Hezekiah
Open Your Bible
2 Kings 19:8-19, 2 Kings 19:35-37, Isaiah 38:1-20
BY Melanie Rainer
In December 2015, a group of archeologists led by Dr. Eliat Mazar announced that they had found a bulla in an excavation site near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The bulla, a clay seal stamped with Hebrew characters, had belonged to King Hezekiah, a good king of Judah who reigned in the 7th and 8th centuries BC. I know very, very little about biblical archeology, but when I found dozens of old news articles about this little 1/2” clay circle, I thought it was pretty cool.
Hezekiah was a real person. He lived in a real palace, was served by the real prophet Isaiah, and he prayed real prayers to our real God. And almost three thousand years later, utilizing a method called “wet sifting” (an archeological process using mesh trays flooded with water), someone discovered an impression in clay made by King Hezekiah’s royal seal.
The two prayers from today’s reading in 2 Kings and Isaiah reveal much about Hezekiah’s character, and his real, flesh-and-bone existence. But they also reveal his utter dependence upon a very real God. In his first prayer, Hezekiah cried out before the Lord when he heard that King Sennacherib of Assyria had mocked God and threatened the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 19:14–19; Isaiah 37:14–20). Hezekiah’s second prayer came after he’d become very sick and was told he would die. He wept and prayed, asking the Lord to deliver him from his illness (Isaiah 38).
Twice, Hezekiah prayed for God’s deliverance, and twice God delivered him; Sennacherib was defeated, and Hezekiah was healed. His third prayer is a poem of reflection about his experience of being so near imminent death, about feeling the brittleness of his bones and the fragility of his flesh:
“I waited patiently till dawn,
but like a lion he broke all my bones;
day and night you made an end of me.
I cried like a swift or thrush,
I moaned like a mourning dove.
My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens.
I am being threatened; Lord, come to my aid!”
– Isaiah 38:13–14 (NIV)
In reflecting upon his own emotional state while facing death, Hezekiah conceded, “Indeed it was for my own well-being that I had such intense bitterness” (v.17). In the face of death and destruction, both external (at the hands of Sennacherib) and internal (because of his own illness), Hezekiah trusted in, relied upon, and sought the favor of the immortal, all-powerful, very real God.
So often, I try to find my security and safety in the physical, but Hezekiah’s story—his real, lived, embodied, true story—reminds me that whatever I face in life or death, I can rely on the same immortal, all-powerful God. This is a God for whom evidence cannot be sifted out of trays doused in water, but a God who has proven Himself to be real, time and time again through His Word, His faithfulness, His miraculous work, and by His Son. A God who so loved us that He came to earth, flesh and blood, incarnate and holy, real, to prove that love.
34 thoughts on "Hezekiah"
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I am grateful for this reading today.My current situation is very much like Hezekiah’s. My prayer is his prayer…Jesus is my strength, healing and deliverance!
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When I was 12, we found out that my grandma had a brain tumor. My dad and uncle meticulously researched, and from what my grandmas doctor was saying, they concluded that she most likely had an extremely aggressive form of cancer. In the days and hours leading to her surgery my family prayed. My mom specifically prayed that like Hezekiah, God would allow my grandma to live 15 years longer. When the surgeon came out from surgery, he said to my family, “You must be a praying family. I thought I was going to find the most aggressive form of cancer, but instead I found a totally benign tumor.” My Grandma passed away when I was 27. As my parents were planning her funeral my mom looked at her calendar and realized that my grandma had passed away 15 years to the week after her surgery.
God has never spoken audibly to my family. He didn’t offer my mom a sign after her prayer, other than a surprisingly good doctors report I suppose. But 15 years later my mom realized how he had precisely answered her prayer. My grandma was an incredible woman of faith and prayer. She walked daily with the Lord. She prayed for every member of her family and countless friends every single day. Because of the 15 years added to her life she was able to meet 2 of my 3 children and I’m confident she prayed for them as well. I’m thankful for the impact her prayers had on my life, for the legacy she left, for my mom’s faith, but of course it’s only because of our Savior. He is faithful, good and all powerful. Today’s devotional has been a great reminder of his faithfulness in my family’s past, and an encouragment to continue to rely on Him. I hope my real life Hezekiah story can be an encouragement to someone else today!
