An individual’s devotion to Jesus does not eliminate a community’s responsibility when it comes to following Jesus...

This week we are looking at the life of a king of the Jewish people named Josiah. Wednesday, we looked on as a prophetess named Huldah revealed the Lord was going to respond to the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people over the fifty seven year reign of King Manasseh and King Amon by exercising His right and just response to that selfishness and rebellion.

On the other hand, the Lord was going to extend grace to King Josiah. Because King Josiah was brought to great grief as a result of what the word of the Lord revealed about how the Lord felt about how the Jewish people had been treating Him, King Josiah would not see the destruction of the Temple and the overthrow of the Jewish nation. King Josiah would die with the peace that would come from not seeing the Jewish people conquered as a result of the Lord’s right response to their selfishness and rebellion.

Upon hearing the prophetess’s words, the religious leaders returned to King Josiah and reported all that they had heard. Today we see King Josiah’s response in verse 2 Chronicles 34:29:

 Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. The king went up to the house of the LORD and all the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites and all the people, from the greatest to the least; and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD. Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant written in this book. Moreover, he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand with him. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. Josiah removed all the abominations from all the lands belonging to the sons of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel to serve the LORD their God. Throughout his lifetime they did not turn from following the LORD God of their fathers.

Instead of responding to the prophet’s words by focusing on the good news and ignoring the bad news, King Josiah did the exact opposite. Instead of focusing on the Lord’s promise of personal peace, King Josiah focused on the Lord’s promise of corporate consequences for the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people. King Josiah called the Jewish nation together at the Temple so that they could hear the word of the Lord that was recorded in the Law.

Instead of responding to the prophet’s words by giving up on the Jewish people as a result of their history of selfishness and rebellion, King Josiah led the Jewish people to recommit themselves to follow the word of the Lord that was recorded in the Law. And as a result of King Josiah’s selfless devotion to the Lord and servant leadership of the Jewish people, throughout King Josiah’s lifetime the Jewish people did not turn from following the Lord. In another account of King Josiah’s life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the book of 2 Kings, we see King Josiah’s rule summarized in 2 Kings 23:25-26:

Before him there was no king like him who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him. However, the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.

And it is the life of King Josiah that we see the Lord reveal for us a timeless truth that has the potential to powerfully impact how we live our lives today. And that timeless truth is this: An individual’s devotion to Jesus does not eliminate a community’s responsibility when it comes to following Jesus. Just as it was for King Josiah, just as it has been for humanity throughout history, an individual’s devotion to Jesus does not eliminate a community’s responsibility when it comes to following Jesus.

Just as it was for King Josiah, a life of devotion to Jesus that trusts and follows Jesus does not eliminate the responsibility that a community will have before Jesus when it comes to how they followed Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we are called to live a life of devotion that places our confident trust in and follows Jesus in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus to our community. As followers of Jesus, we are called to live in a way that invests and invites those who are far from God to explore faith so that they may experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that they were created for by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

However, our individual devotion to Jesus does not eliminate the reality that we live in a community that will be held accountable by Jesus for how they respond to Jesus. Just like King Josiah, we are to live in a way that trust and follows the Lord, while recognizing that we are part of a community that can experience the consequences of the selfishness and rebellion have in a community. And for King Josiah, the influence of his life on the Jewish people only lasted as long as his life.

After his death in 609 B.C., King Josiah was succeeded by a series of Kings who did evil in the sight of the Lord.  These kings led the Jewish people to turn from the Lord to worship false gods instead of the Lord. Then, in 586 B.C., the Lord fulfilled the promise that He had made to the Jewish people when it came to what would happen if they turned from following the Lord to instead follow false gods. The Lord rejected the Jewish people as He had been rejected. The Lord removed the Jewish people from the Promised Land and destroyed the Temple through the Babylonian Empire.

And from 586 to 538 B.C., the Jewish people lived as a conquered people in that nation of Babylon. Then, in 538 B.C., the Persian Emperor Cyrus, after conquering the Babylonian Empire, began to allow the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. In 535 B.C., the foundation of the Temple was rebuilt as the Jewish people placed their hope in a promise from the Lord that the Lord had made to the Jewish people hundreds of years earlier. A promise that the Lord would send a rescuer, a deliverer, a Messiah, who would bring the Jewish people back to God and back to a place of prominence in the world.

However, while the Jewish people were building their own houses, they failed to rebuild either the rest of the Temple of the walls around the city of Jerusalem. God responded by sending the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to call the Jewish people to rebuild the Temple. In 515 B.C., the temple was completed.

 However, in 458 B.C. Ezra himself returned from Babylon to Jerusalem and led the Jewish people to repent from selfishness and rebellion that had once again arisen among the people. 14 years later, in 445 B.C. Nehemiah traveled to Jerusalem and led the Jewish people to rebuild the walls around the city, which is recorded for us in the book of Nehemiah. After traveling back to Babylon, Nehemiah ended up having to return to Jerusalem in 427 B.C. in order to, once again, confront the continuing selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people.

However, 150 years after being conquered and deported by the Babylonians, where they lived in captivity for fifty years; after spending over 100 years rebuilding the Temple and the city of Jerusalem; the Jewish people were still selfishly rebelling and rejecting the Lord. The Lord responded by sending the prophet Malachi to the Jewish people with a message that reminded and warned the Jewish people He was a promise maker and a promise keeper. The Lord would send a Messiah to rescue the people and the Lord would execute His right and just response on those who refused to follow Him. The Lord promised that the Messiah’s arrival would be announced by His messenger.

