A Sad End and a Strong Hope [Family Worship lesson in 2Kings 25]

With what lessons does the Spirit conclude the history of the kingdom of Israel? 2Kings 25 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirty verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us our need for Jesus and the hope that we have. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2023.05.17 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2 Kings 25

Read 2 Kings 25

Questions from the Scripture text: In what year/date of Zedekiah’s reign does 2 Kings 25:1 take place?  Who came against where and did what? How long did the siege take place (2 Kings 25:2)? How severe was it (2 Kings 25:3)? What happened in 2 Kings 25:4? Who had broken it to do what? Even though what was still the case? Who ran with them? But what happened (2 Kings 25:5)? What did they do with the king (2 Kings 25:6)? What was his sentence (2 Kings 25:7)? About how long later (cf. 2 Kings 25:3) does 2 Kings 25:8 occur? Who comes where? What does he do (2 Kings 25:9)? What is done to what in 2 Kings 25:10? And to whom in 2 Kings 25:11? Who is left (2 Kings 25:12)? What do 2 Kings 25:13-18 describe? Including what sorts of details? Whom else did Nebuzaradan remove in 2 Kings 25:19? Taking them where (2 Kings 25:20)? And doing what to them (2 Kings 25:21)? How does the end of verse 21 summarize all of this? Whom did he appoint to be what (2 Kings 25:22)? Who hear about it, and where do they go (2 Kings 25:23)? What does Gedaliah require of them (2 Kings 25:24)? Telling them to do what? But who come in 2 Kings 25:25, and do what to him? And to whom else? Then how many of whom went where (2 Kings 25:26)? Why? How many years later is 2 Kings 25:27 (cp. 2 Kings 24:15, 2 Kings 24:17)? Who had become king of Babylon? What did he do? How did he speak to him (2 Kings 25:28)? What position did he give him? With what benefits (2 Kings 25:29)? And what in addition (2 Kings 25:30)?

With what lessons does the Spirit conclude the history of the kingdom of Israel? 2 Kings 25 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirty verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us our need for Jesus and the hope that we have. 

The need that we have for Jesus to be our King, 2 Kings 25:1–7. It’s disappointing enough that Zedekiah is the last king and that his reign is about to end. But the way that it ends is pathetic, with the king leading the men of war to abandon the rest of the people of the city through a hole that they make in their own wall (2 Kings 25:4-5). 

He’s descended from David, but he’s the exact opposite of the Son of David for Whom the text has been teaching us to long throughout this narrative. The true King gave His life for ours. Whatever underservants or lesser magistrates we are under this world, let us rejoice that Christ is King over them all, and that He is ours. We long for the day when His kingdom has come in all its fullness.

The need we have for Jesus to be our City, 2 Kings 25:8-12. These verses summarize the destruction of the city, but we have a lasting city whose builder is God (cf. Hebrews 11:10, Hebrews 13:14). It’s not made up the way that the world would make it with the great ones of the land (2 Kings 25:9, cf. 2 Kings 24:16). Here, the Lord (via Babylon) leaves only the poorest of the poor (2 Kings 25:12). And it is of such that the Lord makes up the New Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:26–31). Believers, the true Jerusalem, are precious by virtue of their union with Christ, by virtue of the fact that He Himself is their glory. This is that connection of Psalm 16:2 to Psalm 16:3. Earthly cities can be destroyed, but the one being built in Christ is infinitely and eternally glorious! Let us learn to esteem our brothers and sisters in this world above all earthly cities. 

The need we have for Jesus to be our Temple, 2 Kings 25:13-18. The extended section detailing the final dismantling of the temple includes many particular details. The author lingers over some of them to remind us how great is the loss of the worship of God—with His covenantal presence and the display of His glory and especially His grace. Israel did not appreciate what they had in Him, and went after what the rest of the world had. This was, after all, the providence by which God began to give them kings in the first place (cf. 1 Samuel 8:5, 1 Samuel 8:7b). 

Now, having treated His worship as a light thing, they have lost it altogether. Many a lampstand has been lost in this way, and the believer who treats worship as small and the world as big puts himself in the way of losing everything. Ultimately, however, even an unlimited amount of bronze cannot make for a house big enough to contain God—even heaven and the highest heavens cannot (cf. 1 Kings 8:27)! 

Christ Himself, and Christ alone, must be our temple (cf. John 2:21). And for us He is Priest, Sacrifice, Altar, and all. When man adds anything to the worship that is now in Christ, he despises not only God’s instruction and God’s way for us to know Him, but Christ Himself Who is God’s way for us to know Him.

The hope that we can have in the Word of the Lord. Whenever a warning from God comes true, the believer has a built-in consolation that is much greater than the pain of whatever has come: God’s Word is true! The summary statement at the end of 2 Kings 25:21 functions that way. “Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land.” What the Lord had warned in Deuteronomy 28:36, Deuteronomy 28:64 was no idle threat. The king of Israel was in chains, but the Word of God was unchained (cf. Acts 28:20, Acts 28:30–31; 2 Timothy 2:9)!

