August 20, 2024 | Be God's Light
Hezekiah Removes Idolatry
Scripture: 2 Kings 18:1-8(NIV)
1 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)
5 Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. 6 He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. 7 And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8 From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory.
Devotional
With the northern kingdom assimilated into Assyria, we turn our attention to the southern kingdom of Judah for the remainder of this Old Testament study. Unlike their cousins to the north, Judah had been led by some kings who did right and some kings who did evil. In fact, when Hezekiah became king, Judah had been led for most of its years by kings who did good or mostly good, and only some years by kings known for doing evil. Hence, Jerusalem was in much better shape spiritually than Samaria.
Still, Hezekiah’s immediate predecessor was King Ahaz, who was the king of Judah when Assyria conquered Israel to his north. Nervous that the same fate awaited him, Ahaz gave huge sums of money to the king of Assyria, paying for it with the gold and silver from the temple in Jerusalem. Adding insult to injury, Ahaz nailed shut the doors of the temple, set up pagan worship stations all over Jerusalem, and sacrificed his own children to false gods (2 Chronicles 28:24-25).
But Ahaz did one thing right. He had a son named Hezekiah who “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” Ahaz ruled together with his son Hezekiah for the last fourteen years of his reign, beginning when Hezekiah was only a boy. It was during this co-kingship that Assyria conquered Israel and Hezekiah watched his father desecrate the temple and embrace pagan practices. After his father died, Hezekiah succeeded him as king at age 25 for the next eighteen years.
The first thing Hezekiah did was to undo his dad’s evil practices. 2 Chronicles 29:3-5 says, “In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the Lord and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites, assembled them in the square on the east side and said: ‘Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary.’”
Hezekiah’s actions must have been very courageous. He was going against the ways of his dad, the people, and the pagan Assyrians who were threatening him. Why do you think he did right when it seemed so unpopular and dangerous? How are you being called to stand up to wrong and proclaim what is right? Are there any things from your family, community, or culture that need to be undone and made right before God?
Poem
Cleansed
Throw open the windows
Burn all that’s decayed
Smash all the corruption
Make haste, don’t delay
Remove all that’s hidden
Bring into the light
Restore what is broken
Make crookedness right
Wash off all the dirt that’s
Collected in sink
Let God’s word refine you
Transform what you think
Then set a great banquet
Deck your table with best
With everything cleansed now
Receive Heaven’s Best
