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Hezekiah
2 Kings 18 – 20 and 2 Chronicles 29
– 31
John Killinger
tells about the manager of a minor league baseball team who was so
disgusted with his center fielder's performance that he ordered him to
the dugout and assumed the position himself.
The first ball that came into center field took a bad hop and hit the
manager in the mouth. The next one was a high fly ball, which he lost in
the glare of the sun--until it bounced off his forehead. The third was a
hard line drive that he charged with outstretched arms; unfortunately,
it flew between is hands and smacked his eye.
Upon getting up from the ground, he ran back to the dugout, grabbed the
center fielder by the uniform, and shouted. 'I can’t believe you! You've
got center field so messed up that even I can't do a thing with it!'
We live in a society that suffers from victim mentality and loves to
play the blame game. But in our passage this morning we will notice that
if anyone ever had a right to embrace their status as a victim, to blame
their circumstances on their parents and to generally make excuses for
evading responsibility it was Hezekiah, king of Judah. You can find his
whole story in 2 Kings 18 - 20 and 2 Chronicles 28 – 31, but let me give
you a brief history.
His father was Ahaz, one of Judah's most wicked, ineffective kings. Ahaz
made the infamous Ahab look like a cross between Billy Graham and
Abraham Lincoln. Ahaz set up an idol in the temple in the same room as
the altar of sacrifice.
In the valley of Hinnon outside Jerusalem, he erected a statue to the
god Molech where he sacrificed one of his own sons, Hezekiah's brother.
He plundered the temple of all the gold and precious stones to pay
tribute to the king of Assyria. What he didn't give away, he used for
profane purposes throughout his reign.
He set up idols on the roof top of his palace. He entered into an
ill-advised alliance with Assyria and instead of becoming the partner
he'd hoped, he became a vassal to one of the most ruthless regimes in
history. When Ahaz finally, and thankfully, breathed his last, he was
buried in Jerusalem, but not in the tomb of the kings. And he was not
mourned.
Hezekiah inherited the spiritual, economic and political legacy his
father left him. And it was a sorry legacy. The nation was in debt. The
people were broken in spirit. The country was in danger of being
enslaved permanently to the Assyrians. And to make matters worse
Hezekiah was only 25 years old when he took the throne.
But he had a few things going his way. He had a good mother, Abijah,
daughter of Zechariah.
He had a great prophet to help him, Isaiah.
And he had a prayer life that wouldn't quit. 2 Chronicles 29:2 says, "he
did what was right in the eyes of the Lord just as his father David had
done."
The Jewish writings of centuries later say that he was one of Judah's
three greatest kings, today as we go through his story I'll tell you
what he did that won that kind of praise. But that will be a side note,
today I want us to look at what makes Hezekiah a model for heroic
prayer?
First He believed that God was aware, involved and all powerful.
James says in James 2:18, " Show me your faith apart from your works,
and I will show you my faith by my works.”
In other words, what you do says something about your faith. I'd like to
amend James' words if I may. Hezekiah showed his faith by how he prayed.
Here's how it happened. The Assyrian king Sennacherib was busy subduing
nation after nation when he received a report that the Egyptian king
Tirhakah, was amassing an army and planning to march against him.
Figuring he needed to consolidate his territory and secure his borders,
he sent a letter to Hezekiah, that you can read in 2 Kings 19:8-13.
The gist of the letter was this; Hezekiah, don't think for one minute
that your little god is going to save you from me. I'm pretty busy right
now with this Egyptian thing, but if you know what's good for you,
you'll just surrender. I will remind you that Assyria has dominated
every other nation in this part of the world. None of their gods saved
them and yours won't save you. Sincerely, Sennacherib.
Now let’s look at 2 Kings 19: 14 to see what Hezekiah’s response was.
