We Can Relate to Hezekiah

I don't know about you, but I want to stand for God when no one else does and when all hell breaks loose. I really do. But there are times it gets challenging and the temptation to compromise is real and I often take it in subtle ways. 

If you feel the same way, the story of Hezekiah is for you. 

Hezekiah comes to the throne of Judah after a long dark period in Israel's history. Scripture recounts the testimony of his deep trust in the Lord in spite of what his predecessor did and the neighboring nations were doing.

2 Kings 18:5–8 (ESV) He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses. 7 And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. 8 He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.

Hezekiah trusted the Lord and he was blessed for it.

There is a common myth that you can become a Christan, do whatever you want and God will still bless you. That's just not true. When we trust God, doing what He says to do no matter what we face, we will experience His faithfulness and goodness.

Do not be ignorant of how brave it was to trust the Lord in a time of great apostasy in ancient Israel. No one was doing what Hezekiah does here. To the North, Hoshea was not only sinning against the Lord, but he was also seeking help from Egypt to fight off the Assyrians. He had taken Israel back to captivity and led them into bondage once again. Around Judah were the encroaching Assyrians and all the other pagan nations that had influenced Israel to sin against the Lord for generations. 

Hezekiah is a model of standing for truth in the power of the Lord when everyone, literally everyone, seems to be falling away. 

But there's an aspect to Hezekiah's reign we can all relate to. As much as Hezekiah sought to trust the Lord, the 18th chapter of 2 Kings informs us again of the advancing army of Assyria. In fact, it advanced so much the king of Assyria came to Lachish, a town 40 miles away from Judah's capital of Jerusalem. While Chronicles tells us Hezekiah stood his ground at first against Assyria eventually, in 2 Kings 18, we see him cave. 

2 Kings 18:13–14 (ESV) In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear.” And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

If we are honest, we are a lot like Hezekiah. We want to trust God but when the enemy surrounds us or gets threatening, we cave. Yet I don't want you to miss what happens in the next chapter. After hearing the threats of Assyria's "Minister of Propaganda" Hezekiah is woefully discouraged. He sends one of his men to the prophet Isaiah to see if there was any hope in the Lord "his" God. The response was reassurance...

2 Kings 19:6–7 (ESV) Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. 7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’ ”

What we see is God's faithfulness in spite of Hezekiah's own failures and doubts. There is a double experience every believer has. We believe and yet we still struggle to believe. The good news is, God does not give up on you. That struggle is understood and He will care for you. Hezekiah's story is hope for troubled believers. When we are weak, God is still strong.