just turn together in God's holy
word to the second book of Kings and chapter 20. the second book of Kings and
reading chapter 20. In those days was Hezekiah sick
unto death, and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos came to him and
said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, set thine house in order,
for thou shalt die and not live. Then he turned his face to the
wall and prayed unto the Lord, saying, I beseech thee, O Lord,
remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with
a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.
And Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah
was gone out into the middle court, And the word of the Lord
came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah, the captain
of my people. Thus saith the Lord, the God
of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears. Behold, I will heal thee, and
the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord. And I will add unto thy days
fifteen years, and I will deliver thee and this city out of the
hand of the king of Assyria. And I will defend this city for
mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. And Isaiah said,
take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on
the boil, and he recovered. And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah,
what shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I
shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day? And Isaiah
said, this sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will
do the thing that he has spoken. Shall the shadow go forth ten
degrees or go back ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, It is
a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees. Nay,
but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the prophet
cried unto the Lord, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward,
by which it had gone down by the dial of Ahaz. And at that
time, the son of Bedan, king of Babylon,
sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah, for he had heard that
Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah hearkened unto them,
and showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver,
and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and
all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures.
There was nothing in his house, nor in all his domain, that Hezekiah
showed them not. Then came Isaiah the prophet
unto King Hezekiah and said unto him, What said these men? And from whence came they unto
thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country,
even from Babylon. And he said, What have they seen
in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All the
things that are in mine house have they seen. There is nothing
among my treasures that I have not showed them. And Isaiah said
unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord. Behold, the days
come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers
have laid up in store, unto this day shall be carried into Babylon. Nothing shall be left, saith
the Lord. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which
thou shalt begat, shall they take away, and they shall be
eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.' Then said Hezekiah
unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. And he said, Is it not good if peace and truth
be in my days? and the rest of the acts of Hezekiah,
and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and
brought water into the city, are they not written in the book
of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And Hezekiah slept
with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead. May the Lord bless to us the
reading of his word, and may we help to consider a little
while this evening verses 18 and 19, which read, And of thy sons that
shall issue from thee, which thou shalt begat, shall be taken
away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of
Babylon. Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, good is the word of the
Lord which thou hast spoken. And he said, it is not good. Is it not good if peace and truth
be in my days? As we read through the book of
Kings and Chronicles and we read of the different kings of Israel
and the different kings of Judah, we see a variety of men. Some were evil. Some sought to
bring down the kingdom into a lower degree of debauchery and idol
worship and yet there were some who tried to restore the worship
of the true and living God and Hezekiah was one of those kings
who brought about a sort of a cleansing of the temple, a reformation
seeking to reform the tribe of Judah and the city of Jerusalem
to bring about the true worship of God. And the scripture tells
us that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. In
chapter 18, We read that he became a king when he was 25 years old. He began to reign and he reigned
for 29 years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abi,
the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David, his father,
did. And we read that of all the things
that he did, that restoring of the temple and the building up
of the walls and the pulling down of the idols and seeking
to point the people back to the true and living God. We know
that good men are only men at best and the Bible never gives
us a picture of the perfect man. There are some men in the scripture
like Daniel who we don't read of any mistakes that they committed,
they were faithful unto the Lord, they received a persecution and
were made steadfast but they are few and far between. The
majority of those good men that the Lord seeks to lay before
us are laid before us as sinful men and sinful women, they had
their faults although they did that was right and pleasing in
the sight of the Lord they were faithful, they obeyed the Lord,
they suffered persecution yet we read of their failings, we
read of their fears, we read of their their doubts and their acting
foolishly and Hezekiah was one of those men. Yes, he did that
was right in the sight of the Lord and he was buried with honour
and we read about him that he Hezekiah slept with his fathers
and they buried him with honor in the city of Jerusalem. But
we also read of his sin in chapter 18 when the king of Assyria came
to him and demanded a tax. Hezekiah agreed to pay it and
I read that it's something like one and a half million pounds
equivalent to in today's money that he had to pay. And he obviously
didn't have it in his stores. So he cleans out the treasury. He then pulls off the gold from
the doors of the temple and from the pillars of the temple to
pay the king of Assyria. But the Lord, in his mercy, spares
them from attack. Hezekiah comes to the Lord in
prayer and the Lord promises that this man would be driven
away and he is driven away but as he is driven away as he
goes back to his land he sends a letter to Hezekiah that do
not think that the God that you serve has saved you. Just because
