2 Kings 20 – 21 part 13
Tonight we will finish up the reign of Hezekiah and then take a look at Manasseh and Amon’s reign.
2 Kings 20:1
In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son
of Amoz, went to him and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: 'Set your house
in order, for you shall die, and not live.' " 2 Then he turned his face toward
the wall, and prayed to the LORD, saying,
3 "Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked
before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good
in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
These events in this
chapter are also recorded in 2 Chr and Isaiah. Hezekiah was on his death bed
and Isaiah confirmed that he was going to die. Without any hope of recovering
from his illness he turns to God in prayer asking Him to remember His righteous
deeds he had done for God. Hezekiah was not ready to die yet and the thought of
dying made him weep bitterly.
2 Kings 20:4 And it
happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of
the LORD came to him, saying, 5
"Return and tell 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; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of
the LORD. 6 "And I will
add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand
of the king of
This a great example that shows that God does listen to our prayers. I love how it says that God saw his tears. Now you think about for a minute. Not only does God hear our prayers, He also can see us when we are hurting and can even see the tears that come from our eyes. Friends that should be a comforting thought to ever Christian to know that God is watching and listening to us that close. God answers Hezekiah’s prayer and send Isaiah back to tell him that he is going to live for another 15 years.
This is also good example for us not give up praying for those who are sick and even those who the doctor says they have no chance of living. Because if it God’s will to answer our prayer and keep that person alive longer, then it will happen because nothing is to hard for God. Our text lets us know that this event happened before Senachrib lost those 185,000 because the Assyrians had not went back home yet.
2 Kings 20:7 Then
Isaiah said, "Take a lump of figs." So they took and laid it on
the boil, and he recovered. 8 ¶
And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What is the sign that the LORD will
heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD the third
day?" 9 Then Isaiah
said, "This is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the
thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go
backward ten degrees?" 10
And Hezekiah answered, "It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten
degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees." 11 So Isaiah the prophet cried out
to the LORD, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had
gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.
First Isaiah has a lump
of figs brought to put on a boil that Hezekiah had, this was common remedy for
boils during that time. Next, Hezekiah wanted some proof that God would heal
him and that he would be able to go to the house of the Lord in 3 days. Isaiah
doesn’t disappoint him as he gives him two options to choose from as a sign.
Either the shadow on the sundial can go move forward 10 degrees or backwards 10
degrees. Of course Hezekiah choose what he thought would be hardest thing to
accomplish, so he chose for it to backwards 10 degrees. But, what seems
difficult or impossible to us is not hard for God to at all. Sure enough, God
caused the shadow to move backwards on the sundial proving that Isaiah was
speaking for the Lord.
This shows us that we
should never underestimate what God can do for in our lives and it should also
prove that all the promises God makes for us will come true even it we can’t
fully comprehend the concept of eternity or how he will give us a new body that
will last forever.
Our next few verses is
going to show us that Hezekiah allowed the success that God had blessed him
with to go to his head and become prideful. We are going to start with Isaiah
account as it gives us a few more details.
Isaiah 39:1 At
that time Merodach-Baladan (mehr-oh-dack
bal-ah-dahn) the son of Baladan, king of
Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been
sick and had recovered. 2 And
Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his treasures --
the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory --
all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in
all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
These Babylonians were at
the mercy of the Assyrians at this time as well, but when they heard about what
God had done for Hezekiah they sent some letters and present to Hezekiah. It
believed this was a political move on their part to possible join forces with
2 Chronicles 32:31 However,
regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, whom they sent to
him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, God withdrew
from him, in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his
heart.
As we read Hezekiah
failed this test.
2 Kings 20:14 Then
Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, "What did these
men say, and from where did they come to you?" So Hezekiah said,
"They came from a far country, from
Isaiah informs Hezekiah
that he has done a bad thing showing off all the treasures that he had because
now the Babylonians know that they have all the riches that they can take from
them later on and Isaiah let him know that these Babylonians will come in and
take everything he has shown them and even take some of his sons and make them
servants.
Hezekiah’s puts a
positive spin on this bad news by saying, “well, at least its not going to
happen while I am still king.”
2 Kings 20:20 Now the
rest of the acts of Hezekiah -- all his might, and how he made a pool and a
tunnel and brought water into the city -- are they not written in the
book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
21 So Hezekiah rested with his fathers. Then Manasseh his son
reigned in his place.
Hezekiah dies and his son
Manasseh reigns in his place.
2 Kings 21:1 Manasseh
was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five
years in
Once again we see the
same pattern with these kings. First, we have a really good king and then for
whatever reason when the son takes over, he turns out to be a bad king. If your
remember King Ahaz is usually described as the worst king of
2 Kings 21:10 And the
LORD spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, 11 "Because Manasseh king of
Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the
Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his
idols), 12 "therefore
thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'Behold, I am bringing such calamity
upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will
tingle. 13 'And I will
stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the
house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and
turning it upside down. 14
'So I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand
of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their
enemies, 15 'because they
have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their
fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.' " 16 Moreover Manasseh shed very
much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another,
besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the
LORD.
Obviously God was not
pleased with Manasseh and the prophets are told all these things that God is
going to do to Manasseh. He going to strike him so hard that when other nations
hear about it will cause their ears to tingle. In other words its going to be
so bad that people are going cringe when they hear about it. God is going to
wipe them out just like a person wipes off a dish. This destruction that is
being spoken of here is when
However, fortunately for
us 2 Chr. gives us more details and shows us some more important information
about Him.
2 Chronicles 33:10 And the
LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. 11 Therefore the LORD brought upon
them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with
hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to
Just as God had promised
the Assyrians came and drug Manasseh off to
Even though Manasseh was
rotten to the core and he did all those horrible things and killed many
innocent people God was willing to hear his prayer and restore him because he
humbled himself before God. However, we find out later that even though he was
restored
Now this is a powerful
lesson that every person need to learn in this life because it clearly shows
that not matter how bad you may be or how many sick things you have done, if
you will humble yourself before God and turn to him he will forgive you and
accept you as a child of God. However, even when we are forgiven of a sin, we
still have to face the consequences of that sin such as destroyed relationships
or damage we do to our bodies. This
shows how much love and mercy God has for all his creation and it should gives
great confidence as Christians that if we continue to humble ourselves before
God that he will also continue to forgive us of our sins when we mess from time
to time.
2 Chronicles 33:14 After
this he built a wall outside the City of David on the west side of Gihon, in
the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate; and it enclosed
Ophel, and he raised it to a very great height. Then he put military captains
in all the fortified cities of
If we didn’t have 2 Chr.
account, we would have thought that Manasseh was bad king his entire reign, but
now we can see that once he received his punishment for his rebellion that he
turned over a new leaf. When God allowed him to go back to
2 Chronicles 33:18 Now the
rest of the acts of Manasseh, his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers
who spoke to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, indeed they are
written in the book of the kings of Israel.
19 Also his prayer and how God received his entreaty,
and all his sin and trespass, and the sites where he built high places and set
up wooden images and carved images, before he was humbled, indeed they are written
among the sayings of Hozai. 20
So Manasseh rested with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. Then
his son Amon reigned in his place.
So, Manasseh is dead
after his long 55 year reign and his son Amon reigns in his place.
2 Kings 21: 9 Amon
was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years
in
We are not given much
details about Amon short 2 year reign other than he followed after the bad
things that his father did. His servants didn’t like the way he was ruling so
they killed him and then people of
Lessons learned: