Overcoming Fear: Hezekiah Style Part 1 by #mrfb

Part 1: The Situation – A Prisoner of Fear

       Several years ago, I went to a wedding. At the reception, there weren’t enough tables and seats for all the guests. My husband and I had no place to sit. Something broke inside me. I locked myself in a bathroom stall and cried my eyes out.

       Since I was taking so long, Tom sent a friend in. She helped me pull it together, talked me through the situation and got me back into the crowd. By then, the hotel fixed the problem and we had a place.

       That breaking point was the first step in getting free from something that was planning to cripple me forever. I had had enough of fear. I wasn’t going to be a prisoner of fear any more!

       Fear. Everyone knows it. Some are trapped by it, some manage to cope with it. Others rise above and conquer it. Today I want to help you rise above fear and conquer it. Today’s text from II Kings and I Chronicles. Open to Psalms and turn left.

       Let me introduce you to Hezekiah. He was king of Judah approx 715-686 BC. I really like him. Sure, we all do. He was a good guy and the Bible’s summary of his life is extremely favorable. The more I study about him though, the more I respect and admire him.

       Hezekiah was a collector. Did you know he was the reason many of the Psalms and Proverbs survived? He loved God’s people. He loved God and cared what people thought about God. He was a strategic thinker, an engineer. He was a realist who was blessed to see the supernatural.

       If Joshua invented daylight savings time (“spring ahead”), then Hezekiah might be credited with “fall behind.” No charge for that tidbit. [The references are Joshua 10 and II Kings 20.]

       There are precious few men of God whom the Bible declares that there was none like him. If in your reading, you see that phrase, take notice. Look at why there was none like that person.

2 Kings 18:1-5 Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.

  And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did. He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

  He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.

       Why? Why was there none after him like him? Why was there none like him ever?

 2 Kings 18:6-8 For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses. And the LORD was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not. He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.

       When I was a newbie reading Kings and Chronicles, I often got confused about the chronology. Additionally, Kings and Chronicles repeatedly tell about the same people, but with different slants and events. Here’s a clue to help you unlock these books of the bible.

       Think of these sections as conversational rather than didactic. When chatting with friends, I find they are much better listeners if I grab their attention with a subject before burdening them with details. I myself have to work hard to pay attention to someone who is speaking until I know the theme and which details are most important.

       Likewise, when describing the kings and their lives, the bible often gives an overview of the king and then delves into details. It’s that way with the description of Hezekiah. Verses 6-8 summarize Hezekiah’s life to pique our interest. The subsequent verses tell about key events that will draw us to agree with the summary.

       The subsequent verses also return me to the theme of “Overcoming fear: Hezekiah style.”

 2 Kings 18: 9-12 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

 And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes: Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.

       Like any empire, Assyria was not content. Enter Shalmaneser’s successor, Sennacherib.

 2Kings 18: 13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.

 14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

 15 And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king’s house.

 16 At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

       Sennacherib moves against Judah and captures its cities. Hezekiah tries to cut a deal for his people. Sennacherib taxes him for 300 talents of silver and 30 of gold. Apparently it was so much that Hezekiah gave up all his treasures and stripped the temple of its riches, even the gold he himself had added to the house of the LORD.

       But it wasn’t enough.

 2Kings 18:17 And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller’s field.

       Here begins one of the greatest propaganda attacks in history.

       Have you read The Art of War by Sun Tsu? Sun Tsu was a Chinese general, philosopher and strategist who lived around 500 BC. It’s a short little book, great for war and great for business.

       Guess what. Sennacherib’s 30-point strategy pre-dates Sun Tsu.

       The next verses outline the enemy’s attack on God’s people. We’ve set up the situation. Part 2 is the enemy’s attack.