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It’s definitely an encouragement to me! ❤️
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What an incredible testimony!
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Thank you for the posts! It’s truly hard sometimes to just rest and allow God to take control of a bad situation..especially when you’re a peacemaker.
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The year I turned 30 I went to the doctor. I was extremely tired and had missed a couple periods. I thought I was in the first stage of pregnancy (… before home pregnancy tests). While in the office being checked, the staff attitude in the room went from relaxed to intense with 3 different doctors quickly, but silently, checking different things on me. I knew something was up, and that it probably wasn’t the celebration of a baby because of the tension. I was told I had a heart issue and that…,”I needed to get rid of all stress or I could have a heart attack at any time.” I remember finding the situation humorously ironic in that they told me I could die… but not to stress. This started months of testing and the worst-best, most wonderful time in my life.
Like Hezekiah, faced with death, I went to God. I had a 2 and 4 year old. I went on my face before God. It was the best and most wonderful time because God used the situation to show me I was holding him at arms length. Almost like a trophy on my shelf, I would take Him down when I needed something or wanted to impress someone. I am ashamed as I type the words. I didn’t realize I was doing it. I was trying to live life rightly… Sunday School superintendent for the children’s wing, leading a women’s Bible study, BSF leader, but my heart was not fully surrendered. Faced with death, I realized, I didn’t know for sure where I would spend eternity. Face to face with Life (God’s holiness) and my lack, I knew for sure my best was and is literally filthy rags. I realized I was not trusting God to take care of my husband, my children, or me.
God is faithful. God is merciful and gracious. He drew me close. He changed me. And. the. PEACE. I struggle to put it into words. It didn’t just surround me, it absorbed me. Stripped of everything, I received EVERYTHING.
Like Hezekiah’s prayer I thank God for the life He has given for “the living only the living can thank You.” I thank Him for the opportunity to “make Your faithfulness know to children.” And, I ask Him, no, I beg, plead, and depend on Him to keep my hands empty and my arms wrapped around Him.
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Amen
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❤️
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Wow! What a great witness. Thank you for taking the time to share, Angie.
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Such empowering insights, sisters! Thank you for sharing! I will continue to contemplate your thoughts throughout this week. Thank you for blessing me!
I was struck by the verse:
19The living, only the living can thank You,
as I do today;
a father will make Your faithfulness known to children.’
Hezekiah was physically living but he was also spiritually alive in his walk with God. This verse reminded me of the movie “Field of Dreams” when Kevin Costner could see the baseball players but his brother-in-law could not see them as they interacted with each other and Kevin Costner on the field. I see in this verse that my responsibility is sharing the faithfulness of God with those who do not see God or recognize His work on our behalf in our daily lives. Not knowing Him, they attribute any goodness in their life to karma, consequence, luck, or the natural consequence of their own “good living.” I become the father in the verse above when I help others to see God‘s faithfulness By sharing my testimony of His goodness and His faithfulness in my own life. So that those who like children have not had their eyes opened to see the one true God will have the opportunity to adjust their eyes to the light of Christ and see the glory of God for themselves. Then, all peoples will be able to thank God just like Hezekiah as we live in the spirit and acknowledge the one true God together.-
I love your insight, Shawn. I often pray that I will have my Father’s eyes to see what He sees, but I never thought about opening other’s eyes to see what I see. I love the image of ‘adjusting their eyes to the light of Christ’. How beautiful. Thank you for that!
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Thank you for the comments Sisters!
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I am reminded of the power of prayer. I don’t pretend to understand God’s answers sometimes (no, not yet, yes, go this way, or that way) but this story reminds us that God is genuinely moved by our tears and our prayers. He is a God who sees. Though I do not deserve His careful eye, He sees all that my heart goes through and longs for restoration. I am grateful for Hekekiah’s story because it reminds me this unchanging God saw his heart and sees my own today thousands of years later.
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Sorry, I was trying to reply to Kristen about the sirens and that didn’t work …
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