Right?
Lord, we are just thankful as we continue in Thy presence, for Thy wonderful presence. We are thankful for the blessing of remembering You at Your table.
Lord, we are thankful that You have provided such a great salvation, that we can come and really put You in remembrance. We do glorify You, Lord.
And Lord, we are thankful too that You have given us Your Word. As we come to Your Word, we find ourselves in a place of great dependence. But again, we are thankful that You have made every provision for this time. You have made provision through Your Holy Spirit for speaking and for hearing.
And Lord, we are those who just do not want to be hearers of Your Word, but really allow Your Word to be working in our lives, that we would be those who are doers of Your Word—responding in life, Lord; not just gaining knowledge about You, but really having encounters with You, Lord, every day.
We commit this time into Your hands. In Jesus’ name, amen.
In the times I have been sharing, we have been considering the days that we are living in. As we look around, sometimes we think, “How much worse can it get?” Then all of a sudden, it gets just a little worse—or worser, for us non-English majors. That is worser.
But in these times of weakness and declension, how do we keep going on? How do we stay encouraged? We are thankful for the Lord and how He encourages us in 1 Corinthians. It says that the history of the nation of Israel, as we see it in the Old Testament, is a great encouragement to us in these days.
There are many reasons for this, but one is that it is there for us to learn lessons. As we look back and reflect upon the history of Israel, we can be encouraged and strengthened to continue pressing on.
In a general way, when you look back at the overall history of Israel, it reached its zenith during the time of David and Solomon. But because of the sins of Solomon, a time of declension and division came in. The kingdom was divided into the northern and southern kingdoms, Israel and Judah.
In Israel, there was really never any great reviving. They just continued to go further and further away from the Lord, pursuing their own interests, the idols, the religions, and the things of this world.
In Judah, at times the Lord looked down and found a man after His heart, and He raised him up. Just as in those days, the Lord is doing the same thing today. He is looking for ones after His heart.
So we have been looking back at the kings, trying to consider the ones the Lord was able to use, that they could be an encouragement to us. Just as in the Old Testament, this verse in 2 Chronicles 16:9 says:
The eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth,
that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.
That is what God is looking for today. God is simply looking for a people whose heart is completely His. It does not get complicated. He is not looking for us to do this and do that, and perform this task and that task. He is looking for ones whose hearts are completely His.
When He finds those people, just as He acted in the times of Israel, we see throughout church history that He has acted again and again. There is an ebb and flow. There is a reviving, and then there is a going back.
That is probably reflective of most of our Christian lives, if we are honest. There is an ebb and a flow. We get really encouraged by the Lord, and we take some steps forward. Then we can get a little confident in ourselves and not as reliant upon Him as we were at one time, and we start falling back.
But then God, in His great love, through circumstances or somebody close to us, or whatever it may be, wakes us up. He sends that call to return to Him. As we return to Him, He again revives us, continues to recover all that is His, and encourages us to go on.
This is why we are looking at the kings. As we are living in times of declension, many of these kings were living in times of declension. Their hearts were set on the Lord, and the Lord used them. We desire that the Lord would use us in this day and time.
The last king we looked at was Jotham. There was a wonderful, though brief, testimony about him in 2 Chronicles 27:
He became mighty because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.
He had his heart completely toward the Lord. He ordered his ways and walked in the ways of the Lord.
Tragically, after him, his son Ahaz was born. Ahaz was one of the most wicked kings in Israel. Sometimes we think that if we have good parents, the children will automatically turn out well. It does not work like that. We are going to see in a second how it can work the other way too.
Jotham was a good king, and Ahaz ended up being wicked. He actually closed the doors to the house of God. Within Ahaz’s life, the more things went wrong, the more he turned his heart away from the Lord. The Lord was pressing him to get his attention, but he kept turning further and further away.
But out of Ahaz came Hezekiah. Most Jewish traditions rate him among the three great kings: David, Solomon, and Hezekiah. He was a great king.
