Hezekiah’s Temptation

1. 2 Kings 18-19 Hezekiah’s Temptation

2. Sources of Hezekiah’s Story 2 Kings 18-20 2 Chronicles 29-32 Isaiah 36-39 Daniels poem

3. Judahs Monarchy Reheboam Abijam Asa Jeshoshaphat Jehoram Ahaziah Athaliah Jehoash Amaziah Uzziah Jotham Ahaz Manasseh Amon Josiah Jehoahaz Jehoiakim Jehoiachim Zedekiah Hezekiah

4. Hezekiah the king 2 Kings 18:1-2 ESV 2 Kings 18:1 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. .

5. 2 Kings 18:3 3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. Hezekiah the king with a difference

6. Hezekiah the king 2 Kings 18:4 4 He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah.

9. DOING WHAT IS RIGHT Exodus 20:3 3 "You shall have no other gods before me.

10. Hezekiah the king 2 Kings 18:4 .. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). . .

11. DOING WHAT IS RIGHT Exodus 20:4-5 4 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God

12. King Hezekiah 2 Kings 18:5 5 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.

13. Joash 2 Kings 12:2-3 2 And Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all his days, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people continued to sacrifice and make offerings on the high places.

14. Amaziah 2 Kings 14:3 3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, yet not like David his father. He did in all things as Joash his father had done. 2 Kings 14:4 4 But the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places.

15. 2 Kings 18:3 3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. Hezekiah the king with a difference

16. Josiah 2 Kings 23:25 25 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 . .

17. Josiah 2 Kings 23:6-7 6 And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron 7 And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the LORD 2 Kings 23:19 19 And Josiah removed all the shrines also of the high places 2 Kings 23:23 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem. .

18. 2 Kings 18:6 6 For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses.

19. How God sees us • Personal spirituality • Reflected on what we do • Clean house... • Petty quarrels • Bad habits • Things done within his power • For us is there a ......nevertheless....but?

20. Accomplisments

21. Accomplishments Rebelled against Assyria 2 Kings 18:7 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.

22. Northern Kingdom defeated and exiled

23. Northern Kingdom defeated and exiled Sennacharib

24. The reason for the fall 2 Kings 18:11-12 11 The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, 12 because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.

25. 2 Kings 18:14-16 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. 15 And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king's house

26. . 16 At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.

27. Hezekiah’s response 2 Kings 19:19 19 So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone."

28. Charles Taylor Prism

29. Senaccharib’s annals • I fixed upon him.And of Hezekiah [king of the] • Jews,who had not submitted to my yoke, • 46 of his fenced cities, and the strongholds, and the smaller cities which were round about them and which were without number, by the battering of rams, and by the attack of engines, • and by the assault of foot-soldiers, and ... • I besieged, I captured 200,150 people, small and Great, male and female, horses and mules, and asses, and camels, and oxen, and sheep innumerable from their midst I brought out and • I reckoned [them] as spoil.

30. [Hezekiah] himself like a caged bird within Jerusalem, • his royal city, I shut in. Banks against him • I threw up, and whosoever came forth from the gate of his city, I turned back. • I requited his sin.

31. Senaccharib’s annals • As for Hezekiah himself, • the fear of the majesty of my lordship overwhelmed him; and • the Urbu of his trusty warriors, • whom, in order to strengthen Jerusalem, his royal city, • he had brought in, left him. • 30 talents of gold, and 800 talents of silver, and precious stones.

32. Hezekiah’s illness • 2 Kings 20:1 ESV 2 Kings 20:1 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. 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; you shall not recover.'" In the midst of 2 year seige

33. Hezekiah’s prayer • 2 Kings 20:2-3 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, 3 "Now, O LORD, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

34. God’s anwser • 2 Kings 20:5-6 5 "Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: 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, 6 and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake."

35. Hezekiah asked and was given as sign • 2 Kings 20:11 11 And Isaiah the prophet called to the LORD, and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz.

36. God’s Response 2 Kings 19:34-35 34 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David." 35 And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Herodotus wrote mice ate bow strings

37. Isaiah 37:5-7 5 When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 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 young men 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.'"

38. Sennacherib’s fate 2 Kings 19:37 37 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

39. The fruits of victory • 2 Kings 20:12 12 At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

41. 2 Kings 20:13 13 And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.

42. 2 Kings 20:14-15 14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, "What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?" And Hezekiah said, "They have come from a far country, from Babylon." 15 He said, "What have they seen in your house?" And Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them."

43. The Judgement of God • 2 Kings 20:16-18 16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD: 17 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD. 18 And some of your own sons, who shall be born to you, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."

44. Hezekiah’s Response 2 Kings 20:19 19 Then said Heze-kiah to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good." For he thought, "Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?"

45. Hezekiahs Life One observationFour temptations

46. The observation It is possible to be faithful and yet fail in some areas David ---extraordinarily humble man did not oppose Saul, heart after God then there is Bathsheeba. Abraham ..lies about wife, Eliazer Eli no moral guts to discipline own family Job pre-emptive sin offering...God owes him answers Temptation comes after life time of service Idolise super Christians ...float above us mortal men Temptation not less as you grow old change focus Need to be real with each other

47. Need to hold each other in check • Galatians 2:11-14 11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

48. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?" Be careful of grudges

49. 1. Temptation to False priorities • 2 Kings 20:2-3 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, 3 "Now, O LORD, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly. • False evaluation of priorities in the light of eternity

50. Paul • Philippians 1:22-23 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.