2 Kings 16–20: Captivity, Prayer & Pride

Adversity, Courage, Evil, Faith, God, Judgment, Perilous Times, Prayer, Read the Bible in 2023, Repentance, Sin, SufferingLeave a comment

Read the Bible in 2023 ◊ Week 30: Tuesday

In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and took Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
2 Kings 17:6 LSB
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Tuesday’s Bible reading is 2 Kings 16–20. Chapter 16 is the history of Ahaz, king of Judah, who “did not do what was right in the sight of Yahweh his God, as David his father had done.” Chapter 17 switches to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, its last king, Hoshea, and the Assyrian conquest of Israel and her captivity. The long list of the horror of the sins of Isreal tells us the why of their judgment by God:

Yet Yahweh warned Israel and Judah by the hand of all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by the hand of My slaves the prophets.”
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However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in Yahweh their God. They also rejected His statutes and His covenant which He cut with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which Yahweh had commanded them not to do like them.
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And they forsook all the commandments of Yahweh their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and omens, and sold themselves to do what is evil in the sight of Yahweh, provoking Him to anger.
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So Yahweh was very angry with Israel and caused them to depart from His presence; none was left except the tribe of Judah alone.
2 Kings 17:13–18 LSB
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Chapters 18 goes back to Judah with the reign of Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz. Quite a lot is written about him in the Bible. His life is also recorded in 2 Chronicles 29–32 and Isaiah 36–39. Hezekiah was a king who made a strong start as we’re told he removed the high places1 and destroyed the idols in Judah. Scripture gives this accolade to him.

He trusted in Yahweh, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.
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So he clung to Yahweh; he did not turn away from following Him, but kept His commandments, which Yahweh had commanded Moses.
2 Kings 18:5–6 LSB
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After taking Israel into exile, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, invades Judah and captures its fortified cities. He sends his emissaries to Hezekiah in Jerusalem.

Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a heavy military force to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the fuller’s field. Then they called to the king, and Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to them.
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Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this trust that you have?”’”
2 Kings 18:17–19 LSB
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The assault of the Assyrians on Judah and Hezekiah’s response and prayer is one of the great accounts of trust in God and His deliverance in the Old Testament. It is a dramatic and thrilling record of God’s deliverance. In his multiple efforts to intimidate and demoralize Hezekiah and the Judeans, Rabshakeh taunts him and goes on to deride God and blaspheme against Him.

Rabshakeh sends messengers to Hezekiah in chapter 19:

“Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be delivered? Did the gods of those nations which my fathers brought to ruin deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”
2 Kings 19:10–13 LSB
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And with the threat of destruction upon him and his people, Hezekiah goes to God in desperate need and prays.

Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and spread it out before Yahweh.
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And Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
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Incline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; open Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God.
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Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have put their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.
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But now, O Yahweh our God, I pray, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Yahweh, are God.”
2 Kings 19:14–19 LSB
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Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.’”
2 Kings 19:20 LSB
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That night the angel of Yahweh strikes down 185,000 in the Assyrianss camp. In June 2024, it was reported that archaeologist Stephen Compton believes he has found the site of the ancient camp of King Sennacherib.

Chapter 20 gives us the details of God’s healing of Hezekiah of a mortal illness. This chapter also recounts Hezekiah’s pride before an envoy of Babylon (cf. 2 Chronicles 32:25 ff. and Isaiah 39).

2 Chronicles has these sad words:

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.
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However, Hezekiah humbled the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of Yahweh did not come on them in the days of Hezekiah.
2 Chronicles 32:25–26 LSB
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The prophet Isaiah tells Hezekiah of the coming captivity of Judah by Babylon. The chapter closes with the death of Hezekiah, and his son, Manasseh, becoming the new king.

Israel is a study of flagrant rebellion against God. Its history serves as a warning. Hezekiah’s is a record of a man who began strong and trusted God in the midst of adversity. His life is a great encouragement to us to turn to God and trust Him with our needs, seeking His help. Hezekiah’s pride before the Babylonians reminds us of what a pitfall pride is and to guard against it. Spend time thinking about these chapters. Pray and ask God to help you seek Him and trust Him with your greatest needs in your times of adversity. Ask Him to help you in your times of peace to remember Him, recognize His gifts to you, and to have a humble heart of gratitude before Him.

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Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
King Hezekiah, clothed in sackcloth, spreads open the letter before the Lord: The story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation: 1873. Public Domain.
El Rey Ezequías haciendo ostentación de sus riquezas ante los legados del rey de Babilonia ( Hezekiah showing off his wealth to envoys of the Babylonian king): Vicente López Portaña. Public Domain.
1“The ‘high place’ was a shrine in use in Canaan before the Israelites came into the land. Later the high places were used by the Israelites, often with opposition from the prophets.” William Sanford LaSor, “1 and 2 Kings,” The New Bible Commentary: Revised, D. Guthrie, J. A. Motyer, eds., A. M. Stibbs, D. J. Wiseman, contributing eds., (Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove IL: 1970) 326.
See also my post on Isaiah’s account of Hezekiah: Isaiah 34–39: Faith & Flattery.

I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.

Copyright ©2011–2023 Iwana Carpenter

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