The Book of 2 Kings

Word Study

"Nehushtan," Hebrew Nechushtan (נְחֻשְׁתָּן), "a piece of bronze." After the wickedness of his father Ahaz, Hezekiah is a burst of light: "he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did." Unlike every good king before him, he actually "removed the high places", the compromise none had dared to touch, and he broke the images and groves. Most striking, he "brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made." That serpent, lifted up in the wilderness for Israel's healing (Numbers 21:9), was a genuine God-given relic, yet the people had turned it into an idol, burning incense to it. Hezekiah contemptuously renamed it "Nehushtan", just "a piece of bronze", and destroyed it. Here is a vital lesson: even a good thing, a true relic of God's mercy, becomes an idol when it is venerated in place of God, and must be torn down. Sacred history and holy objects are not to be worshipped; God alone is.

"he trusted," Hebrew batach (בָּטַח). The heart of Hezekiah's greatness is stated plainly: "He trusted (batach) in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him." His supreme quality was trust, wholehearted reliance on God; "he clave to the LORD, and departed not." And the fruit followed: "the LORD was with him; and he prospered." Of Josiah it would be said he kept the law like no other (23:25); of Hezekiah, that he trusted like no other. Trust is the root of a godly life, and it is exactly this trust that Assyria will now assault.

Explanation

Hezekiah became king of Judah and proved one of its greatest, doing right like David. He carried out sweeping reforms that even good kings before him had left undone: he removed the high places, smashed the sacred pillars and Asherah poles, and destroyed the bronze serpent Moses had made, because the people had turned it into an idol, dismissing it as mere bronze ("Nehushtan"). His defining trait was trust in the LORD, unmatched among Judah's kings; he clung to God and kept His commandments, and God was with him and prospered him. He successfully rebelled against Assyrian domination and defeated the Philistines. His reign began in wholehearted devotion and reliance on God.

Gospel Focus

Hezekiah's greatness was his trust: "He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him." Not his reforms, his victories, or his zeal, but his reliance on God is what Scripture holds up. This is the heart of true faith and the very thing the gospel calls for: "trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5). And notice his boldness in tearing down even the bronze serpent. That serpent had been a real means of God's grace, lifted up for healing, the very object Jesus said pointed to His own cross: "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up" (John 3:14). Yet when the people worshipped the relic instead of the God behind it, Hezekiah smashed it. Here is a searching lesson: even the good things God has given, traditions, experiences, holy objects, blessings, can become idols when we cling to them instead of to God Himself. What God gave to point us to Him must never be put in His place; the sign is not the Saviour. Hold nothing sacred but the LORD Himself. Trust Him, not your relics, not your religion, not even your memories of His grace, but the living God to whom they all point, made known to us in Jesus Christ.

Word Study

"I have offended; return from me," a lapse in the walk of a trusting man. The narrator reminds us of Samaria's fall and, once more, its cause: "because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant." That stands as the dark backdrop against which Hezekiah's Judah now faces the same Assyrian threat. Sennacherib sweeps in and takes "all the fenced cities of Judah." And here we see even a great man of faith falter: Hezekiah, instead of trusting God as his reforms had shown he could, sends to Assyria, "I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear," and strips the temple, even the gold he himself had overlaid on its doors, to pay a crushing tribute. This is a low moment, the same mistake his father Ahaz made, buying off the enemy with the treasures of God's house. Even the man of whom it was said "he trusted in the LORD... none like him" had a lapse of faith under pressure. It is a comfort and a caution: the best of saints stumble, and no tribute can finally satisfy a devouring enemy (Sennacherib took the silver and came against Jerusalem anyway). Trust in God is not a single achievement but a daily battle, and Hezekiah, having faltered, would soon be driven back to the God he had momentarily tried to appease with money. The failed bribe sets the stage for the true test, and the true deliverance, to come. When our own schemes fail us, God often brings us back to the only refuge that never fails: Himself.

Explanation

The narrator recalls the fall of Samaria in Hezekiah's early years, again attributing it to Israel's disobedience to God's covenant. Then, in Hezekiah's fourteenth year, Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah and captured its fortified cities. Hezekiah, at first, responded not with faith but with appeasement: he confessed "I have offended" and agreed to pay whatever tribute Assyria demanded, three hundred talents of silver and thirty of gold. To raise it, he emptied the temple and palace treasuries and even stripped the gold he had put on the temple doors. Yet this costly submission would not buy safety, for Assyria pressed on toward Jerusalem. Even the trusting Hezekiah stumbled under pressure before being driven back to reliance on God.