And so the Jewish people waited and the Jewish people hoped. The Jewish people waited and hoped for a day when there would be an announcement of the arrival of the Messiah. For 400 years the Jewish people waited and the Jewish people hoped to hear that announcement.

Next week, we will launch into the Christmas season by looking at that announcement...

A Disturbing Discovery...

This week we are looking at the life of a king of the Jewish people named Josiah. After removing the altars where the worship of false gods occurred, King Josiah turned his attention to restoring the Temple in Jerusalem, where the worship of the One True God was to occur.

In 622 B.C., King Josiah turned his attention to repairing and restoring the Temple in Jerusalem, which had fallen into disrepair after fifty seven years of neglect by King Manasseh and King Amon. The king initiated a Temple Restoration Fund drive that involved the investment of the treasure of the Jewish people over and above their regular giving.

And as the Jewish people responded to King Josiah’s leadership in restoring the Temple by providing the resources to repair the Temple, those resources were then allocated to those who were responsible for making the repairs to the Temple. And as the Temple restoration project moved forward, an amazing discovery was made. A discovery that Ezra records for us in 2 Chronicles 34:14:

 When they were bringing out the money which had been brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the LORD given by Moses. Hilkiah responded and said to Shaphan the scribe, "I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. Then Shaphan brought the book to the king and reported further word to the king, saying, "Everything that was entrusted to your servants they are doing. "They have also emptied out the money which was found in the house of the LORD, and have delivered it into the hands of the supervisors and the workmen." Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, "Hilkiah the priest gave me a book." And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.

One day, as the Levitical Priests were cleaning out a portion of the Temple as part of the Temple restoration project, Hilkiah, who was the High Priest, or Senior Pastor, at the Temple, found a book. However, this book was not just any book. Instead this book was the book of the Law, which consisted of the first five letters that are recorded for us in our Bibles today, which the Jewish people referred to as the Law or the Torah.

These five books contained the list of commandments that revealed to the Jewish people God’s nature, God’s character, and the type of nature and character that humanity would need to possess and display in order to live in a right relationship with God. Now a natural question that arises here is “so Dave, are you saying that the Jewish people lost their Bibles? I mean how could you have church without reading from the Bible? How could you live in a growing and maturing relationship with God without hearing from God through His word?”

 Now I am not saying the Jewish people lost their Bibles; Ezra is saying that the Jewish people lost their Bibles. You see, at some point during the selfish and rebellious reign of King Manasseh, as King Manasseh turned the Temple into a place to worship false gods instead of the One True God, as King Manasseh began to destroy any copies of the Law, a priest had hidden the Law so that it would not be destroyed by King Manasseh.

And during the fifty seven years of King Manasseh and King Amon’s reign, the Law was not read and the worship of the Lord in the Temple did not occur. And once the priest who hid the Law died, the Law was lost. The Law was lost until King Josiah led the Jewish people to repair and restore the Temple.

While King Josiah sought the Lord and was faithful to the Lord, in spite of his upbringing; while King Josiah pursued a personal relationship with the Lord, he did not have the word of the Lord to inform and help guide his relationship with the Lord. Hilkiah, upon finding the Law, gave the Law to Shaphan, who was a scribe who was supposed to be an expert in the Law, to bring the book of the Law to King Josiah.

But how can you be an expert in the Law if you have never read the Law? Unless you had a copy of the Law, you would have never read the Law, because King Manasseh had destroyed every copy of the Law that he could find.

And did you notice how Shaphan approached King Josiah? Shaphan did not seem to view the book of the Law as being especially significant, did he? Instead Shaphan basically says “Hey King Josiah, Hilkiah gave me a book? What does the book say? Well, I don’t know, let me read it to you.” We see how King Josiah responded upon hearing the words of the Law for the very first time in verse 19:

 When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, "Go, inquire of the LORD for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book which has been found; for great is the wrath of the LORD which is poured out on us because our fathers have not observed the word of the LORD, to do according to all that is written in this book."

Now a natural question that arises here is “Why would King Josiah tear his clothes after hearing what the Law said?” To tear one’s clothes was a sign of profound grief and anguish that accompanied mourning. You see, King Josiah was brought to great grief as a result of what the word of the Lord revealed about the Lord and how He felt about how the Jewish people had been living. The word of the Lord revealed that the Jewish people had been living in selfishness and rebellion against the Lord for almost seventy years.

And as a result of almost seventy years of selfishness and rebellion against the Jewish people, Josiah proclaimed that “great is the wrath of the LORD which is poured out on us because our fathers have not observed the word of the LORD, to do according to all that is written in this book." In other words, the Lord is going to exercise His right and just response to our selfishness and rebellion because we have not followed the Lord or the word of the Lord.

Did you notice that King Josiah used the words us and we here? Even though King Josiah sought the Lord and was faithful to the Lord, King Josiah recognized that he was part of a community that had been rejecting the Lord. King Josiah recognized that as leader of this community he was a part of the community and that he would experience the consequences of the selfishness and rebellion in community with them.

And because of that reality, King Josiah commanded the religious leaders of the Jewish people to inquire of the Lord for the king and the Jewish people when it came to what the Lord was going to do to the Jewish people as a result of their selfishness and rebellion. We see what happens next in verse 22:

 So Hilkiah and those whom the king had told went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, the keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter); and they spoke to her regarding this. She said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Tell the man who sent you to Me, thus says the LORD, "Behold, I am bringing evil on this place and on its inhabitants, even all the curses written in the book which they have read in the presence of the king of Judah. "Because they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore My wrath will be poured out on this place and it shall not be quenched."'  "But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus you will say to him, 'Thus says the LORD God of Israel regarding the words which you have heard, "Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before Me, tore your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you," declares the LORD. "Behold, I will gather you to your fathers and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, so your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place and on its inhabitants."'" And they brought back word to the king.

