King Hezekiah was a king of Judah who loved God with all his heart and followed Him. 2 Kings 18:5 says, “Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before or after his time.”
Hezekiah’s father had turned the people of Judah away from God, just like Ahab had done in Israel. They were worshiping false gods and had stopped celebrating all the good things God had done for them. When Hezekiah became king, he...
Took down all the places where people worshiped anything other than the one true God
Destroyed all the things people had created with their own hands and then started to worship as if they were God
Taught the people how to truly worship God and only God
Put back in place the celebrations God had told the people to have as a way to remember the good things He had done for them
Not far from Judah was a nation called Assyria. The king of Assyria had been attacking the nations around him and trying to expand his own country. When Hezekiah had been king of Judah for about 7 years, the king of Assyria took over Samaria, the capital city of Israel. Then a different king came to power in Assyria, and he decided to attack Judah. He captured most of the cities in Judah and then his army surrounded the walls of Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah. They tried to keep food and water from getting to the people inside, but Hezekiah was so smart he created a tunnel system to make sure his people had enough water! The king of Assyria sent messengers to Jerusalem, and Hezekiah’s messengers came out to meet them. Here’s how it went down.
The messengers from Assyria were evil and proud, just like their king. They spoke in the language of the people of Judah so everyone could hear. They said God wouldn’t help Hezekiah and Judah's small army.
Then they turned to the people and shouted, “This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He will never be able to rescue you from my power.Don’t let him fool you into trusting in the Lord... Make peace with me—open the gates and come out... Don’t listen to Hezekiah when he tries to mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us!’ ...What god of any nation has ever been able to save its people from my power? So what makes you think that the Lord can rescue Jerusalem from me?” (You can find this in your Trailbook in 2 Kings 18:31-35.)
What do you think Hezekiah did? He prayed. He said, “It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all—only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands. Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God” (2 Kings 19:17-19).
Hezekiah knew the other nations’ gods couldn’t help them because they weren’t really gods at all. He asked God to help the people of Judah so that other nations would know He was the one true God. How do you think God responded when He heard that prayer?
The Assyrian army was getting ready to attack the city, but God sent an angel to keep that from happening. The Assyrian soldiers were afraid! The king of Assyria pulled his army out of Judah and went back to his own land. Hezekiah and his army didn’t even have to fight! God won the battle for them!
God was faithful to Hezekiah and the people of Judah, and He is faithful to us.
Maybe there have been hard times in your life when you relied on someone or something other than God to get you through. But God is the only one who can truly help us, and we always need to turn to Him when we’re in trouble!
An important thing to remember is that God knows more than we do. Sometimes it might feel like we’re waiting a really long time for God to answer our prayers, or the answer He gave us isn’t really what we were hoping for. Sometimes He doesn’t give us what we want because He knows it wouldn’t be best for us. But we always need to trust that God is going through those hard times with us, and He is doing what is best for us.
Isaiah 41:10 in your Trailbook says...
Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
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