Learning to Trust (2 Kings 18:9-16)
“Learning to Trust”
2 Kings 18:9-16
Last week in our study of 2 Kings we began studying
One of the truly great kings of the Bible.
His name is Hezekiah.
We called him “The King who Trusted God”
2 Kings 18:5-6 “He trusted in the LORD, 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. For he clung to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses.”
And we even saw some of the tremendous acts of faith
That he showed in his life and reign as king.
But this morning we are going to examine one of his
“not-so-great” moments.
You see the summary of his life is that he did right in the sight of the LORD and that he trusted in the LORD.
When you look back on his life as a whole
That is the overwhelming conclusion that you draw.
But that does not mean that he never made a mistake.
Even Hezekiah needed to learn to trust God.
As humans we are born as fallen sinful creatures
To whom faith in God is not a natural response.
Our faith is something that must first be given to us by God
And then cultivated and grown by God.
And this morning we see an event in which Hezekiah was a failure.
However it would be this failure that would ultimately persuade him
To never take this same road again.
Now you will remember that Hezekiah started out hot.
2 Chronicles 29:3 “In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them.”
He had barely been on the throne any time at all
Before he reopened the temple that his father had closed.
And then, as we studied last week, he reinstituted the Passover.
A Passover that he also invited all of Israel to,
And a Passover that was so successful
The people went a whole extra week in their worship.
And the response of the people after this Passover
Was to go and tear down the high places.
Hezekiah was certainly in agreement for he also went to work removing idols, even that famous relic Moses had made; the bronze snake.
Hezekiah started out extremely hot.
He was a model of conviction, a model of boldness, and a model of faithfulness.
1 Corinthians 10:12 “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”
One of the things we commonly see in Scripture
Is that Satan loves to attack after a great victory.
It is human nature to feel somewhat invincible after a victory
And Satan loves to move in and use that self-confidence against us.
• Noah got off the ark, and then got drunk…
• Moses exited Egypt and then struck the rock…
• Peter confessed Christ and then tried to discourage Him from His mission…
We see it a lot.
And there is no doubt here
That God has allowed Satan to pressure Hezekiah.
It is a form of testing, and ultimately it is a means to grow Hezekiah’s faith
So let’s just work through our text and see one of Hezekiah’s mistakes
and what a pivotal event this would prove to be.
3 points
#1 A DESTROYED NATION
2 Kings 18:9-12
And of course you are familiar with the event
That writer brings to our memory here.
The writer went into greater detail about this event back in chapter 17.
SO WHY MENTION IT AGAIN HERE?
Because the writer wants you to know what sort of things
Were on Hezekiah’s mind when he made his poor decision.
The writer here does remind us of the destruction of Israel,
But he does so first by revealing how it related to Hezekiah.
(9) “Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah…”
For the first four years of Hezekiah’s reign
Has been once success after another.
He was shaping into a great king with a great resume.
And then this event occurred.
Israel was completely destroyed.
No, it wasn’t his nation, but it was still Israel,
And you have to know that seeing your neighbor to the north
And your brother Israelites being totally annihilated
Must have been a rattling experience.
Those northern 10 tribes were God’s chosen people too…
Those northern 10 tribes were also delivered out of Egypt…
Those northern 10 tribes had also been given their land by God…
And yet God allowed them to be completely destroyed by Assyria
And exiled into a foreign land.
And somewhere in the back of their mind must have been the question.
“If God let it happen to them, then why wouldn’t God let it happen to us?”
And so you need to understand the way this would have
Penetrated the hearts of Judah, even the heart of King Hezekiah.
Now, just to maintain accuracy
The writer does want you to know WHY they were destroyed.
(12) “because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed His covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded; they would neither listen nor do it.”
• Israel wasn’t wiped out as a sick joke by God.
• Israel wasn’t wiped out because Assyria’s gods were stronger than the LORD.
• Israel wasn’t wiped out because God didn’t care.
Israel was wiped out because they broke their covenant with God.
They had pledged to be His people.
They had pledged to walk in obedience to Him.
They entered into a covenant (like marriage)
And now they had broken that covenant.
And Moses outlined very severe penalties for breaking that covenant.
Deuteronomy 28:49-52 “The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. “Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish. “It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout your land which the LORD your God has given you.”
Deuteronomy 28:63-66 “It shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. “Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. “Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. “So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life.”
Israel had broken covenant and so they received
The pre-written consequences of such a sin.
I don’t know if Judah fully understand that this was the reason
But the writer of Kings wants to make sure that you and I
Are very clear as to why it happened.
