Tag Archive | Hezekiah

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 205

Jul24

Day 205 – Reading – Isaiah 35 – 36.

Read today’s Scriptures.  

Isaiah 35.

This is a glorious chapter of the ultimate restoration of Israel in the Messiah’s Kingdom. (Parts may have been fulfilled partially during Christ’s ministry on earth, and even today.) 

The Wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus.
It shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the LORD,
the majesty of our God.

Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knew.
Say to those who have an anxious heart, 
'Be strong, fear not! 

Behold your God will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.

The  the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

For waters break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.

No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon the heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy;
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 36.

NOTE: These next four chapters show a section of Israel’s history, and are almost word-for-word the same as 2 Kings 18:13 – 20:19, and 2 Chronicles 32:1-23. These chapters also separate the chapters on Judah’s deliverance from the Assyrians (1-35) and a preview of the Babylonian captivity (40-66). 

Hezekiah has been king fourteen years when the new king of Assyria, Sennacherib, came against the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

(Remember, Assyria already had control of all the northern kingdom of Israel, and the border  was a mere ten miles from Jerusalem.)

Sennacherib sent his Commander Rabshakeh to Jerusalem with a great army. Eliakim, the spokesman for King Hezekiah went out to meet him.  Rabshakeh began his taunting speech.

  • Rabshakeh:  “Tell King Hezekiah that the “great king of Assyria” asks WHOM you trust to save you, that you have rebelled against me?  Is it that “broken reed” Pharaoh of Egypt?  Let’s make a wager:  We will give you 2,000 horses… IF you are able to set riders on them.  You trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?  Where are they??
  • “OR… are you trusting in the LORD your God?  Hey, didn’t you remove all His high places? (Won’t He be mad at you?)  Oh, and by the way… the LORD said to me, ‘Go up against the land and destroy it!'”  (This is actually true!!  See Isaiah 8:7-8 and 10:5-6. And Judah knew it.)

 

  • Eliakim:  “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it.  Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

 

  • Rabshakeh:  “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, WHO ARE DOOMED WITH YOU TO EAT THEIR OWN DUNG AND DRINK THEIR OWN URINE??”
  • “Hey, YOU, people of Judah! Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.  Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, ‘The LORD will surely delivers us. This city will not be given into the hand of the King of Assyria.’
  • DO NOT LISTEN TO KING HEZEKIAH. For thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me, and “keep your vine and fig tree and cistern…. until I come and take you away to a “land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards…..”
  • BEWARE LEST HEZEKIAH MISLEAD YOU, saying ‘The LORD will deliver us.’  Has any other of the gods delivered their lands out of the hand of Assyria?   Did the gods of Samaria save them???   Ha! that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand!”

But, they were all silent and answered him not a word, at King Hezekiah’s command.  Then Eliakim came to Hezekiah with his clothes torn, and TOLD HIM THE WORDS OF RABSHAKEH……..

To be continued tomorrow……

.

What do you think will happen?  Will the LORD save Judah?  Will He do a miracle?  Or will He give his sinning children over to the wicked, brutal Assyrians from Nineveh as he did with Israel?  

God has a plan for his children today too. Salvation through His Son, yes, but salvation from persecution and suffering now?  Perhaps.  Or maybe not.  But we can trust in His perfect will for us. And remember chapter 35!!

 

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 215

Aug2

    Day 215—We are beginning the EIGHTH month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy.

    Day 215 – 2 Chronicles 32 – 33 (Review of Hezekiah’s glory days, his pride, and Manasseh’s reign and repentance, Amon)

Chapter 32 repeats 2 Kings 18-19 and Isaiah 36-37, showing the Assyrian king, Sennacherib invading Judah, trash-talking the God of Israel, Hezekiah’s prayer, and God’s deliverance by His mighty angel wiping out the Assyrian army in a night.

It also states again how Hezekiah’s pride grew about his very great riches and honor and how he made huge treasuries for himself. (Part of it came from the gifts the people gave to God and him when God defeated the Assyrian army). It also hints that the envoy from Babylon was “a test from God” to see what was in Hezekiah’s heart. (He failed.)

(Interestingly, those Babylonian representatives were sent to Hezekiah “to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land.” It seems that as far east as Babylon, the moving backward of the sundial ten steps was noticed.  It reminds me of the “star” that appeared in the East that prompted the Maji to come see Israel’s new king when Jesus was born!)