Read 14 - 19
This is probably my favorite part of this whole story. Hezekiah takes
the letter to the temple lays it out on the floor and says, "God, will
you read this! Do you see what he's saying about you? He's insulting
you! He's saying you aren't interested in us, that you aren't aware, and
that you lack the power to do anything about his threats. He says you're
just like the blind, deaf and dumb idols of all the other nations. So
God, I want you to deliver us from this maniac so that all the world
will know that you alone are God."
Here we see Hezekiah doing the thing that the Jews in the Old Testament
were so good at; reminding God to be God. But the thing I love about
this is that Hezekiah assumed God was literate. "Open your eyes Lord and
see," he prayed. Has that ever occurred to you? God can read? English!
Now we could spend a while right here looking at some immediate and
practical things that we can learn from Hezekiah's heroic prayer. But I
want to give you just a quick few:
The next time you sit down to pay the bills and you are overwhelmed by
the difference between what you owe and what you have, do what Hezekiah
did; "Lord, do you see all these bills? Read them, Lord! Look at the
balance in my check book! God I don't have it! I need your help." God
can not only read, he can do math. He did write the book of Numbers!
The next time you get a nasty letter from somebody's attorney, lay it
out on the table and say, "God, do you see this nasty letter? I just
wish you'd read it. Do you see the accusations they are making? Do you
see the things they are demanding? God I need your help!"
But there is another application of this idea that God is aware and
involved and powerful. Have you ever written your prayers? Ever kept a
prayer journal?
Now this is an idea I studiously avoided for years. But while I was on
seclusion I journaled my thoughts, my struggles, my triumphs and my
prayers. To be honest it felt weird at first but I believe that the
results will be nothing short of amazing.
You see we usually speak at the rate of 150 to 200 words per minute.
Research suggests that we think at the rate of 1300 words per minute. So
there is no truth that your mouth moves faster than your mind.
You can think a lot faster than you can speak Writing, however, is more
on the order of 40 - 50 words per minute. Writing forces us to slow
down, to think through every word. We write a lot more carefully and
thoughtfully than we think or speak.
A written prayer is a thoughtful prayer. We choose our words more
intentionally. We weigh what it is we are asking God to do, how we are
asking him to respond, what it is we really want. We pray more deeply
when we take the time to write it out. We are writing a letter to God.
Because God can read. God is involved, aware and all powerful.
But I am told that the real benefit comes weeks and months later when we
look back at what we wrote. If I pray a mind prayer -- even if I pray
audibly -- I'm apt to forget not only what I asked for, but that I
prayed at all. If I can look up what I prayed on July 9th, then I can
see not only where I was in my walk on that day a month ago, but I can
see how God has responded.
Well we have a written prayer so let’s look back and see how God
responded to Hezekiah's prayer?
Listen to 19:35 - 37. (Read).
All Hezekiah did was ask God to read a nasty letter. And God responded.
Hezekiah believed God was aware, involved and powerful.
Secondly Hezekiah believed that prayer was no substitute for personal
responsibility.
The nasty letter he received wasn't the first time Hezekiah had had
trouble from Sennacherib. On an earlier occasion he had sent his supreme
commander to personally deliver a threat to Jerusalem. In response to
that threat Hezekiah went into the temple and mourned and prayed. He
urged all the people of Jerusalem to mourn and pray as well. But that
isn't all he did.
He rebuilt Jerusalem's defenses, repairing the watchtowers that had
fallen from neglect. He stepped up production of shields and weapons. He
constructed a tunnel connecting the pool of Siloam to the spring of
Gihon to insure that Jerusalem would have a reliable water supply in
case of siege. The tunnel was cut through more than 1,700 feet of solid
rock.
Once the tunnel was completed, Hezekiah rerouted the walls to encompass
the pool of Siloam. When Sennacherib finally mounted his assault on the
city, Hezekiah had all the streams in the vicinity damned up and
rerouted so that the enemy wouldn't have a ready water supply.
When Hezekiah took the throne of his father, he was deeply distressed by
the spiritual condition in which his father had left the kingdom. He
prayed about it, but he did something too. He commissioned the priests
and Levites to consecrate themselves and then to purify the temple. They
completed the task in 16 days.
