Join us on day 25 of our 28-day journey through 1 and 2 Kings as we explore the remarkable story of King Hezekiah. In today’s episode, we delve into the chapters detailing his incredible interactions with the prophet Isaiah amidst the threats from Assyria. Discover how Hezekiah’s earnest prayers led to divine intervention, protecting Jerusalem from impending doom and resulting in one of the most miraculous victories recorded in the Bible.
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Allen J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.
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Today is day 25 in our 28-day journey through 1 and 2 Kings. We’re going to look at chapters 19 and 20 of 2 Kings concerning Hezekiah and his interaction with the prophet Isaiah. We’ll listen to our guest reader, Senator Kevin Grantham, former president of the Colorado State Senate, as he reads both chapters 19 and 20. 2 Kings 19
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As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. They said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace. Children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the Lord your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left. When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, Say to your master, 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 in 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. the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libna, for he heard that the king had left Lachish. Now the king heard concerning Terhaka, king of Cush, Behold, he has set out to fight against you. So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah, 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. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telazer? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Zephravaim? the king of Hina, or the king of Eva. Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see.” and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the king of Assyria has laid waste the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone. Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Your prayer to me about Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I have heard. This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him. She despises you, she scorns you, the virgin daughter of Zion, she wags her head behind you, the daughter of Jerusalem. Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against the Holy One of Israel. By your messengers you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains to the far recesses of Lebanon. I felled its tallest trees, its choicest cypresses. I entered its farthest lodging place, its most fruitful forest. I dug wells and drank foreign waters, and I dried up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt. Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins, while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded, and have become like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it has grown. But I know you’re sitting down and you’re going out and coming in, and you’re raging against me. because you have raged against me and your complacency has come into my ears. I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came. And this shall be the sign for you. This year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat their fruit. and the surviving remnant to the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord will do this. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it, By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into the city, declares the Lord. For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for the sake of my servant David. And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, These were all dead bodies. Then Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. And as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sherezer his sons struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. and Ezarhaddon his son reigned in his place. 2 Kings 20 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, Thus says the Lord, Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover. Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, Now, O Lord, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him, Turn back and say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father, I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord, and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake. And Isaiah said, Bring a cake of figs, and let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover. And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I should go up to the house of the Lord on the third day? And Isaiah said, This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he has promised. Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps? And Hezekiah answered, It is an easy thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. Rather, let the shadow go back ten steps. And Isaiah the prophet called to the Lord, and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz. At that time, Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, What did these men say? And from where did they come to you? And Hezekiah said, They have come from a far country, from Babylon. He said, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah answered, They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, 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. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons who shall be born to you shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good. For he thought, Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days? The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his might, and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.
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In my personal Bible reading journal in 2011, Concerning these chapters I wrote, Assyria mocks the God of Israel. Hezekiah leans on Isaiah, who assures Hezekiah God will deliver. Hezekiah’s prayer is outlined in chapter 19, verses 15 through 19. God delivers Jerusalem without a battle. And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. That’s chapter 19, verse 35. Wow, against all odds, God still can deliver. Praise the Lord. Concerning chapter 20, I wrote, Hezekiah gets 15 more years after Isaiah the prophet said he would die. Isaiah said, thus says the Lord in verse 1, Then the Lord came to him again, and thus says the Lord is a different answer, verses 5 through 6. Sometimes I think I hear from the Lord, then it doesn’t happen, and I wonder if I heard correctly or manufactured it in my own mind. As in this case, maybe God delivers a second message. In chapters 19 and 20, Hezekiah leans on the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah assures him that he is not going to lose to the king of Assyria, but only after Hezekiah goes to the Lord in prayer. Hezekiah’s prayer is outlined in chapter 19, verses 14 through 19. He finishes with this phrase in verse 19, So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone. The Lord responds to Hezekiah’s prayer through the prophet Isaiah. Take note of verse 25. Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I plan from days of old what now I bring to pass. Nothing surprises God. The plans are already in place, both for Hezekiah and for you and me. And then, amazingly, God strikes down 185,000 Assyrians. Now let’s focus on chapter 20. Hezekiah gets sick, and Isaiah comes and tells him he’s going to die. Isaiah says, Thus says the Lord. Hezekiah prays again. And in verse 4, And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him, Turn back and say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord. So God spoke once, Hezekiah prayed, and God appears to change his mind. Can your prayers change the mind of God? The second answer is, I will heal you and I will add 15 years to your life. Do your prayers matter? Hezekiah’s prayers did, both in the victory over the Assyrians and in his own health. The lesson here in these two chapters is pray. Pray about your public circumstances and pray about your private matters. God heard the prayers of Hezekiah. Lift your prayers to him as well. Father, we do pray in thanks for these chapters. We thank you for a good king in King Hezekiah. And we thank you for the model of prayer that Hezekiah leaves us. We thank you that in these chapters we saw you answer his prayers twice. Once in a magnificent way. slaying 185,000 Assyrians and once in a very personal way, healing him physically. May you strengthen our prayer lives as we see good examples here that you hear our prayers. Thank you for listening to us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
