HEZEKIAH

ISAIAH 38:1

A. "IN THOSE DAYS WAS HEZEKIAH SICK UNTO DEATH. AND ISAIAH THE PROPHET THE SON OF AMOZ CAME UNTO HIM, AND SAID UNTO HIM, THUS SAITH THE LORD, SET THINE HOUSE IN ORDER FOR THOU SHALT DIE AND NOT LIVE"
  1. It must have been difficult for Isaiah to deliver this solemn message to his King:
    1. Isaiah loved him and would rather have seen him live
    2. But God, who knows what is ahead of us, forewarned his servant to be prepared
  2. The message of death:
    1. Was, in truth, a blessing in disguise - Hezekiah was not ready to die, ad God loved him and sought to prepare him
    2. How gracious and compassionate is our God and yet how undeserving we are
B. KING HEZEKIAH
  1. He was a good man:
    1. His name Hezekiah - Jehovah is my support
    2. He was so different from his father Ahaz, who was a wicked king, an idolater - 2 Chron. 28:19
    3. Hezekiah destroyed the idols and cleansed the land from idolatry - 2 Kings 28:22; 2 Chron. 32:1-19
    4. God gave him the hearts of the people who rallied to his reform movement and did not stop until they had destroyed all idols and cleansed Judah from idolatry
  2. Hezekiah experienced four crisis:
    1. The crisis of choice and he chose to forsake the idols of his father and purge the land of idolatry
    2. The crisis of invasion - 2 Chron. 32:1-19; Is. 36:37
    3. Earnest prayer saved the day for him and his nation - Is. 37:1-38
    4. The crisis of his illness - here again, prayer, earnest prayer prolonged his life - Is. 38; think dear reader, of the power of earnest prayer - James 5:16
    5. The crisis of prosperity - Is. 39:1-14; it is here where Hezekiah failed; he forsook the Lord, became vain and prepared the way for the fall of his kingdom - sad indeed
C. THE LIFE AND EXPERIENCE OF KING HEZEKIAH OFFERS T US A FOURFOLD LESSON, WORTHY OF OUR PRAYERFUL CONSIDERATION
  1. Hezekiah was one of the best kings in Judah:
    1. In spite of the wickedness of his father, who was an idolater
    2. This shows that is not always true "As father - so son". There are always some exceptions
    3. Hezekiah was a man of great faith in the God of his father David whom he sought to follow
  2. Hezekiah knew the power of prayer:
    1. He used it in the crisis of invasion at a time when only God's intervention saved Judah
    2. Do we know and understand this power - do we make use of it - Ps. 55:16
    3. He used it when death overshadowed him - what do we do when we face death
  3. Hezekiah failed in the hour of prosperity:
    1. He failed to glorify the Lord and tell the messengers from Babylon that the God of Israel had healed him
    2. How sad one must feel that that good man failed when he should have triumphed gloriously
    3. But are we any better; do we always glorify the Redeemer when things go well with us
  4. Hezekiah demonstrated to us:
    1. That when we follow the Lord wholly, we will be pleased
    2. That when we seek the Lord in earnest prayer, he will hear us - Jer. 33:3
    3. But when we forget the Lord and indulge in the pleasures of the world, God will forsake us and that is the sad part about it all
    4. For it is not the beginning that gives the victory, but the end that counts


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