As we look at him today, we look to the Holy Spirit to teach us some lessons through Hezekiah. Turn to 2 Chronicles 29. We will read the first four verses, as they introduce us to Hezekiah.
Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem.
His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zachariah.
And he did right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father David had done.
In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.
And he brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the square on the east.
We see how, out of the midst of the decay and declension that his father Ahaz had brought in, God found a man after His own heart. That was the testimony of David: David had that heart for the Lord. We find it again in Hezekiah.
We do not know for sure, but many have wondered whether the influence in Hezekiah’s life was his mother. It looks as though she was from a priestly family.
This should be a great encouragement to sisters in this day and time. In the midst of the declension and all that we are living in, and in the way that even motherhood is being put down today, there was one whom God could use—this dear one, Abijah—to raise up Hezekiah and perhaps put the Word of God in his heart.
That is a precious gift that each mother has as a child is entrusted to her. To me, motherhood is probably the greatest ministry, the greatest gift, and the greatest stewardship that one can have upon this earth. May the world not rob us, as His people, of the preciousness of that stewardship. May we not look down upon it. It is very precious. But that is another time.
Hezekiah reigned twenty-nine years. Through each of these kings, we have also seen the influence that prophets had. During the time of Hezekiah, the two major prophets who influenced his life were Isaiah and Micah. They had a tremendous impact upon him.
It is interesting how, as it talks about Hezekiah, it says that he did right according to his father David. Chronologically, David was not his father, but spiritually David was his father, because Hezekiah went back to the very foundation of the kingdom. He went back to the beginning.
David was that standard. Hezekiah did not simply want to go back to Jotham, Jehoshaphat, or Asa. He went all the way back to David, the one after God’s own heart. This was his standard, because David was the standard by whom God measured all the kings.
It begs the question within our hearts: Who is the standard in our lives? In our days of declension, who is that standard? We know that it is Christ.
We have a tendency at times to think, “Let us just go back a few years. Maybe things were a little better then. Let us go back to this point in our life; it was better.” God wants us to go all the way back, all the way back to the beginning, having our foundation in simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
He is the One. We do not want to go back to when we thought things were better. We want to go back to what Christ has within His heart. We want Him to be our standard.
This week, I was looking in the Gospel of Luke at the story of the Pharisee and the publican, who both went into the house of the Lord. To me, it shows us who the standard was in their lives.
As the Pharisee went into the house of the Lord, he said, “Oh, Lord, look how good I am. Look at all I have done for You. I am glad I am not like that one.” The Pharisee’s standard was other people and his own works.
But that sinner, that publican, went in and said, “Lord, I am a sinner.” The Lord was his standard. He knew his place.
May we not be ones who think, “Oh, Lord, I thank You that I am not like that brother.” We do not have other brethren as our standard. The Lord is our standard.
As an assembly, may we never say, “Oh, Lord, we thank You that we are not like those other assemblies.” That is just pride rearing up. We are all sinners saved by grace. It is all by His mercy that we are here.
He is our standard. Whenever we compare ourselves to Him, we fall at His feet. If we see the beauty and the glory of our standard, it will also bring out greater praise and glory during our time at the Lord’s table, because we will see the greatness of what He has done.
As we touch Ephesians, we will see the riches of all that we have been brought into. Let us not unconsciously set other standards in our lives. The Lord is our standard, and that is what we are pursuing.
When Hezekiah became king, there were two things that he did immediately, and they were going on almost simultaneously. He began removing all the idols from the land and cleansing it. He also began restoring the house of God.
These two things go together. It is no good to simply take evil out if there is nothing good to come in. Yes, we take evil out and remove it from our lives, but then we bring the Lord into the situation.
Likewise, it does not have a great impact if we simply try to bring the Lord into a situation where we have not cleansed and consecrated ourselves, and cleansed the vessels that would be fit for His use. These two matters go hand in hand: the cleansing, purifying, and consecrating of ourselves, and the bringing in of His life.