The religious leaders of the Jewish people sought out a prophetess named Huldah to inquire how the Lord was going to respond to the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people. The prophetess responded to their inquiry with a twofold response. On the one hand, the Lord was going to respond to the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people over the fifty seven year reign of King Manasseh and King Amon by exercising His right and just response to that selfishness and rebellion.

The Lord was going to fulfill the promises that He had made to the Jewish people that were recorded in the Law, which the Jewish people ignored and did not even read. The Lord was going to fulfill His promise from the Law to exercise His right and just response to their rejection of Him in order to worship false gods. The Lord was going to fulfill His promise from the Law to remove the Jewish people from the Promised Land and abandon and destroy the Temple as a result of the Jewish people abandoning the Lord so as to follow false gods.

On the other hand, the Lord was going to extend grace to King Josiah. Because King Josiah had a heart that sought and pursued the Lord, in spite of his upbringing and in spite of his lack of awareness of the word of the Lord. Because King Josiah humbled himself in recognition of the words of the Lord that were recorded in the Law; because King Josiah was brought to great grief as a result of what the word of the Lord revealed about how the Lord felt about how the Jewish people had been treating Him, King Josiah would not see the destruction of the Temple and the overthrow of the Jewish nation. King Josiah would die with the peace that would come from not seeing the Jewish people conquered as a result of the Lord’s right response to their selfishness and rebellion.

Upon hearing the prophetess’s words, the religious leaders returned to King Josiah and reported all that they had heard. Now this morning, I want us to take a minute and imagine ourselves in this event from history as King Josiah. I want us to put ourselves in his shoes. You have just received word that the Lord was going to respond to the selfishness and rebellion of the people you lead by fulfilling His promise to exercise His right and just response to their selfishness and rebellion.

That’s the bad news. The bad news is that your eighteen years of leading the Jewish people to return to the Lord, has not removed the guilt that the fifty seven years of selfishness and rebellion had brought to the Jewish nation.

However, the good news is that the Lord would extend grace to you so that you would not see the Lord exercise His right and just response during your lifetime. The good news is that you will have peace in your life knowing that the nation you lead will not be overthrown during your lifetime.

You are King Josiah. What would you be thinking? What would you be feeling? How would you respond? Friday we will look at King Josiah’s response...

Following the Lord in spite of His Upbringing...

At the church where I serve, we just came to the conclusion of a sermon series that looked at the lives of kings who were placed in a position of leadership over the Jewish people. This week, I would like for us to pick up where we left off last week. Upon King Manasseh’s death in 642 B.C., his son Amon became King over the Jewish people at twenty two years of age. However, King Amon led the Southern Kingdom of Judea to trust and follow the false gods of the Northern Kingdom of Israel instead of the one true god.

And unlike his father Manasseh, who humbly repented of his selfishness and rebellion that led him to lead the Jewish people to worship false gods, King Amon arrogantly opposed the Lord and multiplied his guilt before the Lord. As a result of his corrupt leadership, in 640 B.C., after only two years as king, King Amon was assassinated by his own servants in his royal palace.

After his assassination, the Jewish people responded in two specific ways. First the Jewish people executed justice on those who assassinated King Amon by killing them. Second, the Jewish people appointed King Amon’s son, a man named Josiah, to be king of the Jewish people. And it is in this context that we jump back into a historical account of the Jewish people that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of 2 Chronicles, beginning in 2 Chronicles 34:1:

Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. He did right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left.

Ezra brings us into this event from the history of the Jewish people by introducing us to King Josiah. King Josiah became King of the Jewish people in 640 B.C., when he was only eight years old. King Josiah proceeded to lead the Jewish people for a period of thirty one years. Now a natural question that arises here is “How could Josiah be king when he was only eight years old?”

Most scholars and historians believe that up to the age of sixteen King Josiah ruled with the assistance of a regent, who mentored and counseled the king in his duties and responsibilities as a king. After being introduced to the new king, we are given a summary statement of the overall leadership of King Josiah. Ezra explains that King Josiah did right in the sight of the Lord.

 In other words, King Josiah placed his confident trust in and followed the Lord in a way that pleased the Lord. King Josiah conducted his day to day life in a way that did not turn from following the Lord, but instead placed his confident trust in the Lord. Ezra then unpacks exactly how King Josiah placed his confident trust in and followed the Lord in verse 3:

 For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, the carved images and the molten images. They tore down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars that were high above them he chopped down; also the Asherim, the carved images and the molten images he broke in pieces and ground to powder and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. Then he burned the bones of the priests on their altars and purged Judah and Jerusalem. In the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, even as far as Naphtali, in their surrounding ruins, he also tore down the altars and beat the Asherim and the carved images into powder, and chopped down all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

When he was sixteen years old, King Josiah began to pursue a personal relationship with the Lord. And as King Josiah grew in his love of the Lord; as King Josiah grew in his relationship with the Lord, King Josiah began to lead the Jewish people to remove the things that had turned the Jewish people away from following the Lord. King Josiah led the Jewish people to remove the various altars and elevated shrines that were for the worship of false gods that had been rebuilt under the leadership of his father Amon and his grandfather Manasseh.

