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Sermon # 3: Divine Will Acceptance and Self-Importance Assessment Levels 2 Kings 20 Introduction Hezekiah has the honorable position among the kings of Judah as being one of its best. Hear the words of Scripture in its inspired assessment of Hezekiah's reign. 2 Kings 18:3-8 (NIV) 3He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. 4He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called£ Nehushtan.£) 5Hezekiah 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. 6He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses. 7And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory. Hezekiah, like the rest of us, is only hindered in his spiritual quest by limiting God's influence in his life. In our first study of Hezekiah we explored his faith tolerance, or how bad did things have to look in order for him to lose faith in God's ability to deliver him and his nation. In our second study, we investigated his prayer confidence level, or how confident was he in the power of prayer to take the matter to God and seek His aid. In the first instance, Hezekiah caved in and sought to trust in Egypt rather than God to defend against Judah's enemies and soon discovered how misplaced that trust was. In the second instance, he placed his fears in the hands of the Lord through prayer and discovered how mighty God was. I. Hezekiah's Divine Will Acceptance Level, 2 Kings 20:1-11 A. When Wills Collide, 2 Kings 20:1-3 1. God's news is not always welcome news, 2 Kings 20:1. 2 Kings 20:1 (NIV) 1In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover." Hezekiah is not the first to have received the unwelcome news that he was terminally ill and that he needed to get his house in order. In our day it is most often shared by a doctor or other health professional. In Hezekiah's case, it was by direct revelation from the Lord through His prophet, Isaiah. It doesn't matter where the information comes from, it is a mind-numbing experience to hear it. 2. God's news is not always perceived as fair news, 2 Kings 20:2-3. 2 Kings 20:2-3 (NIV)2Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3"Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Hezekiah's reaction to this revelation in not uncharacteristic. We read that he turned in his bed to face the wall and "wept bitterly." In that weeping was also a plea to the Lord to recall how he had led a faithful and devoted life. He had lived obediently and sought to do good. It would be easy to speculate on what this scene means and many scholars have, some even suggesting that Hezekiah's prayer was a desperate plea to avoid death for selfish reasons while also displaying a lack of faith in God's will. I think it is best to not settle on any one view and consider that there may have been an honorable intent in Hezekiah so that he might have time to finish the reforms he began. Also, he would be dying at a relatively young age (mid-fifties). He also had no male heir to his throne as yet. Couple this with the fact that God did not chide him for his request, but instead extended Hezekiah's life, then we have every reason to believe that God's healing of Hezekiah was an act of compassion for a righteously offered prayer. B. When Winning Is Losing, 2 Kings 20:4-11 1. Hezekiah received his immediate request, 2 Kings 20:4-11. 2 Kings 20:4-11 (NIV) (4) Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: (5) "Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the LORD. (6) I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.'" (7) Then Isaiah said, "Prepare a poultice of figs." They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered. (8) 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?" (9) 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?" (10) "It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps," said Hezekiah. "Rather, have it go back ten steps." (11) Then the prophet Isaiah called upon the LORD, and the LORD made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz. 2. Hezekiah regretted the long-term consequence. Though God's grace was extended to Hezekiah, had he known what the added years had in store for himself and the nation, he might have made a different choice. However, he could have made different choices after his healing and perhaps have prevented the tragedies that would soon begin to befall the nation after his passing as we will note in later study. C. The Lesson: Our Father Knows Best, There are truths to be learned from Hezekiah. Here are two. 1. The number of our days is best left to the sovereign Lord Who knows the beginning from the end. He knows what will actually come pass as well as what has the potential of coming to pass. Our good intentions cannot be guaranteed. It seems that God is willing to give us what we ask for so that we can understand how imperfect we are in understanding what is best. It should teach us to pray that even in the worst of circumstances we ought to pray what we desire but always making our greatest desire be for God to have His way and will. Recall the Lord's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
2. The death of God's saints can sometimes be a protection from experiencing greater tragedies in the future.
The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death. Remember, "this world is not our home, we're just a-passin' through. Our treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue." In the end, Hezekiah only extended his misery but delayed his greatest blessing. II. Hezekiah's Self-Importance Assessment Level, 2 Kings 20:12- A. The Problem Is Pride, 2 Kings 20:12-13 2 Kings 20:12-13 (NIV) 12At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah's illness. 13Hezekiah received the messengers and showed them all that was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine oil—his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them. One is hard-pressed to see any other reason for Hezekiah showing all the riches of the kingdom to the messengers of Merodach-Baladan, the son of the king of Babylon, except pride. Hezekiah had become a person of curiosity in the international community of rulers by the healing of his sickness and perhaps the deliverance of Judah from the hands of Sennacherib of Assyria. It would not be a stretch to believe that the Babylonians were perhaps also seeking an ally for themselves in case Assyria came after them. B. The Problem with Pride Pride blinds us to so many things. It causes us to put our guard down and as Proverbs 11:2 says, it can lead to disgrace. The true partner of wisdom is humility. Proverbs also teach us that pride is often the forerunner of destruction.
Whenever man swells in his own pride, he is exalting in his own glory and putting God in a lower position. God will not share His glory with another whether it be man or idol.
C. The Problem of Misplaced Pride, 2 Kings 20:14-19 2 Kings 20:14-19 (NIV) 14Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, "What did those men say, and where did they come from?" "From a distant land," Hezekiah replied. "They came from Babylon." 15The prophet asked, "What did they see in your palace?" "They saw everything in my palace," Hezekiah said. "There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them." 16Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD: 17The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. 18And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, that will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." 19"The word of the LORD you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replied. For he thought, "Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?" 1. When we feel pride, others often see something else. The unintended consequence of Hezekiah's foolish tour and the displaying of all his kingdom's riches was that what the messengers from Babylon observed was stored in their memory most certainly reported to their rulers. Rather than filled with awe, they were filled with envy and the day would come when they would want it for their own. 2. When God sees pride, He sees its potential effects A sad day was foretold to Hezekiah by Isaiah. The LORD had revealed that what Hezekiah had once taken such pride in would one day be carried off by the Babylonians with some of his own descendants, as well. D. The Lesson: Pride Is Satan's Means of Distracting Us from God, 2 Kings 20:20-21 1. When we are not focused on God we are blind to potential danger. When it comes to relating with the world, we do well to remember the counsel of scripture to be "as shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves" in the presence of wolves that would seek to devour God's sheep (Mat 10:15). 2. When we are not focused on God, we produce unintended consequences for others, 2 Kings 20:20-21. Hezekiah's story reminds us that the choices we make can have a good or evil effect upon others for generations to come. Fortunately, Hezekiah will be remembered mostly for the right things he did rather than the foolish, but oh, the effects of the foolish! 2 Kings 20:20-21 (NIV) 20As for the other events of Hezekiah's reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 21Hezekiah rested with his fathers. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king. FOR WHAT WILL YOU BE REMEMBERED? __________________________________________________________________ |
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