Hezekiah

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Good to see everybody. Today I’m going to dive right in because we got a lot to cover. We’re transitioning between summer and the Psalms, and in about a week, pastor’s going to start into first Thessalonians. And so those are going to be those have been and it’s going to be a great study. And I thought we’d take a break this week and look at a king from the nation of Israel, one of one of the kings from the nation of Israel. And I picked a good king. So you’ll be glad about that, right? But we’re going to look at Hezekiah, King Hezekiah. And one of the reasons I wanted to look at Hezekiah is because a lot of things happened in his life that affected not only the nation of Israel at that time, but it was going to affect the nation of Israel in the future and in great ways. And so it’s fun to look at Hezekiah. The name Hezekiah means the Lord strengthens. And I think in general, Hezekiah lived up to that name. We’ll see. He had some challenges just like everybody. But in general, he kind of lived up to that name. And, you know, when God first or when the nation of Israel first asked God for kings, God gave him Saul, right? And then he gave him David, and then he gave him Solomon. But when Solomon died, his son Rehoboam took charge, took over the kingdom.

Now Rehoboam could have lived. He could have ran the kingdom similar to the way Solomon did, because it was a successful kingdom. Right? But Rehoboam decided different. He decided instead of listening to Solomon’s counselors, he was going to listen to his buddies and let them help him understand how to run the kingdom. That didn’t go well, that didn’t go well at all. As a matter of fact. And another young man named Jeroboam, who had actually taken off and gone to Egypt and ran from Solomon, came back and he started a rebellion against rebel. And so Jeroboam comes in and and now he’s pulling the kingdom apart, and he takes ten of the tribes, and he goes and creates this northern kingdom. That’s the kingdom of Israel. And the other two tribes, Benjamin and Judah. They stay in the southern part and become the southern kingdom of Judah. The southern kingdoms of the Rehoboam, the northern kingdom under Jeroboam. And by the way, there’ll be another Jeroboam later on. If you keep reading about the kings in the northern Kingdom, about 120 years later, they get a second Jeroboam for a king. Try keeping track of that for your history. Right. So the nation split apart. The the northern kingdom of Israel had 19 kings, not a one of them led the nation into worshiping the one true God. Every one of them will let them away from God and into false worship.

Then the southern kingdom had 20 kings. Of those 20 kings, only eight of them led the nation to worship the one true God. That’s pretty amazing statistics, right? Well, fortunately, Hezekiah is one of the good guys, right? Hezekiah was the 13th king of Judah. He was he was 25 years old when he took over the Kingdom of Judah. And he reigned for 29 years. Pretty good. I mean, if you want to hear. And we’re only going to be able to hit the the high points here this morning. But if you want to learn everything about Hezekiah that, that you ever wanted to know the best places in Second Kings chapter 18 to 20 and second Chronicles 29 to 32, and in Isaiah 36 to 39, all of those chapters will basically give you the full story. And by the way, if you got one of these little sheets, all those references are on the bottom, so you can see those and, and have those as well as a few other references. And I encourage you to go back and read those. Read what’s going on and get the overall picture. We’re going to hit some highlights today, but it will help to get the overall picture. As was common when when when guys took over a kingdom, there was a couple of things that always affected a king, a kingdom, and with Hezekiah was no exception. Hezekiah. The first thing that affected his kingdom greatly was his dad.

Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz, was was over the kingdom before him, and he was not a good king. We’ll look at a couple of verses here with that. But in Second Kings chapter 16, it says that he has was 20 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done. But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. Now remember the kings of Israel, none of them were good. And he says Hezekiah was like one of them. Or Ahaz was like one of the bad kings. I knew I was going to mess up the names. Sorry. I’ll do that more. Anyway, here’s some of the things he did. He burned his own son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord had driven out for Israel. And he sacrificed. And he made offerings on high places and on hills and under every green thing. Man, he he he was a false worshiper. Ahaz was. And that’s just the beginning. We’ll see some more stuff in just a minute that he did. And that’s the kind of messy kingdom that Hezekiah took over. Just a mess. And but the good thing is, is he didn’t let that affect what he believed God wanted him to do as a king.