God’s Word always proves true. He is perfectly faithful. Though dreadful news for the unbeliever, this means that every instance in Scripture coming true reminds him that all that God has said is certain. None who trust in Christ will be put to shame. All who call upon the Name of the Lord will be saved. All things work together for good for those who love God, the called according to His purpose. He Who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. The faithfulness of God’s Word undergirds all of these. It is a great comfort for the believer that it is impossible for God to lie (cf. Titus 1:2)! So, when we are under painful chastening, we can rejoice that Hebrews 12:5–11 is true (cf. Psalm 119:67, Psalm 119:71, Psalm 119:75), and that helps us rejoice that every other word from God is true as well.

The hope that we can have in the covenantal providence of the Lord. Finally, the little addendum in 2 Kings 25:27-30. As soon as we read about Gedaliah’s lineage, we understand that the line of the King has gone elsewhere. The kingdom period is over. Ishmael son of Nethaniah obviously doesn’t like Gedaliah’s speech in 2 Kings 25:24, but it is too similar to the counterpart to the exiles in Jeremiah 29:4–9 for us to take Ishmael’s side. 

When men do not interact with the Lord first, they often forget to be humbled under His mighty hand when He raises up persecuting pagans over them. They indulge a rebellious spirit, while thinking themselves to be standing up for their rights, or even for God’s law or God’s people. They may even consider themselves afflicted martyrs, but before God they are proud rebels like Ishmael. They ought to have been humiliated before God and seen to their repentance in dust and ashes over violating the first table of the law. 

Gedaliah, however, serves as the backdrop for Jehoiachin. Twenty-six years after the kingdom period ended, the line of the King is under the caring eye of God. God can provide for His people in Babylon. Jehoiachin is more honored, more comfortable, and wealthier now than in the three months that he was king. However low providence brings us, let us remember that the providence that brought Christ into the world continues to attend to us for His sake. 

Even if we are in captivity for 37 years, or even if our suffering lasts through the end of this life, the God Who provided for Jehoiachin at the table of the king of Babylon will seat us forever at the table of the King of Kings. And in anticipation of that day, He brings the great and small of His people together at the table of the King week by week in this life (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:22). 

Though the 1–2 Kings story was over in 2 Kings 25:26, the Spirit closes the book with these four verses to confirm the hope that we have in God’s good providence to us for Christ’s sake. They declared, “Christ is still coming, and God is dealing with His people for His sake!”

What is your primary nationality? What secondary rulers are over you, under the King of kings? When will that rule that is over you in the world be what it should be? How do you know that you value Jesus Himself as the place, way, and leader of public worship? How do you show it? How has the Lord chastened you in your life? In addition to knowing that it came out of love, what further hope does that give you? When you have a horrible government set over you, in Whose providence has that come? Whose interests are driving that providence?

Sample prayer: Lord, Your Word is faithful and true. Your Word is true in describing our sins. Your Word is faithful in threatening the consequences. We humble ourselves before You, confessing that we sin because we are sinners. Like Judah, we have treated Your worship with contempt and would deserve to have it taken from us. We have often chafed against Your chastening, rather than humbling ourselves under Your mighty hand and waiting upon Your mercy. Forgive us, O Lord, for the sake of Christ, and do with us according to Your love and promises in Him, we ask in His Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP80 “Hear, O Hear Us” or TPH80B “Great Shepherd Who Leadest Thy People”

When Judgment Finally Comes: Going Out in a Series of Rhyming, Boring Whimpers [Family Worship lesson in 2Kings 23:28–24:20]

How did God finally punish Judah? 2Kings 23:28–24:20 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirty verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Lord punished His people by giving them evil kings who not only continued to offend God but were also unskilled leaders, suffering defeat and destruction. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2023.05.10 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2 Kings 23:28–24:20

Read 2 Kings 23:28–24:20

Questions from the Scripture text: What are written where (2 Kings 23:28)? Who helped whom, where, in Josiah’s days (2 Kings 23:29)? When Necho had to pass through Israel to get there, what did Josiah do? With what result? What did Josiah’s servants do with the body (2 Kings 23:30)? Who took whom to replace him? What did they do to him? Who became king in 2 Kings 23:31? How old was he, and how long did he reign? What was his mother’s name? What did he do, in Whose sight (2 Kings 23:32)? According to what? Who did what to him in 2 Kings 23:33? What did Necho impose on the land? Whom did Necho make king in whose place (2 Kings 23:34)? To what did he change his name? What did Necho do with Jehoahaz? Who paid the imposed tribute (2 Kings 23:35)? How did he come up with the money? How old was he when he became king (2 Kings 23:36)? How long did he reign? Who was his mother? What did he do in Whose sight (2 Kings 23:37)? According to what? Who came up in his days (2 Kings 24:1)? How did Jehoiakim respond to this? For how long? Then what? Who(!) sent whom against him (2 Kings 24:2)? To do what to Judah? According to what word? How does 2 Kings 24:3 emphasize the reason this happened? Whose sin, particularly, had led to this (cf. 2 Kings 21:16)? And what else had Manasseh done (v4)? What wouldn’t the Lord do? What are written where (2 Kings 24:5)? What happens to Jehoakim in 2 Kings 24:6? Who reigns in his place? What no longer happens in 2 Kings 24:7? Why not? How old was Johiachin when he became king (2 Kings 24:8)? How long did he reign? Who was his mother? What did he do in Whose sight (2 Kings 24:9)? According to what? Who came up at that time (2 Kings 24:10)? Against where to do what? Who shows up in 2 Kings 24:11? Who respond in 2 Kings 24:12? By doing what? And what does Nebuchadnezzar do in which year of his own reign (2 Kings 24:12-13)? What did Nebuchadnezzar do to whom in 2 Kings 24:14? Which people in particular? Whom did he leave? Whom else did he take where (2 Kings 24:15)? How does 2 Kings 24:16 catalog this exile? Whom does the king of Babylon make king in 2 Kings 24:17? How was he related to Jehoiachin? To what did the king of Babylon change Mattaniah’s name? How old was Zedekiah when he became king (2 Kings 24:18)? How long did he reign? What was his mother’s name? What did he do in Whose sight (2 Kings 24:19)? According to what? Why did all of these bad kings and defeats and exiles happen (2 Kings 24:20)? Until he had done what? What does Zedekiah do at the end of verse 20? 