It reminds me of the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s ministry was to pluck up, break down, and destroy; but then he was also to build up and plant. There was that taking out, but there was also that building up and planting. We see this within Hezekiah’s life.
On the negative side, Hezekiah started cleansing the land. Most of the good kings removed idols, but there was one unique thing that Hezekiah did.
In 2 Kings 18, there was the bronze serpent that Moses had used. Remember the story in Numbers 21, where the people were murmuring against the Lord? The Lord, in judgment, sent serpents among the people. As the serpent bit people, judgment came in.
But then the Lord told Moses to raise up a bronze serpent, and anyone who looked to that serpent would be healed and saved. Praise God, there were ones who turned to that serpent.
After that, we do not know what happened to the serpent. We never hear any more about it until we come to 2 Kings. At some point in Israel’s history—and we do not know when—they turned it into an idol and started burning incense to it.
This piece of bronze had been used by the Lord in a mighty way. It was a testimony to our Lord Jesus: as we look unto Him, we are saved. It was a picture of Christ and salvation, and it had been used in a marvelous way.
But was there any intrinsic spiritual value in that piece of bronze? It was just a piece of metal. The value in it was Christ, the life of the Lord, His power, and the way He used it. There was no spiritual value in the object itself.
They had turned it into an idol and a superstition, and Hezekiah utterly destroyed it.
It begs the question within our hearts: What about us? Do we have these types of idols in our lives? Do we have objects, or even a teaching, in which we place some spiritual value in and of itself?
Do we hold certain places, events, or conferences and feel, “Oh, this is what we need again to truly experience the Lord”? We can unconsciously create these so-called religious idols and have them impact our lives.
Yes, at one time God may have used them in a mighty way, and God can continue to use them. But are we putting a value in them that God never intended?
Look at this building. I thank the Lord for how He has provided this building, and we are thankful for it. We are called to be stewards, and we should care for this building. But is there any intrinsic religious value in this building? Absolutely not.
We can subtly think, “Oh, I have to get to that building to do this or that.” We limit God in the way He works, and we can create these idols.
Many believers wear crosses around their necks. I thank the Lord; we should respect the cross, value it, and it can be a testimony. But are we putting religious value in that piece of metal?
We need to have the Lord search our hearts, because we can unconsciously begin adding spiritual value to something that God has used in our lives, and we actually end up limiting the Lord.
One of the things for which we are greatly indebted within this assembly is the conference. We are very thankful for that conference. But one thing we have to guard in our hearts is this: Do we only think God can speak at the conference?
We pray for the conference to come, and we are thankful that He does speak. But it can almost become, “Well, I have two more months before God can speak.” He can speak to us today. He can speak anytime.
Now, I am as pro-conference as anybody. Do not misinterpret that. But we can subtly put intrinsic spiritual value in inanimate things. I am trying to make the point that we can put value in something that God never intended.
He wants to use these things in our lives. He uses events and past experiences. So often we can think, “Oh, if I can get back to that place, that little wooded grove on the side of the hill where I had that experience with the Lord, there I can touch Him again.”
Maybe you can, but do not limit God. He can touch us here and now and meet us in wonderful ways. It is amazing how the flesh can try to be so religious and substitute things for the life of Christ.
This is what Hezekiah saw. He saw that this thing, which had at one time been used by God in a mighty way, had been given the wrong value by the people. May we really learn from that lesson.
As our Lord was upon the earth, He made these wonderful testimonies. As they looked around at all their religious heritage, He said, “There is one greater than Jonah here. There is one greater than the temple here. There is one greater than Solomon here.”
There is One greater than all of our experiences. There is One greater than these religious places. Do we have that daily, intimate relationship with Him, to know the greater One?
This is what so many of the Jews were missing. They were looking back, locked up in a religion, and had lost the very life. The Lord wants us to enter in, to maintain that life in a fresh way, and to have that intimacy, because that is so essential in times of declension.