He didn’t go back and say, oh, that’s what my dad did. So I got to do it. He said no, that he knew what God wanted him to do. And so we’ll look at this verse. This is these are things God’s saying about Hezekiah. And they’re really good. In second Kings 18 three he said, and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father, that David, his father had done. And then in verse six he says, for he held fast to the Lord, and did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. What a wonderful thing! He held fast to God. He followed after God. He kept the commandments that God had established, and because of that he started making amazing changes. He made incredible changes that in the Kingdom of Judah. One of the first things that he did in verse four, it says this. It says, and he removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made. For until those days the people of Israel had made an offering to it, and it was called nation. And what an interesting thing. I mean, you all know the story of what went on when when Moses made the bronze serpent, right? I mean, the nation of Israel were wandering in the desert.

They they became discouraged. They started grumbling against Moses. But worse than that, they started grumbling against God. And God, in his anger, sent these fiery serpents into the camp and and poisonous snakes. And when somebody got bit by him, they died. And the people started crying out to Moses and saying, Pray to God for us, you know, so that there’s this don’t happen. And so so Moses prayed to God. He did what the people ask. And this was God’s response. This is out of numbers. Chapter 21. In verses eight and nine, God said this to Moses, he said, make a fiery serpent serpent and set it on a pole, that everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. And so Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. And what you get from that is God says, all I want is my people to have enough faith in me, that when they’ve been bitten by a snake. Look at this serpent and I’ll heal them. They’ll live. And that’s such an interesting picture when Jesus was talking to Nicodemus in John chapter three. This is such a great thing he said to he said this to Nicodemus. He says, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whosoever believes in him might have eternal life.

Same thing. All God wants us to do is look at Jesus and live right. That’s all you got to do. There’s so much out there that says, you gotta do this, you gotta do this, you gotta get to this. God says, just look to Jesus and you’ll live. You’ll have eternal life. Now, Hezekiah didn’t just stop by, you know, taking care of the destroying all of the ways of false worship. His dad had even gone so far as to desecrate the temple, fill the temple with idols, false idols. And he had actually nailed the doors of the temple shut. And so Hezekiah did all of this. And this is a this is amazing things. He didn’t. He not only he reopened the temple and he repaired the doors, but he also reinstated the the Levitical priesthood. They hadn’t been doing that. They hadn’t been doing any of that. He cleansed the temple of all of these idols and everything that his father had put in there. And then he, he, he not only repaired the doors, but he he restored the temple worship, and he reinstated the Passover. They hadn’t even been celebrating the Passover. And so he reinstated the Passover. And and finally he took the priests, and he broke them into the divisions that God had already had already said, this is what you guys are to be set up and everything.

And you can read all about that in the second Chronicles reference. It’s in chapters 29 to 31 and very in very much detail. He explains what Hezekiah did. But the thing that amazes me about it is Hezekiah did it immediately. It just it’s incredible how quickly Hezekiah responded to God in Second Chronicles 29, verses three and four, it says 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 he assembled them in the square. And then in verse 17 it says, and they talking about the priests and the Levites, they began to consecrate on the first day of the first month. And then on the eighth day of the month, they came into the vestibule of the Lord. And then in eight days or so, for eight days, they consecrated the house of the Lord. And then on the 16th day they finished. I mean, talk about responding immediately, Hezekiah. He didn’t waste any time at all in doing what he knew God wanted him to do. And it’s interesting to me how he destroyed the false worship that his father had allowed. But then he also reinstituted the temple worship that his father had destroyed, right? I mean, he totally turned around everything that his dad had done.

And that’s where I think we can find some application from Hezekiah. He didn’t spend a lot of time wondering, you know, what do I do? When do I do it? How do I do it? As a as a man who followed after God, as a man who held fast to God, he knew what God wanted. He knew what God expected of him as a king. And he did it immediately. And here’s something interesting. This is what God says about him in second Kings 18 and verse five. 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. Hezekiah was of the 20 kings in the southern kingdom of Judah. Hezekiah was the greatest. There was none like him before or after. What a great thing that said of him. So. So the first point in your notes, and if you’re if you’re looking at the notes, is Hezekiah showed us trust in God. Hezekiah showed his trust in God. And I’m sure there were some adversity. I’m sure there were people that didn’t go along with everything Hezekiah wanted to do, but he did what he knew God wanted him to do, and he did it immediately. And it makes me ask a question to myself, right? Like when I know God wants me to do something, what’s my response? Do I respond immediately? Do I jump right on? I know that’s what God wants.