How did God finally punish Judah? 2 Kings 23:28–24:20 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirty verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Lord punished His people by giving them evil kings who not only continued to offend God but were also unskilled leaders, suffering defeat and destruction. 

How to read this history. 2 Kings 24:2–4 and 2 Kings 24:20 must control how we read this history. Others may get excited about the decline of Assyria, the rise of Babylon, the last gasp of Egypt, and the smaller players jockeying to fill various vacuums in the midst of it all. But, the Spirit gives us interpretive comments to keep us from getting wrapped up in all of that. It is not geo-politics but God-pleasing that matters in history. Necho and Nebu may think that it’s all about them, but they’re only permitted whatever power will suit the plan of the history of redemption. 

Point of no return. We’ve seen this once, already, when Josiah sought the Word of Yahweh, and the Lord responded that indeed the curses threatened in Deuteronomy were now coming irreversibly, as soon as Josiah died. But here it is again in (2 Kings 24:3); Manasseh was the tipping point. It is dangerous to offend the Lord and take grace for granted. Particularly for churches and nations, there’s a point where God has glorified His patience as much as He is willing and turns instead to glorify the justness of His wrath. Now, Josiah is dead (2 Kings 23:28–30), and the destruction ensues. 

Either a household, a church, or a nation is reforming and repenting, or it is backsliding and hardening. There is no neutral, which the Bible calls lukewarm, and God describes as vomitous. And, frighteningly, if one of these is not reforming/repenting, it cannot know how close it is to that point of no return. It is essential to the life of a covenantal body that it actively seek to please the Lord, in dependence upon His grace. 

For individuals, there is a similar dynamic. There is a point at which the Lord stops giving the mercy of the pricked conscience, the terrors of Hell, the sense/curiosity that God might be desirous and glorious. When there is no repentance and faith, there is the terrible danger that one is reaching the point when God leaves him to himself. Ultimately, nothing matters compared to one’s condition before God.

Boring destruction. Ostensibly, this history is full of intrigue. Necho prefers Eliakim to Jehoahaz, and renames him Jehoiakim, so that even his identity will remind him that he’s Egypt’s choice. Then Nebu prefers Mattaniah to Jehoiachin, and renames him Zedekiah, which has the same effect. Everyone’s got an agenda. But in the end, we just have four reigns in a sing-songy pattern of 3mo-11yr-3mo-11yr with the above parallels already mentioned. It’s all ho-hum, given in fairly rapid-fire narrative. Like when the northern kingdom was going down in chapter 15, now it’s Judah circling the toilet bowl. They go out not with a bang, but with a series of boring, rhyming whimpers. 

What is the most important part of the history of your household? Your church? Your nation? Your life? Why is it so dangerous to “coast” either in the Christian life, or in the life of a household, church, or nation? How are you currently participating in reformation/repentance in each of these spheres? 

Sample prayer: Lord, we thank You for Your marvelous patience. We see how patiently You bore with Judah for so many generations, and we know that You have been similarly patient with us. Forgive us for how we have taken that patience lightly. We see how Egypt, and Babylon, and Judah were all concerned with their interaction with one another, but disregarded what was most important: how they interacted with You. Forgive us for when pleasing You, in dependence upon Your grace, isn’t the great and all-encompassing concern of our church and our households. Have mercy, and do not let us decline into the repetitive pattern of those who spiral away from You. Grant to us, instead, to return to You with all our heart and always be reforming and repenting by the grace of Jesus Christ. We rejoice at the infinite value of His atoning blood, and come to You through Him alone, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP80 “Hear, O Hear Us” or TPH80B “Great Shepherd Who Leadest Thy People”