We get away from the life to which He has called us. May the Lord really bring us back and revive us in that.
On the positive side, Hezekiah began to restore the house of God, the priesthood, and the Word. We saw in 2 Chronicles 29:3-4 how, immediately upon becoming king, he began this wonderful process of restoration.
This was one whose heart was on fire for the Lord. This was one responding in first love. He had love for the Lord and love for His house. He pressed through with this desire, and praise God, he quickly brought it into restoration.
It only took about sixteen days. This place had been utterly ruined, and much had been stripped from it. Yet, as people set their hearts to it, it was amazing how wonderfully and quickly it was restored.
At the end of 2 Chronicles 29, verse 35, it speaks of how worship was restored:
There were many burnt offerings with the fat of the peace offerings, with the libations for the burnt offering.
So the service of the house of the Lord was established again.
And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, because the thing came about suddenly.
Naturally, if we had looked upon Hezekiah’s life when he first became king, and he said, “I want to restore the house of God. I want to bring the Lord back to His rightful place,” we might have said, “That is a good idea, but look at all the damage Ahaz has done. It will take you a long time.”
Praise God, with the Lord, a day can be as a thousand years. When He found ones whose hearts were in the right place, God moved quickly and mightily.
So often we think, in these days of such declension, “Oh, Lord, how can You ever recover a testimony for Yourself in this day and time? We have fallen so far away.” But when God finds hearts that are toward Him, He can move immediately, right away. He has a different timetable than we have, and praise God for that.
This was a marvelous time of restoration. There is one little phrase in this account of worship that I love, in 2 Chronicles 29:27:
And when the burnt offering began, the song to the Lord also began with the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel.
It reminds us of what our brother shared as we opened this morning. As we come into His presence and see what He has done—Christ as our burnt offering, Christ as our sacrifice—there is that song to the Lord being recovered and lifted up.
It is an interesting phrase. You do not see it much, but it was a song to the Lord. It was not a song about them or anything else. It was simply that song to the Lord coming out. We want to be those too who are offering up that song.
As Hezekiah continued, he not only restored the temple, but the Lord put it upon his heart that they would celebrate the Passover. In 2 Chronicles 30, it says:
And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover unto the Lord, the God of Israel.
What a wonderful burden the Lord had put upon his heart. This Passover was the foundational work that the Lord had done: a testimony of bringing the people of God out of Egypt and into the land of His own possession; bringing them out of the world, and showing how He was their deliverance.
They celebrated in a way that had not been celebrated in over three hundred years. It was a marvelous celebration.
One thing that touched me so much about Hezekiah here was that he really was a man after God’s own heart. One after God’s own heart has a heart for all of God’s people.
Hezekiah was not just burdened and concerned about those in Jerusalem. He was not saying, “All those of us in Jerusalem, let us celebrate the Passover,” or, “Those of us in Judah, let us celebrate the Passover.” He said, “No, I want all of God’s people. I want all of Israel.”
He invited them all. He sent couriers throughout all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba—from the northern to the southern parts—that they would come and see all that God had done.
He had his heart set on a testimony for all God’s people. In 2 Chronicles 29:24, it says:
And the priests slaughtered them, and they made a sin offering with their blood upon the altar, to make atonement for all Israel; for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.
Not just Judah—for all Israel. Christ has made provision for all. We are God’s people.
Hezekiah was reaching out, making this offering, and sending people throughout the kingdom to invite everybody to come. At this point, it was not until about the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign that the northern kingdom was taken into captivity by Assyria. They were still there.
We actually see God’s love for that northern kingdom as He reached out and called them back to Himself one last time before judgment. God has such an everlasting love, and He was calling them back to Himself.
It is sad how many responded. In 2 Chronicles 30:10, it says:
So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun; but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.
Here they were, reaching out. God’s love was reaching out, but it was rejected. Many in Israel were rejecting and laughing them to scorn. But praise God:
Nevertheless certain men of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.
