Chanikuzhy

Once, there lived a king who concealed a book on medicine so that people would pray to God for healing rather than rely on medical procedures. When the king himself fell gravely ill, he sent for a prophet to pray for him. The prophet prayed and foretold that the king would die, advising him to settle his household affairs in view of his imminent death. However, the king had such deep trust in God that he prayed fervently with tears for his own healing. Moved by his prayers, God extended his life by 15 years! This king was Hezekiah, and the prophet was Isaiah. This remarkable healing is recorded in 2 Kings 20:1-7.

King Hezekiah is portrayed in the Bible as a shining example of trusting in God. He was the thirteenth king of Judah, and his faith in God is celebrated in these extraordinary words: “He trusted in the Lord …; so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah after him, or among those who were before him.” His attachment to God was compared to Solomon’s attachment to his wives. Some contemporaries even viewed Hezekiah as a potential Messiah.

Hezekiah’s faithfulness to Yahweh surpassed his loyalty to his own father. He destroyed the altars of pagan gods erected by his father, King Ahaz. His zeal for learning, teaching, and following the Torah (the Law of God) was unparalleled. According to rabbinic tradition, he decreed under penalty of death that all Jewish boys and girls should learn the Torah. To emphasize the seriousness of this mandate, he placed a sword at the entrance of every Torah school. It is said that during his reign, no Jewish child remained ignorant of the Torah.

Demolition of Nehushtan, the bronze serpent raised by Moses (Numbers 21:4-9)rs ), is praised by the rabbis as one of the most radical and remarkable reforms of King Hezekiah. In fact, the bronze serpent was raised by Moses himself and that too, according to the divine command, for the healing of the people. But later this object became an idol, and people began offering sacrifices and prayers to it for healing. When a traditional object occupied the place of God himself, King Hezekiah had the wisdom to discern the misplaced devotion and took steps to stop it. King Hezekiah leads us to the insight that the traditions are to be understood in their contexts and they need not be perennially carried on however honourable and sacred their origins are, and are to be stopped at all costs when they are adhered to with more zeal and vigour that we owe to God himself. Of course, many of his subjects must have been shocked by his reforms and would have objected to his kingship. But his trust in God far exceeded his trust in the idolatrous people.

When it came to politics and military might, could trust in God suffice for a king?  Trusting in Yahweh, King Hezekiah rebelled against the pagan Assyrian king. Consequently, King Sennacherib of Assyria captured several cities of Judah. King Hezakiah had to apologize and to pay a heavy ransom to save his kingdom. He had to empty the temple and the royal treasuries of silver and he even had to strip the temple doors and door posts of their golden covering to pay the demand of Sennacherib. The wicked Assyrian king was not appeased by all these and he sent his generals to Jerusalem to publicly blaspheme Yahweh and humiliate King Hezekiah. Helpless against Sennacherib’s vast army, Hezekiah went to the temple and poured out his grief and anxiety before God. The story unfolds: “That very night the angel of the Lord set out and struck down 185,000 in the Assyrian camp; when morning dawned, they were all dead bodies. Then King Sennacherib of Assyria left, went home…” (2 Kings 19:35-36). Historians like Josephus suggest that what the Bible attributes to the angel of the Lord was likely a deadly plague that devastated the Assyrian camp. Upon returning home, Sennacherib was assassinated by his own sons.

When the principle “might is right” governs, those who trust in God may face humiliation, loss, and oppression. Yet, Hezekiah’s story assures us that insolent might will ultimately meet its downfall.