Day 184: Hezekiah Reigns (2024)

This episode dives into the Biblical narrative of Hezekiah's reign over Judah, exploring his religious reforms and defiance against Assyrian dominance.

1. Hezekiah’s reign marked a significant religious reform in Judah, dismantling idolatry and restoring temple worship.
2. His leadership contrasted sharply with his father Ahaz, emphasizing piety and obedience to God.
3. Assyrian aggression under King Sennacherib posed a severe threat, testing Hezekiah’s resolve and faith.
4. Hezekiah's refusal to surrender to Assyria highlighted his faith in divine protection over political alliances.
5. The episode underscores the importance of leadership in maintaining faith and moral integrity amidst external threats.

1: Introduction to Hezekiah's Reign

Overview of Hezekiah's ascension to power and initial reforms in religious practices. He begins by cleansing Judah of idolatry and restoring the temple. Father Mike Schmitz: "Hezekiah, unlike his father Ahaz, was one of the best kings of Judah."

2: Assyrian Threat and Hezekiah's Defiance

Detailed account of Assyrian advancements into Israel and their implications for Judah, emphasizing Hezekiah's strategic responses. Father Mike Schmitz: "Hezekiah showed remarkable leadership by not only focusing on internal religious reforms but also handling external military threats."

3: Spiritual Renewal and Political Turmoil

Exploration of the balance Hezekiah maintained between spiritual duties and political necessities, particularly his interactions with Assyrian envoys. Father Mike Schmitz: "Hezekiah’s reforms were not just about faith; they were about survival against Assyrian domination."

1. Embrace change as an opportunity for improvement, much like Hezekiah did with his reforms.
2. Stand firm in your beliefs, especially when facing external pressures.
3. Seek spiritual integrity as a foundation for making tough decisions.
4. Use history to inform present actions, learning from both successes and failures.
5. Cultivate resilience by relying on a higher purpose or greater good in challenging times.

Fr. Mike reflects on Hezekiah's righteousness as king of Judah, and his pivotal work of restoring true worship and removing false idols. By undoing all of the corrupt things his father king Ahaz did, Hezekiah shows us that our ancestors do not define our destiny.

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Hezekiah, Ahaz, Sennacherib

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Father Mike Schmitz
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a year podcast where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a year podcast is brought to you by ascension using the great adventure Bible timeline. We'll read all the way from Genesis to revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story. Today it is day 184. This is our first day in the next time period, the baby blues.

As you probably heard Jeff introduce this time period in the podcast before this, hopefully you got to listen to that interview setting the stage for the period of the exile. So the baby blues or the blues are being sung because exile, yeah, horrible. But we are reading two kings, chapter 18 today, second chronicles 29, and we're praying psalm 141. If you've been a little bit overwhelmed by the length of the last couple days, you know, we had lots and lots of chapters. Today it's only three chapters, which is great.

And also, we're back in sync with second kings and second Chronicles, where back in the same time period, remember that Second Kings is kind of written as the thing happened, or, you know, at least right after the events happen. Two Chronicles is likely the last final book written in the Old Testament, chronologically at least. And so this is looking back and retelling the story or telling the story again, retelling the story. So that's what we got going on today. As always, the Bible translation I'm using is the revised standard Version, the second catholic edition.

I am using the great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com bibleinayear. You can also subscribe to this podcast. It is day 184. We're reading two kings 18, 2nd Chronicles 29, and we are praying psalm 141, the second book of Kings, chapter 18.

Hezekiah reigns over Judah in the third year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel. Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. He was 25 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah, and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that David, his father, had done. He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah.

And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made for until those days the sons of Israel had burned incense to it. It was called Nehushtan he trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the lord and he did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments which the lord commanded Moses. And the lord was with him. Wherever he went forth, he prospered.

He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. He struck the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory from watchtower to fortified city. In the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the 7th year of HoSHea, son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and besieged it. And at the end of three years, he took it. In the 6th year of Hezekiah, which was the 9th year of Hoshea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in Halah and on the Habor, the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant, even all that moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed. Sennacherib invades Judah in the 14th year of King Hezekiah. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. And Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria at Lakshesh, saying, I have done wrong.

Withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me, I will bear. And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah, king of Judah, 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king's house. At that time, Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the doorposts, which Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.

