Day 111. 2 Kings 18-20

Just before the fall of the northern kingdom, Ahaz of Judah dies and is succeeded by his son  Hezekiah. If, in the opinion of the compiler of the Book of Kings, Ahaz is the worst king the house of David produced, Hezekiah is certainly among the best. Not only are we told that he does what is "right in the sight of the LORD just as his ancestor David did" (18:3). He is an energetic reformer, repressing the "high places" and destroying the paraphernalia of paganism—phallic poles, etc. He even breaks up the bronze serpent that Moses had made in the wilderness (see Numbers 21:4-9), which the people had been worshipping as a god (18:4). For Hezekiah his faith in the LORD is not a superficial program: it is a deeply felt personal commitment—he trusts in the God of Israel and keeps the commandments that the Lord had commanded Moses, we are told (18:5-6). And Hezekiah's faith proves necessary to sustain him in dangerous times. In 722 B.C.E., four years into Hezekiah's reign, Samaria falls to the armies of King Shalmaneser and the northern kingdom of Israel recedes from history into fiction. Now only the southern kingdom remains, wedged between the two superpowers of the day, Assyria and Egypt.  Nevertheless, fortified by the LORD's favor and the promise of help from Egypt, Hezekiah acts with manly courage and rebels against the king of Assysria and withholds tribute (18:7). The Assyrian response is swift; King Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.E.) besieges Lachish—we know from other sources that he takes it and deports its people—and appears at the gates of Jerusalem (18:17).  Faced with the overwhelming superiority of the Assyrian army, Hezekiah is forced to climb down. He strips the temple gates of their golden overlay in order to buy the king off. It is not enough. The envoy of Assyrian king demands surrender. Speaking in Hebrew so the people on the city walls will understand, he belittles Hezekiah and the LORD in whom he trusts. God has abandoned Jerusalem, he says, because Hezekiah has removed the high places and the altars and said, "You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem" (18:22). God is now on the side of the king of Assyria—his success proves it (18:25). He urges the citizens of Jerusalem to surrender their city and come out. If they cooperate they will be treated well in exile (18:31-32).  "Who among all the gods of the countries have delivered their countries out of my hand," the Assyrian king asks through his emissary, "that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?" (18:35) The people remain silent. The standoff continues. But in the midst of this crisis Hezekiah sends a delegation to consult the prophet Isaiah about the future and to ask him to pray "for the remnant that is left" (19:4). In reply Isaiah sends King Hezekiah the message he most needs to hear—"Do not be afraid."  The LORD will cause the King a Assyria to hear a rumor, the prophet tells him, and he will return to his own land, where he will "fall by the sword" (19:6-7). Sennacherib does indeed hear a rumor—the King of Ethiopia has set out to fight against him. Now he is in a hurry; there must be no more delay. He threatens Hezekiah with annihilation—the LORD cannot save you.  The king, dressed in sackcloth, begs the LORD to save Israel, "so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that. . . . [the LORD is ] God alone" (19:19).  And God does hear the king's prayer and sends an oracle through the prophet Isaiah to the effect that he, the LORD, is in control of history and no other. All that happens was determined by him long ago (19:25-26). The mockery of the king of Assyria will be turned back upon himself and he will be dragged back to his homeland like a stubborn animal. The LORD speaks directly to the haughty Assyrian--"I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth; I will turn you back on the way by which you came" (19:28).  The LORD does indeed preserve "a remnant" (19:31), and save the city of Jerusalem for his own sake and "for the sake of [his] servant David" (19:34). That very night, we are told, a terrible plague sweeps through the camp of the Assyrians so that one hundred eighty-five thousand die (19:35). King Sennacherib returns to his capital of Nineveh, and there while he is worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, he is assassinated by his own sons. Ironically, it is his god who cannot save him. Now we are told Hezekiah is afflicted with a deadly illness—as near as we can tell he has an infected boil. At first Isaiah tells his to compose himself for death, but when the king prays for mercy, God grants him an additional fifteen years of life and spares the city of Jerusalem for the sake of servant David. Isaiah gives him a sign that the promise is true—the sun moves backwards on the "dial of Ahaz" (20:11). Time is reversed; the king receives a reprieve. The southern kingdom will continue a few more years. Near the end of his long reign Hezekiah's good sense seems to fail him. He entertains envoys from Babylon—perhaps they came to make a secret defense treaty against the waning power of Assyria. Hezekiah welcomes them and, betrayed by his pride, shows them "all his treasure house" (20:13). This is a foolish move, the prophet Isaiah tells him, because the day will come when those treasures will be carried off to Babylon, and Hezekiah's own sons "shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon" (20:18). But Hezekiah, now an old man, comforts himself that this calamity will not take place in his lifetime. Before we are given notice of his death, however, we are told that Hezekiah did a very wise thing to make up for this foolishness. He builds a conduit through the limestone under Jerusalem to provide the city with water in times of siege (20:20). This tunnel, an engineering marvel in its time, can still be viewed in Jerusalem today.