Righteousness
2 Kings 18
brings about a fresh perspective to Israel.
I hope that by now your eyes have been trained to pay very close
attention to the verse under each king that says “_____ did right/evil in the
sight of the Lord as did ______.” In
this case, we have Hezekiah doing right in the eyes of the Lord as David
did. After years of kings who did right
– but not completely right – we finally get another king who followed after God
with a heart like David. That doesn’t
mean Hezekiah was perfect; certainly we know that David wasn’t! But it does mean that in those times where
Hezekiah wasn’t perfect he was at least humble and repentant. We have some good stories to which we can
look forward!
As I read
through this passage (especially the early parts) I was fascinated by the list
of Hezekiah’s righteous acts. He did not
depart from God. He tore down the places
of the Canaanite gods. He beat back
against the Philistines. And he rebelled
against Assyria and would not serve them.
{Remember that Assyria was God’s tool against Israel, not Judah.} Here is a king that is open to being God’s
servant rather than serving his own agenda and state popularity.
Hezekiah In the Face of Assyrian Conquest
As we move
to the second half of this chapter, it is easy to get confused. So I will endeavor to retell the story in
such a way as to make sure that all the details are presented. Earlier we heard of Hezekiah’s refusal to
serve Assyria. This brings the Assyrian
army into Judah in an attempt to subdue them and convince them to pay a
tribute. Here Hezekiah has a moment of
wavering. He fears the army coming into
the land and he capitulates. He robs the
land – even the temple! – of the gold and silver to try and buy relief from the
Assyrians. The Assyrians take the money,
but come to invade Judah anyway! The
Assyrian king even sends some leaders to Jerusalem to taunt and threaten the
people.
With this,
let’s also understand that there were three “political” parties in the land at
this time. The first party believed that
in order to survive they needed to capitulate to Assyria and pay them off. A second party believed that if they sent
money to Egypt that the king of Egypt would send troops up to protect them from
the Assyrians. The third group – led
primarily by the prophet Isaiah – believed that if they trusted in God that God
could deliver them. As we see, Hezekiah
is wavering between these groups. He
wants to believe Isaiah, but he has a hard time pushing aside the group that
believes they can buy off Assyria’s wrath.
From this
story today I learn that spiritual leaders have a tough time. It is difficult to always trust in the
Lord. That doesn’t mean that the Lord
doesn’t provide; of course He does! But
it is difficult to push aside the cares, concerns, and worries of the world. Complicating the issue is that often leaders
have people under them that fall into various camps who believe things should
be done a particular way. When the
leaders feel the need to keep these people happy, it can be quite a difficult
task indeed.
As a
result, Hezekiah wavers. He has a moment
where he makes a bad decision. He tries
to buy off the Assyrians rather than putting his full trust in God. He falters; but Hezekiah does not break. As I said earlier, Hezekiah is not
perfect. But when his imperfections show
up, he is humble and falls back into repentance before the Lord. This we will save for tomorrow. It is good enough today to be reminded that
it is difficult to live spiritually in the world without making mistakes. And it is good enough to be reminded that we
serve a loving and merciful God who genuinely desires a repentant and contrite
heart.
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