Did you know that some people live too long! Have you ever known anybody like that? Hezekiah did. He lived too long. As the years go by, you ought to get sweeter but some folk get sour and rotten. I’d like you to look at this. Come over here to second book of Hezekiah 2:1.... Are some of you heading for that?
Well, actually, 2 Kings 20. Let’s try that. You knew there was no book of Hezekiah, didn’t you.. This is our scripture reading. You can see that Hezekiah was very sick and he was going to die. V1 read: “…Put your house in order, because you are going to die..."
So often when we are at the pinnacle of success in our life, suddenly the bottom falls out. Was Hezekiah a good king or a bad king? He was good, one of the better kings they ever had other than David. Hezekiah suddenly got deathly sick. His sickness was so bad the prophet came by to see him. And when the prophet comes to see you, it’s pretty serious. Prophets ought to be encouraging but Isaiah said, "You are going to die." Hezekiah was hesitant about dying. He didn’t want to die. He wanted to live. After all, who wants to die?
He had a tremendous reputation. He got rid of the Baal worship. He was a good king. He cleaned up the kingdom and was a welcome change from his wicked father Ahaz. And now was he gong to die? God was making a mistake here. You know, when you get somebody good, you need to keep him.
If you were to suddenly be diagnosed with cancer and told that it surrounded every organ and it is untreatable,
- How would you feel?
- What would you do?
- Would you need to set your house in order?
- Would there be some spiritual changes you would need to make?
- When the relatives came in to clean up and dispose of your things, what would they find under the bed and in the corner? As they sat looking over your check book would they be startled at your giving records to the Church and charities?
How long does it take to put your house in order? I don’t know. I suppose there’s a death-bed conversion and it wouldn’t take too long.
ILL If you will have the opportunity to visit William Miller’s farm in Hampton, New York, you can see a chapel and behind it is a place called "Ascension Rock." Think about the saints who stood there on October 22, 1844. You know, those saints were ready to ascend to heaven. But do you know what happened on October 23? Those saints that were ready for translation the day before were arguing and bickering and fighting and they were mad at each other. They were mad at the Lord. Ready for translation one day and not the next.
Let’s follow the four "H" in Hezekiah’s journey (after D.Getty’s idea):
1 - HESITANT HEZEKIAH. Hezekiah was hesitant. He did not want to die. "I want to live." Maybe he should have submitted to God’s will. Isaiah 38:2,3 (read). He didn’t want to die. He did not want to accept God’s pronouncement upon him.
I imagine the people around wept as well. They didn’t want to see their good king die. Why would God let the best king in many, many years suddenly die? Obviously premature. Hezekiah was so good. Why him?
ILL. You’ve probably noticed; when two people get in a wreck, a drunk and a Christian, who lives? Who walks away from that wreck? It’s the drunk! And what happens to the Christian? Is he instantly killed or languishes in a nursing home for years? Whys is this? Among all other kids in my home town, my boy became sick and died. Good kid. Smart, obedient… And the bullies and the sickos still around… Why does the Lord make all these mistakes? Why did God let Hezekiah go like that? Does God know what He is doing?
Hezekiah didn’t want to go. He did not submit to God’s will. He was a righteous man and he prayed fervently and when a righteous person prays fervently, what happens? Doe prayer work? Yes!
ILL. We heard of a family; a tragedy happened in their life. Their son was just an upstanding young Christian man. He was looking forward to great things. He attended the church and was an exceptional Christian youth, a model young man.
One day he was on the roof, fixing a lick when... bam! he fall down. His life was in the balance and the doctor came to his parents and said, "I don’t think your son is going to make it." They went home and they called on the elders of the church and everybody banded together and they prayed earnestly, demanding that God would heal the boy.
Do you know what happened? God did heal their son. He was restored back to life very quickly. But soon after that, he left the church he once loved. He got into drugs. One night, he was out with some friends, they stole a sport car and they were in a terrible wreck and he was killed. At the time of the accident he was on drugs and also drunk. It was a tragedy. Apparently he was not prepared to... Why did that happen? I don’t have the answer. But I think we need to be careful when we demand things from God. I think the better situation we should place ourselves in is: "I submit to Your will. Be careful how you demand things of God.
When Isaiah told Hezekiah, "You’re going to die" he did not submit. Not at all. Hezekiah wept bitterly. And what happened? While Isaiah was still in the courtyard he received a message from God for Hezekiah.
Isaiah 38:5-8… (read) That is an amazing statement. Hezekiah did not even have to ask for a sign. God volunteered to give him one.
