Hezekiah is the king who got me started on this series that we have been working through for five months now. (We are nearly done!) It was in my personal studies of Isaiah that got me thinking about how Hezekiah followed the ways of the Lord when his father, Ahaz, was so wicked. I believe one answer is that Hezekiah was old enough to be in the court of Ahaz when Isaiah would prophesy over the siege of King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah of Israel, who God raised to punish Ahaz for his open idolatry. Every prophecy came true, and as a youth, Hezekiah saw that what Isaiah said came true.
Hezekiah is rivaled only by Ahab for getting the most “screen time” in Scripture. Hezekiah gets coverage in three books: 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah. Isaiah gives Hezekiah four chapters (36-39) of just history, not including numerous chapters of prophecy surrounding those events. There are four major events in Hezekiah’s reign that are covered. 1) Hezekiah brought reform to Judah in not only reopening and repairing the temple but also removing high places and idols, including the Bronze Serpent that Moses made because the people were worshiping it. 2) Withstanding the siege of Assyria was the biggest event with much attention given to it. 3) Hezekiah had a sickness where he asked to be healed and was given 15 more years. 4) Hezekiah showed off his full wealth and resources before Babylonian envoys.
I am not going to go into detail about each of these events. You can read that in Katie Erickson’s post about Hezekiah and his reign. Instead, I want to focus on the backstory and what set up Hezekiah to make these decisions. Let me remind you from two weeks ago that Ahaz was 11 years old when Hezekiah was born. Ahaz wasn’t even old enough for his primary puberty growth spurt when he was engaged in sexual activity. As I said then, we don’t know the setting of that. I don’t believe Jotham gave him a wife at that age, but I do know Ahaz was heavily involved in idolatry and Jotham had no record of stopping any of the idolatrous practices. When Ahaz became king at 20 years old, Hezekiah was nine and I don’t think it would have taken him long to figure out that what his father was doing was dead wrong. I can picture Isaiah often taking Hezekiah aside and teaching him truth, as Isaiah was part of the king’s court. It is clear that Hezekiah followed the Lord. Departing so clearly and cleanly from what his father Ahaz was doing indicates both a Godly nurturing (which didn’t come from his father) and exposure to his father’s sins and seeing the path of destruction from them.
Hezekiah was not merely a moral man like Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, and Jotham. He didn’t merely walk in God’s ways; Hezekiah sought the Lord. Shortly before writing this post, I was in Isaiah and going through Hezekiah’s dealings and events, and I saw a theme in Hezekiah’s mind: he wanted to glorify God. He wanted God’s name to be glorified above and beyond his own safety and protection. He did not beg God to deliver him from Assyria for his own protection but because Rabshakeh had blasphemed the name of God. Hezekiah was not concerned about his own life for his own life’s sake, but he thought that death would cut off his worship of God and feared that God could not be worshiped from the grave. That is what drove his prayer for deliverance from Assyria and also what drove his prayer for healing. It was not about self but about God’s name and God’s glory. Only David had a heart for God like Hezekiah did.
But Hezekiah’s heart did not carry over to the people. Hezekiah was even accused of apostasy for destroying the high places because the people wanted their idols. As with Ahab when in periods of utter darkness God preserved 7000 who had not bowed their knee to Baal, the reverse is found here. Hezekiah led the people to reform and to true worship, but the people did not want to follow God. The moment Hezekiah died, the plummet began. Hezekiah’s son Manasseh was the most wicked king of Judah, even worse than Ahaz; it was under Manasseh that God declared the judgment for Judah. Isaiah had been prophesying about the Babylonian captivity and restoration during Hezekiah’s reign, but my point is Hezekiah’s good life in leadership does not mean that the people followed the lead of their king in godliness.
We can compare and contrast Hezekiah’s upbringing to Joash’s upbringing. Both had idolatrous fathers, though Joash never met his. Both had Godly input: Joash had Jehoiada and Hezekiah had Isaiah. But Joash lost his Godly surrogate father and Hezekiah did not lose his mentor. Joash departed the faith and Hezekiah stayed faithful. Joash lived a moral life but showed that his faith was tied to his surrogate father. Hezekiah sought the Lord and His glory, and his morality followed that seeking. Joash just wanted to look good; Hezekiah wanted to honor God. There is a big difference between them.
Each king is still responsible for his own life. Some had good upbringings and turned evil. Some had bad upbringings and were evil. Some had a bad upbringing and turned good. Others had a good upbringing, as we’ll see next week with Manasseh, and turned bad. A common theme throughout all the kings is how they handled idolatry. With Israel, they were judged by letting Jeroboam’s idols remain or not. With Judah, they were judged by how they let the high places remain or not. Hezekiah sought the Lord even from his youth, and he received God’s heart about worship – its quality and location. He would not allow God to have competition with fake idols.
When I realized that Hezekiah was old enough to hear the prophecies given to Ahaz regarding the sieges by Rezin and Pekah, I believed that played a significant role in his faith and his belief in God. We have a few more kings to look at; I’ll address Manasseh and Amon together and then examine Josiah and then finally finish with the four kings, three of whom were Josiah’s children and one was his grandson to end the series.
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