Road Trippin With Rachael

Who is Hezekiah?

Hezekiah was one of the kings of Judah, and therefore one of the descendents of King David. Although not of the same renown in Sripture as some of the other members of Christ’s family tree, he is a very important character in the overall story of God’s people. Hezekiah’s summary of his rule can be found in II Kings 18:1-7. In these few verses we are told that:

1. He reigned for twenty-nine years. This was a long time comparatively to those kings that had come immediately before and immediately after him. 
2. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord as his ancestor David had done. (II Kings 18:3)
3. He removed the high places. This means that he deliberately set out to remove the places where Judah had been worshiping idols and had embraced pagan lifestyles that were contrary to Torah. (II Kings 18:4)
4. He destroyed the bronze serpent Moses had crafted in the wilderness (II Kings 18:4). Although God was the one who directed Moses to create the serpent (Numbers 21:8-9) and today it is still used as a symbol of the medical community. However, the problem was that since it had been created, it had been used as an object of worship – not to aid in the worship of the Lord – to as a god in and of itself. Hezekiah, seeing this destroyed it, so that the people could no longer worship it. 
5. He was faithful to God and God blessed him.

All that being said, If you continue to read II Kings 18, you also see that Hezekiah was far from perfect. He messed up, and found himself between a rock and a hard placed with Sennacherib, the King of Assyria. Being hard up for money, Hezekiah gave everything that he had, including the gold from the doors of the temple, the silver, and  treasures of the temple. For the record, that was a no-no. But in the end, Hezekiah turned back to God.

Even when Hezekiah was ill, he prayed that God would give him time (II Kings 20). His faithfulness lead to God giving him 15 additional years. During that 15 years, although he continues to be faithful, but that doesn’t mean that he was without his moments of stupidity. He did some things that were ultimately costly for the people of Israel generations leader

What We Learn From Hezekiah

As I mentioned earlier, Hezekiah had his own issues, and his failure ultimately would assist the Babylons in attacking Judah in the generations to come. But despite his failure, that was not the momented that defined him. When we were first introduced to him in II Kings 18, we are told that he was a man of faith. 

Our failures don’t have to define who we are. It is the consistant way that we live our lives that will define us when we are gone. This doesn’t mean that our failures don’t affect us or that we don’t face the consequences for our poor decisions. That being said, when we have many decisions that hurt others, we may be known by our faith, but we are also known by that major sin that may color how we are percieved. As we have seen within Evangelicalism over the last several few years, there are many failures coming to light among thoe we have had successful ministries, and have had some serious sins that have been covered up.

What we can take from this is that the way we live our lives defines the way that we will be remembered. Hezekiah is remembered as a man of faith despite his sins