Gospel Focus

Even Hezekiah, "who trusted in the LORD... none like him," faltered under pressure, trying to buy off Assyria with the treasures of God's house rather than trusting God to deliver. It is a tender comfort to every struggling believer: the greatest saints have their lapses, and a single failure does not cancel a life of faith. "A just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again" (Proverbs 24:16). But it is also a caution: our schemes and bribes never finally satisfy the enemy; Sennacherib took the gold and marched on Jerusalem anyway. Sin and the accuser are like that, they take our appeasements and demand still more; there is no buying peace with them. The lesson is that partial trust and human strategy fail, and drive us at last to God alone. Often it is only when our own solutions collapse that we return to the refuge we should have run to first. Do not, in the day of pressure, strip God's house to bribe your enemy; run to God Himself. Hezekiah's failure was not the end of his story, and your stumble need not be the end of yours. Rise again, and return to the God who alone can deliver, the God who gave His Son that we might have a refuge that never fails.

Word Study

"What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?" Hebrew bittachon (בִּטָּחוֹן), confidence, trust; the word Rabshakeh hammers again and again. Assyria sends a great army and three officials, chief among them the "Rabshakeh" (a title, the chief cupbearer or field commander), who delivers a masterpiece of psychological warfare aimed at one target: Judah's trust. The word "trust" (batach) rings through his speech like a drumbeat, for he knows that Hezekiah's whole strength is his trust in the LORD, and if he can break that trust, the city falls. His attack is many-pronged and deeply cunning. He mocks any hope in Egypt as "a bruised reed" that pierces the hand that leans on it (true enough). He twists Hezekiah's reforms, claiming that by removing the high places Hezekiah had offended the very God he trusted (a clever lie, for those altars were idolatrous). He blasphemously claims the LORD sent him to destroy Jerusalem. Refused a private parley, he shouts in Hebrew "in the Jews' language" over the officials' heads directly to the people on the wall, trying to undermine their confidence in the king and, worst of all, in God: "Let not Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD." He offers them ease and comfort if they surrender, the tempter's classic bargain. And he commits the ultimate blasphemy, ranking the LORD among the impotent gods of the nations: "Who are they among all the gods... that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?" This is Satan's strategy in every age: to undermine faith by mixing lies with half-truths, to offer comfort for compromise, and above all to whisper that God cannot or will not deliver. The people's response is instructive: "they held their peace, and answered him not a word", sometimes the wisest reply to the mocker and the tempter is silence, refusing to argue, and taking the matter, as Hezekiah will, straight to God.

Explanation

Despite the tribute, Sennacherib sent a large army and his officials, led by the Rabshakeh (field commander), to demand Jerusalem's surrender. Standing before the wall, the Rabshakeh delivered a cunning, intimidating speech to Hezekiah's representatives. He ridiculed any trust in Egypt as leaning on a splintering reed, twisted Hezekiah's removal of the high places into an offense against God, and claimed the LORD Himself had sent Assyria to destroy Judah. When asked to speak privately in Aramaic rather than Hebrew, he deliberately shouted in Hebrew to the people on the wall, urging them not to trust Hezekiah or the LORD, promising them comfort if they surrendered, and blasphemously listing the LORD among the powerless gods of nations Assyria had already conquered. The people, under orders, stayed silent, and Hezekiah's officials returned with torn clothes to report the blasphemy.

Gospel Focus

Rabshakeh is a vivid picture of the great enemy of our souls, and his assault on Judah's trust is the assault the tempter makes on every believer. Notice his tactics, for they are timeless. He attacks our confidence: "What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?", the same doubt-sowing whisper as "Yea, hath God said?" (Genesis 3:1). He mixes truth with lies, agreeing that Egypt is a bruised reed while lying that God is against us. He offers comfort for compromise, "make an agreement with me... eat every man of his own vine", the world's bargain of ease in exchange for surrender. And above all he tries to destroy trust in God: "Let not Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD." That is always the enemy's deepest aim, to make us doubt that God can or will deliver. How do we stand? As the people did, refusing to argue with the mocker, "they held their peace," and, as the next chapter shows, taking the blasphemer's words straight to God in prayer. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7); "above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked" (Ephesians 6:16). When the accuser roars that God will not save you, do not debate him; hold your peace, hold fast your trust, and spread his taunts before the Lord, who is mightier than every Assyria and every lie.