What I want you to see is that Hezekiah believed in prayer, but he knew
that prayer was no substitute for personal responsibility.
Malcolm Boyd said, "Prayer represents commitment; to pray is to say,
'I'm willing to get with it -- love, responsibility, action. "
Sometimes, we take an issue to God and ask him to deal with it. Maybe
it's a temptation, maybe it's a dream you have for your life, or maybe
it's a relationship. We ask God passionately to deliver us from
temptation, to realize the dream to restore the relationship. Then we
sit back and wait for God to work his magic. And nothing happens. And
nothing happens. And nothing happens. And we say, "God doesn't answer
prayer."
That’s baloney. Just because we pray for something doesn't mean our job
is finished. You don't just piously turn it over to God and leave it all
to him. Jesus commissioned the disciples to pray, but he also told them
to work for the harvest is plentiful.
When you ask God to deliver you from a temptation, do you go right back
out there and put yourself in a tempting situation?
When you ask God to help you realize a dream, do you sit there and wait
for the dream to come to you or do you go out and get it?
When you ask God to restore a relationship, do you go on being your same
old hateful self? Prayer doesn't absolve us of responsibility. In fact,
prayer demands more of it.
Next Hezekiah knew that reliance on God required restored relationships.
He had inherited the throne during the time the kingdom was divided.
Israel to the North, Judah, ruled by Hezekiah, to the south. The first
thing he did was to restore the temple worship. That took all of sixteen
days. Then, he did something no other king had attempted. He tried to
unite the divided kingdom in worship to God.
Look back at 2 Chronicles 30:5 - 6. So they decreed to make a
proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the
people should come and keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel,
at Jerusalem, for they had not kept it as often as prescribed. So
couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king
and his princes, as the king had commanded, saying, "O people of Israel,
return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may
turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the
kings of Assyria.
It wasn't enough to purify the priests. It wasn't enough to restore the
temple worship. It wasn't enough to just pray. Hezekiah knew that
reliance on God meant restoring relationships. Now, not everyone
welcomed the invitation. But many did. And they came and worshipped.
Which is something they wouldn't have done if Hezekiah hadn't backed up
his prayer life with love for his brothers and sisters.
Do you believe that your prayers are affected by the quality of your
human relationships? If not then maybe you need to remember this;
1 Peter 3:7 - Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an
understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel,
since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers
may not be hindered.
Did you hear Peter telling us men that if we don't respect our wives God
won't respect our requests?
What about 1 John 2:9, 11 -- "Anyone who claims to be in the light but
hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever hates his brother is in
the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he
is going because the darkness has blinded him."
Did you hear John telling us that if our relationships with our brothers
and sisters are characterized by darkness, our relationship with God is
just as dark?
Today if you are having trouble with your conversation with God, maybe
it has less to do with you and God and more to do with you and a
particular brother or sister. Reliance on God requires restored
relationships.
Hezekiah is an example of Heroic prayer because he believed God was
aware, involved and powerful.
He believed prayer was no substitute for personal responsibility.
He knew that reliance on God required restored relationships.
And finally, he believed that God understood even when the words
wouldn't come.
Look back in 2 Kings 20: 1 - 3. (Read).
All Hezekiah could do was get the prayer started. Then he turned his
face to the wall and wept. Have you ever been there? So destroyed that
all you could do was cry? Look what happens next.
(Read 4 - 11).
God heard a prayer Hezekiah couldn't even pray. Now that's good news.
God can not only read a letter. He can read a broken heart.
Today is your heart breaking? Have you tried to do it all by yourself
only to end up lonely, tired, and defeated? Let God be involved in your
life, by inviting Him to calm your spirit and ease your mind.
Accept personal responsibility for your spiritual state, and seek
forgiveness from God, your family, or others.
Finally Come back to God and let Him restore your relationship. Maybe
that means that today you need to put Him on in Baptism? Or maybe that
means that you need to ask Him to start again.
Whatever your prayer this morning God understands.
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