Also on Judah came the hand of God to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and the princes by the word of the Lord.
It is wonderful how, even though some rejected, they came back together. If you count the tribes referenced here, representatives from perhaps five or six tribes of that northern kingdom came back and gathered together.
In this celebration of the Passover, we see one of the greatest acts of the grace of God, even under a time of law, when they had all these ceremonial laws to keep.
Many who came back had not gone through all the ceremonial washings, cleansings, and other things required by the law. Hezekiah prayed for them. At the end of verse 18, it says:
May the good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.
And the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.
They had not gone through all the ceremonial laws, but they had a heart. They came back with a heart for the Lord. People talk about not seeing the grace of God in the Old Testament, but this is a marvelous picture of the grace of God.
His grace was greater than the law. He intervened because He is always looking for hearts. These ones had prepared hearts. They had made a sacrifice in the midst of being mocked and scorned by others in their community. They made a choice to come from different areas of Israel, to return, to see what God had done, and to celebrate the Passover.
Their hearts were prepared, and God came in and said, “Yes.” It is wonderful how there was this grand invitation. Even though those in the northern kingdom of Israel had turned their backs on the Lord, the Lord never turned His back on them.
They were in a terrible spiritual place, but God continued to call to them to return. It is a marvelous testimony of how God has His heart for all His people, desiring that they would come back to this place of oneness and unity in Him.
At the end of 2 Chronicles 30, verse 26, we read:
So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem.
Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to His holy dwelling place, even unto heaven.
Their prayers—the sacrifice and incense of praise—ascended to the very presence of the Lord in heaven. What a glory it was. When God finds hearts for Himself, worship and adoration are set free.
It begs the question in our lives: Where is our heart? Is our heart for all of God’s people?
When we gather at this table, do we see it as a testimony for all of God’s people? Do we realize there is one loaf? It is one loaf. Is our heart for all of God’s people in that one loaf and that one cup?
Or is it just for the ones who gather with us? Is it just for the ones who may have a similar vision? Is it just for the ones we know?
Hezekiah was not content to celebrate the Passover just for those in Jerusalem or just for those in Judah. He saw God’s heart to restore all His people.
When we see this table, it is a testimony for all God’s people—the provision that Christ has made. Christ is our Passover. He has this desire, and He died for each and every one of us.
When we pray for the recovery of God’s people and the recovery of that testimony of Jesus, for whom are we praying? Are we really praying for those who are far off, regardless of their spiritual condition or what they may be doing?
Are we praying for the Lord to recover them, that the Lord would have that testimony unto Himself? The more we see God’s heart for His people, the more our hearts will be broken when we see the condition of His people. It provokes us to prayer and adoration unto Him.
We know, as we see in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, that in the end days there are those who by His grace respond to Him: the remnant in the Old Testament and the overcomers in the New Testament.
There are those who respond and those who do not. But what is the heart of that responding remnant? Their heart is still for all God’s people.
When Ezra led that group back from Babylon into Jerusalem, they built the altar to the God of Israel. It was not merely an altar to the God who was there in Jerusalem. It was not merely the altar of the God of the remnant. It was the altar of the God of all Israel.
They were the testimony even for those who had chosen to stay in captivity in Babylon. Their heart was still for them.
Brothers and sisters, there are many of our brothers and sisters today who are still in captivity. Their hearts can be in many places. But is our heart for them? Is our heart that the Lord could truly come and do a mighty restoration work?
He is God of all the people. May we not somehow limit for whom we are standing. If we are not careful, we can think that we are standing only for those of a similar vision. No, we are standing for Christ. This is the testimony of Jesus, and He has died for all His people.
This is what Hezekiah saw. There was a visible testimony during the time of Hezekiah to the oneness and unity of all God’s people. That is only achieved through the cross.
As we pray that the Lord would accomplish this wonderful work of unity, may He bring us all back to the foot of the cross. That is where true unity, true oneness, and true restoration are found.