Or do I, like, have a meeting? I don’t like meetings. You can tell. But what do I do? Do I and I think Hezekiah gives us this great example of responding immediately. And I think we have some great examples in the New Testament as well. I love these in Matthew chapter four, starting in verse 18, it says, and while walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net in the sea. For they were fishermen. And he said to them, follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of men. And look at that immediately they left their nets and followed him. And then, going on a little further, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, and in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. And he called them and look again. Immediately they followed him. What a great response! And then the other reference in acts chapter nine, you remember when Paul was miraculously, miraculously saved on the road to Damascus? What a great story it is. If you haven’t read it in a long time, read acts chapter nine. But he was saved. He he goes into Damascus. He was temporarily blind. Ananias comes to him, lays his hands on him, and said, Brother Saul, I know God told me that you have this great ministry that you’re going to do to the Gentiles.

And it says in chapter in verse 20 it said he. Immediately he started proclaiming in the synagogue that Jesus is the Son of God. He didn’t waste any time. He, he, he went from persecuting to proclaiming. That’s a pretty big step. That’s kind of. It’s kind of the same we saw in in in Hezekiah in the way he changed so much. I wonder really with that one. Sorry. Anyway, I just I hope that we’re believers who respond to God immediately. It’s so it’s so satisfying. And I think Hezekiah just got some great satisfaction out of that. The second. The second thing that went on in Hezekiah’s kingdom that obviously affected the kingdom and the nation of Israel greatly was the powers at the time, the people that were in power at the time and at the time the Assyrians were, were the world leaders. Eventually, the Babylonians would become world leaders about 70 years from the time of Hezekiah. But right now, the Assyrians are the world leaders and they’re awful people. The way they treated other people was incredible. One of the things they would do is they would come into a city or into a kingdom, and they would take that whole kingdom, and they would disperse the people all over the place. They would take them and put them into other areas that they already had under their control, and remove them from the place that was comfortable to them.

And by the way, that’s exactly what happened to the northern kingdom of Israel. The king come in and here we have it in this the reference. But in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of the King of Elah, the king, or the son of Elah, the King of Israel. Showman. Answer. Come into the kingdom of of Syria at the time came against Samaria and besieged it. And at the end of three years he took it. Can you imagine that to, to to for three years, having a siege around one place? Man, that’s crazy to think about. But that was common at the time. And he says, and then in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which is the ninth year of Joshua, the king of Israel, then Samaria was taken, and the king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria. And they put them in Halo and in the harbor, which is a river that goes in and in the cities of the Medes. He took them and put them in all these areas that that Assyria already had, that was already part of their stuff. And he moved other people in from other nations and stuff that didn’t belong there into the place where their Israelites have been. Syria or gosh. Samaria was the capital of the northern Kingdom at the time.

And so, so when Shalmaneser came and and took the the Israelites and took him away, they they were done. It was over. As a matter of fact, this is the last time we hear about the northern kingdom of Israel. There’s no other references to them in the Bible because that they were destroyed and they were done. Now, typical of kings that are in a lot of power and want to keep making their their land bigger and their whatever they have bigger than Sennacherib decided or the king, the new king in Assyria became Sennacherib. And Sennacherib started coming in and out into Judah and started taking some of the cities of Judah. And in chapter 18, second Kings 18, verse 13, it says, in the 14th year of King Hezekiah, now Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came up against the fortified cities of Judah and took them. So now Sennacherib is moving into the southern kingdom. He’s taken the cities. He’s he’s taken control of the cities. And one of the ways that that Hezekiah decided to try to stop this advance of Sennacherib was to start paying tribute because he knew he was working his way to Jerusalem, and he didn’t want him to get to Jerusalem. And so he said, I’ll pay tribute. But sadly, you know where he got the tribute? He got the tribute from the temple treasury, and he got the tribute, tribute from the gold on the doors of the temple that he had just just repaired 14 years before.

Right. So sadly, that’s the way he tried to stop and and keep the Assyrians from moving on. But that didn’t help a whole lot. So the Assyrians laid siege to Lachish, a city in Judah. And they were there in Lachish. And while they were in Lachish, they decided to send representatives to to Jerusalem. And the representative that they said that they sent was a shika, which is a kind of a chief of staff type position for Sennacherib. And so he tries to come and tries to put fear in the people of Judah, or, well, the people of Judah, but specifically the people of Jerusalem, and comes right up to the city of Jerusalem. And he starts to say these kind of things. He says in the rap. Shekhar stood and called out with a loud voice in the language of Judah, hear the word of God of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus says the king, do not let Hezekiah deceive you. So right right off the bat he’s saying, Hezekiah is trying to deceive you. Don’t let him deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. And do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, the Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

And on the plus side. Hezekiah, instead of panicking and instead of bowing down to Sennacherib, he sends guys to Isaiah. And Isaiah ministered all through Hezekiah’s reign. But he sends he sends for Isaiah. And Isaiah in his word from the Lord says this to Hezekiah. He said, and the Lord said to him, say to your master, these are the men that Hezekiah sent. Thus says the Lord, do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit into 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. Now the reference there isn’t to the rapture. The reference there is to Sennacherib. And that’s exactly what happened to him. We’re going to see in a minute how how God completely annihilated the Assyrian army. Sennacherib goes back to Assyria and while he’s worshiping in one of his false temples, his own sons kill him with a sword. And so God’s Word becomes it’s just very specific right there. And that’s what happened. But the rabbi goes back to Lachish to to see how the battle’s coming. And then eventually he returns to Jerusalem, and this time he returns with the Assyrian army. And this time he not only challenges Hezekiah, but he challenges God, and he defiles God with the things that he says.

And and it’s interesting that this time he comes with a letter. He brings a letter, something physical. And I think that was important for for Hezekiah. But the rashica says this when he returns the second time, he says, thou shalt speak to Hezekiah, the king of Judah. Do not let your God in whom you trust, deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Now he’s calling God a deceiver, right? Pretty scary stuff that that he’s doing. And and this is where, though, that we get this incredible response from Isaiah or Jes from Hezekiah. Hezekiah just he’s so good. He just humbled himself. And he lays this letter before God and he prays. And what a wonderful thing it is. And here’s the prayer that he prays. This is from second Kings 19, starts in verse 15. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above all the cherubim, you are God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, in here. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Wow! Truly, O Lord, the king of Assyria, Kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into a fire.

Because they weren’t really gods, they were just the works of men’s hands, wood and stone, and therefore they were destroyed. So he says this now, O Lord God, save us, please from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone. What a wonderful prayer! Hezekiah lays this before God, and he praises God for who he is. He honors God for who he is. And then he says this I don’t only want to be delivered from Sennacherib, I want everybody in the whole world to know that you’re God alone. What a great thing. I mean, and it kind of makes me wonder, how often do I pray like that? You know, how often, how often do I pray and say, Lord, I want everybody to know that you are Lord alone? I want, I mean, maybe I want to be delivered from something like this, but is my response and my reasoning so that people see what happened and and and praise you and know that you’re God alone. That’s the big question, I think. How much how often do I pray? Like Hezekiah and I think Paul, I think Paul had a little bit of a handle on praying like Hezekiah in Ephesians chapter three and verse 20, starting in verse 20, it says, and this is in the middle of a prayer that Paul is praying.

But he says, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. What a great thing to him who is able to do more abundantly than we can even ask or think. Think about that for a minute and we’ll talk about it in just a second. But. But Paul also encourages others to pray the same way in Philippians chapter four. Whoops, I went away from it. Let’s go back. I don’t know if I am smart enough to do that. Okay. And in Philippians chapter four he says this. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. What a wonderful thing. I mean, isn’t that exactly what Hezekiah did? I’m laying this letter before God and putting it all in his hands. Letting God handle it. Letting God deal with it. Hezekiah was such a great example of that, and I pray we can do the same thing again with the purpose of wanting everybody to know who God is. I want to see God do incredible things so that I can tell everybody about him.

