Judah #13 Hezekiah. 2 Kings 18:1-20:21 Reigned 29 years.
2 Chron 29-32; Isaiah 36-39. He celebrated the Passover for 7 days with joy as had not been done since Solomon, even extending the celebration for 7 extra days (2 Chron 30). He destroyed the high places and Asherim, and reformed the Levitical service (2 Chron 31). He rebelled against Sennacherib, the king of Assyria about 8 years after the fall of Samaria in 722 BC, and Sennacherib took 46 cities of Judah (the prism of Sennacherib tells of the siege of Lachish) in the 14th year of Hezekiah’s reign. Hezekiah stopped up the water outside the city and built a tunnel from the spring of Gihon into the city (560 yards long), tried to bribe Sennacherib with silver and gold from the temple but he sieged the city anyway and sent Rabshakeh to the city walls to scare the people into surrendering. Rabshakeh mocked the God of Israel, saying Jehovah could not save them any more than the gods of the nations that the Assyrians had defeated (2 Chron 32). Hezekiah took the threatening letter of Rabshakeh and spread it out before God. Isaiah came, telling him that the Assyrians would be destroyed for mocking God. That night 180,000 Assyrians died and Sennacherib returned to Assyria, assassinated later by his own people (2 Kings 19).

1 Kings 20: Hezekiah became mortally ill with boils, and God told him that he was going to die. He prayed and wept, and God gave him 15 extra years. God gave him a sign of the sun dial shadow going backwards 10 steps (2 Kings 20). He became proud (2 Chron 32:25) and foolishly showed all the treasures of the temple to the messengers from the king of Babylon who were sent to inquire about the miracle of the sun dial. God was testing him to see what was in his heart (2 Chron 32:31). God then told him that Judah would be carried to Babylon in captivity, but not in his lifetime (2 Kings 20).

Life Lesson: Hezekiah received that life threatening letter from Rabshakeh and spread it out before God in the temple. He humbly acknowledged the hopeless situation he was in with 180,000 Assyrians sieging Jerusalem. I’m sure he was having a panic attack. But he led a humble prayer, trusting God. Have you ever got a letter like that? Maybe a letter. giving you some terrible news? Telling you about a bad medical diagnosis, about a lawsuit facing you, about being fired, about accusations from a sibling, about some financial matters? I have, and I felt hopeless and depressed when I got some of those type letters. My first reaction to such letters is to start figuring out how to deal with the bad situations. What I should do is to take that letter and spread it out before God and ask Him to show me how to deal with the situation, trusting Him to do whatever is best. This is all about who and what you put your trust in. Do you trust in your own resources and ability or do you trust in God.

Another Hezekiah life lesson is about prayer. He prayed for extra years when God told him that he was about to die. His prayer actually changed what God was planning to do. Prayer can actually change God’s mind. We tend to think that God’s will is something that can’t be changed, but it can be changed. But then be careful what you ask for. He prayed and received 15 extra years. He was about 40 years old when he received those extra years, so I can see how he felt cheated about dying at the age of 40. But it was during those 15 extra years that Hezekiah was lifted up with pride and showed the Babylonians his treasures and was given the captivity to Babylon prediction. It says God was testing him to see what was in his heart (2 Chronicles 32:31). God sees the heart. God is always testing us to see what is in our hearts, to see if we are humble, to see if we trust Him or if we trust our own resources and strength. David said in Psalm 139:²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
²⁴ And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.” Are you really ready to ask God to do that with your heart? If you do, then the Spirit of God will help you get rid of all the negative thoughts and emotions in your heart. The Spirit will help you fulfill James 4:⁸ Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

We have a lot of archaeological proof of these events in history.

Judah #14 Manasseh. 2 Kings 21:1-18 Reigned 55 years. Hezekiah reigned 29 years. God knew that idolatry was so ingrained in Judah that even 29 years of reforms by Hezekiah would not last. His son Manasseh would follow him and would be the most evil king of Judah for 55 years, worshipping Baal, making Asherim, worshipping the hosts of heaven, passing his sons through the fire to Molech, and practicing witchcraft and sorcery (2 Chron 33). Manasseh would be carried off to Babylon captive with hooks, but he humbled himself, prayed to God (the Prayer of Manasseh in the Apocrypha), and was returned to Jerusalem and served God faithfully, destroying all the idols. There is a great lesson there. We saw a few really good kings of Judah like Asa, Uzziah, and Hezekiah whose lives ended in pride and disaster. Ironically, the worst king of Judah was very evil for most of his 55 year reign but at the end he humbled himself, did reforms, tried to undo the evil he had done, and died in favor with God. God’s grace was more than sufficient to save him. We don’t know the eternal consequences for Asa or Uzziah. Don’t ever “write someone off” as being unworthy of salvation. God can take “the chief of sinners” like Paul and save him. God’s grace was more than sufficient for Paul’s sins of killing and persecuting Christians (1 Timothy 1:12-17). John Newton was a sinful slave trader when he found the grace of God and wrote the words to the song “Amazing Grace” that tell of his spiritual journey.

Judah #15 Amon. 2 Kings 21:19-26 Reigned 2 years and was killed by his servants.

Judah #16 Josiah. 2 Kings 22:1-23:30. Reigned 31 years.
2 Chron 34-35. He began reigning at 8, began to remove all the idols in Judah at age 12. At age 26, he repaired the temple (imagine how it looked after 55 years of the evil reign of Manasseh and 2 years of Amon). In the process, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the Law (the Pentateuch) and gave it to Shaphan the scribe to take to Josiah. As Shaphan read it to the king, Josiah tore his clothes and inquired of Huldah the prophetess what to do. She told him that b/c “your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God” that the captivity of Judah would not be in his lifetime. God had commanded that all kings have a personal copy of the Law of Moses books, but obviously Josiah did not have a copy. The 55 evil years of Manasseh had apparently destroyed most of the copies of the Law. It’s’ not like every person in Judah had his own copy back then. But just b/c you have several Bibles in your house doesn’t mean that you read your Bible, that you study it and depend on it to guide you. Maybe you need to “find your Bible” that you have closed and not really studied for a long time. You might be shocked at what you read.

There is a lot more about Josiah but we stop for now after 2 Kings 22 since today’s reading stops there..