Judah #13 Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 29-32. Reigned 29 years. Good. Began to reign in 716 BC.

Judah had just finished 16 years of the evil reign of King Ahaz. Hezekiah said 29:⁷ They have also shut the doors of the porch and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.” Apparently the doors of the temple had been shut for a long time. So the Levites cleansed the temple of all unclean things. Hezekiah made thousands of burnt offerings for the sins of the people. 29:²⁹ Now at the completion of the burnt offerings, the king and all who were present with him bowed down and worshiped. ³⁰ Moreover, King Hezekiah and the officials ordered the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with joy, and bowed down and worshiped.” Quite a revival!

2 Chronicles 30 Celebration of the Passover. Hezekiah sent letters to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (and all the 10 tribes) to come celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem but they laughed and mocked the couriers. Most of the “important” people in the northern kingdom had been taken captive to Assyria already in 722 BC (Hezekiah’s letters went out after 716 BC), but there were still many left across the northern kingdom. There was a small remnant who did come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover with Hezekiah. Hezekiah was trying to restore what was left of the northern kingdom to the true worship of Yahweh. They celebrated the Passover with great joy for 7 days, and then another 7 days with thousands of burnt offerings. 30:²⁶ So there was great joy in Jerusalem, because there was nothing like this in Jerusalem since the days of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel.” In 2 Chronicles 31 after the Passover celebration, they went throughout Judah (even Ephraim and Manasseh) destroying all the pagan idols and high places and regular worship in the temple resumed and tithe giving to support the priests and Levites resumed.

2 Chronicles 32 In 701 BC Sennacherib king of Assyria invaded Judah. Hezekiah dug his famous “tunnel” bringing water from the springs outside Jerusalem and denying access to the springs knowing Sennacherib was going to siege Jerusalem. Hezekiah’s Tunnel (also known as the Siloam Tunnel) is an ancient 1,750-foot (533-meter) water channel in the City of David in eastern Jerusalem. It connects the Gihon Spring (outside the city) to the Pool of Siloam in the City of David. It measures about 533 meters (1,750 feet) long with a gentle elevation drop of only 30 cm to 2 meters across the entire route. It was carved through solid rock by two opposing teams of stonecutters who started at each end and met in the middle.

Sennacherib siged Jerusalem but made a fatal mistake. He sent letters (Isaiah 36-39 is a parallel acount of all this and says that his general Rabshakeh read the letters in the Hebrew language to those standing on the walls) blaspheming Yahwh, saying that Yahweh could not save Judah any more than the gods of other nations had failed. Isaiah was helping Hezekiah through all this and they carried the letter to the temple and laid it out to the Lord, begging for help. That night the “death” angel of the Lord killed 185,000 of the Assyrians sieging the city and Sennacherib returned to Assyria, only to be assassinated by his own children.

Life Lesson: Have you ever had one of those letters written to you attacking and accusing you of things you don’t believe that you have done? Or maybe you get that letter threatening to sue you and you panic? Or you get that letter and someone has stolen your identity? Or you get that letter informing you that you have been fired from your job? Did you have a panic attack? I have had some of those letters that weighed on my mind for a long time and I struggled and worried over them At least in my mind, I tried to lay those letters out before the Lord and ask him to help me deal with the threatening situations in the letters. What about you? Can you lay out your concerns and worries before the Lord, trusting Him to help you? Hezekiah did and you can too.

2 Chronicles 33 Hezekiah was given 15 extra years. Let’s be clear. God didn’t say “You are sick and you might die soon.” God said, “Make out your will b/c you are going to die soon.” Hezekiah pouted and prayed and God gave him 15 extra years. He gave him a sign to confirm that with the shadow on the sun dial steps going backward 10 steps instead of going forward as normal. But, like Asa and Uzziah, Hezekiah was lifted up with pride and “gave no return for the benefit he had received” (33:25). When the Babylonians heard about the miracle, they came to Hezekiah to check it out and in his pride he showed them all his wealath and the temple gold. 33:³¹ Even in the matter of the envoys of the rulers of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that had happened in the land, God left him alone only to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.” God found out that his heart was filled with pride. Isaiah rebuked Hezekiah and he did humble himself after that. God said that it would be the Babylonians, not the Assyrians, who would take Judah captive and come take the temple gold, but b/c he humbled himself God would not do that in his reign. It would still be another 100 years before that would happen. BTW Isaiah 36-39 is a parallel account of Hezekiah’s reign with even more details. Do you ever wonder if God is testing you to see what is in your heart when good or bad things happen to you? Would you be ashamed for God to find out what your inner motives, desires, and thoughts are?

