Bible Kings: Hezekiah

Hezekiah became king of Judah at the age of twenty-five. His nation had plunged to the lowest posslble point imaginable, both materially and spiritually. The main cause of this was Hezekiah’s father Ahaz. During his long and wicked reign he had re-introduced the practice of human sacrifice and drained the coun­try’s treasury in order to buy off foreign oppressors. Hezekiah was in for a long, hard fight to rid the country of the practices Imposed by his father; but he had the will-power, the brains and, more importantly, the faith, to see his ideas for a better Judah fulfilled.

The name Hezekiah means “Yahweh is (my) strength”, and he lived up to his name. For the first part of his life he always praised God and did what was right in the sight of the Lord in everything he said and did. He started to plan ways of reverting the country back to the way of serving God as soon as he came to power.

Hezekiah’s reforms

The first reform came only four weeks after he had been crowned king: “He opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them” (2 Chron. 29:3). The Levites were then drawn into the plan, and they began their old duties In the temple, ready for the spiritual revival that Hezekiah planned for the not­too-distant future.

The next thing he did was to remove all the idols from his land:

“He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made” (2 Kings 18:4).

This snake had once been a symbol of Jesus; the people who looked on it with faith were healed. But this had now turned into one of the people’s gods that they worshipped without faith. This destruction must have caused uproar in the country on an enormous scale. It is as if Mr. Major or President Bush suddenly announced that a law had been passed abolishing all cinemas, gambling casinos and other forms of unclean entertainment. It is easy to imagine that open revolt would follow. The Prime Minister or President would be thrown out of office, if not murdered, by those whose jobs and large incomes had been destroyed. However, it was not just the people of Judah from whom Hezekiah could expect trouble. Nat­ions all over the known world had established their idols in Jerusalem. Hezekiah realised this, but still had the faith to go through with it.

To keep the people on his side Hezekiah had to make some changes. The people were not forced to pay for materials to rebulld the temple, but could contribute out of their own generosity.

Hezekiah’s illness

For the next couple of years Hezekiah ruled over a peaceful kingdom (although the people were hanging on tenterhooks as an Assyrian invasion loomed ominously on the horizon); but then a personal disaster struck.Hezekiah was inflicted with a disease very similar in appearance to that of leprosy. This caused him to become disfigured. Perhaps Hezekiah thought he was suffering from the ill­ness because he had offended God, since the “boil” from which he suffered is the same as the “botch” used in Deuteronomy 28:27 with which God said He would smite the rebellious. The disease is also mentioned in verse 35, where it is said God would smite Israel “from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head”. This is the exact wording used in Isaiah 1:6 to describe the nation of Israel. Perhaps Hezeklah’s illness is a case of a good and righteous leader suffering on behalf of his people.

Because of the disease Hezekiah was excluded from worshipping in the temple, and this must have caused him great pain. This was probably why Heze­kiah offered a prayer to the Lord asking for his sins to be forgiven. The Lord replied, “I have heard thy prayer … behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord” (2 Kings 20:5).

Notice that it was the “third” day that Hezekiah was to be healed. This is the same as the time that Jesus was in the tomb. In fact, Hezekiah and Jesus were the same in many respects. Both suffered for their nation’s disobedience, both were strong in faith and both were healed on the third day. (Hezekiah was given an extra 15 years to live.)

The invasion of Judah

The threat of ‘invasion from the Assyrians was still on the horizon, and the endangered kingdoms were urged to join together to fight as a united force. If Hezekiah’s faith was still in the Lord, he would have rejected these calls; if he agreed to join forces with other kingdoms God would know that the faith of one of Israel’s greatest kings was dwindling.

The nation of Babylon was under threat from Assyria, and they sent ambassadors to Hezekiah, perhaps to see if they could persuade him to join forces with them. The pretext of their visit was to find out more about the “wonder” which had taken place when the sun had moved back 10 degrees after Hezekiah’s illness. Hezekiah became proud that other countries were coming to him, so he displayed all his treasures. This pride would not have overtaken him, had his life ended when it was meant to, before he prayed to God. This is a warning to us not to ask for things we want all the time in prayer, because sometimes they may do us more harm than good. God realised by this that Hezekiah had a flaw in his hitherto impenetrable armour. Because Hezekiah had failed, the Lord decided to remove all possible human help from him. There were people in Hezekiah’s court who favoured joining up with the Egyptians – none more so than Hezekiah’s chan­cellor, Shebna; and Hezekiah on lsaiah’s instructions removed him from office and replaced him with Eliakim, who had a totally different outlook (18:22).

God then directed the Assyrian king to march against Egypt and Babylon. Hezekiah was left on his own against the might of the Assyrian army. He had prepared the city for a long siege. The city of Jerusalem had no abundant water supply within its walls. The chief source was the Gihon spring in the Kidron valley below the city walls. The fall of Samaria in 721 BC, some years before the Assy­rian attack, had prompted Hezekiah to divert the original course of the stream and bring it within the city walls. Archaeologists have estimated that the tunnel would have taken upwards of three years to complete. It started at the Gihon spring, went under the city walls and ended up at the pool of Siloam within the city – a distance of nearly 5500 metres. ‘The tunnel was started off from the opposite ends of the intended course and without equipment such as lasers and theodolites to get the course straight, managed to get the two tunnels to come withln a couple of feet of meeting in the middle. This feat was even more amaz­ing, when you consider that the whole tunnel was dug using only basic tools such as pickaxes and shovels.

When Sennacherib marched on the city, Hezekiah blocked off the ent­rance to the springs outside the city wall so that the enemy couldn’t use the water supply themselves, or poison it. When Sennacherib was positioned outside the city, he sent Hezekiah an ultimatum, a last chance to surrender without shedding blood. He had already stood below the city walls shouting taunting words of how he had wiped out other nations, and their gods had been powerless to stop him. Why should the God of Judah be any different?

Hezekiah took the ultimatum to the temple, where he spread it out on the altar before the Lord, putting the matter in the hands of God. Hezekiah’s renewed faith in God was not misplaced. That night the angel of the Lord went Into the camp of the Assyrians and killed 185,000 of their soldiers. After this loss Sennacherib returned home, his army in rags and his morale low. When he got there his sons murdered him.

A man of faith

After this victory Hezekiah took a wife called Hephzibah (my delight is in her), and she bore the heir to the throne he had longed for all his life. He was called Manasseh; but, unlike his father, he was a bad king.

King Hezekiah is a great example of a man who put his faith in God, yet used his gifts and abilities as far as he was able, and by prayer committed himself and his people to God’s mercy and deliverance. God has given us many and varied gifts, and in the spreading of the Gospel message and in our way to His Kingdom they must be used, but we must always commit ourselves wholly to Him in prayer through Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour.