ONE WHO CAUGHT THE “REAL DISEASE” 

2Chronicles 29:1-32:33
Bob Bonner
March 9, 2008

Years ago, I went to a pastors’ conference where several well known Christian leaders were speaking. While there, I had the opportunity to meet with an old mentor who deeply impacted my life for Christ in my earliest years as a Christian. At the beginning of the conference, the MC made a few announcements and highlighted some of the opportunities one could look forward to during the week-long conference. One of those highlights was an early morning devotional hour with someone I had never heard of before. At the mention of his name, my old mentor leaned over and said, “You don’t want to miss a morning session with that man. He’s got the real disease!” And what he meant by that was that the man had proven to all who knew him that he had a genuine heart that humbly sought after God. Later, when I took my mentor’s advice and attended the first morning devotional led by him, I noted that he was not a flashy dresser, he had a great sense of humor but was not overly comical, and his manner of speaking was not bombastic but soft and calm. He drew you close to God. As he led us into the presence of God each morning, I knew experientially what my old mentor had meant.  There are Christians who know the Lord, and then there are Christians who really have a heart to walk with the Lord.

This morning, I want to introduce you to an Old Testament believer who had the “real disease.” He was not perfect, but he was a man who, without a model to follow, desired deeply to know God, to honor God, and to walk with God in all areas of his life. He was a standout amongst his predecessors in that when it came time for him to die, he finished well as a genuine worshiper of God. His name was King Hezekiah.

This morning, I hope that when we are finished looking at King Hezekiah, your heart will beat with the desire to be like him. I know that this past Fall, when in my own personal devotions I took a closer look at this man, my heart’s cry was, “Lord, grant my heart to become more like that of King Hezekiah’s.”

In order to really get a feel for who King Hezekiah was and why he was such a standout individual, one must understand not only the historical backdrop that surrounded his life but also the unique literary context of 2 Chronicles 29-32.

For those of you to whom the Old Testament is unfamiliar, the nation of Israel crowned its first king in 811 BC. In its entire history, Israel had only three kings who ruled over the nation as a whole. The last king to do so was King Solomon. Following his death and under his heir, Rehoboam, a civil war broke out over the issue of increased and harsh taxation policies. As a result, in 931 BC the nation became a divided kingdom. The northern kingdom was made up of the majority of the tribes of Israel. It had ten tribes; as a result, they retained the name “Israel.” Sometimes this northern kingdom was referred to by one of its most influential tribes, “Ephraim.”

The southern kingdom was made up of two tribes, Benjamin and Judah. Because Judah was the larger and more influential tribe and because the reigning king was from Judah, the southern kingdom was known as “Judah.”  Before the divided kingdom, the religious leaders of Israel, who came from the tribe of Levi, lived throughout the united kingdom, many in the cities of refuge. When the split in the kingdom took place, these religious leaders found themselves split up and spread out throughout the divided kingdom. For the most part, after King Solomon died, religious fervor to follow after the Lord waned.

The era of the divided kingdom covers almost 400 years. During this time, there were a total of 39 kings who reigned over both the north and the south. There were 19 kings in the north and 20 kings in the south. What is really noteworthy is that during this era, in the north, there was not one good king out of all 19 who reigned. None of those kings gave God any serious consideration, let alone worship. They did not do “good and right in the sight of the Lord.”

In contrast, the south had 20 kings. Out of those 20, the text tells us that only 8 kings “did good and right in the sight of the Lord.” However, out of those 8 kings, only 3 were doing “good and right in the sight of the Lord” when they died. In other words, out of those 8 “good kings”, only 3 of them finished well. Only three went to their graves having sought after God their whole lives. Only three out of a total of 39 kings had the “real disease”  For only these three kings, what mattered most to God was what they deemed the priority of their lives. Their names are Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Each of these are worthy of study, of learning from their lives what it takes to finish well.

So that’s the historical backdrop. Now, let’s look at the literary context. If you want to study the life of King Hezekiah, you will find the history concerning his reign in two different books, 2 Kings 18-20 and 2 Chronicles 29-32. Why do we have his story in two different books of the Old Testament? Because both 1-2 Kings and 1-2 Chronicles are about the same period of history, but they record this history from two different perspectives. Kings presents the record from more of the political, secular, historical point of view; Chronicles presents the record from more of the priestly, spiritual point of view. For our study this morning, we are going to primarily stick with 2 Chronicles. The first nine chapters of the book deal with the end of King Solomon’s reign. The rest of 2 Chronicles deals only with kings from the south, which were both good and bad.

As I read 2 Chronicles, especially as it pertains to King Hezekiah, two verses really stood out to me. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says, ^“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him”. Wow! It is God’s nature to bless those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. And it’s not just His nature to want to bless, but God eagerly seeks and looks for people who want to walk with Him so that He can bless them. However, what is ironic about this verse is that God says this to one of the other five good kings, King Asa, who started off well, walking with the Lord, but in the end turned his back on the Lord. Hence, God adds these closing words of instruction to Asa. He says, “You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.” In the end, Asa did not finish well.

Now, let’s compare that with this verse which speaks about King Hezekiah found in 2 Chronicles 31:21. It reads, “In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered”. Do you desire God’s favor in your life? I sure do. That’s why this king caught my attention, and I felt it worthy of our time to pause and consider his life.

Because King Hezekiah’s reign covers three very long chapters in 2 Chronicles, I have decided not to read all of those chapters, but instead to walk you through most of the sections one at a time, stopping only at few of them to read them and to highlight some key points.

As we work our way through Hezekiah’s life, you will note that while he faithfully followed the Lord, there were three incidents in his life where he stumbled. None of them were major, as we would see them, but our Holy God wanted us to realize that Hezekiah was fully human, and he too had lessons to learn in life along the way. However, in comparison to the major mistakes of other spiritual leaders, like David, Hezekiah’s were rather tame. His first slip up came as he, out of fear, paid a foreign godless king to not invade his people, without even a thought about seeking out God for assistance.

His second stumble came as a result of human arrogance. God did something very special for Hezekiah in answer to one of Hezekiah’s prayers, and Hezekiah never said “Thanks” or showed any gratitude or acknowledgment of God’s blessing in his life. 

His third stumbling (which does not show up in our passage but does in 2 Kings, so we won’t look at it this morning) came as a result of his arrogantly showing foreigners the extreme wealth in his treasury, so as to say, “See how successful I have been!” 

But in all three of those situations, when Hezekiah realized his wrong doing, he quickly repented. God forgave, restored, and continued to bless Hezekiah, solely because his heart had been completely devoted to the Lord. 

As we consider Hezekiah’s life, keep in mind that by the time Hezekiah came to reign, he had not had any role models to show him what it took to follow after God. In other words, he had to learn first hand what many of you were taught from childhood. For instance, in his world it was quite natural to seek alliances with foreign kings when your nation was in trouble. So when Hezekiah found himself in trouble, he simply did what every other king before him had done, not knowing that God really wanted him to check in with Him whenever he had a need. Hezekiah’s first mistake turned out to be a discipleship moment in his life, and to his credit, he never made that same mistake again. 

As we stand back and take in Hezekiah’s whole life, you will see that when it came to the typically “religious” things of life, he had no struggles. But like the rest of us, it was in the “mundane” things of the everyday life where he slipped up or stumbled. To me, this illustrates how easy it is for us to do the religiously right thing, like attending church regularly or faithfully giving to the Lord, while at the same time, as we live at home or out in the world, we don’t think to seek God’s face or to consider His direction as to what or how He would have us live. To truly be a person whose heart is solely God’s is to be a person who desires God to partner with Him in every area of life. It means that we want to obey God in the most basic things of life such as paying taxes, not cheating in school, not allowing bitterness to control one’s life, seeking God’s direction in raising children, and so on.

Hezekiah’s life divides into three major sections: his great beginnings, his confusing middle years, and his quality finish.