And the king of Assyria sent the tartan, the Rabesaris and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Laksheshish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the fuller's field. And when they called for the king, there came out to them Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household. And Shebnah, the secretary, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder and the Rabshakeh said to them, say to Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria.

On what do you rest this confidence of yours? Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom do you now rely that you have rebelled against me? Behold, you are relying now on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who rely on him.

But if you say to me, we rely on the Lord our God is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem. Come now, make a wager with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you 2000 horses if you are able on your part to set riders upon them. How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this place to destroy it?

The Lord said to me, go up against this land and destroy it. Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah and Shebnah and Joah said to the rabshakeah, please speak to your servants in the aramaic language for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall. But the rabshakeah said to them, has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you and not to the men sitting on the wall who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine. Then the rabshake stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah, hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.

Thus says the king, do not let Hezekiah deceive you for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. Do not let Hezekiah make you rely on the lord by saying, the lord will surely deliver us and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria, make your peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat of his own vine and every one of his own fig tree.

And every one of you will drink the water of his own cistern until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, the Lord will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Henna and Ivah?

Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who among all the gods of the countries have delivered their countries out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, do not answer him. Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the rabshakeh, the second book of Chronicles, chapter 29. Hezekiah's reign over Judah.

Hezekiah began to reign when he was 25 years old, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah, and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that David his father had done. The temple is cleansed in the first year of his reign. In the first month he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east and said to them, hear me, Levites, now sanctify yourselves and sanctify the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the holy place.

For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. Therefore, the wrath of the Lord came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes. For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity.

For this now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel that his fierce anger may turn away from us. My sons, do not now be negligent for the lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and burn incense to him. Then the Levites arose. Mahath the son of Amasai and Joel, the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites and of the sons of Merari, kish the son of Abdi and Azariah, the son of Jelalel and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zima and Eden, the son of Joah and of the sons of Elisaphon, Shimri and Jaoel and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mataniah and of the sons of Haman, Jehuel and Shimei and of the sons of Jeddephunte, Shemaiah and Uzziel. They gathered their brethren and sanctified themselves and went in as the king had commanded by the words of the Lord to cleanse the house of the Lord.

The priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it. And they brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it and carried it out to the brook. Kidron they began to sanctify on the first day of the first month. And on the 8th day of the month they came to the vestibule of the lord.

Then for eight days they sanctified the house of the Lord. And on the 16th day of the first month they finished. Then they went into Hezekiah the king and said, we have cleansed all the house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils and the table for the showbread and all its utensils. All the utensils which king Ahaz discarded in his reign when he was faithless. We have made ready and sanctified.

And behold, they are before the altar of the lord. Hezekiah restores temple worship. Then Hezekiah the king rose early and gathered the officials of the city and went up to the house of the Lord. And they brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs and seven he goats for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. And he commanded the priests, the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the lord.

So they killed the bulls. And the priests received the blood and threw it against the altar. And they killed the rams and their blood was thrown against the altar. And they killed the lambs and their blood was thrown against the altar. Then the he goats for the sin offering were brought in to the king and the assembly.

And they laid their hands upon them. And the priests killed them and made a sin offering with their blood on the altar to make atonement for all Israel. For the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel. And he stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with symbols, harps and lyres according to the commandment of David and of Gad, the king's seer and of Nathan the prophet. For the commandment was from the Lord through his prophets.

The LeVites stood with the instruments of David and the priests with the trumpets. Then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the lord began also. And the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David, king of Israel. The whole assembly worshipped and the singers sang and the trumpeters sounded.

All this continued until the burnt offering was finished. When the offering was finished, the king and all who were present with him bowed themselves and worshipped. And Hezekiah, the king of the princes commanded the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph, the seer. And they sang praises with gladness and they bowed down and worshiped. Then Hezekiah said, you have now consecrated yourselves to the Lord.

Come near. Bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the Lord. And the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings. And all who were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings. The number of the burnt offerings which the assembly brought was 70 bulls, a hundred rams and 200 lambs.

All these were for a burnt offering to the Lord. And the consecrated offerings were 600 bulls and 3000 sheep. But the priests were too few and could not flay all the burnt offerings. So until other priests had sanctified themselves their brethren the Levites helped them until the work was finished. For the Levites were more upright in heart than the priests in sanctifying themselves.

