Commentary On Hezekiah

**INTRODUCTION**

Many people in the Bible are known for different things. King David was known for killing the giant Goliath. What would you say Moses was known for? What about Joshua, what was Joshua known for? Today we are going to learn about Hezekiah.

Q. What was Hezekiah known for?

A. Hezekiah was the one who revived the church.

Hezekiah means Jehovah's strength and we can read about Hezekiah in 2 Kings chapters 18 - 20

Hezekiah of King Judah - 2 Kings 18:1-6

1 Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.

2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.

3 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.

4 He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.

5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him.

6 For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.

**MAIN**

Hezekiah was a good king and a godly man. Because he was a king we may think that Hezekiah had a good start in life but this was not the case. His father Ahaz was one of the wickedest kings in Judah's history, and during his reign the religious life of the nation reached an all-time low. (Read 2 Kings 16:2-4) Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king and he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He followed in the steps of previous corrupt kings and even sacrificed his son in the fire. He followed the detestable ways of the nations that the Lord had driven out. He offered up sacrifices and burned incense at the high places on the hilltops and under every spreading tree. This was the type of Father King Hezekiah had. With a father and a background like that we may wonder how Hezekiah became such a noble and spiritually minded man. Where did his faith in God and his spiritual character come from? Certainly not from his home background as we have seen. It can only have been that Gods’ spirit had worked directly in his life.

Not everybody has the blessing of being brought up in a godly home, in surroundings where the Bible is being read and prayers are being said. This shows us that God is a personal God, sovereign and an unrestricted God. Your character and your relationship with God does not depend on someone else. It doesn't depend on your family background or culture. Your walk with God, your faith in God and relationship with Him does not depend on your parents or grandparent’s relationship with God. If your parents have a close relationship with God that doesn't mean that you will have a close relationship with God too. Likewise if your parents are far from God doesn't mean that you will be far from God. Your relationship with God depends on you and more so on God, it depends on nothing else and no one else.

Romans 8:38-39

38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,

39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

However Hezekiah did have the prophet Isaiah as a mentor. Isaiah was speaking for truth and righteousness in that godless age and Hezekiah is to be commended for listening to him.

There are many voices speaking in the world today who may be: gifted experienced speakers with loud voices; very popular with good looks and a huge internet following; brainy well educated with long titles; influential business men with loads of money. Who are you listening to? And why are you listening to them?

Hezekiah stayed close to the lord and listened to him.

To hear from God you need to be still and be close to him because he tends to speak in a still small voice. Now that you have an idea of Hezekiah’s character, let's take a look at what he did as king of Judah.

As a God fearing man Hezekiah wanted to restore the spiritual life of the nation. This wasn't to be a patch up job it needed to be a thorough job. Therefore there needed to be some demolition before construction could take place. In 2 Kings 18:4 we read how Hezekiah demolished all the idol worship. It was necessary to do this because God had totally rejected all the false worship that had gone on for generations.