The Bible gives Hezekiah a special place: “After him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him” (2 Ki 18:5). And that is connected with the fact that had just been stated: “He trusted in the Lord God of Israel”. This implies, first of all, that Hezekiah believed the revelation that the Lord God had given of Himself to His people Israel. The meaning of the name the Lord – that is, Jehovah – was revealed through Moses to Israel: “I AM THAT I AM”. Thus this name seems particularly to point to God’s self-existence, but the noted American theologian of the nineteenth century, James H Thornwell, states that it “includes eternity, self-existence, immutability, simplicity, omnipotence, omniscience and, in short, the consummation of all possible perfections. It means, in brief, the entire essence of God as He is in Himself.”1
Hezekiah had received the whole revelation that God had then given of Himself, His ways and His works, and he trusted in God as thus revealed. Accordingly, when we read that Hezekiah “trusted in the Lord God of Israel”, we must understand that King Hezekiah was recognising Him as the true God and His revelation as trustworthy. He saw this revelation as relevant to himself as a sinner before God – in particular, what God further revealed of Himself to Israel through Moses: “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex 34:6,7). Thus Hezekiah knew that, although the Lord God of Israel, in His justice, will not clear the guilty sinner who goes on in rebellion, yet He is merciful and gracious.
Hezekiah laid hold of the fact that the Lord God, in His mercy, had provided a way of deliverance for a sinner like himself; he trusted in the Lord as a just God and a Saviour. That is what the King acknowledged with deep thankfulness: “Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back” (Is 38:17). For the sake of the Messiah who was to come in the fullness of time, as the
1The Collected Writings of James Henley Thornwell, Banner of Truth reprint, 1986, vol 1, pp 153-4.
substitute for sinners, God had delivered Hezekiah from the guilt of his sins; in effect, He had put them out of His sight. In other words, God would never look on Hezekiah’s sins with a view to punishing him.
We today need the same understanding of the seriousness of our sins and we must go to God trusting in the Messiah, who has come and has endured the punishment due to all who will believe in Him. We live in a generation that has lost sight of the uniqueness of the true God, when all religions are treated as equal – though a religion like Islam often seems to be “more equal” than others. But “there is none other name [but Jesus Christ] under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved”. He is God the Son, and is made known to us in Scripture – now a complete revelation. But the way of deliverance from sin and its consequences is fundamentally the same in both Testaments – by trusting in Christ, the Saviour whom God has provided.
Not only did Hezekiah trust in the Lord God of Israel for his soul’s salvation; he trusted in God in the difficult circumstances when the Assyrian armies laid siege to Jerusalem. It must have seemed highly likely, to anyone not trusting in the Lord, that Hezekiah’s capital city would soon fall to the invaders, and that worship of God at the temple would come to an end. Hezekiah was clear that there was no hope for him and his people apart from the Lord God of Israel. Rabshakeh, the Assyrian general, might boast of the power and the success of his army, but he had no sense of the power of the Lord God of Israel, just as he had no sense of the difference between true worship and idolatry (see 2 Ki 18:22). But the Lord God of Israel had revealed Himself as One who had unlimited power: in, for example, the words, “Power belongeth unto God” (Ps 62:11).
Hezekiah treated seriously the danger he and his people were in. Yet trustingly he prayed, “O Lord God of Israel . . . Thou art the God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; Thou hast made heaven and earth” (2 Ki 19:15). Hezekiah went before the Lord recognising His sovereign authority over the whole world and acknowledging that His absolute power is an evident fact, as Creator of all things. Matthew Henry notes (on 2 Ki 18:5) that “a firm belief of God’s all-sufficiency to protect and reward us will conduce much to make us sincere, bold and vigorous in the way of our duty, like Hezekiah. When he came to the crown he found his kingdom compassed with enemies, but he did not seek for succour to foreign aids, as his father did, but trusted in the God of Israel to be the keeper of Israel.”
Hezekiah is an example to us at a time when the Church of God is surrounded by enemies. At their head is a tempting devil, who has been going about, ever since he entered Eden, seeking whom he may devour – not only individuals but also the Church of God, in its various parts. Over the cen-
turies, the Church’s enemies have included false religions, various heretics and Rome. But over the last hundred years and more, secularism has proved a dangerous enemy, as it promotes the idea that God does not exist and that we should all live merely for the here and now.
How should we live? As Hezekiah did: trusting in the Lord God of Israel, on the basis of God’s revelation. As we see the Church of God becoming weaker, unbelief becoming more arrogant, and the multitudes living as if there is no God and seeking their pleasures entirely in the things of time and sense, how are we to react? We must trust in the Lord as One who really exists, who really does have supreme authority and infinite power, who can overcome His enemies, who will yet “arise and have mercy upon Zion”, and who can answer prayer.
Hezekiah’s prayer was heard; God granted Hezekiah and his people a remarkable deliverance when an angel destroyed 185 000 of the Assyrian troops. The fact was: there were more with Hezekiah than with Rabshakeh (see 2 Ki 6:16). This would not have been true in terms of soldiers, but it was true when one takes into account the power of one angel acting on behalf of godly Hezekiah and against the enemies of the Lord. It was even more true when one takes into account the Lord God of Israel Himself.
In the same way, however weak the Church of God is today, there are more on her side than on the side of the world and of the devil. That is why it is so encouraging to be able to say trustingly: “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob [or, Israel] is our refuge” (Ps 46:7). For just as the Lord God was the God of Israel, which was the Old Testament Church, so to trust in Him today is to trust in Him as One who is gathering in a spiritual Israel, a people for His glory. He will care for His Church; however low He may allow her to become, there will always be a people to fear Him “as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations” (Ps 72:5).
As we look into the future, let us urgently seek grace to trust in Christ for ourselves as the Saviour of sinners, before the night of death comes, when no longer will there be any opportunity of finding salvation. Then let us follow Hezekiah in also praying trustfully to God for deliverance for His Church from her enemies and for a corresponding outpouring of the Spirit so that multitudes would be delivered from the kingdom of darkness and set free to live godly, dependent lives, to God’s glory.
There is no need to be overly depressed as we look at our present circumstances, both morally and religiously. Yes, there is much that should make us sad, but if we trust in the Lord God who reigns over His Church, we should conclude that everything is in His good hands. And we are assured: “Happy [or, blessed] is he . . . whose hope is in the Lord his God” (Ps 146:5).