But not only did King Josiah encourage and lead those who were under his rule to turn from the worship of false gods to the worship of the Lord as the One True God. King Josiah extended his influence to lead the Jewish people who were under the rule of the Assyrian Empire to turn from the worship of false gods to the worship of the Lord as the One True God. Even those Jewish people who were not under his rule were influenced by King Josiah to remove the altars and elevated shrines from their lands and to recommit their lives to following the Lord.

For six years, King Josiah traveled throughout the Jewish nation, calling the Jewish people to revive their relationship with the Lord and remove the worship of false gods from the nation. After removing the altars where the worship of false gods occurred, King Josiah turned his attention to restoring the Temple in Jerusalem, where the worship of the One True God was to occur. We see King Josiah’s efforts to restore the Temple in 2 Chronicles 34:8:

 Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah an official of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God. They came to Hilkiah the high priest and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the doorkeepers, had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel, and from all Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Then they gave it into the hands of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the LORD, and the workmen who were working in the house of the LORD used it to restore and repair the house. They in turn gave it to the carpenters and to the builders to buy quarried stone and timber for couplings and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had let go to ruin. The men did the work faithfully with foremen over them to supervise: Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites of the sons of Merari, Zechariah and Meshullam of the sons of the Kohathites, and the Levites, all who were skillful with musical instruments. They were also over the burden bearers, and supervised all the workmen from job to job; and some of the Levites were scribes and officials and gatekeepers.

In 622 B.C., King Josiah turned his attention to repairing and restoring the Temple in Jerusalem, which had fallen into disrepair after fifty seven years of neglect by King Manasseh and King Amon. The king initiated a Temple Restoration Fund drive that involved the investment of the treasure of the Jewish people over and above their regular giving.

And as the Jewish people responded to King Josiah’s leadership in restoring the Temple by providing the resources to repair the Temple, those resources were then allocated to those who were responsible for making the repairs to the Temple.

And as the Temple restoration project moved forward, an amazing discovery was made. A discovery that we will look at tomorrow…

While repentance results in forgiveness of our rebellion, it does not remove the consequences of our rebellion...

This week we are looking at the life of a king of the Jewish people named Manasseh. Wednesday, we looked on as King Manasseh rejected the covenant agreement that the Jewish nation had entered into with the Lord to follow and obey the Lord. Instead, King Manasseh led the Jewish people to reject the worship of the Lord to instead live a life that worshiped and participated in the very activities that led the Lord to give the Jewish people the Promised Land in the first place. King Manasseh seduced the Jewish people away from a love relationship with the Lord to an adulterous relationship with false gods in such a way that was far more displeasing to the Lord than any of the behavior of the nations that the Lord had previously removed from the Promised Land.

We looked on as a the prophets proclaimed a message of misery and distress for the Jewish people as a result of King Manasseh and their selfishness and rebellion. Now today I want us to take a minute and imagine ourselves in this event from history as King Manasseh. I want us to place ourselves in his shoes. As a result of your leadership and worship of false gods, the Lord has sent to you his messengers the prophets with a message of judgment and destruction. You are King Manasseh. What would you be thinking as you heard this message? What would you be feeling? How would you respond? We see how King Manasseh responded in 2 Kings 21:16:

 Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD.

King Manasseh responded to the Lord’s message through the prophets by shedding very much innocent blood, including the blood of the prophets. Jewish tradition tells us that King Manasseh responded to the warnings that he received from Isaiah the prophet by sawing Isaiah in two. King Manasseh responded to anyone who questioned or criticized him by killing them, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other with the blood of the innocent.

The fact that during much of Manasseh’s reign, in contrast to other times during the reign of the kings of the Jewish people, there is little heard from the prophets attests to the king’s oppression and persecution of these spokespersons of the Lord. And while 2 Kings gives us very little additional information about King Manasseh, we discover more about the life of King Manasseh in a section of another letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called 2 Chronicles. So let’s look at this section of this letter together, beginning in 2 Chronicles 33:10:

The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the LORD brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon. When he was in distress, he entreated the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. When he prayed to Him, He was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

Here we see Ezra reveal for us the reality that the Lord responded to King Manasseh’s oppression and persecution of the prophets by using the Assyrian Empire and His instrument to exercise His right and just response to the king’s selfishness and rebellion. In 649 B.C., the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal attacked the city of Jerusalem and took King Manasseh captive. And, as was common practice for the Assyrians, a ring was placed through the nose of King Manasseh as he was led like an animal back to the Assyrian capital.

In total humiliation, the king of the Jewish people was taken like an animal to the nation of Assyria. And as Manasseh sat as a humiliated man in prison in Assyria, Ezra tells us that the king humbled himself before the Lord. King Manasseh prayed to the Lord as asked for forgiveness of his selfishness and rebellion. King Manasseh prayed that the Lord would extend grace and mercy toward him. King Manasseh prayed for an opportunity to return the Jerusalem.

And, in response to King Manasseh’s prayer, the Lord gave the king the opportunity to return to Jerusalem and resume his role as king. In 647 B.C., after spending two years in prison in Assyria, the humiliated and humble king received the opportunity to return back home. And as a result of the Lord doing what seemed to be impossible, Ezra explains that King Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. We then are given a glimpse of how King Manasseh finished as a king beginning in 2 Chronicles 33:14:

 Now after this he built the outer wall of the city of David on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance of the Fish Gate; and he encircled the Ophel with it and made it very high. Then he put army commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah. He also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. He set up the altar of the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it; and he ordered Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. Nevertheless the people still sacrificed in the high places, although only to the LORD their God.

Upon returning to his role and responsibility as king, King Manasseh demonstrated his repentance from his selfishness and rebellion in three specific ways. First, King Manasseh led the Jewish people to restore the walls of the city of Jerusalem that had been destroyed during the invasion that resulted in his capture and captivity. In addition, King Manasseh strengthened the defenses of the Jewish nation by placing qualified military leaders throughout the nation. Thus King Manasseh repented from the abdication of his responsibilities when it came to his military leadership of the Jewish people.

Second, in verse 15, King Manasseh removed all of the images and altars of foreign gods that he had built from the Temple and the Temple courtyard. These false gods and altars were taken outside the city and destroyed.  Thus King Manasseh repented from the selfishness and rebellion that led him to worship and lead the Jewish people to worship false gods instead of the one true God.

And third, in verse 16, we see King Manasseh reinstitute the Jewish sacrificial system that had been previously shut down under his leadership. King Manasseh worshipped the Lord and encouraged the Jewish people to follow and worship the Lord. Thus King Manasseh demonstrated his repentance by turning the trajectory of his life that was moving away from the worship of the Lord back to the worship of the Lord. King Manasseh demonstrated his repentance by leading the Jewish people to turn from placing their confident trust in false gods to putting their confident trust in the Lord.

Nevertheless, the Jewish people failed to follow the Lord fully. While the Jewish people stopped worshipping false gods; while the Jewish people returned to worshipping the Lord; the Jewish people still chose to worship the Lord at the High Places instead of the Temple, which violated God’s commands when it came to how He was to be worshipped.

You see, while King Manasseh had demonstrated his repentance during the final six years of his leadership of the Jewish people, his repentance did not change the impact of his influence on the Jewish people during his 49 years of rebellion against the Lord. And when King Manasseh finally died in 642 B.C., he was not buried with honor with the rest of the kings of the Jewish people.

Instead, King Manasseh was buried on the palace grounds of his home in dishonor. You see, while King Manasseh had repented from his selfishness and rebellion, the consequences of that selfishness and rebellion followed him in his death.

And it is in this event from history from the life of King Manasseh that we discover a timeless truth that has the potential to powerfully impact how we live our lives today. And that timeless truth is this: While repentance results in forgiveness of our rebellion, it does not remove the consequences of our rebellion. Just as it was for King Manasseh, just as it has been for humanity throughout history, while repentance results in forgiveness of our rebellion, it does not remove the consequences of our rebellion. Just like King Manasseh, we are responsible and accountable to the Lord for our actions.

Just like King Manasseh, when we selfishly rebel against the Lord in a way that insults, provokes, and angers the Lord, we place ourselves in a position to experience consequences from the Lord. Just like King Manasseh, when we selfishly rebel against the Lord in a way that insults, provokes, and angers the Lord, we also place others who are influenced by us to selfishly rebel against the Lord in a position to experience consequences from the Lord. And just like King Manasseh, while our repentance from selfishness and rebellion results in forgiveness from the Lord for our rebellion, it does not remove the consequences of our rebellion.

So here is a question to consider: How are you responding to the reality that while repentance results in forgiveness of our rebellion, it does not remove the consequences of our rebellion? Are you living your life in such a way that recognizes the reality that we are responsible and accountable to the Lord for our actions? Are you living your life in such a way that recognizes the reality that our actions have consequences for us and others?

The Increasing Influence of an Evil King...

This week we are looking at the life  of a king of the Jewish people named Manasseh, who led the Jewish people for 45 years, which was the longest period of rule for any King of the Jewish people. Yesterday, we discovered that during the first 39 years of King Manasseh’s leadership of the Jewish people, King Manasseh distinguished himself as perhaps the most evil king that ever led the Jewish people. King Manasseh selfishly rebelled against the Lord by following the detestable customs of the foreign nations that the Lord had driven out from the land that He had given the Jewish people in seven specific ways.

King Manasseh’s selfish and rebellious worship of false gods instead of the one true God insulted the Lord and provoked the Lord in a way that angered the Lord. However, over the passage of time, King Manasseh’s selfishness and rebellion against the Lord only continued to increase, as we see in verse 7:

Then he set the carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the LORD said to David and to his son Solomon, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever. "And I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them." But they did not listen, and Manasseh seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the sons of Israel.

You see, not only did King Manasseh build altars for the public worship of the sun, moon, and stars in the courtyard of the Temple. King Manasseh then proceeded taint and pollute the Temple by placing an image of the false god Asherah in the Temple itself. In addition, King Manasseh rejected the covenant agreement that the Jewish nation had entered into with the Lord to follow and obey the Lord.

Instead, King Manasseh led the Jewish people to reject the worship of the Lord to instead live a life that worshiped and participated in the very activities that led the Lord to give the Jewish people the Promised Land in the first place. King Manasseh seduced the Jewish people away from a love relationship with the Lord to an adulterous relationship with false gods in such a way that was far more displeasing to the Lord than any of the behavior of the nations that the Lord had previously removed from the Promised Land. We see how the Lord responded to the spiritual adultery of King Manasseh and the Jewish people in verse 10:

Now the LORD spoke through His servants the prophets, saying, "Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols; therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. 'I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 'I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies; because they have done evil in My sight, and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.'"

Because King Manasseh had seduced and led the Jewish people to follow and embrace the detestable customs of the foreign nations that the Lord had driven out from the land that He had given the Jewish people, the Lord had a message for King Manasseh. And that message, which was delivered through His spokespersons the prophets, was this:  “Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.”