None the less, please realize that this young bold king
Just witnessed 10 of the 12 tribes defeated and carried away.
It’s the kind of thing that definitely sticks in your mind.
And it sort of sets the stage for what we see next.
A Destroyed Nation
#2 A POOR DECISION
2 Kings 18:13-14
So with the fall of Israel in the back of his Hezekiah’s mind
Look at what happens here.
(13) “Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.”
So this is 10 years later, but certainly all the doubt and fear
From watching the northern kingdom fall
Must have rushed right back.
And I just want you to understand the anxiety
That Hezekiah must have been feeling.
They destroyed Israel, can they destroy us?
God let them do it, will He let them do it again?
Certainly such thoughts must have been going through Hezekiah’s mind.
Because now, Assyria is ravaging the nation of Judah
And they are making their way towards Jerusalem.
Assyrian records indicate Sennacherib claiming to have destroyed 46 walled cities in Judah and many other villages.
Certainly all appearances would be that
Assyria is about to do to us what they did to Israel.
And so you understand what he must have been thinking.
BUT LET ME CLARIFY SOME THINGS FOR YOU
1) God was the One who sent Assyria.
Isaiah 8:7-8 “Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates, Even the king of Assyria and all his glory; And it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks. “Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through, It will reach even to the neck; And the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”
Isaiah 10:5-7 “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation, I send it against a godless nation And commission it against the people of My fury To capture booty and to seize plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the streets. Yet it does not so intend, Nor does it plan so in its heart, But rather it is its purpose to destroy And to cut off many nations.”
Isaiah 29:1-4 “Woe, O Ariel, Ariel the city where David once camped! Add year to year, observe your feasts on schedule. I will bring distress to Ariel, And she will be a city of lamenting and mourning; And she will be like an Ariel to me. I will camp against you encircling you, And I will set siegeworks against you, And I will raise up battle towers against you. Then you will be brought low; From the earth you will speak, And from the dust where you are prostrate Your words will come. Your voice will also be like that of a spirit from the ground, And your speech will whisper from the dust.”
And so it is clear that this attack or siege is not the doings of Assyria,
Or even Satan. This attack is the plan of God.
2) God sent them because of Judah’s sin
Isaiah 10:6 “I send it against a godless nation And commission it against the people of My fury To capture booty and to seize plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the streets.”
Isaiah 29:13 “Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,
They were a religious people, but they were a sinful people.
They had torn down the altars on the hills,
But the altars in their hearts still remained.
They were under the impression that by simply going to church occasionally and by making sure they put a little in the plate, that they could keep God satisfied.
God was angry at their sin and in order to punish them
And lead them to repentance, God had sent Assyria.
THE POINT
Judah didn’t need to appease the wrath of Assyria,
Judah needed to appease the wrath of God.
Isaiah 22:5-13 “For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day of panic, subjugation and confusion In the valley of vision, A breaking down of walls And a crying to the mountain. Elam took up the quiver With the chariots, infantry and horsemen; And Kir uncovered the shield. Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots, And the horsemen took up fixed positions at the gate. And He removed the defense of Judah. In that day you depended on the weapons of the house of the forest, And you saw that the breaches In the wall of the city of David were many; And you collected the waters of the lower pool. Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem And tore down houses to fortify the wall. And you made a reservoir between the two walls For the waters of the old pool. But you did not depend on Him who made it, Nor did you take into consideration Him who planned it long ago. Therefore in that day the Lord GOD of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing, To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth. Instead, there is gaiety and gladness, Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, Eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”
God had called Judah to repentance.
God wanted Judah to turn from their sin and be committed to Him.
But they wouldn’t.
In fact Isaiah notes that they even attempted to run to Egypt for help.
Isaiah 30:1-5 “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “Who execute a plan, but not Mine, And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, In order to add sin to sin; Who proceed down to Egypt Without consulting Me, To take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh And to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! “Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame And the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation. “For their princes are at Zoan And their ambassadors arrive at Hanes. “Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them, Who are not for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.”
Isaiah 31:1-3 “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help And rely on horses, And trust in chariots because they are many And in horsemen because they are very strong, But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD! Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster And does not retract His words, But will arise against the house of evildoers And against the help of the workers of iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men and not God, And their horses are flesh and not spirit; So the LORD will stretch out His hand, And he who helps will stumble And he who is helped will fall, And all of them will come to an end together.”
And this is certainly confirmed here in Kings.
2 Kings 18:21 “Now behold, you rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.”
Judah was failing to trust God.
And eventually they just tried to appease Assyria.
(14) “Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, ” I have done wrong. Withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will bear.” So the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.”
And there is that bad decision.
