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THE FALL OF JUDAH
Bible study by Pat Gaines
LESSON 2
Scripture passages for this study are taken from: 2 Kings 20; 2 Chronicles 32: 24-29; Isaiah 38.
Hezekiah is a good man and a good king over Judah. He followed God’s laws, tore down the idols and idol worship places in the kingdom and God has blessed him. After the Lord saved Hezekiah and Jerusalem from the Assyrian army by killing 185,000 men in one night, Hezekiah was highly respected by the all the nations. God continued to bless him and he gained great riches.
[2Ch 32: 27-30] Hezekiah had very great riches and honor, and he made treasuries for his silver and gold and for his precious stones, spices, shields and all kinds of valuables. He also made buildings to store the harvest of grain, new wine and oil; and he made stalls for various kinds of cattle, and pens for the flocks. He built villages and acquired great numbers of flocks and herds, for God had given him very great riches. It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and channeled the water down to the west side of the City of David. He succeeded in everything he undertook.
God had given Hezekiah everything, power, wealth, a good reputation, security from his enemies. But Hezekiah was human and he became prideful about his possessions. He was like we are today. God blesses us with jobs, good income, families and even some of us with wealth. We say, “look what I have done.” We forget that all blessings come from the Lord and He can very quickly take them away if we fail to use our wealth wisely and fail to give Him the credit.
[2Ch 32:25-26] But Hezekiah’s heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the Lord’s wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem.
So God acts to get Hezekiah’s attention. Like in the story of Jonah where God let him stay in the belly of the great fish for three days to get Jonah’s attention, God brings Hezekiah to the point of death to humble him.
[2 Kings 20:1-3] In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said: “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
God is telling Hezekiah to make his last will and testament, tell his family goodbye, put his house in order because he is going to die. Hezekiah is not ready to die. God now has his attention. He humbles himself before God and cries out for God to save him.
I think when a person has a terminal illness and knows that they are going to die, it changes the way they see life and this world. It brings the most important things to focus: their relationship to the Lord, to be sure they have been saved and are ready and assured of eternal life in heaven; their relationship to the members of their families and friends, concerned about their spiritual condition; deciding what to do with the worldly possessions with which God has blessed them; putting their worldly affairs in order.
In truth, we should live our lives everyday with this mindset because we never know whether we can count on tomorrow. Whether you are going to spend eternity in heaven or hell is not a decision that should be put off.
[2 Kings 20:4-6] Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life.
God heard Hezekiah’s sincere prayers and agrees to give him another fifteen years to live. Apparently Hezekiah had some kind of boil or maybe a cancer because Isaiah told him to put a poultice of figs on it and it would heal. A good thing to remember; a fig poultice. Now Hezekiah asks for a sign, a miracle, something that could not naturally happen, to prove that God would really heal him. This sounds like a lack of faith to me, but God honored his his request.
[2 Kings 20:8-11] Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now?” Isaiah answered, “This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps:” “It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.” Then the prophet Isaiah called upon the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
Through Isaiah the prophet God offers Hezekiah a choice for his sign, move time forward or move it backward. Hezekiah reasons that it is harder for time to go backward so this is his choice. How much time is involved with the shadow moving 10 steps back on Ahaz’s stairway? Did this really happen?
[2 Kings 20:11] Then the prophet Isaiah called upon the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
God, the God of creation made time go backward to fulfill His promise to Hezekiah and prove to him that he would live another fifteen years. God is always true to His promises. Man &mdahs; not so good. How long did time go backward? I don’t know, but I believe that it did.
[2 Kings 20: 12-18] At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah’s illness. Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine olive oil—his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?” “From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came from Babylon.” The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?” “They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.” Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
Hezekiah, out of pride displayed all his wealth and that of Judah to the visitors from Babylon. Isaiah tells him that in the future the Babylonians will come and take all his wealth and treasure, even his descendants off as captives. Some of his grandchildren will be made eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon. One of these descendants will be Daniel. Hezekiah’s response? “Well at least there will be peace and security in my lifetime.” Here is a man who worshiped God and was faithful to all His commandments in his youth. Then after he was greatly blessed by God with power and wealth became prideful, self-centered, unconcerned about the future of his people, even his own family. Sounds like today, doesn’t it?
Jesus said in Matthew 19:24: “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
In the next lesson, Judah gets a new king, a very bad king.
Lesson 1 • Lesson 2 • Lesson 3 • Lesson 4 • Lesson 5 • Lesson 6 • Lesson 7