We talk about restoration and recovery, but it is done through the cross: the working of the cross, laying down our ideas, laying down this and that, and allowing the Lord to come in and set us free.
I have been praying that the Lord would open my heart in a fuller and greater way to this, because I think it has a direct impact upon our prayers for God’s testimony in this hour.
Sometimes I think we pray for God’s testimony in too small an arena. He desires that all His people would be recovered. He desires that there would be this coming to Him in a marvelous testimony.
We know some are not going to respond, but we are still going to keep praying for everyone to respond, that He can draw them. We do not know who will respond and who will not.
In many ways, it was the foolishness of God to send those couriers out to Israel. Israel had rejected God, turned its back on Him, and had no further use for Him. Yet the foolishness of God sent these ones and invited them to the Passover.
Would we be fools for Christ today, praying for ones who look as if they have totally gone away, who seem totally uninterested, pursuing their own doctrines and theologies, or whatever it might be? We are still one in Christ.
That is who we are standing for. That is what this table testifies of. May that really touch us as we pray for God to work in this hour.
One marvelous thing He would do is bring about the recovery of the testimony of the oneness of the body of Christ—not merely the teaching of the body of Christ, not merely the teaching of the church, but the experiential, living practice of us being one in Christ and caring for one another.
That is His great love. He purchased that for us. We are studying Ephesians and speaking of the riches into which we have been brought. One of those riches is that we are brothers and sisters in this body of Christ.
Many may be in different places and going different ways, but what is our call? Our call is to stand for that oneness, and to be those who are really standing for His heart and for His interests.
In this first part of King Hezekiah’s life, we see the marvelous work he did in bringing about recovery: the restoration of the house of God and the restoration of the Passover. God was moving in a marvelous way.
But then came the fourteenth year of his reign, and he faced two great challenges. In 2 Chronicles 32, the first challenge was that Judah was invaded by Assyria.
After these things, and this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fortified cities, and thought to win them for himself.
But thank the Lord, as Hezekiah and Judah humbled themselves before the Lord, He delivered them from the hand of Assyria. In verse 20, we read:
And Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz prayed because of this, and cried to heaven.
And the Lord sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria.
I love how mighty and powerful our Lord is. Assyria had this great army, and the Lord just sent an angel—one angel. It does not even say the angel. If it said “the angel,” we might think, “Well, that is Christ; He is all-powerful.” But it says, “an angel.”
An angel empowered by God can conquer the things of this world. Brothers and sisters, we have been brought into that place too. Praise God.
That invasion was the first thing. The second thing that happened during that year was that Hezekiah became ill. In verse 24:
In those days Hezekiah became sick unto death: and he prayed unto the Lord; and He spoke unto him, and gave him a sign.
Hezekiah became ill, cried out to the Lord, and the Lord healed him. But what was Hezekiah’s response? Look at verse 25. It is so discouraging. Sometimes you look at these kings; they are supposed to encourage us, but sometimes it is discouraging too.
But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.
Hezekiah gave no return for the benefit he received because his heart was proud. Therefore, he was going to suffer judgment.
What can we learn from these two incidents? This is where we need 2 Kings and Chronicles together. Second Kings deals more with the historical side, while 2 Chronicles deals more with the spiritual lessons.
Think first about the invasion from Assyria. When Hezekiah became king, one of the first things he did was stop paying tribute to the king of Assyria. His father Ahaz, in order to be protected from Assyria, had paid Assyria tribute.
This was a normal thing back then and a great source of revenue for Assyria. They said, “You pay us so much money, and we will leave you alone.” Ahaz had even sent some of the gold from the house of God.
When Hezekiah became king, he said, “This is not right.” He was in that good place, and he stopped paying tribute to Assyria.
Then, in about the fourteenth year, Assyria said, “It is time; we need to collect something here.” So this mighty army came down into Judah and toward Jerusalem.
By this time, Judah had seen how the northern kingdom had been taken away into captivity. They knew these people had come and taken everything. Now they were coming to them.
