2 KINGS
The Final Days of the Southern Kingdom of Judah
Part One
2 Kings 18:1-19:37
INTRODUCTION (2 Kings 18:1-8)
With the reign of Hezekiah we see a break in the line of the kings of Judah, the southern kingdom. Time after time 2 Kings informs us that although many of the kings of the southern kingdom were good, they were not wholehearted in their allegiance to the Lord. This label though is not applied to Hezekiah. Second Kings claims that Hezekiah and Josiah, who is to come later, are men after David's own heart. They are wholehearted in their commitment to God. In fact they are so wholehearted in their commitment to God that 2 Kings says there was no king like them after them or BEFORE them.
At first blush this does not seem all that important; however, remember that one of the kings who preceded Hezekiah and Josiah was David himself. They are better kings even than David because even though he was wholehearted in his commitment to God, he still committed adultery and murdered the husband of the woman he committed adultery with. This was not true of Hezekiah and Josiah. Although Hezekiah will slip up at the end of his reign, his slip does not even begin to compare with the evil David committed against Uriah.
What actions did Hezekiah do which demonstrated his wholehearted commitment to God? First, he not only worshiped God, he also removed the altars at the high places throughout Judah. He restricts the worship of the Lord to the Temple in Jerusalem, something most of his predecessors did not do and for which they received criticism from 2 Kings. Furthermore, Hezekiah reconquers the land of Philistia which Judah had once possessed. Hezekiah extends the southwestern portion of his kingdom all the way down to Gath, the southernmost boundary of Philistia. In addition to this he revives Temple worship and reinstitutes the observance of Passover which had fallen into neglect.
Finally, Hezekiah reverses the policy of his father Ahaz towards Assyria. Ahaz had brought Assyria into his conflict with Israel and Syria in the north. It resulted in Judah becoming a vassal paying annual tribute to Assyria. One factor which might have influenced Hezekiah was the turmoil Assyria found itself in. After the death of Shalmanezer IV several provinces in the Assyrian empire revolted against the new Assyrian king Sennacherib: Babylon to the south of Assyria; Tyre, Edom, and Ammon to the southwest. Hezekiah probably also thought that Egypt would come to his aid if he rebelled against Assyria. The primary reason though he rebelled against Assyria was that he believed that Judah, God's chosen people, should never pay tribute to any pagan nation. If the Lord, the God of the universe, was Israel's God, then it was beneath the dignity of the Lord for His people to pay tribute to any pagan nation, no matter how powerful that nation was.
ASSYRIA INVADES JUDAH (18:13-19:19)
To the discomfort of the rebellious tributaries, Sennacherib is able to consolidate his power. He crushes the revolt in Babylon to the south and then marches southwest to lay siege to the city of Tyre on the Mediterranean coast. After a 3-year siege Tyre capitulates. Sennacherib spares the city but replaces the Tyrian king with an Assyrian ruler. Undoubtedly numerous citizens of Tyre were transplanted to other areas in the Assyrian empire, a customary feature of Assyrian conquest. After Edom and Ammon sue for peace and promise to start paying tribute once more to Assyria, Sennacherib turns his attention to Judah.
Hezekiah understands that he and Judah are in serious jeopardy. He hastens to restore a positive relationship with Sennacherib by agreeing to resume paying an annual tribute to Assyria. Sennacherib sets the terms: 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold (each talent weighing approximately 75 pounds), a considerable amount for this tiny kingdom. The amount stretches the royal treasury to such an extent that Hezekiah has to strip the temple compound of the gold used for decoration. Hezekiah believes that he has successfully bought off the Assyrian monarch. God though has another plan. He does not want His people to be saved by surrender or by paying tribute; He wants to save them in such a way that they will know that He is God and that He is for Judah. (In the same way many times God will not let our efforts get us out of the mess we're in. God does not want you to enjoy the good life based upon your own human efforts. He wants you and me to experience an abundant life based upon His power. He wants your life to be the result of a miracle. The prophet says: "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord.")
Sennacherib reneges on his deal with Hezekiah AFTER he receives the tribute money from Judah. He sends a force to besiege Jerusalem. His primary goal is to replace Hezekiah with an Assyrian ruler, a standard Assyrian practice. Moreover, he will transport some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem to remote parts of the Assyrian empire and transport aliens to live in Jerusalem, thereby destroying the identity of the people of Judah.