In other words, the Lord was going to bring such distress and misery upon the Jewish people that the ears of those who hear of it would ring and quiver in disbelief. The prophets who proclaimed this message of misery and distress then painted a powerful word picture of God’s judgment and justice. Just as a builder uses a measuring line and level to assess and measure the quality of his work, the Lord would assess and measure the Jewish people according to the same right and just standard that He had used with the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

And, just as it was with the Northern Kingdom of Israel under King Ahab, the Southern Kingdom of Judea under King Manasseh would fail miserably when it came to meeting God’s standards. And just like a dirty dish that is wiped clean and set to dry, the Lord would exercise His right and just response to the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people by removing them from the land that the Lord had given them.

The Lord was now abandoning the Jewish people as they had abandoned Him to worship false gods instead of the one true God. King Manasseh, and the Jewish people’s, selfish and rebellious worship of false gods instead of the one true God insulted the Lord and provoked the Lord in a way that would result in the Southern Kingdom’s destruction, along with the people and possessions deliverance into the hands of their enemies.

Now I want us to take a minute and imagine ourselves in this event from history as King Manasseh. I want us to place ourselves in his shoes. As a result of your leadership and worship of false gods, the Lord has sent to you his messengers the prophets with a message of judgment and destruction.

You are King Manasseh. What would you be thinking as you heard this message? What would you be feeling? How would you respond?

Friday, we will see how King Manasseh responded...

The Expressions of Evil by an Evil King...

At the church where I serve we are spending our time together on Sunday mornings looking at the lives of kings who were placed in a position of leadership over the Jewish people. And as we looked at the lives of these kings, we are discovering several timeless truths that have the potential to powerfully impact how we live our lives today.

This week I would like for us to pick up where we left off last week. In 696 B.C., King Hezekiah’s son, a man named Manasseh, began to rule with King Hezekiah as king. You see, King Hezekiah was aware that the time of his death was nearing as a result of the promise that the Lord had made to him in 702 B.C. after miraculously healing him, which we looked at least week.

So, in preparation for his death, King Hezekiah wanted to ensure a smooth transition for the Jewish people. And for ten years, King Hezekiah and Manasseh shared the leadership responsibilities of the Jewish people. Then, in 685 B.C. king Hezekiah died. And it is in this context that we jump back into an event from history that is recorded for us in a section of a letter in the Bible called the book of 2 Kings. So let’s do that together, beginning in 2 Kings 21:1:

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hephzibah. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. He built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem I will put My name." For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD provoking Him to anger.

After providing us a summary statement of King Manasseh in verse one, we see the writer of 2 Kings describe the rule of the king. After King Hezekiah’s death in 685 B.C., King Manasseh proceeded to lead the Jewish people for 45 years, which was the longest period of rule for any King of the Jewish people.

And during the first 39 years of King Manasseh’s leadership of the Jewish people, King Manasseh distinguished himself as perhaps the most evil king that ever led the Jewish people. King Manasseh selfishly rebelled against the Lord by following the detestable customs of the foreign nations that the Lord had driven out from the land that He had given the Jewish people in seven specific ways.

First, King Manasseh embraced the worship of the false gods of the Canaanite nations that had previously led the Lord to execute His right and just response to the selfishness and rebellion that the worship of these false gods had produced in the land that the Lord had given the Jewish people.

Second, King Manasseh rebuilt all the idolatrous worship centers, which were called high places that his father King Hezekiah had destroyed. As we talked about earlier in this series, high places, were shrines that were elaborate in design and décor and were located at slight elevations throughout the Jewish nation that were used for the worships of  gods. After the Temple was built, these locations were to be destroyed.

Third, King Manasseh worshipped the false gods of Baal and Asherah that were previously embraced by the Northern Kingdom of the Jewish people and led to their judgment by the Lord through the Assyrian Empire, which we looked at last week.

Fourth, King Manasseh worshipped the sun, moon, and stars. But not only did King Manasseh worship the sun, moon, and stars; King Manasseh also built altars for the public worship of the sun, moon, and stars in the courtyard of the Temple.

Sixth, in verse 6, we see King Manasseh engage in the worship of Molech by participating in child sacrifices. The King of the Jewish people sacrificed his son for the worship of false gods instead of worshipping the one true God.

And seventh, King Manasseh engaged in the practice of divination, which is to seek guidance and direction from a supernatural power other than God. To engage in divination, King Manasseh would consult with spiritual mediums, which was in direct violation of God’s commands to the Jewish people that are recorded in the Law, which are the first five books that are recorded for us in the Bible today.

King Manasseh’s selfish and rebellious worship of false gods instead of the one true God insulted the Lord and provoked the Lord in a way that angered the Lord. However, over the passage of time, King Manasseh’s selfishness and rebellion against the Lord only continued to increase.

Tomorrow we will discover how that selfishness and rebellion increased….

A life of humility brings the Lord glory, while a life of pride attempts to rob the Lord of glory...

This week we are looking at the life of a King of the Jewish people named Hezekiah. Wednesday, we looked on as King Hezekiah, as he was attempting to put together a coalition to stand up to the Assyrian Empire and its pending invasion, King Hezekiah became so sick that his life was in danger. And as King Hezekiah suffered in sickness, the Lord sent Isaiah the prophet to the king with a very discouraging message: 'Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.'" We looked on as King Hezekiah prayed that the Lord would remember and heal him.

