Read 2 Kings 18, Habakkuk 1, and John 10 today. This devotional is about 2 Kings 18.
Our passage for today, 2 Kings 18, told us that Hezekiah was a godly king, like David (v. 3). Other kings of Judah were described as good kings but often with the caveat that they did not remove the high places used for idolatry. These kings, then, worshipped the Lord themselves and stressed covenant obedience to God’s law for the nation but they did not try to stop the private idol worship that was going on away from Jerusalem.
Hezekiah, however, did put a stop to that idolatry. Verse 4 told us, “ He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)”
The reason he did this was that, “Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel.” His faith in God led him to do what was unpopular with the people but right in the eyes of God. As a result God said of him, “There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook.” He stood alone among the kings of Judah because of his faith and God blessed him with success accordingly, just as He had promised to do in the law.
That doesn’t mean that Hezekiah did not face adversity. Verse 7b told us that, “He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.” This statement is quite meaningful; Assyria was taking over the known world at that time. Verses 9-12 told us that Israel was invaded, defeated, and exiled from their land due to their disobedience to God’s law. Then the Assyrians attacked Hezekiah (v. 13). At first Hezekiah tried to buy peace from the Assyrians by giving them silver and gold, even gold harvested from Solomon’s temple (vv. 14-16). That peace lasted temporarily, then the Assyrians were back again like a 6th grade bully taking 3rd graders’ lunch money.
This time the Assyrians stopped water from flowing into Jerusalem, trapping the people in the city with no way for water or food to enter. They taunted God’s people and urged them (in their own Hebrew language, no less) to surrender despite what Hezekiah said. The Assyrians made this conflict about God, not just about world domination. In verse 22 they said, “But if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?” They misunderstood how worship was supposed to work in Judah, but their words resonated with the people whose idol altars Hezekiah had torn down.
Later they said that it was God’s will for them to attack Judah: “ Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the Lord? The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’” (v. 25) Finally, the Assyrians appealed to their record of success against all other kinds of gods: “Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” (v. 35).
The lesson from this is that the promise of God’s presence with the godly does not mean an absence of adversity in your life.
In fact, the more you trust God, the more likely you are to face challenges to your faith from those who have rejected the Lord. If you’re facing some trials and hardships right now, understand that this is part of walking with the Lord. God hasn’t abandoned you or failed you; he has led you into an opportunity to test and strengthen your faith even more.