 

Chapter 33 tells the story of Manasseh’s reign. He began at age 12 (conceived during Hezekiah’s, extra, proud, fifteen years of life.)  He was horribly evil, undoing all the good that his father had done. He blatantly disregarded the laws of God about worshiping false gods and idols, sacrificing children, seeing out mediums and sorcery, and keeping holy the Temple of God. 

33:10 “The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore, the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, WHO CAPTURED MANASSEH WITH HOOKS AND BOUND HIM WITH CHAINS OF BRONZE AND BROUGHT HIM TO BABYLON.”

Interestingly, when Manasseh was in distress —– He entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him —–, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem.  THEN MANASSEH KNEW THAT THE LORD WAS GOD.”

WOW!  Hezekiah began good and fell into pride. Manasseh began terrible and ended up humble and honoring God.

Unfortunately, it was too late for his son, Amon, who ruled after Manasseh. He DID NOT humble himself before the LORD but did evil and sacrificed to images.  He was assassinated after two years, and his son Josiah reigned.

It seems Josiah learned from his grampa and did what was RIGHT in the eyes of the LORD. 34:1-2

 

 

 

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 214

Aug1

    Day 214—We are beginning the EIGHTH month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy.

    Day 214 – 2 Kings 20 – 21 (A repeat of Hezekiah’s sickness & foolishness, Manasseh & Amon)

Chapter 20 retells (from Isaiah 38) the latter years of King Hezekiah, how he became deathly ill, prayed, and was given 15 more years to live. He used those years foolishly, boasting to the visiting Babylonian well-wishers about all that he owned. Isaiah scolded him and foretold of when the Babylonians would ruthlessly attack and take it all away. Hezekiah was not concerned, however, because “at least it won’t happen in my days.”

Chapter 21 tells of his very wicked son, Manasseh becoming king at 12 years old. (He was born in Hezekiah’s last “foolish” 15 years!!). This guy was worse than any of the kings of the northern kingdom. Manasseh “did what was evil in the site of the LORD, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.”

He rebuilt the high places. He erected alters for Baal. He made Asherah poles. He worshiped all the host of heaven. He built altars to them IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. He burned his son as an offering. He used fortune telling and omens. He dealt with mediums and necromancers. He carved an image of Asherah and set in the house of the LORD. He led Israel astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.

And BECAUSE of this…..  The LORD vowed to bring “such disaster on Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.”

After many years of utter evil (2 Chronicles 33 tomorrow will tell of his repentance after a terrifying incident!!), Manasseh dies and his evil son, Amon reigns for two years.  Manasseh’s legacy continues in the son, as he served and worshipped idols. “He abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers and did not walk in the way of the LORD. 

After two years, his servants killed him and made Josiah (at 8 years old) the new king.

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 209

Jul27

    Day 209—We are in the SEVENTH month of Bible reading. We’re continuing in the history of Israel.

    Day 209 – 2 Kings 19, Psalm 46, 80, 135. (A recounting of the siege of Jerusalem by the Rabshakeh and Sennacherib, Hezekiah’s desperate prayer, and God’s answer when His angel killed 185K Assyrians in a night. And glorious psalms of God.)

Whenever I read this story about the death of the Assyrian army, I think of Jesus’ answer to Peter’s drawing the sword in the garden when Jesus is arrested.

(Matthew 26:53-54) “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and He will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?  But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so?” 

If ONE of God’s angels can wipe out an Assyrian army in a night, 12,000 of His angels could eliminate the entire population of the world. (Do the math!)  Instead, Jesus obeyed His Father and gave His life as an atonement for the sin of all who would believe. Praise God.

Psalm 46:1-3, 6-7, 9-11.  
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
He utters His voice, the earth melts.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
He burns the chariots with fire.

Be still, and know that I am God.
I WILL be exalted among the nations,
I WILL be exalted in the earth!
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. 

Psalm 80:1-3.
Give ear, O Shephard of Israel,
You who lead Joseph like a flock!
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim shine forth.

Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,
Stir up your might and come to save us!
Restore us, O God; let Your face shine, that we may be saved!

Psalm 135:19-21.
O house of Israel, bless the LORD!
O house of Aaron, bless the LORD!
O house of Levi, bless the LORD!
Blessed be the LORD from Zion, he who dwells in Jerusalem!
Praise the LORD.