We looked on as the Lord responded to King Hezekiah’s prayer by immediately healing King Hezekiah. The Lord also promised King Hezekiah that He would add fifteen years to his life. In addition, the Lord promised King Hezekiah that He would deliver the Southern Kingdom from the Assyrian Empires invasion, which we just looked at on Wednesday.

The Lord responded to King Hezekiah’s humble dependence upon the Lord by blessing him physically, financially, and spiritually. In contrast, the Lord responded to the King of Assyria’s arrogance by removing any glory and replacing the glory with judgment. And if King Hezekiah’s story had ended there, King Hezekiah’s story would have been the perfect story.

However, King Hezekiah’s story did not end there. Instead, King Hezekiah’s story took a turn that would impact the Jewish people in a profound and powerful way. We see King Hezekiah’s story turn in 1 Kings 20:12. Let’s look at it together:

 At that time Berodach-baladan a son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and the house of his armor and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, "What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?" And Hezekiah said, "They have come from a far country, from Babylon." He said, "What have they seen in your house?" So Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them."

Shortly after being miraculously healed by the Lord, as King Hezekiah continued his attempts to put together a coalition to stand up to the Assyrian Empire and its pending invasion, King Hezekiah received a visit from some political envoys from the nation of Babylon. King Hezekiah responded to the Babylonian envoys presence and presents by not only sharing the story of God’s intervention in his life.

In addition, King Hezekiah also proudly showed off all of his riches and the nations riches. The Lord responded to King Hezekiah’s arrogance by sending the prophet Isaiah with a question: "What did these men say, and from where have they come to you? What have they seen in your house?"

Now King Hezekiah’s response, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: They came from a far country as I was hoping that they would come help me against the Assyrians. And I showed them all of my stuff. I showed them all that was in my bank accounts, my retirement account, my royal estate; I even showed them how much money we had as a nation and our military defense. I showed them everything I have; I left nothing out”. We see the prophet’s response to King Hezekiah in verse 16:

 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD. 'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says the LORD. 'Some of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken away; and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.'"  Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good." For he thought, "Is it not so, if there will be peace and truth in my days?"

The prophet Isaiah confronts King Hezekiah with the reality that as a result of his arrogance and prideful act of showing off all that the Lord had blessed the Jewish people with, there would be a day in the future when the Jewish people would lose all that they had been blessed with. You see, now this new and up and coming Babylonian Empire knew exactly where to go to find an abundance of wealth. This new and up and coming Babylonian Empire knew exactly what military defenses the Jewish people had.

And as a result of King Hezekiah’s attempts to absorb the glory that belonged to the Lord, once the Babylonian Empire defeated the Assyrian Empire, the southern kingdom of the Jewish people would become their next target. But did you notice King Hezekiah’s response when confronted by Isaiah the prophet?

Instead of confessing his sin, King Hezekiah’s pride was satisfied with having peace in his time. Instead of grieving over the consequences that his arrogant pride would have on future generations of the Jewish people at the hands of the Babylonian Empire, King Hezekiah’s pride was satisfied with the fact that the Lord would fulfill the promises that he had earlier made to him concerning the Assyrian Empire.

And it is in this event from history from the life of King Hezekiah that we discover a timeless truth that has the potential to powerfully impact how we live our lives today. And that timeless truth is this: A life of humility brings the Lord glory, while a life of pride attempts to rob the Lord of glory. You see, just like King Hezekiah, when we place our confident trust in and followed the Lord in a way that pleases the Lord we bring glory to the Lord.

Just like King Hezekiah, when we keep in close connection with the Lord so as to follow the Lord we bring glory to the Lord. Just like King Hezekiah, when we live in humble dependence upon the Lord in a way that deflects all the glory to the Lord, we bring glory to the Lord. However, just like King Hezekiah, we attempt to rob the Lord of glory when we arrogantly attempt to take credit for the Lord’s activity in our lives. And just like King Hezekiah, we attempt to rob the Lord of glory when we attempt to absorb the glory of the Lord instead of deflecting the glory to the Lord.

So here is a question to consider: How are you responding to the evidence of the Lord’s activity in your life? Are you responding to the Lord’s activity in your life by attempting to absorb that glory for yourself? Are you a glory hog?

Or are you living a life of humble dependence upon the Lord that brings the Lord glory? Are you trusting and following the Lord in a way that is closely connected to the Lord and pleases the Lord so as to bring Him glory? Are you responding to the evidence of the Lord’s activity in your life by deflecting all of the glory to the Lord?

Because a life of humility brings the Lord glory, while a life of pride attempts to rob the Lord of glory.

The humility of a Hebrew King....

This week we are looking at the life of a leader of the Jewish people named Hezekiah. Yesterday, we discovered that , 701 B.C. the Assyrian King Sennacherib launched a military campaign against the Southern Kingdom of the Jewish people. The Assyrian invasion resulted in the capture of 46 cities of the southern kingdom and a siege of the city of Jerusalem.

Messengers from the King of Assyria attempted to intimidate with Jewish people with propaganda that was designed to encourage the people of Jerusalem to rise up against King Hezekiah. The propaganda attempted to convince the people of Jerusalem that they were without help from either the Egyptians or the Lord as a result of the failure of King Hezekiah.

The messengers basically said “Your King Hezekiah is misleading you because the Lord will not deliver you. After all, we are the Assyrian Empire. We are the most powerful nation on the planet. We have conquered every kingdom that we have faced and every god we have faced. We even defeated your fellow Jewish countryman of the Northern Kingdom. What makes you think that your God is any different?”