2023.05.03 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2 Kings 23:1–27

Read 2 Kings 23:1–27

Questions from the Scripture text: What did Josiah send the officials to do in 2 Kings 23:1? Who all go where in 2 Kings 23:2? What does Josiah read? Where does the king stand in 2 Kings 23:3 (cf. 2 Kings 11:14)? What does he make? To do what? What do the people do for this covenant? What does the king command to be brought out in 2 Kings 23:4? What does he do to them? What does he do to whom in 2 Kings 23:5? What does he do to what in 2 Kings 23:6? What does he do to what in 2 Kings 23:7? What does he do to whom in 2 Kings 23:8a? What does he do to what in verse 8b? Who did not come up where (2 Kings 23:9a)? What did they do, where, instead (verse 9b)? What did he do to what in 2 Kings 23:10? So that no man might do what? What did he remove in 2 Kings 23:11? What did he burn? What did he do to what in 2 Kings 23:12? What did he do to what in 2 Kings 23:13? What did he do to what in 2 Kings 23:14? What else did he go tear down where in 2 Kings 23:15? What did he see in 2 Kings 23:16? What did he to what (cf. 1 Kings 13:2)? What does he ask about in 2 Kings 23:17? What is the answer? What does he say to do in 2 Kings 23:18? What does he take away where in 2 Kings 23:19? What did he do to whom in 2 Kings 23:20? Whom does the king command to do what in 2 Kings 23:21? According to what? What is unique about this (2 Kings 23:22)? When did such a Passover occur (2 Kings 23:23)? What did he do to what in 2 Kings 23:24? So that he might do what? Who before him had done this (2 Kings 23:25)? How did he turn to Yahweh? Who did so after him? Yet, what did not happen (2 Kings 23:26)? Why not? What did Yahweh say (2 Kings 23:27)? What was unique about this place? 

What does it look like to follow Yahweh with all one’s heart and soul? 2 Kings 23:1–27 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twenty-seven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that following the Lord means doing whatever His Word says, even if we know that the earthly effects may not or will not last. 

When the Spirit tells us that Josiah covenanted to follow Yahweh with all his heart and soul (2 Kings 23:3), and then the Spirit Himself proceeds to affirm that Josiah “turned to Yahweh with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might” (2 Kings 23:25), the believer wants to pay close attention. For, the genuine believer wants to turn to the Lord with all his heart. What does that look like?

Public submission to God and His Word. The public aspect is inherent to Josiah’s office as king. He gathers everyone (2 Kings 23:1-2a), reads publicly (verse 2b), and covenants publicly (2 Kings 23:3). He “made a covenant before Yahweh,” but also “all the people took a stand for the covenant.” Jesus makes a big deal of this for all Christians. Specifically when the generation has been adulterous and sinful, the believer must be unashamed of Christ and His Words (cf. Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26). Believers must not only believe in their hearts that God has raised the Lord Jesus from the dead but also confess with their mouths that Jesus is the Lord (cf. Romans 10:9). 

Sometimes, people protest any emphasis upon public profession of faith, but as we see Josiah making and Jesus demanding, it is a necessary part of genuine faith and love. It honors God rightly, and it seeks to edify all who observe it. A non-public faith is a selfish faith, which is no faith at all. But a public faith includes not only that initial profession but participation in the holy assemblies of the church and the life of the body. Biblical Christians must think and act corporately.

Persevering submission to God and His Word. The middle portion of our passage (2 Kings 23:4-20, 2 Kings 23:24) is full of reforms because all of Israel was full of corruption. This devotional could be very long indeed, if it highlighted the many unique details that signify a particularly heinous offense to God. It is shocking to see how much there is, and how bad each particular idolatry/wickedness is. 

Almost certainly, Manasseh had not had time to complete reformation. And Amon seems to have done much damage in just two years of reverting back to idolatry. Then, there are even the remaining reforms to be done in what used to belong to the now-defunct northern kingdom (cf. 2 Kings 23:15-20). Perseverance is needed. Courage to begin a work that seems overwhelming. Determination to continue and not grow weary. Endurance to persist when the weariness does set in. Believers who would exterminate their sin, as they must, will need all of these: courage, determination, and endurance. Submission to God and His Word requires perseverance. 

Principled submission to God and His Word. Perseverance comes ultimately from the Spirit, but His method for giving this perseverance is by directing the heart by the principles of God’s Word. We see this in 2 Kings 23:3 (“to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes […] to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book”) and in 2 Kings 23:24-25 (“that he might perform the words of the law that were written in the book […] according to all the Law of Moses”). This is the point of the unique quality of the Passover they held (“as it is written in this Book of the Covenant,” 2 Kings 23:21). 

We see some familiar phrases here: “with all his heart and all his soul” (2 Kings 23:3) and “with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might” (2 Kings 23:25). When we recognize their connection to Deuteronomy 6:5, we realize that to love God (Deuteronomy 6) is to turn to Him according to all His Word (2  Kings 23). Indeed, this Word-controlled-heart, heart-driven obedience is what the Spirit uses to give us perseverance. We must turn to the Lord with all that we are, including the conviction that He Himself defines what love actually is by His own Word.