I've heard this news and I've got to go back do not think that
it's your God that has done this. Do not think that your God has
heard your prayers and is going to spare you but I will come
back. So Hezekiah he comes with this
letter and he spreads it before the Lord. So although one minute
he's acting foolishly, one minute he's acting wisely. And if we
examine our lives it is exactly the same as us. We respond to
situations sometimes in a godly way. sometimes in a worldly way
or a fleshly way. Sometimes we're filled with fear,
sometimes we're filled with doubt, sometimes we're filled with faith
and we're able to react to situations in that right and that proper
way and we come to the Lord. And this time when Hezekiah is
presented with the letter he goes to the house of the Lord
and he lays it before the Lord and in his prayer we read that
he acknowledges the greatness of God. He goes and he says in chapter
19 from verse 15, and Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said,
O Lord God of Israel, that dwelleth between the cherubims, thou art
the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth,
Thou hast made the heaven and the earth. If you think of the
man that was coming to attack them, he was saying that his
God was the most powerful. He was saying my God has defeated
all the other gods of all of the other nations and do not
think that your God is able to protect you from my God. And so this man who is blaspheming
the name of the Lord drives Hezekiah to acknowledge the greatness
of God, that God is indeed the true and living God who made
the heaven and the earth. Lord, he says, bow down thine
ear and hear, open, Lord, thine eyes and see, and hear the words
that Sennacherib which has sent unto which has sent unto him
to reproach the living God, of a truth, Lord. The kings of Assyria
have destroyed the nations of their lands, and have cast their
gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the
work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed
them. Now therefore O Lord our God
I beseech thee save us as save thou us out of his hand and all
the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord the
Lord God even thou only. And so Hezekiah is driven to
to acknowledge and to testify of the the greatness of God in
his prayer and it's a good model for us to do. We do come to the
same God as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and King Nebuchadnezzar. He is still the same God. He has always reigned and he
will always reign. Although the gods of all the
nations of the earth, their kings and their leaders are constantly
changing, yet our God, he never changes. is always on the throne
and he's always there to hear the cries of his people. He says,
Lord, hear, just as Solomon said, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling
place. So King Nebuchadnezzar comes
and says, hear, bow down thine ear and hear, O Lord, thine eyes
and see our God, the same God. hears and sees. He sees his people,
he hears of their distresses, he sees them when they are persecuted,
he sees them when they are troubled, he sees them when they are afraid,
he hears them when they cry unto him in their distress. People of the world think that
we are foolish, holding prayer meetings, speaking into the air,
but we know that we don't speak into the air. We are speaking
through the beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to the holy
God of heaven who is the creator of heaven and earth and he hears
the cries of his people. They are as a sweet odour ascending
up unto him for they acknowledge that those who come to the throne
of grace come seeking the Lord's help, seeking for his intervention,
seeking for his protection, seeking for his guidance and influence
in their life. They come needing him. They acknowledge
that they cannot do this themselves and so they come to the throne
of grace to ask for his help. Hezekiah first tried to deal
with it himself, trying to gather all the money together to try
and pay off these Assyrian kings but it wasn't enough. So now
he comes to the Lord and the Lord works in a supernatural
way and drives them and kills I think I've forgotten how many
there but there are many killed in the night and this man Sennichareb
is actually killed as he is in the temple of his gods back in
his own in his own land and so the Lord says to him that he
will go back by the way that he came, he will not do anything,
he will not even shoot an arrow over the wall for the Lord will
defend this city to save it. Not for the sake of Hezekiah,
but he says, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant
David. And so the Lord, being a covenant-keeping
God, protected the city of Jerusalem. And as he had said, so it would
happen. And we know that not a word of
the Lord can ever fail. And the Lord continued to bless
him. Yes he had his faults but the
Lord prospered him and blessed him and encouraged him But he
put him to a test. We read that he became unwell
with a boil. He was afraid that he would die.
So he cries unto the Lord and the Lord adds unto him 15 years. He asks for a sign that the word
of the Lord would be true and so the world or as we know it's the world,
the sun goes down by 10 degrees by which it has set. Now if we look at the complications
that are involved for this to take place it is a total impossibility. we know that nothing shall be
called impossible with God. He is as able to make an army
turn away and go back to where they came from without them firing
an arrow over the walls of Jerusalem and he is as able to make the
world turn 10 degrees backwards and all that it would involve
with the solar systems and the galaxies and all the people upon
the face of the earth, the tides, the moon and everything that
it would involve, the Lord is as able to reverse the world
as he is able to continue to make it go round as he does every
single day. The same God who Hezekiah prayed
to and Isaiah prayed to, is the same God that we come to through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is able, more than able,
to do more than we can ask or think. But he does test and try
his people. As with the Apostle Paul, except
I should be exalted above measure, the Lord has given me a thorn
in the flesh. Hezekiah, the abundant blessings that were showered
upon him, the army turning away, the confirmation of the word
of the Lord with the reversal of the world, 10 degrees, his
healing and his prosperity. And so the Lord now is to test
him. In 2 Chronicles 32, from verse 27 it tells us, and
Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honour. And he made himself
treasuries of silver for silver, and for gold, and for precious
stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all manner of
pleasant jewels, storehouses also for the increase of corn,
and wine, and oil, and stores for all manner of beasts, and
coats for flocks, Moreover he provided him cities and possessions
