As I have stated several times in the past, to learn what a nation’s future will be like one needs to 1) study the past, 2) draw a line to the present, then 3) follow the line on into the future, remembering that the speed of change picks up speed over time.  This formula has worked perfectly throughout the past and will do so in the future–unless the pattern is broken by a national turn from the direction it is going.  People make up a nation.  A nation goes in the direction its people take it.  And as I have written before: AS GOES THE SPIRITUAL, SO GOES THE NATIONAL.  A nation’s past and present reflects its spiritual condition.  The future will be no different.  An excellent example of this phenomenon is found in 2 Kings chapters 18,19 in which the nation of Judah is highlighted, particularly its king, Hezekiah.  As will be pointed out, the past bleeds into the present, which determines the future–for good or ill.

One will notice that Israel is divided into two separate nations.  To understand the existence of two kingdoms instead of one, a short history lesson is in order.  Two tribes–Judah, Benjamin–located in Judea, became known as “Judahites” after the other ten tribes broke away from them over a taxation issue.  The other ten tribes, located in Samaria and called “Israel,” would eventually be defeated by Assyria and scattered throughout the world.  Note that the focal narrative takes place several years after the national split but before Israel had been defeated, enslaved as described in chapter 17.

In chapter 18, beginning with verse three, we learn that Hezekiah, king of Judah (nicknamed “Jews” by King James translators) “did what was right in the sight of the Lord” by ridding the nation of heathenism and pointing the people back to Him.  Israel–the other tribes–had departed from the Lord (17:2), which would soon bring about her defeat and enslavement.  The focal narrative takes place shortly before this happened.

We are told that Hezekiah trusted in the Lord God, clung to Him and kept His commandments.  “And the Lord was with him and caused him to prosper in whatever he did” (vss 5-8).  One of the things he did was to stop serving (paying protection money to) the king of Assyria, which his predecessor had done (Ch. 16).

By this time the tribe of Levi had returned to Judea and, along with Benjamin and Judah, formed the Judahite nation.  Today these people are known globally as “Jews.”  In verses 9-12 we read that Israel (10 northern tribes in Samaria) were defeated by the king of Assyria because they would not obey God’s commandments.  They would later be scattered throughout the world as had been prophesied many years earlier.  In other places we learn that God Himself sent the Assyrians to defeat and enslave Israel.  Later He would send Babylon to defeat and enslave the Jews.  We are the biological and spiritual descendants of the 12 Israelite tribes.  Both they and we were established to be God’s “light on a hill.”  We both failed miserably.   God is no respecter of persons.  What one sows, one reaps.  We have personally and nationally sown the wind and are beginning to reap the whirlwind, the full force of which is Biblically called the “Great Tribulation.”  This means that nations of Israel (the U.S., Great Britain and the Jews of the Middle East) will be militarily defeated and enslaved by heathen nations whom GOD WILL SEND AS HIS INSTRUMENTS OF WRATH ON REBELLIOUS ISRAELITES AND GENTILES.  And yet, day after day, year after year, decade after decade we continue to stagger forward in a zombie-like search of the solution to whatever happens to be the current God-sent problem.  And as soon as we get find a solution, another one will appear on the horizon.  Why?  REBELLION AGAINST GOD’S LAW–as our ancestors warned us in God’s Word (1 Cor. 10:11).  And we still don’t believe His message.

Due to Hezekiah’s faith in and obedience to the Lord, verses 13-16 seem totally out of character and come as a shock to those who do not know Israel’s history.  How could one who began so positively find himself in such a predicament?  But let us remember that Peter walked on water for quite a distance.  Recall that Jesus was so far away from the boat that the disciples could not identify Him.  Peter walked all that distance, THEN WENT UNDER.  Why?  HE LOST HIS FAITH.  We will find that Hezekiah suffered from the same faith failure.

Incredibly, we have a once-faithful king bowing in fear before his, and God’s enemy.  The leader of God’s chosen people was not only bowing in total submission before a heathen potentate, but was promising to give him everything of value in God’s Temple, including the gold and other treasures.  HE GAVE TO THE HEATHEN KING WHAT BELONGED TO GOD.  Hezekiah’s actions revealed that he was in mortal fear of the Assyrian king.  Fear is simply a lack of faith in God.  HEZEKIAH NO LONGER TRUSTED GOD TO PROTECT HIM AND THE PEOPLE OF JUDAH.  His sudden lack of faith caused him to bow to the Assyrian king, telling him that Judah would give him whatever he wanted if he would not attack her.  The Assyrian king ordered Hezekiah to give him 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold.  A talent equals 75 pounds.  In order to pay the protection money, Hezekiah had to strip the gold off the doors and pillars of the Temple (vss 14-16)–God’s temple.

People who do not obey God today are unknowingly following in Hezekiah’s faithless footsteps.  They are actually bribing Satan not to hurt them.  Therefore God is pouring out HIS wrath on them in all manner of ways–COVID 19 being one example of punishment He is today leveling on rebellious man.  The Delta variant is only one form His wrath is currently taking.  He is also burning down the business districts of many cities.  People are being shot, many of them killed, in record numbers.  Drug addiction is souring.  Lawlessness is at a record high while people call for the defunding of the police.  Truly, insanity has gripped millions of minds.  Freedoms are being stripped from people’s lives.  Fire and flooding are ravaging much of the country.  Drought is affecting much of the nation’s farmland.  America has just experienced record cold in the south and record heat in the north.  GOD IS SPEAKING TO THE HEZEKIAHS OF THIS WORLD IN THESE DAYS, telling them that making a deal with the devil will not protect them from the Him.  Instead, obedience to Satan will prompt Him (God) to send even more “woes” upon 2.3 billion Sinners Saved By Grace.  In spite of God’s continuous teaching sessions (woes), the lesson of Hezekiah continues to be ignored.  In the following posting we will see how the king handled the situation as it grew progressively worse.  Lessons are being taught.  Hopefully they are being learned.  L.J.