2 Kings 18 - 19

Here’s a quick overview of what we will read about in the following chapters. Hezekiah witnessed the destruction of the northern Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BCE and was king of Judah during the siege of Jerusalem by Assyrian King Sennacherib in 701 BCE. Hezekiah was a religious reformer and is listed in the genealogy of Jesus. Both Isaiah and Micah prophesied during his reign as did Hosea and Micah.

Hezekiah purified and repaired the Temple, purged its idols, and reformed the priesthood. He destroyed the high places and the "bronze serpent", recorded as being made by Moses, which had become objects of idolatrous worship. He centralized the worship of God at the Temple in Jerusalem (2 Chron. 29:1-31). Hezekiah also defeated the Philistines, and invited the northern tribes of Israel to take part in a Passover festival in Jerusalem.

WOW! What a GREAT king. He and Josiah are the only two kings who receive unqualified praise from God.

Meanwhile, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, ruled a massive area that stretched from Iran to Egypt. But ruling over such a vast territory wasn’t without its challenges. Two notable rebellions were the Babylonians and the Jews where he carried off 200,000 Jews.

I mentioned the Prophet Isaiah. We should learn something about him before we get into the narrative. Jewish tradition has it that Isaiah was the son of a prophet and nephew of king Amaziah. This explains why he was unintimidated by royalty and able to criticize them when necessary. Also, again, according to tradition, Hezekiah married Isaiah’s daughter and he was killed by Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh. Allegedly, Manasseh had Isaiah tied inside a sack, placed him inside the hollow of a tree trunk, and then sawed it in two. Why do religions add these ideas to Scripture? Shouldn’t what we have been given be enough? More on that idea later.

Isaiah’s prophecies carry a short message of impending destruction of the Temple, a time of captivity as well as a positive message which included their return to their land, the coming of the Messiah and the Kingdom of God.

Let’s get into the text.

2 Kings 18:1-2 tells us that Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king and reigned for twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah, daughter of Zechariah.

Why would we be told his mother’s name? I tried to find out something about her, but all I found was something in “rabbinical literature” which means “oral law and tradition.” Some traditions are very bizarre and not to be trusted. Here is one about the mother of Hezekiah. She saved the life of her son whom her godless husband, Ahaz had prepared him to be offered to the pagan king Molech. She anointed him with the blood of the salamander which enabled him to pass through the fire of Moloch unscathed.

The blood of the salamander protects one from fire. Where did this idea come from? There was this idea that when glassmakers leave a furnace continuously alight for seven days and seven nights, out of the fire there emerges a salamander, which is impervious to fire. So, the idea was that if you cover your arm or any limb with its blood, it becomes impervious to fire. Perhaps more believable would be the suggestion that whoever was monitoring the fire was drinking too much wine at the time.

It might be more believable to simply assume that she was a godly mother who taught her son well even though her husband, Ahaz was a very evil king.

I wonder what our descendants will think about some of our “modern” ideas that we hold today. “Modern medicine” thought it would be a good idea to take an icepick and hammer it through the orbital cavity, wiggle it back and forth to destroy brain tissue. This was called a trans-orbital lobotomy and was thought to be an effective treatment for some forms of mental illness.

Hezekiah was a very good king. A short list of his accomplishments is found in verses 3-8, and included: removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles (2 Chron. 29:1-31). He broke into pieces the bronze snake that the people turned into an object of worship. That is one of the dangers of having relics, they can turn into an object of worship. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and defeated the Philistines. In summary, verses 5-6, “He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses.”

In verses 9-12 there’s a summary of what happened to the northern kingdom of Israel, which we just covered in chapter 17. Now Sennacherib, king of Assyria is going to come after Judah (verse 13). So, Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish. Lachish was a well-fortified military city in the foothills of the Judean mountains, southwest of Jerusalem located along a travel route. It was second only to Jerusalem during the reign of Rehoboam.

What was the message that he sent? Verse 14, “Withdraw from me and I will pay whatever you demand.” Hezekiah gave him everything, including the gold that covered the doors and doorposts of the temple (verse 16).

Much of what follows is also recorded in Isaiah chapters 36-39.

Not satisfied, Sennacherib then threatened Jerusalem. The king of Assyria sent his representatives from Lachish to meet with representatives of Hezekiah to “negotiate” some sort of peaceful settlement. When Assyrians came to negotiate with Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz personally went out to meet with them. Hezekiah, on the other hand, send representatives. The spokesperson for the Assyrian delegation suggested that Hezekiah shouldn’t rely on his treaty with Egypt for protection (verse 21) nor should they depend on (verse 22), the Lord their God. In other words, you guys are all alone and far inferior to our army, so why not surrender now. He goes on to say that the God of Israel had told them to march against this country and destroy it (verse 25).