For Josiah, there is something that makes it all the more necessary that his submission be principled submission: his effort is guaranteed ultimately to fail. 2 Kings 23:26-27 are not a surprise. He has already received the Word of the Lord that, even despite his tender heart and being heard (cf. 2 Kings 22:19), the wrath of God that has been aroused against Judah “will not be quenched” (2 Kings 22:17). 

Some who claim faith assert that true faithfulness is only possible for those who are guaranteed the victory of their actions. But what about when God had guaranteed Josiah’s defeat? Didn’t Josiah know that all of his reforms would be overturned as soon as he was gathered to his fathers? Yes, but his obedience was not motivated by the promise of success but the principle of the heart. This is how Christian service and obedience works. The premise is love. It is love that produces the keeping of God’s commandments (cf. John 14:15; 1 John 5:3; 2 John 6). 

Biblical submission cannot come merely from a desire to please men, to feel good about oneself, or to produce a particular outcome to a situation. It must come from the principle of God’s Word defining for us love to God from the heart.

How have you made your submission to Christ public? How do you continue to do so? How do you keep your submission to God principled by His Word—what are you doing toward this end on a daily basis? On a weekly basis? How are you interacting with and depending upon God Himself in your use of His Word, to draw from Him what is necessary for perseverance?

Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for Your great mercy to Josiah, to give Him a heart for You, and to provide him Your Word to define for him what love to You looks like. And You have done the same for us, O Lord—bringing us to faith in Jesus Christ, and giving us Your Word to read and hear preached and meditate upon. Forgive us, Lord, for we have not been diligent in Your Word or devoted with our hearts. And even to the extent that we have been principled and persistent in our love for You, we often have not been so public in that love as Josiah was. Forgive us for not thinking more corporately about our Christian life. Give us Your Spirit to work in us such love for You that even if the whole world were against us, and even if we knew that any earthly effects of the good that we did would evaporate as soon as we had done them, still we would love You according to all Your Word. We ask for this in the Name of Him Who has perfectly loved and obeyed You in our place, even our Lord Jesus Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP80 “Hear, O Hear Us” or TPH119M “O, How I Love Your Holy Law, O LORD”

2023.04.26 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2 Kings 22

Read 2 Kings 22

Questions from the Scripture text: Who was what age, when he became what (2 Kings 22:1)? How long did he reign? Who was his mother? What did he do (2 Kings 22:2)? In Whose sight? In what ways did he walk? What didn’t he do? In what year of his reign does he send whom, where (2 Kings 22:3)? To whom does he send a message to count what (2 Kings 22:4)? To do what with the money (2 Kings 22:5)? And what are these overseer workmen to do with it (verse 5)? To which workmen, specifically (2 Kings 22:6)? What does he say needn’t be done and why (2 Kings 22:7)? What happens as a result of this work (2 Kings 22:8)? Whom does Hilkiah tell and give it? What does Shaphan the scribe do with it (2 Kings 22:10-11)? To whom does Josiah give instruction in 2 Kings 22:12? To go to Whom and do what (2 Kings 22:13)? For what three parties to inquire? What has he discovered is great? Against whom? On account of what? To whom do the inquirers go (2 Kings 22:14)? In behalf of Whom does she speak (2 Kings 22:15)? To whom? What is the first and main response (2 Kings 22:16)? Why will God bring this calamity (2 Kings 22:17)? To whom does God address a personal word (2 Kings 22:18)? What has God seen about him, through what action (2 Kings 22:19)? What has Yahweh already done? And what will Yahweh do for Josiah in response to hearing him (2 Kings 22:20)? 

How can revival come, and what may it look like? 2 Kings 22 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twenty verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that revival may begin in smaller mercies, as the Lord brings the response of the life by the moving of the heart. 

The influence of a godly grandpa, 2 Kings 22:1–7. Josiah was 8 when he became king (2 Kings 22:1), which means that he was 6 when grandpa Manasseh died (cf. 2 Kings 21:18–19). For those six years, he would have known the man of 2 Chronicles 33:12–17 as his grandfather. And though father Amon would have been 16 at Josiah’s birth and set in his ways, grandfather Manasseh in full repentance mode can be expected to have done much of the upbringing of Josiah with a keen interest in his soul. 

As Daniel and his friends would soon demonstrate in Babylon (cf. Daniel 1, Daniel 3, Daniel 6:10, Daniel 9:21), such an upbringing can (by God’s grace!) have a profound and lasting spiritual effect. For two years after grandpa Manasseh died, Josiah lived under the wicked reign of his 22–24 year old father (cf. 2 Kings 21:19–23). 

God’s praise of Josiah’s character and reign is already glowing in 2 Kings 22:2 (and will be even more glowing in 2 Kings 23:25). When he’s 24 (2 Kings 22:3-7, cf. 2 Kings 12:4–15), he adds renovation of the temple itself to his reforms—something that grandpa had not accomplished (cf. 2 Chronicles 33:15–17). 

How one reform leads to another, 2 Kings 22:8-13. The Lord has already shown Josiah great grace. The Lord gave Josiah a grandfather whose experience of sin and of repentance was poured into his own life. The Lord gave Josiah to follow and grow in his grandfather’s ways rather than his father’s. And now the Lord adds at least four more glorious gifts of grace to these others. 

