Good Great Saturday Morning/Afternoon to you beloved. I’ve been in deep study and thought again with the OT(Old Testament), which was one of my resolutions for this New Year, to complete a book for my grandkids about what grandma thinks and believes about God, as my papaw did for I without him knowing it. I inherited a lot of his books and writings after his death. I hope to share with you a series about people of the OT and lessons I learned from their behavioral actions. I hope you enjoy it, and as I always say, you may not agree,and that is fine. I just ask that you keep in mind that these are my thoughts revealed to me by none other than the Holy Spirit, Himself, for my understanding of the Lord. Thank you Jesus!
If You Knew
If you knew the exact time you were going to die, what would you change in your life during that additional period(s) guaranteed to you? This is something I was thinking about concerning wasted time that we have all experienced and thoughts of how to somewhat correct past behaviors, thoughts, and actions thereof. I have learned these past three weeks and know from my experience that “silence is golden” when you put yourself in the Lord’s presence and see yourself through His eyes. Just sit quietly to self and He will reveal. There are some things you may not like or can’t believe about self. Unveiling is a powerful thing!
So anywho! I was reading in the OT again searching for something really deep about being given a 2nd chance to live life differently up to a certain day of guaranteed death told to you. Here is where the remembrance of King Hezekiah kicked in. After reading about him again, I also pondered, why was it that Adam was not given another chance to live perfectly again? That’s another blog and thought I suppose.
First I’ll share what I took from my Comprehensive Analysis of the Bible by Montgomery F. Essig, 1922 Edition about Hezekiah. Lord, I wish this edition was online so I could have just copied and pasted. Here we go!
Hezekiah – a form of a Hebrew word meaning “strength of Jehovah.” Hezekiah was the twelfth king of Judah and one of the best of Judah’s kingly line, although he was the son of the idolater Ahaz. He was born about 726 B.C., ascended the throne when about twenty-five years old, and reigned twenty-nine years. One of the first acts of his reign was to do away with the idol-worship that had grown under his father and restore the true faith. He then turned his attention to win back the cities captured by the Philistines. His success in these military operations led him to refuse tribute to Assyria, which nation had already destroyed the kingdom of Israel and led away the ten tribes captive. This act brought to his doors an Assyrian army, and Hezekiah was forced to make terms by despoiling the Temple of gold to give to the Assyrians, who promptly broke faith, and were just as promptly punished by God, who in a night destroyed 180,000 of them by plague. Hezekiah fell ill, and, after earnest prayer, was told by the prophet Isaiah that God would spare his life for fifteen years. The remainder of his reign appears to have been peaceful and prosperous. References 2 Kings 16;18;19;20.
I shall add a bit more here about Hezekiah. His mother, Abijah, was the daughter of King Zechariah. You do know that King David was Hezekiah’s grandfather, right? And that because of Ahaz’s reign of not doing right in the eyes of the Lord, Israel was once again exiled because of Sin to Assyria? In 2 Kings 17:18-19 the bible tells us that –So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from His presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, and even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They followed the practices Israel has introduced.
His wife’s name was Hephzibah of which Manasseh was seeded. It occurred to me that during the reign of kings throughout the families, that one generation would do good; then the next generation would do bad in the eyes of the Lord, and so on and so on. In other words, it seemed generations took turns between doing good and bad in the eyes of the Lord. I see that happening in my family and many others of which I am aware of their family history. There appears to be some type of skip a generational curse existing thingy. (Read the books of Judges – 2 Chronicles for specifics)
In 2 Kings 18:5-8, it tells us that- Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. 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 rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory.
Did you know that it was Hezekiah who broke “into pieces” the bronze snake Moses made that was used to cure the Israelites from snake bites back in Moses’ day? Here’s the story about Moses’ snake.
Numbers 21:4-9 (NIV) The Bronze Snake
They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way;they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
So now back to Hezekiah….please open your bible or do a net search and read 2 Kings 20. It is a powerful chapter and a lesson in there to be learned for all. I am to close this out some time soon.
If the Lord sent a messenger, or told you Himself, “Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”…. I ask again….If you knew….what would you change in your life? At that given moment Hezekiah only had a moment’s notice. To most, if given that message, there would be nothing they could think of to do, but to lie there and die, call an ambulance, or try to write out a quick will via a phone call to a lawyer. 😛 But ah ha! here lies the strongest link in a weakest moment encountered….Watch out! Here it comes! When Hezekiah was told this, he did WHAT? He prayed to the Lord, and this my loves, is how the 15 years was added to his life. Ask Him in faith and ye shall receive according to His will, huh? I think he was about 54 or close to it when he died.
Hezekiah really did prove to those of us, me included, in reading this; that the verses above (2 Kings 18:5-8) were kept until his death. Not only that, whatever the Lord said to Hezekiah, he accepted, whether good or bad. It made me think again about the simplicity of trusting in the Lord. We don’t have a quarter of the incidents happen in our lives that Hez had and most can’t find it in ourselves to put and keep that trust in to him until our death. We surely don’t want bad news from the Lord and we would not be as accepting of it as Hezekiah was. It is hard for us to come to grips with accepting our fate. Right? What I find even more amazing is that the bible tells us there was never another king like Hezekiah, neither before him nor after him. Thank you Holy Spirit! Brain power kick……There was never one like Jesus before Him or after Him either, nor to come.
What lesson(s) did you learn from reading about Hezekiah?
More on Hezekiah can be found in the Books of 2 Chronicles 29-32 and Isaiah 36-39. Another thing I found powerful in reading about Hezekiah is that he “thought” that……. “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.” Is that a thought of yours? If you were seconds away from your death, would you be able to utter those words?
2 Kings 20:7-11 (NIV)
Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered. Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now?” Isaiah answered, “This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?” “It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.” Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
My prayer and wish for you and self….Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him,and he will make your paths straight.
I LOVE YOU
LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS
Related articles
- The God Of Hezekiah (savedbygraceblogdotcom.wordpress.com)
- Isaiah 39. Babylonian captivity of Judah foretold. Messengers from Babylonia (KJV) (bummyla.wordpress.com)
Biblical Thoughts 