A new sheriff comes to Israel – Hezekiah. What a breath of fresh air. Check out what scripture says here: “he was a good king”. Now we don’t hear that very often. Look at what is called out that makes him so:
- He kept to the standards of his ancestor David
- He got rid of …shrines
- He cut down…groves
- He pulverized…serpent
- Put his whole trust in God
- Held fast to God
- Never loosened his grip
- Obeyed to the letter
What does scripture also tell us: “There was no king quite like him, either before or after”. Why? Because he put off the bad stuff – he got rid of it, and he obeyed what God said completely. None of what is recorded is rocket science guys. Hezekiah just did what God had been asking for many years. Get rid of the bad and obey. So scripture calls him out as a good king – unique from any other.
A little further in this chapter things fall apart. The king of Assyria comes and lays siege to Hezekiah’s kingdom and captures them. Scripture is clear in why this happens as well. Things got ugly – not because of what Hezekiah was doing – which was good in God’s eyes – but because the people who should have been following were on a different path. Check this out: “All this happened because they wouldn’t listen to the voice of their GOD and treated his covenant with careless contempt. They refused either to listen or do a word of what Moses commanded”. So the lack of obedience by the people – their unwillingness to follow their Godly king – leads them to capture and bondage. There is an important lesson here. Being godly in and of itself does not assure God’s blessing and protection. If we are surrounded by people who don’t walk with God, He still has to deal with sin. We may be caught in the peripheral activity. It will get messy when we are surrounded by people who refuse to walk with God. We need to choose wisely who we associate with. We need to not only lead in a manner like Hezekiah, but surround ourselves with others who walk there as well. Are you a Hezekiah kind of leader?? Have you surrounded yourself with people who walk with you in obedience to our God?