Hezekiah, if I can use a modern term, basically freaked out. When he saw this army coming, he freaked out. First, he tried to pay Assyria. He tried to get silver and gold from the house of God, but he could not pay them enough, and they kept coming.
So he tried everything he could: “Let us build our walls higher. Let us protect our water.” It was as though he was doing everything he could in his own power and might to protect himself from the king of Assyria.
But the king kept coming, and Hezekiah saw that it was not going to do anything. Finally, praise God, Hezekiah came to his senses and humbled himself before the Lord. The Lord brought mighty deliverance.
In 2 Chronicles 32:7, Hezekiah encouraged the people:
Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him; for there is a greater with us than with him.
Hezekiah came back to that place of dependence upon the Lord, recognizing that God was with him, that God would defend him, and that God had a heart and desire for this testimony to remain.
He continued in verse 8:
With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.
Praise God, he finally came to his senses. It is sad, though, that afterward, as we said, he became very proud.
We see the Lord in His mercy. When Hezekiah and Isaiah were in the right place, humbling themselves before the Lord and crying out to Him, the Lord came in and brought great deliverance.
Brothers and sisters, when we find ourselves in these times of crisis, what is our response? Hezekiah tried to do everything in his own power, and then he finally came to his senses. May we come to our senses right away, stand before the Lord, and allow Him to meet and deliver us from these places.
The second thing that happened in Hezekiah’s fourteenth year was that Isaiah the prophet went to him and said, “Get everything in order. You are going to die.”
Again, Hezekiah freaked out and went to the Lord. Chronicles shows the spiritual side, but in Kings and Isaiah, where these chapters are also recorded, we see more of Hezekiah’s prayer.
Hezekiah said, “Lord, what do You mean I am going to die? Look at all I have done for You.” It was as though he was saying, “Lord, look at what I did for You. I deserve better than this. What do You mean I am going to die?”
He made his argument and pleaded with the Lord. In what is termed His permissive will, the Lord granted Hezekiah fifteen more years of life.
This actually ended up being a pretty tragic fifteen years. During this time, his son Manasseh was born. Manasseh was the most evil king in all the history of Judah. He did more evil and led them further astray. He reigned for about fifty-five years of evil. It was tragic what had come about.
Hezekiah was healed, not because of God’s perfect will, but because of His permissive will. What are we talking about when we speak of God’s permissive will?
God never forces His way upon us. God presents us with a choice. When God came to Hezekiah through Isaiah and said, “You are going to die. Get your house in order,” Hezekiah had a choice.
He could have said, “Okay, Lord. I yield to You. Not my will, but Thy will be done.” But Hezekiah said, “No, I want this. I want that.” So God did not force him, and we see the tragedy that came out of it.
There are a couple of other times in Scripture when we see God’s permissive will, and they usually end up badly.
Think of when the nation of Israel came out of Egypt. As they came out, what was God’s perfect will? God told them to go in and possess the land.
But what did the people say? If you read the first chapter of Deuteronomy, the people said, “No, Lord, let us send some spies in.”
The spies were not God’s plan. That was not His highest will. That was man’s thought. God’s will was, “I want you to go in and possess this land that I am giving you, and I will be your provision there.”
But they said, “No, let us send the spies in.” We know the tragic story: because of the way the spies went in, they ended up wandering around in the wilderness for forty years, and they all died.
God never forces His will upon us. But as He puts things before us and sets choices before us, will we come to that place of saying, “Not my will, but Thy will be done”?
Hezekiah could not come to that place. If he had simply gone ahead and died then, he would have ended well.
Mac and I were talking a little bit before. Sometimes these kings can be discouraging because you see how the Lord uses them, but then, when the Lord uses them, they become proud. They do not end up as strong as they were in other parts of their lives.
It is a great warning for us as we try to learn these lessons. If Hezekiah had yielded to the Lord at that point, he would have ended with a wonderful testimony.
