin offering for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he commanded the
priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 29:30 (KJV)
30 Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the LORD with
the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their
heads and worshipped.
2 Chronicles 30:1-5 (KJV)
1 And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh,
that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the
LORD God of Israel.
2 For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep
the passover in the second month.
3 For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves
sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.
4 And the thing pleased the king and all the congregation.
5 So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even
to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel at Jerusalem:
for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written.2 Chronicles 30:18-22 (KJV)
18 For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, and Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun,
had not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it was written. But
Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, The good LORD pardon every one
19 That prepareth his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed
according to the purification of the sanctuary.
20 And the LORD hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.
21 And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread
seven days with great gladness: and the Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day,
singing with loud instruments unto the LORD.
22 And Hezekiah spake comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the
LORD: and they did eat throughout the feast seven days, offering peace offerings, and making
confession to the LORD God of their fathers.
2 Chronicles 31:20 (KJV)
20 And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah, and wrought that which was good and right and truth
before the LORD his God.
So, here is a man that is doing all he can to lead the people of Judah and Jerusalem back to God and to
live his life according to the Law of God. You would think that God would put a wall around Judah and
Jerusalem, to give special treatment Hezekiah. You would think that once Judah and Jerusalem turned
back to God ALL would be good.
Actually, it did go well for fourteen years, but, then the Assyrian army came calling.
2 Kings 18:13-37 (KJV)
13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against
all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.
14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended;
return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto
Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
15 And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the
treasures of the king’s house.
16 At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from
the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
How many times in our lives do we endeavor to walk according to God’s Word only to have
circumstances turn against us. And, how many many times do we try to figure it out on our own.
That’s exactly what Hezekiah did. Hezekiah was the one that had the Temple repaired. He was
the one that had the doors and pillars of the Temple overlaid with gold to bless God and to bless
God’s people. Now he had it removed because of the circumstances!
17 And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king
Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And
when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the
highway of the fuller’s field.It didn’t do any good! The Assyrian army still came to destroy Jerusalem.
18 And when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,
which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.
19 And Rabshakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king
of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?
20 Thou sayest, (but they are but vain words,) I have counsel and strength for the war. Now on
whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?
21 Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a
man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on
him.
22 But if ye say unto me, We trust in the LORD our God: is not that he, whose high places and
whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship
before this altar in Jerusalem?
These spokesmen for the King of Assyria are very logical in their reasonings with the men of
Jerusalem. Egypt is not going to help you and OH Yeah, by the way, Hezekiah took away the
gods that you worshipped. So, there is no one to help you. He just didn’t know the whole story.
23 Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver thee
two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.
24 How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and
put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
What he is saying here is that Judah and Jerusalem are so small, so insignificant that they don’t
even have enough men to ride a few of the Great King of Assyria’s horses.
Fear, fear, fear, fear, fear. All this man is doing is trying to instill fear in the hearts and lives of
the people in Jerusalem. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances, someone wants for fight with
you, someone comes against you with a court order, someone in your family is sick and the
doctors say it isn’t good, it doesn’t matter the circumstances it is always about getting you to be
afraid, to get you to turn away from the promises of the One True God.
25 Am I now come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me,
Go up against this land, and destroy it.
So, here you have it! Rabshakeh says God Almighty told Assyria to destroy Judahand Jerusalem.
Well I thought Hezekiah and all of Judah and Jerusalem turned their hearts to the Lord? All of
Judah and Jerusalem hang in the balance just like you and I when we are confronted with
circumstances. do we knuckle under or do we STAND. HAVING OUR LOINS GIRD WITH
THE TRUTH AND THE PROMISES OF GOD AND HIS WORD?
26 Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah, unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray
thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and talk not with us in the
Jews’ language in the ears of the people that are on the wall.
27 But Rabshakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speakthese words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own
dung, and drink their own piss with you?
28 Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and spake, saying,
Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria:
29 Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out
of his hand:
30 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us,
and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
31 Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a
present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig
tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern:
32 Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land
of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and
hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The LORD will deliver us.
33 Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of
Assyria?
34 Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and
Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?
35 Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of
mine hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?
36 But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king’s commandment
was, saying, Answer him not.
37 Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe,
and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the
words of Rabshakeh.
Here we go! Rabshakeh has presented his case to Jerusalem and it wouldn’t matter to him if the
Assyrian army tore down the walls of Jerusalem or the people of Judah and Jerusalem came out
of their own volition. NOW, it is up to one man to determine the fate of a whole nation!
2 Kings 19:1-37 (KJV)
1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself
with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
2 And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of
the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
3 And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and
blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
4 It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria
his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy
God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left.
Glory Hallelujah. Hezekiah got it right! The very FIRST thing he did was to turn to God, to
GIVE IT TO GOD! When circumstances come at us let US turn to God FIRST, let us GIVE IT
TO GOD!
5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not
afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have
blasphemed me.
7 Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own
land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
In the Old Testament, in the Law of Moses it is required of the people to kill a prophet if the
prophesy does not come to pass because he didn’t speak for God! This man Isaiah was a prophet
of God and his word will come to pass. What a blessing, what a relief! It is now in God’s hands
and He is going to take care of Judah and Jerusalem!
What about us? Do we have the same confidence in The Word of God? The promises in God’s
Word are just as real, just as powerful as the promise given by Isaiah in verses 6&7 to Hezekiah.
8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had
heard that he was departed from Lachish.
9 And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against
thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,
10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest
deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them
utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?
12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and
Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of
Hena, and Ivah?
14 And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah
went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
What a beautiful thing, Hezekiah spread it before the Lord. Doesn’t the Bible say cast your care
on Him for He careth for you? Yup, it sure does it is in I Peter 5:7.
15 And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest
between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou
hast made heaven and earth.
16 LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words
of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God.
17 Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,
18 And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands,
wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
19 Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the
kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel,
That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
God will hear your prayer just like He did Hezekiah’s!21 This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion
hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head
at thee.
22 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice,
and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
23 By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my
chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down
the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of
his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.
24 I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the
rivers of besieged places.
25 Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it?
now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous
heaps.
26 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they
were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn
blasted before it be grown up.
27 But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
Sounds to me like God is a little upset with the king of Assyria. It is not good to anger God.
28 Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my
hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou
camest.
29 And this shall be a sign unto thee (Judah and Jerusalem that what I say shall come to pass,)
Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which
springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the
fruits thereof.
30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward,
and bear fruit upward.
31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the
zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.
32 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this
city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith
the LORD.
34 For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of
the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the
morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that
Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of
Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.Because of Hezekiah’s stand Judah and Jerusalem were delivered. Judah and Jerusalem prepared their
hearts for fourteen years to seek the Lord and to live by His Commandments. It was not God that told
the king of Assyria to destroy Jerusalem it was Satan, the Devil. We, as Christians, have an adversary in
this World who is always voting against us. God is always voting for us. How we vote determines the
election!
God is always there for you. Prepare your heart to seek the Lord and when circumstances raise their ugly
head – Stand, lay your cares on God, claim His promises and watch the great deliverance of God!