Old Testament - 2 Kings 19 & 20 - July 12, 2022

 7/12/2022 – 2 Kings 19-20

2 Kings 19

Assyria plans to come against Israel again. Sennacherib, Assyria’s current king, has good reason to believe that his army will conquer Jerusalem. Assyria had defeated many nations, including Israel…and he thinks that Jerusalem will be no different. 

When King Hezekiah hears that the Assyrians are on their way to destroy Jerusalem, he puts on sackcloth and goes to the temple. He also sends for the current prophet: Isaiah. V 4 tells us that Israel has every earthly reason to believe they will be defeated. But instead Isaiah tells them: “Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard…Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” (v’s 5-6)

This is when Hezekiah gets a letter from the king of Assyria, saying “Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?” (v 11) The Assyrian king then goes on to list all the nations he has completely destroyed.  Hezekiah’s next move was to go to the temple and pray for the Lord’s directions. 

His poignant prayer is in v’s 15-19, ending with his faithful sentence: “Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou are the Lord God, even thou only.”

Isaiah sends the Lord’s answer to Hezekiah. The Lord’s comforting words-34 are found in v’s 20-34, ending with the promise from the Lord that he “will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.” I love that statement. Kind David had done much for Israel in his lifetime, but toward the end of his life, he had made some serious mistakes by going against the Lord’s commandments. V 34 reminds us that the Lord will always help us through our hard times, and also through our mistakes and mis-judgements—as long as we reach out to the Lord in our efforts of repentance. 

The outcome is in v 35: “And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses”. And then in v 37 we learn that the Assyrian king was killed by his own son as he worshiped his idols. 

2 Kings 20

This chapter starts with the sad news that King Hezekiah is “…sick unto death. And the

Prophet Isaiah…came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.”  (v 1) But Hezekiah’s reaction was to turn “his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, speaking of his continuous efforts to follow the Lord, and to seek His help for himself and all of Israel. (v’s 3). 

The Lord then had Isaiah go to King Hezekiah with the Lord’s answer to the king’s prayer: the Lord had heard and felt the King’s fervent prayer, and because of that in three days, the Lord would heal him AND give him another 15 years to live and care for Israel, and that the Lord would stand by him, defending him and his people. 

But Hezekiah felt that he needed more than faith to believe the Lord’s promises of a life extended.  Hezekiah asked for physical proof that the Lord would do as Isaiah had said He would do. Evidently Hezekiah also felt the need to prove himself to other kings that he brought to his house to show them all the great treasures he owned.  This is the first we have heard of a ‘pride problem’ with King Hezekiah. He also took full credit for all the things the Lord had helped him to do.

Isaiah came back to Hezekiah, with the Lord’s changed promises: that in Hezekiah’s extended life, he would now have all his precious things carried away from him and taken to Babylon; his own sons would “be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 

Hezekiah did continue to reign, and he did to helpful things like building a conduit that would bring water to the city. And when he did die, his son “Manasseh reigned in his stead”…and I’m afraid we will learn that Manasseh was NOT a worthy king.


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