Who were Hezekiah’s contemporaries?
·
Prophets whose writings are in Scripture:
Isaiah, Hosea and Micah.
·
Kings:
o
When Hezekiah was 9, his grandfather King Jotham
died.
o
When Hezekiah was 21, Hoshea became the last
king of Israel.
o When
Hezekiah was 25, his father King Ahaz died.
Here is a chart showing the Davidic kings who
preceded Hezekiah as well as King Hoshea of Israel. The number is the length of their reign.
Joash / Amaziah /Azariah /Jotham /Ahaz / Hezekiah
(40 years) (29) (52) (16) (16) (29)
Hoshea
(9)
Looking at that chart, what kind of “spiritual
ancestry” did Hezekiah have? First, he
was preceded by 4 kings who were good but incomplete. Joash (2 Ki. 12:3), Amaziah (14:4), Azariah
(15:4) and Jotham (15:35) were proclaimed as good to some degree or another,
but each failed to remove the high places that had first been erected by Solomon
and which were at times used for idolatry in Judah.
Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz (not to be confused
with “Ahab” king of Israel) was one of the most wicked kings of Judah (16:1-20;
2 Chr. 28). You can read the story, but
in summary the writer of Chronicles simply says: “This is that King Ahaz” (28:22).
Hezekiah witnessed the fall of the Northern
Kingdom of Israel resulting from idolatry (see today’s reading). You can imagine that might have had an effect
on Hezekiah who as King of Judah was responsible for the protection of his
people. Besides leading the nation into
idolatry, Ahaz also had made a treaty with the Assyrian king, paying him to
come to his aid in defeating Syria and Israel.
He tried to “buddy up” to King Tiglath-Pileser, but according to 2
Chron. 28:21, the Assyrian king did not help Ahaz.
Looking at these previous three paragraphs you
might think the deck was stacked against Hezekiah from a spiritual point of
view. But God was with Hezekiah and
Hezekiah had a heart for the Lord.
Hezekiah was the king who finally destroyed the high places. Hezekiah restored the temple that his father
had shut down. And Hezekiah made a
magnificent stand against the Assyrians at Jerusalem, one that was fully in the
power of the LORD!
Around 100 years after Hezekiah’s death, the
prophet Jeremiah was being threatened with death because he spoke the word of
the LORD. In his defense, some of the
elders of Judah reminded the people of the testimony of Hezekiah. Micah had preached a hard message to Hezekiah
and Hezekiah did not put him to death.
Instead, Hezekiah feared the LORD and sought His favor. That is the testimony I want to have, that of
faithfulness to the LORD in all things!
And may I add, let us not give up on the Lord’s
ability to save and use to His glory children whose spiritual ancestry is
rotten. Pray for them. Plead with God to deliver them from the sins
of the fathers.
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