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...