Dealing with Deterrents

2 Kings 18

Introduction: I doubt any (many) of you know these names: Elah, Zimri, Tibni, Ahizah, Athaliah, Shallum.  That just a few of the evil kings of Israel. The names of the evil kings of Israel or Judah are not exactly household names.  In fact, if you think really hard you can probably only come up with the name of only one evil king – but we’ll come back to that later.   But these you’ve probably heard of: Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jotham, Hezikiah, Josiah. 

Good kings.   If we were judging we’d use all sorts of algorithms to determine: was the country at peace or war? did it expand the territories? how about personal wealth – did it increase or decrease?  But God uses one metric and only one metric: “he did what was pleasing in the sight of the Lord.”  Only ONE thing made them a good king! They feared the Lord! And the same was true for the measure of an evil king: “ he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”  By the way that is the same for your life.

Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah were good kings. Scripture tells us all three “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” Rehoboam, Manasseh and for that matter most of the other kings were bad kings and Scripture tells us each “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”

Seven lessons from that period:

1. God is always right! Before we go forward let’s go back to when it began: Here is what God said would happen if they got a king: “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.  He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants.  He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants.  He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men[a] and your donkeys, and put them to his work.  He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.  And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” (1 Samuel 8:11-18). And over the next several hundred years that is exactly what happened!

The Book of Kings originally one book in the Hebrew Bible, cover the history of the Israelite monarchy from the end of King David’s reign to the Babylonian exile. They detail the reigns of Solomon, the subsequent division of the kingdom into Israel and Judah, and the eventual fall of both kingdoms due to persistent idolatry and disobedience to God. The books also highlight the roles of prophets like Elijah and Elisha in confronting the kings and calling the people back to God.

The History of the people of Israel was a constant up and down depending on primarily the leadership of the particular king that was ruling.

I want us to look a little deeper into one of those good kings.

Hezekiah –  Hezekiah (/ˌhɛzɪˈkaɪ.ə/; Biblical
Hebrew: חִזְקִיָּהוּ‎, romanized: Ḥizqiyyāhū), or Ezekias^[c] (born c. 741 BC, sole ruler c. 716/15–687/86),

• was the son of Ahaz and the thirteenth king of Judah according to the Hebrew Bible.^[2] 
• He is described as “the best-attested figure in biblical history,”^[3] due to the extensive documentation of his reign in biblical texts and external sources (notably Assyrian inscriptions).
• His reign was marked by his significant religious reforms and his revolt against the Assyrian Empire. He witnessed the destruction of the northern Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians under Sargon II in c. 722 BC and later faced the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem by King Sennacherib in 701 BCE.^[4]

There were kings after the kingdom was divided between the norther kingdom  (which retained the name Israel, and the Southern Kingdom was called Judah.

2 Kings 18:1ff ‘Hezekiah son of Ahaz began to rule over Judah in the third year of King Hoshea’s reign in Israel. (NLT)

1. Hezekiah did what was right and pleasing to the Lord.

Right = straight, upright, correct, straightforward, just, fitting and proper.

Application: This is what should be our goal, purpose and pursuit!

Question: What were some of the Actions that Hezekiah performed / undertook that were God pleasing?

1. Hezekiah dealt with the Idolatry! – 2 Kings 18: 4

• Removed the High places
  
  
• High places, very simply, were places of worship on elevated pieces of ground. High places were originally dedicated to idol worship (Numbers 33:52; Leviticus 26:30), especially among the Moabites (Isaiah 16:12).
• These shrines often included an altar and a sacred object such as a stone pillar or wooden pole in various shapes identified with the object of worship (animals, constellations, goddesses, and fertility deities).
• It seems that, at times, high places were set up in a spot that had been artificially elevated; 2 Kings 16:4 seems to differentiate the “high places” from the “hills.”

Molech

Application: I can justify the thought that high places are anything we put above God and anything that we ‘worship’ (things, people, etc., that we love and give credit to outside of God.

Application: Pastor, I don’t sing songs, or kneel down to ‘worship’ other things.

Worshiping earthly things, or idolatry, involves prioritizing things of this world over spiritual or divine matters. It can manifest as excessive attachment to material possessions, status, or worldly desires, essentially putting them in place of God or a higher power. 

Transition: The second idolatrous symbol was what the Bible described as ‘sacred pillars.’