Sennacherib sends 3 envoys to negotiate Jerusalem's surrender: Rabshakeh, Tartan, and Rab-saris. Hezekiah refuses to negotiate with these 3 envoys. He is a king and is willing to negotiate only with another king, not with his envoys. Rabshakeh, speaking in the Jewish language, addresses 3 envoys sent to them by Hezekiah. In the hearing of all the people of Jerusalem, who are lining the walls of Jerusalem, Rabshakeh attempts to strike terror in the hearts of all the people of Jerusalem. He informs them that like the nations surrounding them, they will not be able to resist the Assyrian army. Look at all the nations Assyria has invaded. They have all succumbed to Assyrian might. Jerusalem likewise will fall. Moreover in the meantime the horrors of the siege will befall Jerusalem: they will eat their own dung and drink their own urine. Rabshakeh claims that Jerusalem has become so weak militarily that even if Sennacherib were to give Jerusalem 2000 chariots and horses, the men of Jerusalem would be unable to man them. Finally, Rabshakeh informs Hezekiah that he knows Hezekiah is hoping that Egypt will come to his aid. Well, Egypt is like a reed which when leaned upon pierces a person's hand. Egypt will harm, not aid Judah.
At this point Rabshakeh goes too far. It is one thing to mock Hezekiah and Jerusalem. Now he makes the fatal mistake of turning on Judah's God. First, Rabshakeh says that Hezekiah has offended Judah's God by removing all the high places of worship throughout Judah and forcing the Jews to worship God in Jerusalem only--the very thing God had commanded Hezekiah to do! Moreover, just like the gods of other nations were unable to deliver their peoples, so the God of Judah would be unable to deliver His people. In other words, the siege and war are no longer between Sennacherib and Hezekiah; they are between Sennacherib's god and the God of Judah. Rabshakeh even says that he will transport the Jews to a land flowing with milk and honey; in other words he is claiming for himself powers and promises which the God of Judah had made for His own people, an insult to God.
Eliakim and the other 2 envoys from Hezekiah urge Rabshakeh to quit speaking in the Jewish tongue and ask him to speak in Aramaic which they could understand but not the people. Rabshakeh though refuses to comply because he wants to intimidate the people of Jerusalem, hoping that they will rise in rebellion against Hezekiah and bring the siege to an end.
Eliakim and company return to Hezekiah and inform him of Rabshakeh's terms. Hezekiah along with the 3 goes into mourning. Moreover, he sends the news of Sennacherib's terms to Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah informs Hezekiah that Jerusalem will be successful in the siege. Sennacherib will hear an evil report and will eventually return to Assyria. In fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy, Sennacherib receives word that Tirhakah the Pharaoh over Egypt (actually the Ethiopian monarch who had conquered Egypt) has attacked the Assyrian armies.
The news that Tarhakah has attacked the Assyrian forces Sennacherib to try to deal with Hezekiah as swiftly as possible. He does not want to fight Tarhakah to the south of his forces with a hostile Hezekiah to the north of his forces. He once more sends Rabshakeh and the other 2 envoys to press for Hezekiah's surrender. (There is no hint that Hezekiah knows that Sennacherib is in trouble.)
Hezekiah, unsuspecting of the Egyptian invasion, believes he is in dire straits. He goes to the temple and lays before the Lord the message Rabshakeh delivered to his envoys. Hezekiah's prayer is instructive for several reasons. First, he "reminds" God of His commitment to His people Judah. When he says that the Lord is enthroned above the cherubim, he is referring to the cherubim which are located on top of the ark of the covenant. Because God committed Himself to be the God of the Jewish people, He promised to dwell above their ark of the covenant. Hezekiah is appealing to God's commitment to the Jewish people.
In the same way we can appeal to God on the basis of our relationship with Him. When you became a Christian, the Spirit of God's Son Jesus came to live within you. At that moment you became either a son or a daughter of God. In fact you are now as much God's child as Jesus is. For those of us who are parents, we understand how a parent's relationship with his child affects the way he treats him. Nathan and Molly are my children, and I love them dearly. When they are in trouble, I respond positively to them because they are MY children. If I were to neglect them, they would be entitled to remind me that I was their dad and that I should act accordingly. In the same way Hezekiah reminds God of their relationship. This kind of appeal works. If I respond positively to my children--and I am evil, then how much more does our heavenly Father who is perfect respond positively to His children. God is a far better parent to us than we are to our children!
Next Hezekiah appeals to God by highlighting the challenge Rabshakeh has made to God. He had basically lowered Judah's God to the same level as the pagan idols of the surrounding nations. If Assyria prevails, then the surrounding nations will give credence to Rabshakeh's blasphemous boasts. In other words, God's honor is at stake in this situation. Hezekiah calls for God to defend His honor.