First, He gives the recovery/discovery of the book of the law (2 Kings 22:8, 2 Kings 22:10a). 

Then, God gives Josiah to hear the Word read (verse 10b). 

Then, God gives Josiah to respond to that Word from the heart (2 Kings 22:11). 

Finally, the Lord gives to Josiah to look for hope in the very God Whose character is declared in the Law.

In a similar way, prayer for revival and reformation of worship are often blessed by God as He answers those prayers through His powerful Word, with which He has filled biblical worship. What we must seek from Him is the grace to respond not merely with the curiosity and responsibility of a Hilkiah or Shaphan, but with the broken-hearted, torn-clothed seeking of God’s face Himself. It was His Spirit Who gave this response to Josiah. It is the same Spirit to Whom we look for the same response in us.

The timeline of answered prayer for reformation, 2 Kings 22:14-20. The Lord’s answer to Josiah is that because Josiah heard the Lord with a tender heart (2 Kings 22:19a), He will also hear Josiah (verse 19b). He reminds us that the nation is beyond the point of no return (2 Kings 22:16-17, cf. 2 Kings 21:12–15). What Josiah had heard in the Word (2 Kings 22:13) was true. 

We saw in 2 Kings 21:17–26 how Manasseh’s late repentance couldn’t undo the damage done to the nation, but now we see that there is mercy for households in repenting parents and mercy for individuals in their own repentance. The Lord will spare Josiah in mercy (2 Kings 22:20). But a big part of that answer had come already through Josiah’s reforms and Josiah’s tender-heartedness. The Lord had been doing this work that would answer Josiah’s prayer for decades before he was brought to pray it! Indeed, the prayer itself was part of the answer.

Whom would you hope to affect in godliness, if the Lord were to give you a great reformation of life? What parts of the reviving work (reformation of worship, hearing the Word, movement of heart, earnest prayer) that He did in Josiah have you seen in your own life? How can you get what remains?

Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for the amazing difference that You used Manasseh’s repentance to make in Josiah’s life. Forgive us for not seeking our own repentance more, or seeking the spiritual good that might come by it to others. Forgive us for lacking Josiah’s zeal to reform worship or his tenderheartedness at Your Word. Grant that Your Spirit would continue to strive with us and bring revival to our lives and to Your church in our day. Make us urgent in prayer, and answer it in Your grace, we ask through Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH178 “We Have Not Known Thee as We Ought”

2023.04.19 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2 Kings 21:17–26

Read 2 Kings 21:17–26

Questions from the Scripture text: To whose other acts does 2 Kings 21:17 refer? What particular types of acts are mentioned here? But where would you have to look to find their record? With/like whom did Manasseh lay down/die (2 Kings 21:18)? But where was he buried? Who reigned in his place? How old was he (2 Kings 21:19)? How long did he reign? Who was his mother? What did he do (2 Kings 21:20)? In Whose sight? As who had done? What walking, and what service, comprised this evil (2 Kings 21:21)? Whom did such service forsake (2 Kings 21:22a)? What way of walking did this reject (verse 22b)? Who did what in 2 Kings 21:23? Where did they kill him? Then what did the people of the land do to them (2 Kings 21:24)? And whom did they make king instead? What else were immaterial to this account of Amon (2 Kings 21:25)? Where was he buried (2 Kings 21:26)? Who reigned in his place?

If a conversion late in life receives the same eternal mercy, why should we seek the Lord early? 2 Kings 21:17–26 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these ten verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that late conversions do not undo the damage that we have done, in this life, to ourselves, others, and God’s church. 

In 2 Chronicles 33:12–17, we read about Manasseh’s repentance, restoration, and reformation. So why does 2 Kings 21:17 refer only to “the sin that he committed” as a summary of “the rest of the acts of Manasseh”? Because for the nation, and even for his own seed, the damage had been done. When Amon “walked in all the ways that his father had walked” (2 Kings 21:21a), it was that “he served the idols that his father had served, and worshiped them” (verse 21b). 

All Amon’s childhood, his father had been wicked. The damage had been done. Our sins do more than incur guilt before God. They cause and breed all sorts of harm. The Lord “visits the sins of the fathers upon the children” (cf. Exodus 20:5; Numbers 14:18) not only by punishing providences but by the sinfulness of the son, and especially his walking in similar sins. 

What an urgency there is upon fathers to be converted! What an urgency there is upon fathers to grow in grace! Our children do not have time to wait until we come to profess to know the Lord or come to live like we know Him. And as Exodus 20:5, Numbers 14:18, etc. indicate, this is especially true when it comes to our worship life. How many hours of worship will they miss on how many Lord’s Days? How many family worship times that either never happen, have no Word in them, or have no heart in them? It is not just education in theological truth that they miss but the experience of God Himself. Instead of being brought before Him by a worshiping, teaching, interceding, singing, pleading father, whose life in between the worship times is devoted to the Lord, these children are hardened in the same sins.