So God kept his word, obviously, and he did not let the Assyrians enter into Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, that night the Bible says that the angel of the Lord come and totally destroyed 185,000 Assyrian army in the in the Syrian Army, and 185,000 men in one night are all of a sudden not there. Or at least only their bodies are. God come and took care of it. And and really, you think about it and and you think you put yourself in Hezekiah’s shoes and you think, what did he pray for when he laid that all? I mean, we see some of it, but could he even have imagined how God would answer that prayer? I mean, I don’t think he could. It was it was like way more abundantly than he could have even thought of and imagined. And so that’s the way God took care of things for Hezekiah. And then he did some other incredible things. Around the same time, about the 14th year of Hezekiah’s reign, he became really ill. And as a matter of fact, God sent Isaiah to tell him, you’re going to die, put your house in order, you’re going to die. And Hezekiah, if you know the story, Hezekiah actually turned on his bed because he was very ill. He turned on his bed and he prayed to God.

And before Isaiah could even get out of the out of the palace, God sends him back and says, Tell Hezekiah he gets 15 more years of life. And so, so he’s all excited about this. And and this is a good thing because God gives him all of these extra years of life. But and he even showed Hezekiah how serious he was about it because he had the sun go back ten steps. The shadow of the sun go back ten steps. And and actually there in the palace, Ahaz actually had build these steps. And and as the son passed along and moved along these steps. It was a way that they could tell time and stuff. And so he actually had the sun go back on these steps, ten steps backwards. Figure that with your calendar out, right. I mean, we got our calendars planned out forever on us. You know, it seems like. And figure out how you go back for ten hours or ten steps or whatever that indicator was. So anyway, God did some incredible things. We don’t have a whole lot of details about what happened in Hezekiah’s life those last 15 years, but we do have detail about one item, and it’s it’s kind of sad the way it worked. But but representatives from Babylon come and they come to Hezekiah under the idea that we’re coming to give you a gift, because we heard you had been ill.

And foolishly, Hezekiah, in his pride, he shows him the whole kingdom. He shows him all of the treasures of the kingdom, opens up everything, even the treasures of the temple. He shows them everything. But God quickly, quickly rebukes him for it. And Isaiah comes and he says this to him. He says. Hear the word of the Lord. 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, and nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons who will come from you, whom you will, father, shall be taken away, and shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Wow! I mean, God had done some amazing things in Hezekiah’s life. And I mean, the Bible says that he prospered him throughout his whole reign. He prospered him. But listen what Hezekiah did by showing all the treasures of the kingdom of heaven to the Babylonians actually was the beginning of the fall of the north or the southern kingdom of Judah, because eventually the Babylonians are going to come and they’re going to they’re going to conquer Jerusalem. They’re going to carry away everybody from Judah, almost everybody, into captivity in Babylon. And again, when that happens, that’ll be the last that we hear. Of the southern kingdom of Judah. It will be done.

It will be totally destroyed. Now, the last statement that we have from Hezekiah is kind of interesting. It says this. It says in Hezekiah said, Isaiah, the word of the Lord that you have spoken is good. For he thought, why not? If there be peace and security in my days. Now, if you read a lot of commentaries on this, you’re going to get like a 5050 split on what this stuff means, right? I mean, there’s there’s a lot of guys that will say a lot about it, but they end up like 5050 on it. So it’s kind of funny like that. But but Hezekiah is basically saying this and, and this is the side that I took. But Hezekiah saying, look what the Lord says is good. He’s agreeing with God on the judgment of his pride when he says, what the Lord has said is good. And and so he says, look. And actually this is the second point or the last point in your notes. I think I skipped the second one again. The second point in your notes was Hezekiah was faithful to God or showed faith in God. The third point in your notes is Hezekiah showed a humble response to God and by saying, look, you’re right, God, in my pride, I messed up. I sinned against you and I messed up. And whatever you say, that’s okay because I deserve that. And it’s very much like David.

You remember when Nathan challenged David and come to him and and said, David, you’re the man. And David said, you know what? I’ve sinned against God. And he humbled himself and went that route. When when Saul was challenged by Samuel and said, And Samuel says, you know, what’s his sheep? I hear then what’s going on? And Samuel or Saul started making excuses this way, did this way, did that. And God’s response wasn’t, you know, like David’s David was a man after my own heart. God’s response to Saul was, your kingdom is going to be taken away from you and given to somebody that’s better than you. And so you see all of these things going on. But but listen, I think God really just he just loves a humble response. And obviously the best example we have of that is our Lord. In John chapter 13 it says this. And when he had washed their feet, he, he put on his outer garments and resumed his place. And he said to them, do you understand what I’m doing for you? And you call me teacher, and you call me Lord, and you’re right, for so I am. If I, then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, then you ought to wash one another’s feet. For I’m giving you an example that you also should do, just as I’m done for you. Jesus is an incredible example of humble service, right? If we want to know what we should do, how we should serve.

