READ: 2 Kings 18
Verses chosen for meditation: 2 Kings 18:5-7 (ESV).
5 He trusted in the Lord,
the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah
after him, nor among those who were before him. 6 For
he held fast to the Lord. He
did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord
commanded Moses. 7 And
the Lord was with him;
wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and
would not serve him.
REFLECT
Chapters 18 to 25 focus mainly on the
southern kingdom Judah, such as the survival of Judah under various kings. From
the previous readings, we saw the histories and upheaval of Judah under the evil
kings. The nation faced consequences of their sins, commonly in the form of
political instability, disasters and foreign aggressions, whenever her kings
did evil in the sight of the Lord.
And first 8 verses outline king
Hezekiah’s righteousness to do right with Yahweh including his political
achievement, specifically mentioned his righteous reign over Judah and his
favours from God. It testifies how Hezekiah enacted religious reforms in Judah
around the time the nation of Israel fell to Assyria (ref. 2 Chronicles 29-32;
Isaiah 36-39). Eventually, Hezekiah’s trust in Yahweh enabled him to rebel
against Assyria and regain the Philistine territory.
RELATE
The sad fate of Northern Kingdom Israel was a
valuable lesson to king Hezekiah when she fell to the Assyrian King. He
understood what a kingdom’s fate will be like, when the people of God rejected their
God and worshipped other gods, v. 12 (“transgressed His covenant”). King Hezekiah’s
trust in the Lord was remarkable as he was seen
promoting the true worship of God and brought religious reforms. For example, Hezekiah
in his zeal, broke the bronze serpent (v.4) artifact into pieces and put an end to the idolatrous worship of
this object.
In an invasion later,
Sennacherib’s senior field commander, Rabshakeh (not a name) or “chief
cupbearer” taunted Hezekiah not to trust in Yahweh with heaps of insults upon
insults, vv.19-25. Worst of all, Rabshakeh in a crafty deception claimed that it
was Yahweh Himself who sent Assyria to destroy Judah, v.25. Obviously, his aim
was to undermine the Lord’s power and dissuaded the people not to
trust in Yahweh, but surrender (vv.28-35). But king Hezekiah kept his focus and cried out
to God for intervention. Indeed, Yahweh intervened, and the
Assyrian army was destroyed. Two lessons for us here:
It is Hezekiah’s strong
trust and dependence on Yahweh throughout. Ironically, trust was the repeated theme in the
Assyrian official’s speech, vv.19-35. It highlights that Judah should trust in
Yahweh alone, not Egypt, human wisdom or military strength. On the other hand, Hezekiah’s
trust could be made more unbearable because of Rabshakeh’s deception.
Amidst the demoralising
situation, Hezekiah did not bow to pressure but continue to honour and trust in
Yahweh alone; “he held fast to the Lord …”. The same was with our Lord Jesus – neither
did He yield or compromise when He was tempted by the devil (Luke 4:5-8), nor retaliate
against all the humiliations when He was on the Cross. Hezekiah held firm in faith,
trusted the Sovereign God wholeheartedly to be the God above all gods to carry
out His bigger agenda for Judah.
In his teaching on 2 Kings, Pastor Skip Heitzig at
Calvary Church, USA has rightly said: “A kingdom is only as good as the
king”. Basically, this means that with a good king, God will honour the
reform, sincerity and repentance and bring blessings to a nation. A bad king
will bring nation further from God and adduce judgement from Him (Proverbs
16:12: “Kings detest wrongdoing, for a throne is established through
righteousness”). So, do not forget to pray for a better “king Hezekiah” for Singapore, and
that is Jesus. God shall surely bless His people if they obey Him
and submit the nation’s kingship to Jesus alone.
In summary, we need King Jesus to be King both in our
lives and in our nation. Is Jesus the King of your life, whom you desire to trust
and obey alone? Who should be the King of kings in our nation? May we declare boldly:
“JESUS IS”!
REST
Lord Jesus, we yield
ourselves to You alone. Be the King of our lives daily. We also pray
that Singapore will honour You as King of kings. Lord, give us faithful and
God-fearing believers to lead Singapore Godward and to lead us away from
idolatries. For His sake, we pray. Amen.
Vincent
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