This conversation was taking place outside the city gates. There were civilians on the wall who could overhear the negotiations. The Jews asked the Assyrian team to speak in the diplomatic language of the day, Aramaic, rather than Hebrew so that the people on the wall couldn’t understand the discussion (verse 26). They didn’t want the people to know what was being said and perhaps interfere with them. There might have been some “anti-Hezekiah” people who opposed his reforms among the people on the wall.

The Assyrian “foreign minister” then addressed the people on the wall in Hebrew. He said, (verses 29-31), “Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand. . . Make peace with me and come out to me.”

He then promised the Jews something that sounds very much like God’s promise to them if they obeyed Him. Verses 31-32, “Then everyone of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern. . . a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death!”

The negotiations continued but the Jews did not respond to their offer. Perhaps because they didn’t have the authority to decide, all they could do was relay their offer to the king. The Jewish delegation then returned to the palace to report to the king (verse 37).

Chapter 19:1 Hezekiah was shocked and terrified by the report he received. He sent his key administrators to the prophet Isaiah to seek his advice (verse 2). Isaiah received their briefing and told them, “Do not be afraid (2 Chron. 32:1-8) of what you have heard . . . I am going to put a spirit in him (Sennacherib) 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” (verses 6-7).

As these negotiations were going on, Sennacherib was out and about defeating other cities, which only added to the tension back in Jerusalem (verses 8-13).

Hezekiah prepared for such a siege. He improved the water supply (2 Chron. 32:5) and strengthened the city’s defenses. He also made a treaty with Egypt to gain their support (against the wishes and advise of Isaiah).

And he prayed (verses 14-19), the bottom line of the prayer was (verse 19), “Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God.” Then Hezekiah received a most welcomed letter from Isaiah (verses 20-34). I’ll summarize and paraphrase this message from God to Sennacherib. “The people of Judah despise you and mock you. You’re an arrogant king who blasphemed me (God). I’ll put a hook in your nose and a bit in your mouth and make you return to where you came from. You will NOT enter this city (Jerusalem). I will defend this city and save it. You attack my people, I attack you.

So, what happened? Sennacherib’s troops surrounded and besieged the city of Jerusalem, but their attack was halted by a mysterious plague. Verse 35, “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” (II Kings 19:35-36). The death of many of his soldiers was much like the plaque that destroyed the Egyptians during the first Passover.

Sennacherib returned to Nineveh. This was the city where Jonah and Nahum prophesied, and was located where the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq is today. It was, for fifty years, the largest city in the world. Sennacherib built an enormous new palace for himself. For decoration, he ordered his workmen to build huge panels, from floor to ceiling that depicted, in detail, all the tortures that his army heaped upon his victims.

The mysterious plague that struck the Assyrian soldiers was also recorded by Herodotus, a Greek historian of the ancient world: “As the two armies lay here opposite one another, there came in the night, a multitude of fieldmice, which devoured all the quivers and bowstrings of the enemy and ate the thongs by which they managed their shields. Next morning, they commenced their fight, and great multitudes fell, as they had no arms with which to defend themselves…” (Herodotus, The Histories, Book 2, Chapter 141).

Did Sennacherib spend his later years in comfortable retirement on the banks of Lake Nineveh (if there was such a lake)? No. Verse 37, “One day, while he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch (their god of agriculture), his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.” In spite of being plagued by paranoia, depression and illnesses, Esarhaddon was recognized as one of the greatest and most successful Assyrian kings.

Let’s talk about these traditions or legends concerning heroes of the Bible. In 1 Cor. 4:6, Paul describes the nature and work of true apostleship. In verse 6 he says, “Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, ‘Do not go beyond what is written.’ Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.”

To “not go beyond what is written” refers to the general principle that everything a believer does should be based on biblical truth.

Paul wants his readers to understand that the words and teachings of Scripture are ultimately sufficient and true. The Corinthians were listening to the words of their preferred leader more than they were to the words of Scripture itself. Paul challenged this mindset among the Corinthians by stating his desire among them was to know nothing “except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). Others were eager to know the opinions of certain leaders and to elevate them to Scripture.

The Bible has what we need to live a holy and pleasing life before God. In the very last chapter of the Bible, we are warned not to add or take away from the inspired words of God (Rev. 22:18–19). 2 Tim. 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Every time someone says, “Speaking in tongues is the proof of salvation” or “Christians shouldn’t own a television” or “Mary is the mother of God,” or we must say “the sinners prayer” (which isn’t in the Bible) that someone is going beyond what is written.



But we also must be able to tell where the Bible is descriptive versus where it is prescriptive. If we confuse description with instruction, we usually run into error. The Bible must be the final and ultimate authority for believers rather than the latest book, the newest cultural trend, or the most popular Christian speaker. It diminishes the Scripture when we think it isn’t enough, that we need “sacred traditions” to add to it. By adding to the word of God, we can distract ourselves from what is essential.