But Manasseh wasn’t just a father but a king. Even his reforms could not bring the people themselves all the way back (cf. 2 Chronicles 33:17), and the ruin of the nation was already determined (cf. 2 Kings 21:11–15). Just as much as with households, nations and churches under men’s authority cannot afford for those men to spend a life provoking God.

Is there extraordinary mercy with God for even the worst of sinners? Yes, praise God! And Manasseh is an example of that (and one of the keys to understanding how it was that the Lord brought Josiah his grandson to such faith). But in our passage, just here, Manasseh is also an example of the real and dreadful consequences of sin. Even if you could know (you can’t) that you might be converted later, the cost of waiting is too high. Come to Him now! Even if you could know that you might be sanctified later (how can you know that, if you do not care so much to be sanctified now?), the cost of waiting is too high. Return to Him now with all your heart, and by His grace, give Him all that you are, in dependence upon Him! 

What are you (or those that you love) missing out upon with God, while you wait to commit (or recommit) your whole life unto Him? How would your life’s story so far be a reminder of what good the Lord might bring about through someone to whom He has shown mercy? How would it be a warning of what damage may be done, even by those to whom the Lord would yet show great mercy? By what means and what responses might the rest of your life come to be more of an encouragement than a warning? How are you seeking those from the Lord?

Sample prayer: Lord, You showed great mercy to Manasseh at the end of his life. But, we tremble to consider how it was too little, too late, to recover his son Amon, or his nation, Your own people. O Lord, we too have dragged our own feet in repenting from our sin and being wholehearted toward you. And we cannot know whether the damage that we are doing will ever be repaired. Forgive us, O Lord! And help us! Grant that this day would be day of wholeheartedness, and that it would be our repentance, rather than our sin, that has the lasting effect upon our families and church. O Lord, help our young men in particular, to seek You early, to remember You in the days of their Youth, to be faithful saplings that grow up to be mighty oaks in Your world and church. Make them and us to abide in Christ, so that we all abiding in Him, might bear much fruit, we ask in His Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH178 “We Have Not Known Thee as We Ought”

Why We Idolaters So Sorely Need the Lord's Patience and Redemption [Family Worship lesson in 2Kings 21:1–16]

How did Manasseh and Judah so greatly provoke the Lord to wrath upon their nation/church? 2Kings 21:1–16 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these sixteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Manasseh’s provocations against the Lord were so great because he not only spurned the Lord’s image in man by murder, but even spurned the Lord Himself by idolatry, despite being entrusted with the place and the worship with which the Lord had specifically identified Himself. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2023.04.05 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2 Kings 21:1–16

Read 2 Kings 21:1–16

Questions from the Scripture text: Who became king at what age, for how long, where (2 Kings 21:1)? Who was his mother? What did he do (2 Kings 21:2)? In Whose sight? According to what sorts of acts? Of whom? What had Yahweh done to them? What three things did he do in 2 Kings 21:3? Unlike whom, and like whom? Where, specifically, did he build altars (2 Kings 21:4)? Why was this city so special? For whom did he build them (2 Kings 21:5)? In Whose house? What four other sins did he add to his idolatry (2 Kings 21:6)? What did he put where in 2 Kings 21:7? Who had made it? Why was this building special? What had Yahweh said that He would do for His people (2 Kings 21:8)? Upon what condition? But what had Yahweh’s people done instead (2 Kings 21:9)? How does verse 9 describe Manasseh’s leadership in this? Whom had they outdone with evil? By whom did Who speak (2 Kings 21:10)? What does He say that He is responding to (2 Kings 21:11)? Whom had Manasseh outdone (cf. Genesis 15:16)? How does 2 Kings 21:12 introduce the sentencing? What will He bring upon them? Of what intensity? To whom does He compare them in 2 Kings 21:13? How does He describe the comparative completeness of the destruction that He is about to bring upon them? What does He call them in 2 Kings 21:14? But what will He do in relation to them? To whom will he give them instead? What will the enemies do with them? What have they done (2 Kings 21:15)? From when until when? What else did Manasseh do (2 Kings 21:16)? How does verse 16 emphasize his similarity to Jeroboam son of Nebat?

How did Manasseh and Judah so greatly provoke the Lord to wrath upon their nation/church? 2 Kings 21:1–16 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these sixteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Manasseh’s provocations against the Lord were so great because he not only spurned the Lord’s image in man by murder, but even spurned the Lord Himself by idolatry, despite being entrusted with the place and the worship with which the Lord had specifically identified Himself. 

In Genesis 15:16, the Lord told Abraham that He was waiting to destroy the Amorites until their sin was complete. So, when 2 Kings 21:11 says that Manasseh “has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him,” after reminding us in 2 Kings 21:9 that he “seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom Yahweh had destroyed before the children of Israel,” there are two things by which to be greatly impressed: (1) the greatness of Manasseh’s sin, (2) the greatness of Yahweh’s patience.

We have no sense of the glory and holiness of God, so it’s really 2 Kings 21:6a and 2 Kings 21:16a that shock us. He made his children pass through fire and shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other.