Life Lessons: 1) Prayer can change God’s mind and plans. If Hezekiah had not prayed, he would have died soon. His prayer changed God’s mind. We sometimes think that God’s plans are predetermined and can’t be changed. Some things that He planned and predicted won’t be changed, such as the next 4 world empires of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue in Daniel 2. Or the death of Jesus which Acts 4 said was predetermined. But most things apparently God waits to see how we respond. So don’t be afraid to ask God to change what looks like the inevitable. 2) Don’t forget who made you wealthy and healthy if that applies. Hezekiah forgot both of those. We take God for granted. I, for one, am relatively healthy and well off financially. God did both of those things for me. I hope that I will be grateful to God and share what He has given me. One of my favorite psalms is psalm 103:

Psalm 103:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
² Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
³ Who pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases;
⁴ Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
⁵ Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

Judah #14 Manasseh. 2 Chronicles 33:1-20. Reigned 55 years. Very bad!

Manasseh was the worst of all the kings of Judah IMO. He undid all the reforms of his father Hezekiah. 33:3 he also erected altars for the Baals and made Asherim, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. ⁴ He built altars in the house of the Lord of which the Lord had said, “My name shall be in Jerusalem forever.” ⁵ For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. ⁶ He made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom; and he practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger. ⁷ Then he put the carved image of the idol which he had made in the house of God”. God sent the Assyrians to attack Manasseh and Judah. They took him captive “with hooks” (in his nose?) and bronze chains to Babylon, but in Babylon he humbled himself and prayed to God and God restored him his kingdom after which he tried to undo all the evil he had done in Judah. There is a book in the Apocrypha called “The Prayer of Manasseh”, supposedly that prayer he prayed in Babylon. It is doubtful that really was his prayer, but you should go read it online (on simple page). Maybe that actually was his prayer, who knows. BTW Jeremiah 15:4 the Lord said, ⁴ I will make them (Judah) an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.”

Life Lesson: I wonder why God allowed Manasseh to reign so long, for 55 years, most of which were very evil. “The exile’s clock (eventually 605–586 BC) required Judah’s sin to mature fully (Genesis 15:16’s “full measure” principle). Manasseh’s longevity bridged the gap between righteous Hezekiah and the final generation before captivity, aligning prophetic timelines (Isaiah 39:6-7). Meanwhile, the Davidic line remained intact, safeguarding the genealogy that would culminate in Jesus (Matthew 1:10). God allowed Manasseh’s 55-year reign to display covenant faithfulness, patient mercy, the possibility of radical repentance, and the inevitability of eventual judgment, all while advancing the messianic timetable. Far from contradicting divine goodness, the long rule of an evil king amplifies the harmony of God’s justice, sovereignty, and grace—a harmony ultimately fulfilled in the risen Christ.” (Biblehub) All I can say is that God had a timeline. Have you ever wondered why God allowed Hitler to kill 6 million Jews (and other groups)? Why did He allow Stalin to kill 5-10 million people? Why did God allow numerous genocides of innocent people in different countries? Why did God not stop the Japanese from their horrifying invasions of China and other countries? Why did and does God allow evil rulers to continue to harm people for such long periods? I can’t answer those questions. I can only trust God that even though He allows evil free will choices that hurt people that eventually He will judge the wicked and rescue the godly. If not here on earth, then in heaven with eternal life.

Judah #15 Amon. 2 Chronicles 33:221-25. Reigned 2 years. Bad

33:²² He did evil in the sight of the Lord as Manasseh his father had done, and Amon sacrificed to all the carved images which his father Manasseh had made, and he served them. ²³ Moreover, he did not humble himself before the Lord as his father Manasseh had done, but Amon multiplied guilt.” His servants assassinated him.

The next king of Judah will be a very good king and the last good king of Judah. We are getting ever closer to the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem in 586 BC by the Babylonians and the deporttion of Judah to Babylonian captivity for 70 years. Keep reading.