His great beginning years are covered in 2 Chronicles 29:1-31:21, and deal primarily in readying God’s people in both the north and the south to worship God. According to 29:1-36, beginning with his first year on the throne, Hezekiah re-established and reopened proper worship in the temple. Priests worked hard for 16 days to cleanse and prepare the temple for worship. As soon as it was completely cleansed, Hezekiah invited the Levites from all over the northern and southern kingdoms to worship and recommit themselves to the Lord and to leading others in the pure worship of Yahweh.

After the temple and the priests were ready to worship, Hezekiah sent out letters to all Israel and Judah inviting the entire nation to come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover together at the newly opened temple. Passover had not been observed for a number of years. In response to the invitation, many mocked Hezekiah and laughed at the proposal, but some responded gladly, according to 30:1-11.

Then in 30:12-22, we learn something about the character of God and His idea of proper worship. It’s true that through Hezekiah, God moved many in both the northern and southern kingdoms to be united in heart to do what Hezekiah had ordered--to remove all the altars set up to worship foreign gods. But when some of the Levites from the north came to Jerusalem to partake in this inaugural Passover, a serious infraction of the Law took place. We read about it in verses 18-22. It says, “For a multitude of the people, even many from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulon, had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than prescribed. For Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, ‘May the good Lord pardon everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though not according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.’ So the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people. The sons of Israel present in Jerusalem celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy, and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day after day with loud instruments to the Lord. Then Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good insight in the things of the Lord. So they ate for the appointed seven days, sacrificing peace offerings and giving thanks to the Lord God of their fathers.”

Do you see what happened? It was a serious offense before God for priests to ignore God’s Law in their personal preparation for their leadership role in the Passover. You might remember King David years before wanting to do a good thing by returning the Ark to Jerusalem, but not following the Law as to how to transport the ark. God killed the priests when they touched the ark trying to keep it from falling off an ox cart. Hezekiah knew that God takes His law seriously, and when he discovered after the fact that some of the northern priests had not followed God’s instructions in preparing themselves for the Passover, he immediately went to God and pleaded for mercy on their behalf. God heard and welcomed Hezekiah’s intercessory prayer on the priests’ behalf and forgave them. In turn, when the people saw what Hezekiah had done and God’s response, this led to a great rejoicing and worship that lasted for seven days. Hezekiah and all the people learned that day that God refuses to accept ignorant worship, even if the motive is pure. When it comes to the will of God, He expects us to follow His instructions explicitly.

In the rest of chapter 30 and through 31:21, we read about the excitement that all the people who participated in the Passover, including the Levites, had for God. They discovered that He not only is holy and to be feared, but He is also personal, not distant. The people were excited when they realized anew that God really wanted to fellowship with them. God had always been so, but the spiritual leaders had failed so miserably in the previous years in properly educating and pointing the people to God, that this was all new to them. In the end, the people, especially those in the southern kingdom of Judah, were grateful to God for giving them their King Hezekiah. This godly king had won their trust and admiration.

Now we come to what must have been a confusing time in Hezekiah’s life. For we read in 32:1, “After these acts of faithfulness Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and besieged the fortified cities and thought to break into them for himself.”  What’s with this? Why in the world would God allow such a thing as his good worshiping people to be invaded by a foreign unrighteous, pagan nation? Go figure!

What actually follows, we don’t have totally recorded in 2 Chronicles. But over in 2 Kings 18-19, we discover that between the end of chapter 31 and 32, fourteen years have passed before the King of Assyria invades Judah. Assyria had already invaded and captured the northern kingdom of Israel, and now it was coming to capture Judah. When Hezekiah realized his kingdom was in danger, he tried to bargain with this foreign king rather than go to God first to ask what he should do. As a result, the foreign invaders took Israel’s wealth and then proceeded to attack them anyway. At this point, Hezekiah went to God and asked for help. God heard Hezekiah, affirmed him, and told him, “Now watch Me work. And furthermore, go tell the people not to be afraid. I’ve got them covered.” And exactly as God promised, He supernaturally wiped out the Assyrian army and sent the king back home where his own people killed him just as God had told Hezekiah. In contrast to the Assyrians’ treatment of their king, the people of Judah worshiped God and brought gifts to God and to Hezekiah as a thank you for faithfully leading them in the ways of the Lord.