Besides the great number of burnt offerings there was the fat of the peace offerings and there were the libations for the burnt offerings. Thus the service of the house of the Lord was restored. And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because of what God had done for the people. For the thing came about suddenly.

Psalm 141. Prayer for preservation from evil. A psalm of David, I call upon you, O Lord. Make haste to me. Give ear to my voice.

When I call to you. Let my prayer be counted as incense before you and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord. Keep watch over the door of my lips. Incline not my heart to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds, in company with men who work iniquity.

Let me not eat of their dainties. Let a good man strike or rebuke me in kindness. But let the oil of the wicked never anoint my head, for my prayer is continually against their wicked deeds. When they are given over to those who shall condemn them, then they shall learn that the word of the Lord is true. As a rock which one cleaves and shatters on the land, so shall their bones be strewn at the mouth of Sheol.

But my eyes are toward you, O Lord God, in you I seek refuge. Leave me not defenseless. Keep me from the trap which they have laid for me. And from the snare of evildoers. Let the wicked together fall into their own nets while I escape.

Father in heaven, thank you so much. Thank you for your word and your kindness. Thank you so much for the fact that you receive our prayers and that for whatever reason, God, our prayers matter to you. Our hearts matter to you. Our lives matter to you.

The hair is on our head, apparently. For whatever reason, God, it doesn't make any sense, but we matter to you. We just thank you. Thank you for hearing our prayers. Thank you for the fact that we listen to your word, that that matters to you, that that honors you, that that gives you glory, and that you receive that.

Receive. This time that we've spent together, this time that we've spent listening to your word as our gift to you, when we know truly what it is, is your gift to us. You are so good. God, we thank you and praise your name. We ask you to keep us, help us to remain faithful.

And if we haven't been faithful, make us so. In Jesus name we pray in the name of the Father and the Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. Wow. Gosh, I love psalm 141.

It's so good. Especially it's a great prayer to begin the day with where we just pray. Set a guard over my mouth, o Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips. That is a great prayer to you. Pray when you know you're going into a conversation where the tensions can get high and maybe some words that shouldn't be said are potentially going to be said.

Just set a watch over my lips, lord, set a guard over my mouth can be a great, great prayer to pray great prayer to begin the day and begin any kind of time where you know you're going to have to speak wufta. Okay. So, gosh, it's so good to be back. Kind of synced up here with two kings and two chronicles. We get the story of Hezekiah.

A couple things about Hezekiah. We know that his dad was Ahaz, and we also know that Ahaz was one of the worst kings that Judah ever had. And Hezekiah was one of the best kings that Judah ever had, which is man. There's so many. So, so much in that that we can dive deeply into this.

We recognize that our pedigree is not our destiny. Right? That our. I just made that up right now, that our. There's another way to say it.

Our history is not our destiny. The people who come before us, our ancestors, do not determine our future. And here is Hezekiah, who learned from his father. He learned from Israel in the north and learned that, no, my father Ahaz, was not faithful. He doesn't say this.

I mean, this is really interesting. He doesn't condemn his father. At least we don't have that record of that in two kings or in two chronicles. We just have him with his actions, undoing all the things that his father had done, which is remarkable. And we also see that three years after Hezekiah began his reign, that's when the king of Assyria came into Israel and completely scattered them all to exile, to destroy them.

And so I'm sure that Hezekiah also saw, yeah, this is what they did in the north, that unfaithfulness, right? That lack of faithfulness leads to this destruction. And it's just so incredible that here's Hezekiah, who ahaz was one of the worst. Here's Hezekiah, one of the best. What's he do?

He reinstitutes true worship. He reinstitutes true worship, which is just remarkable. In second chronicles, it says that basically the restoration process, the restoration steps were basically immediate. In the first year of his reign, in the first month of his reign, he begins to tear down, not remember, some of those decent kings, they reestablish worship in the temple, but they were not willing to cut down all of the, like, the sacred poles and the asherim and all those kind of things. And you think, why?

Why were they not willing to do that? Well, you're not willing to do that because people outside of the city of Jerusalem, they like to go to those sacred poles, they like to go to those other places of, you know, idols and like to pray in those places. And so you might just keep your people happy by letting them do what they want to do as opposed to leading them into holiness. And this is one of those things where when you're the person in charge, here's the king, who's the person in charge? Your responsibility is.