of flocks and herds in abundance for God had given him substance
very much. And so he is a man who has been
blessed spiritually and a man who has been blessed materially. We know that prosperity is one
of the biggest tests of faith. Prosperity causes men and women
to drift from God. It causes them to become self-sufficient
and reliant upon their own ability, their own substance, and causes
them to drift away from the one who has given them all that they
have. In verse 31, right at the end,
it says, God left him. to try him that he might know
all that was in his heart. God left him. And when he was left to himself,
he became lifted up in pride. He receives a gift from the king
of Babylon and they asked him to see all of his treasures And
so he takes them round and he shows them everything that he
has. Verse 13 of the chapter that
we read. And Hezekiah hearkened unto them,
and showed them all the house of his possessions, things, the
silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointments,
and all of the houses of his armor, and all that was found
in his treasures. There was nothing in his house,
nor in all his domain, that Hezekiah showed them not. Then Isaiah the prophet comes
and asks the question, who are these? What have they seen? I always think if you were a
king in those days and you heard these words, hear the word of
the Lord your heart would begin to pound, especially if you'd
done something wrong. What is God going to say? What judgment is he going to
bring upon me? I know that I have sinned. I
know that I've gone astray. And now his prophet is standing
before me and he's saying to me, hear the word of the Lord. You would think it would bring
a trembling. But today even God says the same
thing. As we come to read from the scriptures
we say the same, come and hear the word of the Lord. And we
should fall before God's word with reverence and with godly
fear for it is a word of authority. It is a word of truth. It is
a word that does not change, does not alter. It is effective,
it is powerful. And it is God's word, therefore
it is a holy word. And so he speaks a prophecy to
Hezekiah and tells him the consequences of his sin, the consequences
of his pride. Those things that God had given
to him were not meant for his elevation, but they were meant
for God's glory. But Hezekiah used it as a means
by which to become proud and to boast and to display what
God had given to him. So he is told that everything
that you have shown, those kings, is going to be taken away. He's been told that his sons
that shall come from him shall be eunuchs in the palaces of
the king of Babylon. And in a hundred years from that
time, that word was fulfilled. Babylon came, taking the people
of Israel, people of Jerusalem to captivity. So the word of
the Lord does not fail. But Hezekiah's response to hear
the word of the Lord is good, is the word of the Lord which
thou hast spoken. God's word is always good because
God is good. But it's good in blessing or
in judgment. It's very easy to say that God
is good when everything is going fine and our lives are being
provided for but when we are down in the depths It's more
difficult to acknowledge that God is good and everything has
been stripped from us. It's more difficult for us to
confess indeed God is good. God remains good even though
our circumstances do not appear to be, we do not appear to be
experiencing the blessings of God. But we know that God is
always good. Because God always acts in a
way that is good and right. for his people. The scripture
tells us that all things work together for good to those who
love God and to those who are called according to his purposes. And so when God blesses us he
acts in mercy and that is good. Hezekiah experienced the blessings
of God, the mercy of God, but also he experienced the judgment
of God and he responds in the same way. the word of the Lord
is good. Now when God acts in judgment
he is still good because he is doing what is just and right,
he is administering what is deserved. If you listen to the news today,
I think it was today or yesterday, that those two men who cut down
the sycamore tree there in the countryside, they got sentenced
four years, just over four years each. They got what is just. They got
what was right. according to the law of the land
or according to what the judge felt suitable for their crime. So it was just and it was right. And so however God acts, although
it may be painful and difficult, he acts in a right and a just
way. Those who go to hell, for instance,
God is just in sending them there because they have been warned
those who sin against him will die. He is the judge of all the
earth and he will do what is right and so Hezekiah submits
himself to the judgment that God has just prescribed upon
him or not only upon him but upon his descendants and Hezekiah
said good is the word of the Lord so he humbly accepts God's
will. How we react to situations will
often determine how painful that situation is. Paul is told why
is it hard for you to kick against the pricks. We can kick and we
can fight against God's will but he will ultimately, his will
will come about and there's nothing that you and I can stop it and
so the most simplest and easiest way is to fall under the mighty
hand of God is to accept that good is the word of the Lord. And he says, if peace and truth,
is it not good if peace and truth be in my days? He has promised
that in his day there is going to be peace. But in that of those
who come after him, they're going to reap the consequences of his
sin and ultimately the sins of the kingdom of Judah for their
rebellion against God. But Hezekiah doesn't sulk for the rest of his life. He sets to work. He's been given
this extra time and so we read that he makes
a pool and a conduit that brought water into the city of Jerusalem. If we go into the New Testament
you may read there of the Lord Jesus Christ sending a man to
the pool of Siloam and the pool of Siloam was the pool of Nebuchadnezzar
and he tells him to go and wash and he washes the clay from his
eyes and he comes seeing and so even in after Hezekiah has
experienced the judgment of God he still he acts in a godly way
and uses the means that God has given to him for the benefit
of the people of Israel and then we see the Lord Jesus Christ
coming and using what Hezekiah created to bring about the healing
of the blind man. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
is that perfect man. As Hezekiah opened up this conduit
and this pool for the people of Jerusalem to wash into, so
the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect man, opened up that living fountain
for sin and for uncleanness. And his word, as Hezekiah confesses,
good is the word of the Lord, so good is the word of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that he is good. as he says, that there is none
good about God. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.