2- HEALED HEZEKIAH. So, let’s talk about Healed Hezekiah. Let’s leave Hesitant Hezekiah and come over here to his healing. His healing takes place a natural means. Isaiah 38:21. Something natural and… he recovered. God could give him instant healing, but God chose to use natural means and it took 3 days. He gave Hezekiah 3 days before he was healed completely, 3 days in which to think while he stills on his bed, 3 days to plan what he would do with those extra 15 years. Did he do much planning? No…
What happened in Hezekiah’s day? The shadow went backward, 10 degrees! That’s phenomenal. Have you ever seen that happen? Shadows do not have a reverse gear, do they? They don’t go backwards. How did God do it? Did God reverse the rotation of the earth?
Scientists used to think several hundred years ago that God reversed the orbit of the sun. But we know that’s not the case. So, what happened here? Scientists, for year, have doubted the Bible. They think this cannot be. In fact, there weren’t even any sundials in those days, scientists say. But archaeologists, fortunately have discovered the steps of Ahaz and they indeed were in such a way that you could tell the time by those steps that were designed as a sundial. And, not only that, we have records from Babylon that the Babylonian astronomers did indeed observe way over in Babylon the same phenomenon. So it did happen. It was apparently a world-wide sign.
2 Kings 20:12 (read). Babylonian envoys came from the East to see the newly healed king. They came on camels, apparently. They came bearing gifts to the king. Much like the forerunners, perhaps, of the days of Jesus Christ. And do you know why they came? In PK 344, we are told that they came to learn "More of the God who was able to perform so great a wonder," in reversing the direction of the sun. They beat a path to Hezekiah’s door.
Think of the witnessing opportunity here. These great heathen dignitaries from Babylon came to sit at Hezekiah’s feet to learn about his God. Babylon at that time was already becoming a super power. These dignitaries arrive at Hezekiah’s palace and Hezekiah has the opportunity to change the course of world history. He could tell them, "I want to tell you about God. I want to tell you what happened. God can do anything." And they could have gone home, and the entire nation of Babylon could have been converted, and the entire world could have become believers in the true God. That could have happened. It didn’t happen. It was not to be.
3. HAUGHTY HEZEKIAH. So, let’s not talk about Hesitant Hezekiah anymore. Let’s not talk about healed Hezekiah. Let’s talk about arrogant Hezekiah, proud Hezekiah. Babylon would be the next world Superpower. Here they come beating a path to Hezekiah’s door. He has just been healed. What a testimony, what an opportunity of a lifetime he has to tell. He has a once in a lifetime opportunity to give the credit to God. To tell about the true God in Heaven. And what does he do? He blows it.
These seekers of truth to seek God and what does he show them? Look at 2 Kings 20:13.
Hezekiah received the messengers and showed them all that was in:
HIS storehouses --the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine oil
HIS armory and everything found among
HIS treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all
HIS kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.
So, what did he show them? He exalted himself instead of exalting God. These seekers of truth came to see God’s healthy healed prophet and instead he showed them his gold and his silver and his treasures and his defenses. He showed gold to the Babylonians superpower! Is like I got Bill Gates for Bible study and instead of talking about salvation, I show him my old ACER laptop to "impress" him:
- O man, look at this feature, I can do Power Point Presentations. I’ve got all this stuff. Come and look at my cheap PC. Look at what I’ve got." Now, we never do that, do we? You know, when your head swells up your brain stops working...
Hezekiah was haughty. "Look at my shiny house of armor. Look at all this jewelry I’ve accumulated, this collection of stuff." And he told them all about himself, braging. "I did this, I did that." He got out his movies. He showed them his slides, his dazzling treasures. His wife put on a feast showing off her best.
My! I’m glad we are not like Hezekiah! Are we? When company comes over, do you talk about yourself or about how God has blessed you? If God has rescued you from cancer, if God has rescued you from a fire in the home burning down, or bankruptcy, or sinful life or whatever it is… when company comes over, put the magnifying glass on God instead of yourself. Hezekiah’s house was in order but his heart was not in order.
As we read this story in the Bible we must realize how God felt about Hezekiah’s actions. This was a big time sin in God’s sight. Hezekiah sinned. Look at 2 Chronicles. Now again you may say, "Why are we going clear over here? Well, here’s another of the stories of this tremendous experience. So, let’s go to 2 Chronicles 32:25 But Hezekiah’s heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him, therefore the Lord’s wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem.
4. HEZEKIAH’S HERITAGE. Let’s leave hesitant Hezekiah and healed Hezekiah and haughty Hezekiah and let’s go to Hezekiah’s heritage, his future. Let’s fast-forward this story 100 years. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the world. The makers and shakers of the world now lived in Babylon. And, Babylon did indeed remember what they had seen so many years. They remember all that gold and silver things. And, what did they do?