That’s a great way to look. Humbly, humbly serve. And then in Philippians chapter two is another great reference that says, being found in a human form, he, talking about Jesus, humbled himself and became obedient to death to the point of death, even death on the cross. So we see Jesus is our perfect example of humility. God wants us to respond to him in humility, and if we need to understand how that works, all we gotta do is look to Jesus, right? So the last half of of Hezekiah’s statement is really kind of interesting. You know, and for a long time, I thought Hezekiah was being extremely selfish and that he was being extremely insensitive and and just saying this, you know, as long as and I think I went away from that, that verse. But anyway, as long as things are okay in my kingdom, then good. You know, who cares about the future as long as everything’s okay for me, right? And I thought that was what Hezekiah was saying for a long time. But when you think of Hezekiah first responding humbly to God, first, responding humbly to his his judgment, and then saying, you know, but why not? If there will be peace and security? In my days, I agree with God’s judgment because it means there’s going to be peace and security in my days, and that’s going to glorify God.

And that was important to Hezekiah because you remember, he had spent all of that time and effort. He he he fixed the all of the false worship. He reinstated the worship in the temple. He did all of these things. And he said he did it so that everybody would know that God is the God of the whole universe. He’s. He is God. And so you can almost see that Hezekiah saying, how is the world going to know that God has God alone if if all of these accomplishments that we accomplish during my reign are all of a sudden destroyed during my reign? And so I think in Hezekiah’s mind, he’s saying, it’s okay, God, this is a good thing, that that you’re going to do what you’re going to do. And I’m thankful, really, that you’re not going to do it during my reign because you’re still going to be honored and glorified during my reign. Now, sadly, also in the last 15 years of Hezekiah’s life is when his son Manasseh was born. And if you again, if you keep reading about the kings, you’re going to find out that Manasseh was the worst king in Judah. He. He reigned for 55 years and was the worst king in Judah. He did all of the bad things that his grandfather Ahaz had done. And again was was talked about as.

As everything he did was like the kings of the northern Kingdom. That awful. And so but listen, Hezekiah was the most faithful of the 20 kings in Judah. He wasn’t perfect. But we can still learn a lot, right? I mean, he he he showed his trust in the Lord by responding to him immediately. He he showed his faith in the Lord by laying laying everything before him in prayer. Laying it down before God. And he he showed us, he responded humbly to God by, by when, you know, when God pointed out his his faults and the things that he had done wrong. There’s a Bible teacher and commentator named Warren Thursby. In a book that he’s written that’s called On Being a Servant of God. He makes this statement. He’s he’s talking about the fact that we’re all ministers, where all of us are called to be ministers of God. And then he says this. He says the trouble with too many of us is that we think God called us to be manufacturers when he’s really called us to be distributors. He alone has the resources to meet human needs. All we can do is receive his riches and share them with others. And I just think Hezekiah kind of understood this. He, you know, I mean, he was a king. He had a whole bunch of resources and a whole bunch of things at his power. He had people that he could.

I mean, he just had so much at his disposal to be able to take on that manufacturer role and instead in his life, he let God be the manufacturer. And he said, I’m okay being the the distributor. I’m okay distributing God’s resource to show and trust in him, showing faith in God, and then responding humility humbly to him, and really leading my kingdom to do the same thing right? Leading the people in my kingdom to be the same. And I really hope that’s kind of what we can see this morning, you and I, that we we’re all distributors. We’re distributors of what? Of God’s resources, what he’s always done. And then wherever he has us ministering, maybe we’re ministering to each other. Maybe we’re ministering to our community, to somewhere around the state and wherever he has us ministering in the world, we can do it with the same trust, with the same faith, with the same humility, because that’s what we have all of those things in Christ. They all belong to us because of Jesus, and we can do it for God’s good and God’s glory, the same way Hezekiah desired that. So I pray that’s on our hearts as well. And I pray that’s something that we can grasp and grab from this message.