As I was doing my daily reading I came to Isaiah 36-39, an historical section about King Hezekiah (hence the tongue-in-cheek title, “The Book of Hezekiah”), and it sounded to me as almost exactly what I had read about Hezekiah back in II Kings. I don’t mean just that both portions of the Old Testament told the same story; I’m saying that they used almost exactly the same words. Then I checked the parallel passage in II Chronicles about King Hezekiah and found some of the same words repeated there.
When God says something just once, it is all important to pay attention. When He says it twice, doubly so. Three times? My Bible pages seemed to flash with neon lights, “Get this!”
Hezekiah was the greatest of all the kings of Judah and Israel, maybe more than David and Solomon and probably more than Josiah who is also given superlative ratings in Scripture. Josiah was commended for returning to the Lord; Hezekiah was already following God when he became king. He is described as holding fast to the Lord unceasingly.
Here is the story:
Hezekiah became king at twenty-five years of age, at the time of Israel’s King Hoshea who was the final ruler of the northern kingdom of Israel when Assyria conquered them and took them into captivity and deportation. The northern kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria when Hezekiah was in his seventh year ruling Judah from Jerusalem.
Hezekiah cleaned up God’s worship in Judah by tearing down the sacred pillars and idols the people were still honoring. Then, in the fourteenth year of his reign, Assyria attacked Judah. The Assyrian commander, whose name or title was Rabshakeh, came to Jerusalem and delivered his threats.
Hezekiah took the threats to the prophet Isaiah who assured him that God would protect Judah. The Lord said the Assyrians would return home and there the Assyrian king would be killed. That very night the angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrians, and the rest returned home where the Assyrian king was killed.
When Hezekiah was thirty-nine years old he became very ill. Isaiah came to him with God’s message that Hezekiah would soon die. Hezekiah turned on his side in bed, toward the wall, and wept. He prayed that God would let him live. Isaiah had not gone past the middle court of the palace when God told him to return to Hezekiah and tell him he was granted fifteen more years. As a sign, God made the sun’s shadow retreat ten steps on the stairway King Ahaz had built for access from the palace to the temple. In three days Hezekiah was well.
At that time some representatives of the King of Babylon came to Hezekiah because of the wonder that had happened. It is not clear to me whether they were referring to his miraculous return to health or to the delay in the sun’s passage. Hezekiah proudly showed them all his treasures, all the treasures in the temple, and all his armaments. When Isaiah heard what had happened, he rebuked Hezekiah and told him that those very Babylonians would be coming in about a hundred years to destroy Jerusalem and to take all Hezekiah’s wealth and all of his people away into captivity. Hezekiah’s only comment was to the effect that things weren’t that bad since it would all happen long after he was gone.
The words of the story as given in Isaiah 36-39 match almost exactly with those of II Kings 18:13-20:19. They appear to be about 90% identical apart from a handful of places where one has a word that is a synonym for the word used in the other. The only real difference is that Isaiah includes Hezekiah’s song of praise after he was restored to health (Isaiah 38:9-20).
If you have ever wondered why the books of Kings and the books of Chronicles cover the same events, on closer study you will find that Chronicles often includes God’s thoughts on the events as opposed to the telling of the history found in Kings. II Chronicles 32 covers the same events as II Kings 18-20 and Isaiah 36-39 with some significant omissions and additions. II Chronicles adds that Hezekiah consulted his military leaders when Assyria approached and that he decided he should protect the water conduit into Jerusalem, repair and increase the city’s walls, and manufacture a large number of weapons and shields. When you get to the end of the chapter you realize God’s view that all the work was useless or worse. II Chronicles 32 skips Rabshakeh’s long speech of threats, Hezekiah’s spreading of the Assyrian threat letter out before the Lord, and the Lord’s answer. To me, those events seem important spiritually and historically, but from a more focused view by God, not so. All three passages (II Kings, Isaiah, and II Chronicles) describe the killing of the 185,000 by the angel of the Lord. OK, got it. And, remarkably, II Chronicles skips the whole story of Hezekiah’s restoration from death and the shadow miracle, summarizing those events in just two short sentences. And, II Chronicles skips the story of the visitors (spies) from Babylon. If a double miracle and the set-up for the coming destruction and deportation are not important, what is? After abbreviating the two miracles, II Chronicles adds a paragraph which serves as God’s epitaph for good King Hezekiah:
“So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria and from the hand of all others, and guarded them on every side. And many were bringing gifts to the Lord at Jerusalem and choice presents to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations thereafter…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. 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. 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.”
One thing I discovered from this study is to beware of passing the tests of adversity only to fail the test of prosperity. God have mercy on us and guard our hearts through our Lord Jesus Christ.