Hezekiah didn’t realize that this whole affair was God’s doing.
He assumed that it was Assyria and that they could not be stopped,
After all it had only been ten years since Israel was destroyed.
Notice his statement.
“I have done wrong”
2 Kings 18:7 “And the LORD was with him; wherever he went he prospered. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.”
And apparently Hezekiah is going back on that decision here.
He is apologizing, he is repenting to Sennacherib.
He then promises submission to him.
“whatever you impose on me I will bear”
Those are the right words, but spoken to the wrong person.
They ought to be spoken to God, not to the king of Assyria.
And the response?
“the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.”
He asked for an enormous amount of money.
AND SO YOU SEE THAT HEZEKIAH’S FAITH HAS FALTERED.
A Destroyed Nation A Poor Decision
#3 A DESPERATE SEARCH
2 Kings 18:15-16
I think we can all agree that this was a desperate search for gold.
In order to meet the king’s demands Hezekiah had to not only empty the temple and his own house, but also he “cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the doorposts which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlayed, and gave it to the king of Assyria.”
He was trying to buy mercy for his people and it came at a great expense.
We should learn that redemption
Is far beyond our ability to purchase.
Psalms 49:7-8 “No man can by any means redeem his brother Or give to God a ransom for him — For the redemption of his soul is costly, And he should cease trying forever”
And so Hezekiah has been surrounded and threatened and intimidated.
Instead of running to God he decided to run to the king of Assyria.
BUT IT WOULDN’T WORK
2 Kings 18:17 “Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army 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.”
If the king of Assyria knows you are so week that you will pay an enormous amount of money, why would he stop at that?
You may remember a similar thing happened to Ahaz, when Ben-Hadad wanted all his children and wives and when Ahaz consented, Ben-Hadad wanted more.
Hezekiah made a decision not to leave it in God’s hands
And it didn’t work.
So first off, I want you to see the futility in not trusting God.
2 Thessalonians 3:3 “But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”
1 Thessalonians 5:24 “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”
Isaiah 43:13 “Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out of My hand I act and who can reverse it?”
The point is that God is absolutely sovereign.
He is in total control.
He can do anything He wants.
And so when we trust Him, we are never at a loss for deliverance.
But when we fail to trust Him, and put our trust in other things,
The result is always worse.
I read you the last part of this verse last week,
Let me back up and read you the first of it.
Jeremiah 17:5-8 “Thus says the LORD, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the LORD. “For he will be like a bush in the desert And will not see when prosperity comes, But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land of salt without inhabitant. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. “For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.”
And Hezekiah is learning that.
Hezekiah will become a rock later in his reign.
So much so that he is remembered as a king who trusted God,
With no king like him before or after.
And it was incidents like this that taught him to trust in God only.
Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
God used this hardship, this trial, this war,
In order to teach Hezekiah the absolute futility
In trusting in anyone but God.
God does this in our lives.
He uses these hard situations, these tests of faith,
In order to teach us the importance of trusting Him.
John 15:1-2 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.”
James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
There we see that God allows the testing of our faith
In order to perfect us.
Hebrews 12:11 “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
The point is that God molds and shapes us in various ways
To be who He desires us to be.
GOD EVEN USES MOMENTS OF FAILURE
TO TEACH US TO TRUST IN HIM EVEN MORE.
JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE HAD A PAST FAILURE,
DOES NOT MEAN YOU CANNOT GO ON TO LIVE A LIFE OF FAITH.
Hezekiah had a real blunder here.
He made the wrong decision.
He failed to seek out and trust God.
But he learned from his mistake and didn’t make it again.
2 Kings 18:17-20 “Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army 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. When they called to the king, 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. Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this confidence that you have? “You say (but they are only empty words), ‘I have counsel and strength for the war.’ Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me?”
We don’t know exactly what he said or did,
But the king of Assyria took it as rebellion.
Hezekiah made a mistake in not trusting God,
But he learned from that mistake
And spent the rest of his life trusting Him.
And the same can be true for you.
Maybe you had a blunder.
A time when you, like Hezekiah,
Caved under the pressure and you failed to trust God.
You aren’t the first.
• Hezekiah sought the help of Egypt and eventually repented to Assyria.
• Peter fled from Jesus in the garden and then denied Him three times.
• John Mark actually deserted Paul on a missionary journey.
• Timothy wanted to quit his church at Ephesus.
• Elijah ran 40 days into the wilderness and asked to die.
And yet all of these men are noted as faithful men of God.
The point is that today you learn from past failures
And determine to trust God from here on out.
And you can still be a man or woman
Known as one who trusted God.
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”