GOD'S RESPONSE (19:20-37)
Isaiah informs Hezekiah that because he prayed, God is going to deliver His people. We will see in the next chapter that because Hezekiah prays to God, God adds another 15 years to his life. The implication to both these stories is that God does something wonderful for Hezekiah because he prayed. In other words, if Hezekiah had not prayed, then God would not have sent these wonderful things Hezekiah's way.
Too often the church has been plagued with the idea that whatever is going to happen is going to happen and that our prayers should only be, "Thy will be done." Remember though that before Jesus prayed, "Thy will be done," He asked specifically for God to deliver Him from the cross. Look at the prayers of both the OT and NT. These prayers do not demonstrate a fatalistic approach to prayer, that whatever is going to happen is going to happen. These OT and NT saints believed that their prayers could make a difference. The way they prayed showed that they believed their prayers made a difference. In the same way your prayers make a difference. Dads and moms can affect their families positively if they will get down on their knees and pray for their families. If one of the parents doesn't pray, that does not keep the other parent from praying. The same applies to our nation. If Christians don't pray fervently about the up-coming presidential election, then we will deserve whatever we get. If we don't pray fervently for an excellent pastor, why would God bother to send us one? God does not call His house a house of preaching; He takes prayer so seriously that He calls His house a house of prayer. Many Christians have missed out on the exciting opportunities God wants to give them because they refuse to pray. The blessings are not necessarily automatic; God wants us engaged in the process. God does not have to restrict Himself to our prayers; however, most of the time He does.
God now informs Hezekiah that Jerusalem is going to survive the siege. In fact within 3 years Jerusalem will be eating again of the harvest they have sown in the fields. In other words, they will not perish but instead will actually get to live to see a harvest they have prepared for in 3 more years.
Moreover, God has a message for Sennacherib. Look at the progression of the story. Sennacherib has been speaking to Hezekiah about the Lord. Then Hezekiah has been speaking to the Lord about Sennacherib. Now the Lord is going to speak to Hezekiah about Sennacherib. Everybody else has been speaking. Now it is the Lord's turn.
God informs Hezekiah that He is going to destroy the Assyrian army. In fact He is going to humiliate them. One of the most galling things for men to experience is to have women laugh at them because it is an attack on their masculinity. Somehow or other when women laugh at a man, it is more hurtful than when another man laughs at a man. Well, God is going to humiliate the Assyrian army to such an extent that the young virgins of Jerusalem will stand up on the walls of Jerusalem, flip back their hair, and laugh at the Assyrian army.
God now gives the Assyrian army the proper perspective on all their conquests. He was the One who had given the Assyrian army the power to conquer their rivals. How had they repaid Him? By sneering at Him and by claiming that they were going to humiliate Him by humiliating His pitiful army. Well, God was now going to turn the tables on the Assyrians. Normally after the Assyrians had conquered their foes, they would lead them away into captivity by putting the bits of horses into their mouths and by leading them away with a ring in their noses. The Assyrians would treat their captives like mere cattle. Now the tables were going to be turned. The Assyrians would be led away with rings in their noses or with bits in their mouths.
That very night God's prophecy comes true. An angel of the Lord strikes down 185,000 of the Assyrian army. The army itself which included the portion fighting the Egyptians numbered more than 185,000; however, the loss of 185,000 men was a devastating blow to the Assyrian war effort. Sennacherib knows that he is defeated and so packs up his bags to return home. Upon his arrival he is assassinated by 2 of his elder sons whom he passed over in favor of the younger son Essarhaddon with regards to becoming the next king of Assyria.
The question many ask is whether or not this is a true story. Since the histories from ancient Assyrian do not mention this devastating defeat, many OT scholars scoff at the truth of this story. Note 2 things though. First, the Assyrians never wrote down their history in a negative fashion. It was always positive. Even if something negative had happened, they would not have recorded it. Second, what is interesting is that when the Assyrians wrote down their version of this story, they gave away one clue which shows that this story is true. At the end of the Assyrian version of this invasion we see that Hezekiah is left in power in Jerusalem. In other words, the invasion failed to achieve its goal--removing Hezekiah. The Assyrians removed everybody else but not Hezekiah. Why not Hezekiah? If 2 Kings is not right, then why was Hezekiah left on the throne when his removal was the purpose of the invasion in the first place? Moreover, from this period onward, Assyria is no longer the superpower it once was. Something or Someone broke them. 2 Kings provides the answer.
Whatever else this story teaches, it teaches us that God comes through for His people. Yes, they have to pray. Yes, they mess up at times as when Hezekiah decided he would start paying tribute again. Yet God does not fail His people. If God is able to come through for His people whenever 185,000 people are surrounding you, then He can come through whenever we are having financial difficulties, marital difficulties, physical difficulties, emotional problems, etc. If God can take care of these massive armies, God can take care of your problems.