• Smashed / Broke the sacred pillars
  
  

In roughly 721 BC, Israel was defeated and taken into exile by the kingdom of Assyria (2 Kings 17:6). The writer explains why this happened in 2 Kings 17:7–18. Israel had sinned against God and turned to other gods (2 Kings 17:7). The people began to follow the customs of other nations rather than those God had put in place for them (2 Kings 17:8). They also sinned secretly against God. It seems they were even trying to make it appear they were following God (2 Kings 17:9). The Israelites had abandoned what God designed for them.

Instead of being faithful with the task of holiness, the people of Israel wanted to be like the other nations around them, so they stopped loving and worshiping God, and they failed to obey what He had instructed them to do.

They chose to adopt the customs and worship systems of other peoples. They even built sacred pillars as were used in the worship of these false gods. Of course, there was nothing wrong with constructing pillars, but these sacred pillars located and supported places of worship of false gods.

The Temple was the place designated for worship, not ‘high places’ with sacred pillars.

Scripture:

We want a king like the other nations.

As for me and my house, we will worship the Lord.

Question: What might we consider modern day pillars? Things, objects? Homes, Cars, Riches/wealth, Success, Influence,  etc…

Spiritual Warfare – Tearing down

Application: We need to break any sacred pillars we may have established in our lives.

Transition: The third thing Hezekiah did was Cut Down the Asherah poles.

• Cut down the Asherah poles.

Asherah poles were sacred objects associated with the worship of the goddess Asherah in ancient Canaanite and Israelite religions. These poles, likely wooden or stylized trees, were erected near altars or high places and are frequently mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as objects of idolatrous worship. While the exact nature of the poles is debated, they are generally understood to represent the goddess Asherah, who was associated with fertility, motherhood, and the natural world.

Asherah was a major goddess in the ancient Near East, particularly in Canaanite religion, often associated with fertility, motherhood, and sexuality.

These were ‘obscene’ images. The “obscene image of Asherah” refers to a cult object associated with the goddess Asherah, possibly a stylized tree or a phallic emblem (genitalia).

Application: We need to deal with any and all perverse sexual activity and worldly, sensual, footholds or strongholds.

Pornography – ‘Soft Porn’, ‘Hard Porn’

Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal.

Application: Almost everything today is at minimal laced with suggestive material. Even commercials. Social media, etc. everything.

Transition: The last matter attributed to Hezekiah’s reform was breaking into pieces the bronze snake.

• Broke into pieces the bronze snake (that Moses had made). It was called Nehustan.

Numbers 21 –

While the Israelites were traveling through the wilderness, they became impatient and complained against God and Moses.

As a consequence of their sin, the Lord sent poisonous serpents among them, which bit and killed many of the people.

The people repented of their sin and asked Moses to pray for them.

God instructed Moses to make a bronze (or brass) serpent and put it on a pole.

He promised that anyone who was bitten by a serpent could look at the bronze serpent and be healed.

Moses did as God commanded, and those who were bitten and looked at the bronze serpent lived.

Application: King Hezekiah broke the bronze serpent because the Israelites had begun to worship it as an idol, burning incense to it, rather than recognizing it as a symbol of God’s provision and healing power. This act of idolatry, where the serpent itself became an object of worship, contradicted the purpose for which it was initially created and was deemed unacceptable by Hezekiah.

Application: We need to deal with our impatience with God’s way’s, will and timing and stop complaining.

Conclusion: 2 Corinthians 10:5

The phrase “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” is a famous quote from a speech delivered by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on June 12, 1987.

 The power of influence is strong: When a good king was in charge the whole country did better – BUT even more interesting – the lands around them often did better!  2 Chronicles 17:10  “And the fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, and they made no war against Jehoshaphat”  

They prosper, they start fearing the Lord. Church, OUR communities ought to be better places because of our influence around them!!   Christian, our friends ought to be better people because of our influence on them.  ARE YOU THE KIND OF PERSON WHO IT IS JUST EASIER DOING RIGHT AROUND?  

God’s needs people of influence in positions of leadership:  When there was a good king the whole country did well. Listen young people and parents training them:

• You are needed to be good for the sake of the land. We need good, solid, honest, politicians, teachers, coaches, lawyers, etc.
  
  
• We desperately need parents who train their children to lead in a godly manner.  If we do not we relegate those places to evil leaders and we take steps backward. There is NOTHING wrong with aspiring to lead and be in a place of influence IF you intend on using that influence for the sake of right. Proverbs 14:34, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”