Yes, for yourself, but also that responsibility to be able to say, I might have to make some decisions that people will not like. I'm sure that Hezekiah got pushed back because all of his ancestors had left those people alone. Yep. You can imagine people out in the country saying, listen, you can reinstitute temple worship. That's no problem.

Just leave our private idols out of it. Like, leave our sacred poles, leave our asherim, leave those out of it. And yet Hezekiah was not willing to do that. He reinstated not only true worship in the temple but he also removed those false gods from the people of the land. And that is going to be so important.

He had to take that stand against the people because next chapter, he's going to take a stand for the people. In fact, we even saw that in two kings 18, right? We have this ambassador from the king of Assyria, Sennacherib. He's the rabshakeah. And he comes to have a message to Hezekiah.

And so who goes out, Eliakim, who's the head of the house. He's the al Habait with the man over the house. And Shebna, the scribe, and Joa, these three men go out and the rabshaka, Sennacherib says, yeah, here's what's going to happen. We're going to destroy you. We've destroyed everybody.

And this is great because at one point, Eliakim says, hey, how about speak to us in Aramaic? We understand that language. Don't speak to us in the judean dialect. The people on the wall can hear because that'll get them discouraged. Just talk to us, the three ambassadors of the king.

And the rabshaka is really a tough cookie because he says, no, no, no, listen, I will speak in such a way that these people on the wall can absolutely not only hear me and understand me but they know that it's Hezekiah who's causing all this problem. You know that's not true, right? It's the king of Assyria, Sennacherib, who's calling, causing the problem, because he's the one invading Jerusalem. But the reason why there's going to be terror here is because Hezekiah is not willing to just fold and let the king of Assyria roll over him. And so he says, yeah, you know, listen, you might want me to speak in Aramaic so these guys don't understand, but they're the ones who are going to suffer.

In fact, he's very graphic in how they're going to suffer. Where he says, I don't know, I just have to say it. To eat their own dung and drink their own urine. Like this is how bad things are going to get. That's bad.

That sounds bad. That sounds like a bad place. And even that rabshaka, right? The emissary of the king of Assyria, Sennacherib. What does he do?

He says, listen, we've conquered all of these cities, we've conquered all of these people and not one of their gods helped them. I know you have your Hezekiah, who, he's religious, he's faithful to the Lord your God. But listen, we even conquered Samaria. And I thought you guys had the same God, you know, because that's what they would have thought. Just, you're doing the same thing.

He didn't help them. What makes you think that the Lord your God is going to help you? And this is the big, big question and what's going to happen in the next chapter? Two kings, chapter 19. And the chapters following this is.

Yeah, is it worth following the Lord God and relying on him rather than making an alliance with Egypt? You know, the rapture, kah says you don't want to make an alliance with Egypt. But Hezekiah was not relying upon Egypt as much as he was relying upon the Lord his God. And that is the key because he is the king. You know, he's.

He's the one leading the people so. Well, so that's what we're doing. We're going to keep following Hezekiah a little bit for the next couple days and then we're going to see how things unfold. But in this moment, here is Hezekiah, who is not only purifying temple worship and not only eliminating, removing the false worship, he's also relying upon the Lord his God in the face of great opposition, in the face of great danger. One last thing.

You might notice this in second chronicles. I just want to bring this up. All the stuff we read from Leviticus in numbers and deuteronomy, isn't that making sense now where it says, yeah, they brought all these bulls and goats and lambs and they took them, slaughtered them and splashed the blood on the altar. And even they took these he goats, right? And they laid their hands on the he goats.

Why? Remember, they're escape goats. And when they laid their hands on him, they were placing the sins of the people symbolically upon the heads of those he goats and then slaughtering them and whatnot. What a gift. You guys, we know this now because we've gone through Leviticus, we've gone through numbers, we've gone through deuteronomy, we've heard about this.

And so now, hundreds of years later, when Hezekiah and the Levites are doing this, we're like, oh yeah, I totally know that. So congratulations, you, you guys, good job. You're at day 184 and you're getting to know God's word more and more fully, knowing that it's so important to give God what he asks for in worship and then to trust in the Lord when our backs are against the wall and when we're facing incredible opposition. I know so many of you in this community, this Bible and, er, community, you're facing opposition right now and so we are praying for you. Let's keep praying for each other.

Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God blessed.