The second confusing event that takes place in the middle years of Hezekiah’s reign concerns his suddenly becoming deathly ill. Even the righteous aren’t excluded from the health problems common to all mankind. Hezekiah was told that he was going to die. Immediately, he turned to the Lord and asked Him to heal him. God gave Hezekiah a sign that He would do so. The sign is recorded in 2 Kings. God caused the sun to reverse its course, leaving a shadow on 10 stair steps. Shortly thereafter Hezekiah was healed, just as God had promised. However we read in 32:25, “But Hezekiah gave no return for the benefit he received, because his heart was proud; therefore wrath came on him and on Judah and Jerusalem.” Basically, Hezekiah never acknowledged or thanked God for having healed him. Hence God punished him. “However, Hezekiah humbled the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come on them in the days of Hezekiah.”

Why is saying “Thank you” to God or anyone else so important? Thankfulness is a sign of gratefulness that comes from having a humble heart instead of a proud heart. When we humble ourselves before the Lord, He blesses us. To ignore Him begs for His discipline.

As we come to the end of chapter 33, we read of Hezekiah’s “quality” finish. The text says, “Now Hezekiah had immense riches and honor; and he made for himself treasuries for silver, gold, precious stones, spices, shields and all kinds of valuable articles, storehouses also for the produce of grain, wine and oil, pens for all kinds of cattle and sheepfolds for the flocks. He made cities for himself and acquired flocks and herds in abundance, for God had given him very great wealth. It was Hezekiah who stopped the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all that he did. Even in the matter of the envoys of the rulers of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that had happened in the land, God left him alone only to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart. Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his deeds of devotion, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. So Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the upper section of the tombs of the sons of David; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem honored him at his death. And his son Manasseh became king in his place.”

For the rest of his years until he died, Hezekiah used his wealth to build public works. He became a powerful, successful, beloved, godly leader.  We can say that he did indeed fit into that unique group of those who have the “real disease.”

What can we learn from the life of Hezekiah, from one who finished well in following after the Lord? First, we witness that a thankful heart comes from a humble heart and draws one into a more intimate fellowship with God. Or, to put it negatively by way of a warning, one might say that pride as seen in a lack of thankfulness can stall one’s growth and interrupt one’s intimacy with Christ. 

A second lesson we can learn from heroes of the faith like Hezekiah is that finishing strong in one’s relationship with Christ does not happen by accident but occurs as a result of a heart that purposes to know and obey God. Just being saved does not guarantee that you will really know God well or that you will finish well. Being saved only opens up the opportunity for one to draw as close to God as you desire. Furthermore, one does not decide at 40, 50 or 80 to finish strong, unless that’s when you got saved. In order to finish strong, the sooner you plan to do so, the better the chance you will have. And a verse that stays before the mind of the one who purposes to finish well is 2 Chronicles 16:9, “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him”

Thirdly, we learn from Hezekiah that just because you may purpose to finish well doesn’t mean you won’t make mistakes along the way. Nobody finishes the race of life without tripping or stumbling along the way. As someone else once said, “To err is human...” But the good news is that God will turn those mistakes into discipleship moments which He will use to mature us and to draw us closer to Himself. 

Another lesson we can take from Hezekiah’s life, is that when he blew it, he wasted no time making excuses. He immediately went to God, admitted his error, and got things right. God in turn continued to bless him. Hence, when we err, we must keep short accounts with God.

Something else Hezekiah learned that we need to put into practice is that when we face a challenge or have a major need in our lives for wisdom or help of any kind, we must go to God first. Then if necessary, look to others Hezekiah would have saved himself and his nation a great deal of trouble if, when threatened by the king of Assyria, he had gone to God first, rather than trying to make a deal with the enemy. 

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