2 Kings 18:1-16 - Hold Fast to Lord and His Word!

2 Kings 18:1-16

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah (2 Chronicles 29:1, 2; 31:1)

1 Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 

3 And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done.

4 He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan. 5 He trusted in the LORD God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses. 7 The LORD was with him; he prospered wherever he went. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8 He subdued the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.

9 Now it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it. 10 And at the end of three years they took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. 11 Then the king of Assyria carried Israel away captive to Assyria, and put them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, 12 because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed His covenant and all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded; and they would neither hear nor do them.

13 And in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; turn away from me; whatever you impose on me I will pay.” And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king’s house. 16 At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

Hezekiah the king of Judah gave us a resounding example of what it means to hold fast to the Lord and in obedience to His word.  In his reign, this loyal ruler set his heart on the LORD as his forefather David had done, and did his best to set the example in leading the people of God.  He did everything right that is mortally possible, destroying all the idols and places of pagan worship on the high places and in the low ones all around.  Hezekiah even destroyed the bronze serpent that Moses made (Numbers 21:8, 9) that had been a foreshadowing of looking to the cross of our curse (John 3:14-15, Galatians 3:13, 14) and finding redemption by faith that trusted God’s word in obedience as we do by trusting the work of Christ on the cross as the word of the gospel tells us.  They had turned the cross into a ritualized idol, just as some do today as well, and so he cut it in pieces since the true intent was being misused.  His secret was faith; he trusted God and followed him constantly and consistently, he kept God’s word as he held fast to Him (Deuteronomy 10:20, 13:4) as the joy and love (Psalm 19:8, Jeremiah 15:16) of his heart and life as he chose life and clung to the LORD (Deuteronomy 30:19, 20) with his whole heart.  He prospered in the LORD in all things with this heart set like a flint (Isaiah 50:7) and kept His word, freeing the people for awhile from Assyria until they were later subjected to paying tribute from all the silver in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king’s house to continue to survive when invaded due to the constant disobedience of the people over the years that caught up to them.  Hezekiah remained faithful through all these events no matter what the rest of the people did.  This is our example to hold fast ( 2 Timothy 1:13, 2 Thessalonians 2:15, Revelation 2:25) to the Lord and His word in the scriptures as the gospel commands us, no matter what others around us do, that we may taste the promises of grace and goodness of God for hearts made completely His in lived-out devotion to follow our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully (1 Peter 4:19) to the end.