But he wanted to live on and enjoy his earthly powers, his place of prominence upon the earth, and everything else. It was very tragic.
During that time, Babylon had taken over from Assyria. Babylon heard about Hezekiah getting healed, and they sent emissaries to him. They flattered him, and he fell for the praises of men.
They came in and said, “Oh, it is so wonderful. We are so impressed by all you are doing.” They flattered him, and in the pride of his heart, he showed them all the treasures of the kingdom and all the treasures of the house of God.
They did not forget that. About a hundred years later, they came back and took it all. It was brought about through God’s judgment.
May we be those who allow the Lord to teach us in the days and times in which we are living. We see here how the pride of what Hezekiah showed the people from Babylon was used later on, and God brought judgment there.
So often we have this little prayer: “Lord, not my will, but Thy will be done.”
When we come to times of crisis, when the Lord is really trying to speak to us, may we not trust in ourselves or lean on our own ways.
As we look at Hezekiah’s life, we see that at the beginning, he was in that place of first love, where the Lord had preeminence. He did not care about the condition of the temple; he went in and fully restored it.
He did not care that the people of the northern kingdom did not have a heart for the Lord. He had that heart, and he knew God did too. So he moved and sent those emissaries. He had a wonderful heart for the Lord and for His house.
What an encouragement that is to us. He cleansed out all those idols, even what we could call Christian idols. May we ask whether we have anything like that within our hearts.
But sadly, look at how he ended up. I was reminded of what it says of Moses in Hebrews 11. It is a wonderful testimony:
He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.
Moses considered the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of this world. Hezekiah did not consider that reproach of Christ greater. The treasures of the world captured his heart.
In the days in which we are living, brothers and sisters, are we willing for the Lord to capture our hearts in such a way that the reproaches of Christ and the sufferings of Christ do not become offensive to us, and our hearts are not attracted by the things of this world?
One of the beauties of studying Ephesians is the riches we see there. We were talking about this a little bit Friday night. Over and over, there are these surpassing riches, and how He has lavished them upon us.
If the Lord can give us even a small glimpse of all the riches we have in Christ, the treasures of this world fade away. The reproaches of Christ become something we embrace, as Moses embraced them.
When we are faced with tough choices in life, when we are faced with crises set before us—Hezekiah was told, “You are going to die”—there are other crises that we all face.
May we come to the place of saying, “Lord, not my will, but Thy will be done.” Let us not be those who settle for God’s permissive will. It only delays His return.
It delayed the people of Israel from going into their promised land by forty years. If we continue to choose that permissive will, God will let us go our own way, but He brings us back to that point of saying, “You need to make a choice.”
We need to say, “Lord, not my will, but Thy will be done.”
If we can come to the Lord and allow Him to train us in such a way, to be a people who have a heart for all of God’s people and for God’s testimony in this day and time, these are the ones God can use in days of declension to bring about recovery and hastening.
May we not be too narrow, but may we stand for the fullness of all that He has. May we be willing to endure the reproaches of Christ and have a heart attitude where we do not desire our own will.
“Lord, I might not understand Your will. I might not understand Your ways. But Lord, I definitely do not want my will done. I want Your will done, because I know Your will is good, perfect, and acceptable.”
Praise God, doing His will is not based upon how much of His will we understand. It is based simply upon a heart responding and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us into the fullness of what His will has for us.
May we be that people in this hour in which we are living. Let us pray.
Lord, we are thankful that we have these ones from whom we can be instructed.
Lord, we are thankful that at the beginning of Hezekiah’s life, his standard was You. Lord, we want You to be our standard.
Lord, wherever we have any other standards—either in our individual lives or in our life together—any standard other than Christ, would You shake it? Would You shatter it?
Lord, we do not want to seek after those other things. We want to have hearts that are seeking after You and allowing You to use us in this hour.
We do not want to waste these times. We do not want to delay Your return. We do not want to be found working against You.
But we want to be those who are truly willing to lay down our will, that Your will could be done in our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.