Then the Assyrian Empire, who had the city of Jerusalem under siege, turned their attention to defeating the nation of Egypt. However, to make sure that the residents of Jerusalem did not forget what they had said. The Assyrian King has his messengers deliver a letter to the city of Jerusalem to remind them of what he had said.

Now I want us to take a minute and imagine ourselves in this event from history as King Hezekiah. Place yourself in his shoes. You have strived to place your confident trust in and follow the Lord in a way that pleased the Lord. You have led the Jewish people to remove the places where the worship of gods other than the one true God were held and have reopened the Temple. You have kept in close connection with the Lord so as to follow the Lord.

And now you are faced with an enemy that is opposed to the Lord and that will not be appeased to stop their invasion of the people of the Lord. What would you be thinking? What would you be feeling? How would you respond?  We see how King Hezekiah responded to the desperate situation that he found himself in 1 Kings 19:14:

Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, "O LORD, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. "Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. "Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands  and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. "Now, O LORD our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God." Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.'

In total humility and total dependence upon the Lord, King Hezekiah prayed that the Lord would reveal His character and bring Himself glory throughout the earth by bringing justice and judgment upon the Assyrian Empire who had mocked the Lord and who worshipped false gods instead of the Lord. In total humility and total dependence upon the Lord, King Hezekiah prayed that the Lord would reveal His character and bring Himself glory throughout the earth as the One True God by delivering the Jewish people from their enemies.

Upon offering his desperate prayer of humility and dependence upon the Lord, King Hezekiah receives a message from the prophet Isaiah, that the Lord had heard his prayer and was about to respond to his prayer. And just a few verses later, in 2 Kings 19:32, we see Isaiah the prophet communicate the Lord’s response to King Hezekiah’s prayer. Let’s look at that response together:

'Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, "He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. "By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,"' declares the LORD. 'For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David's sake.'" Then it happened that night that the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh. It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

Isaiah the prophet proclaimed to King Hezekiah the Lords’ promise of deliverance and victory over their enemy. And the following morning, the Lord provided the Jewish nation a miraculous victory by exterminating the entire Assyrian army. Without an army, the King of Assyria was forced to return home in defeat.

 Then, in 681 B.C., Sennacherib the Assyrian King was assassinated by his oldest sons, who had been bypassed by the king in order for his youngest son to rule after his death. You see, King Hezekiah’s humble dependence upon the Lord led to the Lord delivering the Jewish people from certain defeat. And King Hezekiah’s humble dependence upon the Lord led to the Lord receiving glory in the eyes of the world.

King Hezekiah kept in close connection with the Lord so as to follow the Lord in a way that deflected all of the glory off of himself and to the Lord. We are then given a second glimpse into the life of King Hezekiah and his life of humble dependence upon the Lord in 2 Kings 20:1:

In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, 'Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.'"

Here we see the writer of 2 Kings give us a front row seat from the life of King Hezekiah that occurred in 702 B.C., just prior to the Assyrian invasion of the Southern Kingdom. As King Hezekiah was attempting to put together a coalition to stand up to the Assyrian Empire and its pending invasion, King Hezekiah became so sick that his life was in danger.

And as King Hezekiah suffered in sickness, the Lord sent Isaiah the prophet to the king with a very discouraging message: 'Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.'" Imagine yourself as King Hezekiah, how would you respond to such a message from the Lord after how you have lived your life before the Lord. How would you respond if you had been King Hezekiah? We see King Hezekiah’s response in verse 2:

 Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, "Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Hezekiah basically says “Lord I beg you, please remember and consider how I have trusted and depended upon you throughout my life. Please remember and consider how I have placed my confident trust in and followed You in a way that pleased You. Please remember and please heal me.” We see how the Lord responded to King Hezekiah’s prayer in verse 4:

Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD. "I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David's sake."Then Isaiah said, "Take a cake of figs." And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD the third day?" Isaiah said, "This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?" So Hezekiah answered, "It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps." Isaiah the prophet cried to the LORD, and He brought the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

The Lord responded to King Hezekiah’s prayer by immediately healing King Hezekiah. Before the prophet Isaiah could leave the royal residence, he was sent back in to proclaim to the king that he had been healed by the Lord. But not only did the Lord immediately and miraculously heal King Hezekiah. The Lord also promised King Hezekiah that He would add fifteen years to his life. In addition, the Lord promised King Hezekiah that He would deliver the Southern Kingdom from the Assyrian Empires invasion, which we just looked at a few minutes earlier.

Now when King Hezekiah asks the Lord for a sign here it is important to understand that King Hezekiah is not asking for this sign because he doubted the Lord. Instead, King Hezekiah is asking for the sign because he trusted in the Lord. You see, unlike his father King Ahaz, who refused the sign that the Lord offered him through the prophet Isaiah during the time that he faced an invasion from the Northern Kingdom of Israel, King Hezekiah wanted the Lord to offer him a sign. The Lord responded to King Hezekiah’s request for a sign by providing a miraculous sign of a shadow retreating opposite of its normal direction.

The Lord responded to King Hezekiah’s humble dependence upon the Lord by blessing him physically, financially, and spiritually. In contrast, the Lord responded to the King of Assyria’s arrogance by removing any glory and replacing the glory with judgment. And if King Hezekiah’s story had ended there, King Hezekiah’s story would have been the perfect story.

However, King Hezekiah’s story did not end there. Instead, King Hezekiah’s story took a turn that would impact the Jewish people in a profound and powerful way.

Friday, we will look at that turn...