There is a common saying about people who fall from high positions, the person “… can’t handle success.”  Something happens to them that causes them to “push the envelop,” to forget how they got to where they are and to whom they owe gratitude.  Hezekiah was one of those people.  In 2 Kings 18:1-8 we are told how he had embraced the ways of the Lord and how He had blessed him and made everything he did to prosper BECAUSE HE OBEYED HIM.  One of the things Hezekiah did was to stop paying protection money to Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria.  The powerful king had done nothing about it because he could see that the Lord was with Hezekiah and Judah.

Earlier, Assyria had attacked, defeated and enslaved the nine tribes of Israel and had forced the three tribes of Judah to pay tribute to him (the tribe of Levi had returned to Judea from Samaria).  Both houses of Israel had sinned against the Lord, Israel (Samaria) having sinned much more than Judah (vs 12).  Upon Hezekiah’s ascension to the throne in Judah he had reversed the spiritual course of the tiny nation and had stopped paying Assyria,  Now the powerful nation was being ruled by a new king–Sennacherib.  During this time Hezekiah had lost his connection with God.  The new king, seeing Hezekiah’s spiritual failings, attacked the outer cities of the kingdom and captured them.  Hezekiah’s response to the invasion showed how far he had separated from the lord.

In verses 14-16 we are told that he wrote to Sennacherib, saying that he was sorry that he had offended the Assyrian king, that he would pay the king whatever he demanded.  Sennacherib ordered him to pay 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold.  Hezekiah had to strip the Temple of the Lord in order to make the payment (vss 14-16).  How far this king who had conquered the Philistines (vs 8) had fallen had become evident.  But there was more humiliation to come.  The King had undoubtedly stopped reading Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.

To show his distain for Judah and Judah’s God, Sennacherib, having received the gold and silver from the Lord’s Temple, then declared war on Judah, warning them that they stood no chance against Assyria, that no god, not even Judah’s God, could save them from annihilation (17-35).

At this point Eliakim, Hilkiah and Joah went to King Hezekiah and explained to him the reality of the situation.  The specter of death has a way of focusing one’s attention.  Hezekiah’s attention became focused, for the first time in a long time, on the Lord–sort of.  Knowing that he no longer had any pull with God, he sent Eliakim, Shebna and the elders of the priests to the one man who did have power with God–the Prophet Isaiah.  Their message from Hezekiah revealed the depth of fear the king was feeling.  He told Isaiah that Sennacherib had reproached the living God, blasphemed and rebuked Him (19:3).  Then Hezekiah revealed how far he had wandered from God when he asked Isaiah to ask “YOUR (Isaiah’s) God” for help.  He reminded the prophet that “YOUR God” had also heard the words spoken about Him by the Assyrians.  Then he asked ISAIAH to pray for the nation.  Note that the king did not dare refer to God as HIS God, knowing that his sins had separated him from his former God.  Note also that Hezekiah did not bother to pray, knowing that his prayers would not be heard.  Remember that this was the man who had obeyed God in the past, had been one with Him and had received many blessings from Him.  Now he was alone because he had gone the way of his Israelite brethren who had been defeated and enslaved, “Because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His commandments and would neither hear them nor obey them” (18:12).

Having heard from the Lord, Isaiah told the messengers to tell Hezekiah not to fear the Assyrian king, that He would take care of everything, and that Sennacherib would die by the sword in his own land in its capital of Nineveh.  Specifically, he died while praying in the temple of his god Nisroch, at the hands of his own sons.  Also, God sent an angel who killed 180,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night.  Truly, “It is a fearsome thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31).

In chapter 20 we find God coming to Hezekiah’s rescue once again.  Having been told by Isaiah that he was about to die, the king threw himself on the Lord’s mercy and begged for more time.  God added 15 years to his life and gave him protection from invaders.  When told this, HE ASKED FOR A SIGN that would prove that Isaiah had heard from God.  Let us look at what has happened.  God had blessed Hezekiah greatly in the past.  He had delivered him and his nation from sure defeat and enslavement.  He had then added 15 years to the king’s life and the promise of future peace.  AND NOW HEZEKIAH REQUIRES A SIGN TO KNOW IF HE CAN TRUST THE ONE WHO HAS DONE SO MUCH FOR HIM, MUCH OF IT PROPHESIED BY ISAIAH.  The Lord gave him a sign.

Then Hezekiah again turned from the Lord, this time his PRIDE took him down.  When leaders from Babylon learned that he had been sick they came to Jerusalem, seemingly “to pay their respects.”  Hezekiah, puffed up by attention paid him by these foreign leaders who have come from afar to honor him, showed them all of his personal silver, gold, armor, precious ointments in his personal treasury and told them about that over which he had dominion.  When they left, Isaiah asked him what he had shown them.  Hezekiah told him.  Then the prophet said to him: “Behold, the days come that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store to this day shall be carried off to Babylon.”  He added that Hezekiah’s sons would become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.  Everything happened exactly as Isaiah prophesied.  Following their defeat and captivity, the Jews would remain in Babylon for 70 years.  Hezekiah, like Solomon, began by earning God’s favor– and ended by earning His wrath.  Why?  SIN.  Success can be a deadly mistress; some cannot handle her.  Let’s not forget who is the master of that mistress.  NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF SATAN.   L.J.