Hezekiah
I'm going through the life of Hezekiah. I'm just loving
it (and let me tell you why). First of all I looked at Hezekiah--the man. He was
the King of Judah and he was a godly king. He was twenty-five years old
when he became the king and he reigned as king for
twenty-nine years. The Bible says these things about him--He did what
was right in God's eyes, he trusted God, he was like no other, he held fast to
the Lord, he followed the Lord, he obey the Lord's commands. Then, we see
what God did in response to Hezekiah "goodness." God was with him and Hezekiah
was successful in all he did.
Then, there is Hezekiah--the story. Hezekiah
revolts against the King of Assyria. Then, the King of Assyria lays siege
to Hezekiah's kingdom. Hezekiah responds by apologizing to the King of Assyria.
I looked at how he apologized and found it very good. First, he admitted he was
wrong. Second, he asked what he could do to make it up. Whether or not his
apology was sincere, it gives us a good example of what we should do.
The King of Assyria takes bunches of gold,
silver, and palace riches. Then, the same king sends his high commander to talk
to Hezekiah. This commander slams Hezekiah and God several times. First, he says
the people shouldn't trust Hezekiah. Secondly, he says that the people shouldn't
trust God. Third, he claims that God had commanded him to march against Judah
(this is a complete lie and is shown later when this same man brags that not
even God could stop him). But, Hezekiah's messengers don't say anything because
that's what Hezekiah told them to do. It's neat to me that when we follow God,
enemies will rise against us. The enemy wants us to not trust God and he tries
to throw doubt between us and God. Hezekiah messengers show us what we should
do. His messengers obeyed Hezekiah--we should obey our King!
When Hezekiah is brought the news of what
the commander said, he tears his clothes (a sign of mourning) and run directly
to the temple of the Lord. What a picture for us! When we are being persecuted,
when problems come, when we don't know what to do, when we are scared of
confused or worried, RUN to God. Another neat thing that hit me was
this--Hezekiah had to go to the temple to talk to God; we are told in the New
Testament that we ARE the temple of God. Anytime we face any problem, we don't
have to go anywhere because God sent first His Son and then His Holy Spirit to
us!
The second thing King Hezekiah did was to
send men to talk to Isaiah and to ask Isaiah to pray. I think that it was a very
wise move then and it would be a very wise move now. When we are facing a
problem, we should have another strong Christian pray with us and for us.