Here is Hezekiah

"Here is Hezekiah" - 2 Kings 18:1-8 The Holy Scriptures devote more space to Hezekiah than to any other king since the days of Solomon. We can see: (2 Chronicles 29:32-36). The priests and Levites were placed in their places, as was pointed out in David's time (see 25): They "sang" and played the holy "instruments" while the burnt offering was offered, all present bowed down in adoration along with the Levites and those who wanted to bring burnt and peace offerings.

I. They willingly brought (freely, happily, willingly of their own accord) "so much" that the Levites had to help the "priests."

A. There weren't enough sanctified "priests."

1. Then the people rejoiced, because God was there.

2. The people rejoiced, there was revival, and because this brought glimpses of hope for a better future for Judah.

3. But this was only the beginning of Hezekiah's reform.

4. By the time Hezekiah came to power, Judah had virtually become a vassal state (tributary, serf) under Assyrian rule.

5. Though his father had been one of the worst.

6. He was one of the best.

7. This shows us that the good that is found in a person is not the work of nature, but of the grace that overcomes (overcoming some obstacle or difficulty) the greatest difficulties and disadvantages.

8. Presumably, Ahaz gave his son as bad an education as his example; His title was perhaps in charge of the bad priest; his servants and companions would be addicted to idolatry; yet Hezekiah turned out to be eminently good.

9. When God's grace works, what can resist it?

10. (3) He did what was right, according to all that David "his father" had done.

11. Hezekiah was a second David, for he had the same love for God and his house that David had.

12. Let us not be intimidated or frightened by the decay of virtue (strength, courage, power) or think that because things are going wrong, they will go from bad to worse.

13. That is not good logic, for after many evil kings God raised up one who was like David himself.

14. (2 Chronicles 29:3) He was a zealous reformer of his kingdom.

15. "He opened the doors of the house of the Lord."

16. And he repaired them: they were destroyed.

17. He found his kingdom very corrupt and the people extremely superstitious.

18. When the truth is known and allowed to be so, people must be superstitious (a belief contrary to reason and alien to religious "faith").

19. They had always been, but in the last reign they had been more so than ever.

20. Idolatry had spread throughout the country, but his spirit was agitated against this idolatry, and therefore, as soon as he had the power in his hands, he proposed to abolish it (to render a law without urgency).

21. He destroyed the high places, images, and symbols of Asherah and destroyed "everything" completely; "sanctified."

22. Hezekiah's zeal was especially in having removed the high places, which his predecessors, even the good ones, "had not dared to do."

23. He saw that they were an affront to the temple and an occasion for idolatry, so he followed God's standard, not the example of his predecessors; he made a law of their removal and executed this law with all vigor.

24. When he saw that the bronze serpent, though divinely institutionalized, had become an occasion for idolatry, he tore it to pieces.

25. It seems to have been carefully preserved as a reminder of God's kindness to his ancestors in the wilderness.

26. When they began to worship the creature (created) instead of the Creator, those who would not have been attracted to the worship of the images borrowed from the Gentiles, were led by the tempter to burn incense to the bronze serpent because it had been ordained by God Himself as the healing instrument for the bite of poisonous serpents.

27. Hezekiah, in his pious zeal for the honor of God, not only forbade the people to worship it, but, in order that they might never abuse it again, he proved to them that it was nothing but a piece of bronze, and that therefore it was foolish and wicked to burn incense to it.

28. So, he tore it to pieces.

29. In his reform he showed two eminent qualities:

a. Great courage and trust in God.

b. That it would sustain him in what he was doing and preserve him from harm (5).

c. "Constancy" and perseverance in the performance of one's duty. (6)

30. (7-8) His great prosperity.

31. As he was on God's side, God was on his side.

32. Seeing that he succeeded, he threw off the yoke of the king of Syria, to which his father had basely submitted.

33. Having settled the idolatry of the nations from the country, he might well have thrown off the yoke of the oppression of those nations.

34. He made a vigorous attack on the Philistines and defeated them as far as Gaza. (8)

35. There was no fear of anything, but a full confidence in the "glory of Jehovah," which was with him. Hallelujah!