Bible in one year 6/19/2022 2Kings Chapter17-19 Hezekiah king of Judah & Isaiah
By
Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce
Christian
Arts Ministries : Biblical precepts & Gospel music; Pastoral ministry &
Counseling
In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of
Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. Hoshea, king
of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not like the kings of Israel
who preceded him. Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had
been Shalmaneser’s vassal and had paid him tribute. (v.3) Shalmaneser V, son of
and successor to Tiglath-Pileser III, reigned 727-722.
The king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was
a traitor, for he had sent envoys to So king of Egypt, and he no longer paid
tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year, therefore,
Shalmaneser seized him and put him in prison. The king of Assyria invaded the
entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. In
the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria capture Samaria and deported the
Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halan, in Gozan on the Hebor River
and in the towns of the Medes. (vv.3-6).
The king of Assyria. I.e., Shalmaneser, though
Sargon II(722-705) takes credit in his annals for the actual conquest of
Samaria. Perhaps they were both involved, Shalmaneser as the king and Sargon as
the general (18:10, “they”). Halah.
An unidentified city or district in Mesopotamia. Habor. The modern Khabur River, one of the tributaries of the upper
Euphrates, the area of Gozan (=Guzani in Assyrian records).
Why God removed Israelites from His presence. the
author unveiled the sins that led to the Assyrian captivity. The sins of Israel
list in this section from verse 7 to 23. All this took place because the
Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out
of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.“ At
every place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out
before them had done. They did wicked
things that provoked the Lord to anger. They worshiped idols, though the Lord
had said, “ you shall not do this.” The Lord warned Israel and Judah
through all His prophets and seers. “Turn
from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the
entire Law that I commanded your fathers to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.”(vv.11-13). But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their fathers, who
did not trust in the Lord their God.(v.14).
They rejected His decrees and the covenant He had made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “ Do not do as they do,” and they did the ings the Lord had forbidden them to do.(v15). They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal.(v.16). They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger.(v.17).
So the Lord was very angry with Israel
and removed them from His presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, and even
Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They followed the
practices Israel had introduced.(vv.18-19).
Therefore, the Lord rejected all the people of
Israel; He afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust
them from His presence.(v.20).
The king of Assyria brought people from
Babylon, Cuthan, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of
Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its
towns. (v.24). After the fall of Samaria, it was repopulated with people from
Cuthah (in Babylon), Avva (on the Orontes River), Hamath (between Aleppo and
Damascus), and Sepharvaim (Possibly on the border between Damascus and Hamath).
These people , by intermarriage with those left in Israel, began the new
mongrel race known as the Samaritans (Luke10:33). They did not worship the
Lord, so He sent lions among them and killed some of people.(v.25)
Because of the havoc wrought by the
lions, the Samaritans asked for a priest to be sent to teach them about Yahweh.
The result was a mixture of paganism and Yahweh worship, the people retaining
their native gods(vv.30-31) along with a defective fear of the Lord (vv.33-34).
Succoth Benoth. Perhaps the pagan god
Marduk or his consort. Nergal. A
pagan god, lord of the underworld. Ashima.
The identification is uncertain, possibly the goddess Asherah. Nibhaz.Unknown pagan god.Tartak. Unknown pagan god. Adrammelech. Probably means “Adad is
king,” Adad being a Babylonian god. Anammelech
means “Anu is king,” Anu also being a Babylonian deity. They wroshiped the
Lord, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for
them as priests in the shrines at the high places. They worshiped the Lord, but
they also servedtheir own gods inaccordance with the customs of the nations
from which they had been brought.(vv.32-33).
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They would not listen, however, but persisted
in their former practices. Even while these people were worshiping the Lord,
they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren
continue to do as their father did. (vv.40-41).
2Kings
Chapter 18 The surviving kingdom of Judah; The Reign of Hezekiah twenty nine years.
(715-686;2 Chron.29:1-32:33)
Hezekiah, one of Judah’s best kings,
pursued an anti-Assyrian policy, which brought campaign against Judah by
Sennacherib, resulting first in Hezekiah’s paying tribute, and the in the
miraculous defeat of the Assyrian army (chaps.18-20; 2Chron.29-32;Isa.36-39).In
the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekah son of Ahaz king
of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and
he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years.
He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it.(It was called Nehushtan.(vv.3-4). The bronze snake. What seven hundred years before was a means of healing (Num.21:8-9) had become an idol that was worshiped. Nehushtan means “a mere piece of bronze” – a contemptuous unmasking of what the relic really was. To destroy it was the only wise course of action(Rom.13:14). Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah. He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moese. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He did not serve the king of Assyria. From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory. (v.5-8).
The contrast is startling :under
Hezekah, Judah was being led back to God at the same time that Israel, under
Hoshea, was being taken into captivity. The king of Assyria deported Israel to
Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in towns of
the Medes. This happened because they had not obeyed the Lord their God, but
had violated his covenant.(vv.5-7).
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s
reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah
and captured them. So Hezekiah king of
Judah sent a message to the king of
Assyria at Lachish. The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah
three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. So Hezekiah gave
him all the silver that was found in the
temple of the Lord. and in the treasuries of the royal palace. (vv.13-15). The
tribute amounted to about 360,000 ounces of silver and 36,000 ounces of gold.
The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field
commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. The
field commander said to them, “ Tell Hezekiah, ..you say you have strategy and military strength but you speak only
empty words…come now make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will
give you two thousand horses, if you can put riders on them…(vv.19,23). The
commander further claimed that he had come against Judah by command of the
Lord. (v.25). the commander called out in Hebrew, “ Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!.. do not listen
to Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand.(v.28). Addressing
the populace directly, the commander insisted that they would stay alive only
by surrendering and going into what he pictured as a rather pleasant exile.
(vv.32-32). Then Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and
Joah the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what
the field commander had said.(v.37).
2Kings Chapter 19 Hezekiah’s prayer and Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to him
When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his cloths and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. (vv.1-2). Isaiah said to them, “ Tell your master, this is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard, those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Listen! I am going to put such a spirit in him that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.(vv.6-7). Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, “ O Lord, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God…..” In this childlike prayer, Hezekiah acknowledged God’s sovereignty (v.15), mentioned Sennacherib’s defiance of God and the impotence of his gods (vv.16-18), and beseeched God for deliverance(v.19). In His answer (vv.20-34) God assured Hezekiah 1) that Sennacherib was but an instrument in God’s hand (vv.20-28) 2) that a remnant would survive (vv.29-31 though they might lose two years’ harvest); 3) that Jerusalem would not fall to the Assyrians (vv.32-34).
That night the angel of the Lord
went out and put to death a hundred and eighty –five thousand men in the
Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning there were all the dead
bodies ! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to
Nineveh and stayed there. One day, while Sennacherib was worshiping in the temple
of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him and escaped to
the land of Ararat. Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.
Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie study Bible (NIV).Chicago,
IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986
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