-They invaded Judah and Jerusalem.
-They invaded the temple.
-They invaded the palace.
And they took all of the gold and all of the silver and all those things and hauled them all the way back to Babylon.
You know, if you are given a second chance at life, if you were doomed to death in some accident, fire or wreck or some bad circumstance and God saved you from it, don’t blow the extra bonus years. If God healed you from your heart attack, if He delivered you from your stroke, you use those bonus years in the proper way. If your life was spent in sin and now you regret and you are here praising Him for His salvation, be careful. Don’t spoil your relationship with Him. Don’t use your resources to curse God, but to honor Him. Be a blessing to God. Advance His work. Use your time, use your resources to do something special for God wherever you’re at. You can do it. Wherever you are, put God first in your life.
The wrath did not come in Hezekiah’s day. But the evil seed had been sown. Hezekiah died and was buried. Now let’s leave Hezekiah and go to Jeremiah 15. You might think, "Why are we going over here?" Well, there’s a connection.
I want us to look at the worst person that ever lived that is recorded in the Bible other than the devil. The worst human being to ever live. Who could this be? Well, let’s look at Jeremiah 15. This is Manasseh. Worse than Hitler and Osama bin Laden together… Notice how God was upset with Manasseh. Jeremiah 15:1-(read PP)…
This was a terrible man. Manasseh was the worst king Israel ever had. He ruled 55 years, the longest of any king of God’s people from 696 to 641 BC. He not only encouraged evil but discouraged good. The faithful few that were left were objects of his bitter hatred. Manasseh tried to find success by lowering the standards and uniting with the world. When the church begins to act like the world, dresses like the world, has the same music as the world, the same standards of the world, we are going backwards like Hezekiah’s sundial. It is time for the church to hold a high standard, the standard of Jesus Christ and His salvation.
So we must ask a vital question: Why did God allow Manasseh to be the king? Why did He even want him to be the king? Why did He allow such a wicked man to ever even be born? God makes mistakes, doesn’t He? A lot of mistakes. Or, did He?
Come to 2 Kings 21:1 look carefully at this verse. Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king. How old? 12. And he reigned in Jerusalem 55 years. What if Hezekiah had submitted to Gods will and said, I’ll go ahead and die. I’m not going to moan over this. I’ll get my house in order. OK God, I am ready and confident that some day I wll leave again forever in your kingdom! Hezekiah was Manasseh’s daddy. Manasseh would never have been born. The reason he was born was because Hezekiah refused to submit to God’s will. It is a lesson here…
Do we dare, ever, to pray for our own will to be done? Is it ever appropriate for us to pray for our will to be done? Well, yes, it is. Did Jesus ever do that? Oh, yes He did. How did He pray? He said, "Father, if possible, I don’t want to drink this cup. But, if not, go ahead and give it to me. I will drink it." "Father, I don’t want this cancer. I don’t want this problem. But if You don’t remove it, it’s okay. I’ll submit to it. That’s the position of strength. That’s the position where we need to be.
So, Hezekiah’s sad story ends. But there is one, more shocker here that leaves your mouth hanging open! It’s in 2 Chronicles: 11 (read PP)
You know what? When they put that hook in his nose, the hook woke him up! Old, evil Manasseh woke up, and do you know what happened? This bad man changed.
Verse 12 and onwards says that old evil Manasseh prayed to God and humbled himself. He had a conversion. God rescued him from there and brought him again to Jerusalem and there he became a reformer for God. He got rid of the idols, He got rid of Baal worship. He stopped the child sacrifice. He stopped the witchcraft. And he apparently led a fantastic reform for the Lord. And, apparently when you get to heaven you’re going to meet Manasseh. That is amazing.
Now, if Manasseh can be saved, can you be saved? Yes you can. Can you be saved, doing those things to dishonor the Lord like Manasseh was? NO, you’ve got to have a change of heart. You’ve got to have a conversion. You’ve got to repent. You’ve got to seek Jesus and have that relationship with Jesus Christ, but you can get it. You can. It doesn’t matter how bad your past has been. If you want to be saved, you can turn to Jesus today, receive Him as your Savior, and you’re going to be in heaven. That’s how this works. If Manasseh can make it to heaven, there is hope for us. If you wake up! If you repent of your evil ways? If your house is in order. If Jesus Christ is your Savior you can be saved. He did it.
We’re going to meet him in heaven, and he’s probably going to say, "For fifty-five years I blew it. But I ended up on top by the grace of Jesus Christ. And you can end on top by God’s grace.
Invitation: "Thy will be done"…. Now and forever.
(Thanks D.G.)