But, as we read the passage, we find that these murders of especially heinous quality and quantity are still secondary in their evil to the idolatries. God is primary, and murder is wicked primarily because it assaults His image (cf. Genesis 9:6). The altars for Baal, the wooden image, the altars for the host of heaven, and the carved image of Asherah… the greatness of their offense is magnified by where they have been placed. The city where He has put His Name. The house where He put His Name forever.

The phrase at the end of 2 Kings 21:16 recalls for us Jeroboam the Son of Nebat: “his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of Yahweh.” Measured by the northern capital and nation (2 Kings 21:13a), the southern capital and nation deserve an even more complete version of their judgment (verse 13b). 

We read this passage and think, “how bad things finally got with Manasseh!” But 2 Kings 21:15 sobers us: “they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.” Shall we not read this and weep? All of Israel’s devotion to created things, dependence upon created things, delight in created things has been a rejection of the Lord Who created them for Himself and redeemed them for Himself. And so is ours. How wicked and guilty are the grumblings of our hearts and indulging of our desires, our pride and self-reliance.

The Lord will punish idolatrous Jerusalem and Judah in such a way as to make them a spectacle unto all of idolatrous humanity (2 Kings 21:12). Throughout 1 Kings–2 Kings, we have been realizing that no king will do but Jesus. Now, this passage drives home how badly we need Jesus as King. Any other king—especially king “self”—puts us at odds with God Himself. And what He did to the Amorites, Samaria, and Jerusalem are pointers to the greatness of His wrath against our idolatry. How marvelous that King Jesus has taken upon Himself the wrath that His subjects deserve so that they may be His, and He theirs, forever!

How offensive is your dependence upon, delight in, and devotion to created things apart from or in disproportion to the Lord? How would you respond if you really saw that? What hope can such an idolater have?

Sample prayer: Lord, like Judah, Jerusalem, and Manasseh, we have provoked You to anger with our idolatries. Our despising of those made in Your image has resulted from not properly valuing You, in Whose image they are made. For the sake of King Jesus, forgive us our sin, and conform us to His perfect love of You and neighbor, we ask in Jesus’s Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP51B “From Your Sins, O Hide Your Face” or TPH336 “O Sacred Head Now Wounded”

Seeing God's Mercy in Our Godliness, Despite Our Costly, Remaining Sin [Family Worship lesson in 2Kings 20:12–21]

How does mercy overrule believers’ pride and folly? 2Kings 20:12–21 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these ten verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that in those whom He is growing in grace, God commends the goodness that comes from His gracious work, despite the harmfulness of their remaining sin, mercifully sparing much of the harm it might have cost. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2023.03.29 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2 Kings 20:12–21

Read 2 Kings 20:12–21

Questions from the Scripture text: Who sends what two things to Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20:12? What had he heard? How does Hezekiah respond to the messengers in 2 Kings 20:13? What five specific things does he show them? What does he refrain from showing? From where? Who goes to Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20:14? What two things does he ask about the men? Which one of those two things does Hezekiah answer? What is his answer? Then what does Isaiah ask in 2 Kings 20:15a? How does Hezekiah answer (verse 15b)? What hadn’t Hezekiah asked for, but now receives (2 Kings 20:16)? How does the quantity of what 2 Kings 20:17 addresses correspond to 2 Kings 20:13, 2 Kings 20:15b? What will happen to it all? What (whom) else will they take away (2 Kings 20:18)? What will happen to them? What does Hezekiah think of this word (2 Kings 20:19)? Why—what will there be? When? Where does 2 Kings 20:20 say one may find what? What did Hezekiah do in 2 Kings 20:21? Who reigned in his place?

How do pride and folly go hand-in-hand? 2 Kings 20:12–21 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these ten verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the pride that wishes for others to be impressed with us goes hand-in-hand with the folly that destroys ourselves and those entrusted to our care. 

Godly people can make costly mistakes, but they have a merciful God.

Godly people. Hezekiah has enjoyed the fruit of looking to the Lord in prayer (2 Kings 20:1-11), and he is a man who can recognize when the Lord is being merciful to him (2 Kings 20:19). When we get to his closing formula in 2 Kings 20:20, we’re reminded of how the Lord introduced him in 2 Kings 18:1–18. “He did what was right in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his father David had done” (2 Kings 18:3). “He trusted in Yahweh[…] held fast to Yahweh[…] did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments” (2 Kings 18:5, 2 Kings 18:6). 

Yes, he stumbled in some things, as he does here. But we ought to read his account according to the Spirit’s own general assessment. His verdict will affect how we read the Lord’s Word in 2 Kings 20:17-18 and Hezekiah’s response in 2 Kings 20:19. 

And His verdict encourages us, as we walk with the Lord, that although we may make costly mistakes, there is such a thing as imperfect godliness that God commends. This is not because God grades on a curve, but because whenever we find real godliness mixed with believers’ sinfulness and imprudence, we know where it came from. 

Whatever godliness is there must have come from God Himself. And He is not so unjust as to overlook it, but rather merciful to reward it for the sake of His grace which produced it. Real godliness, though imperfect in the believer, comes from the perfect God. And He is truly pleased with it. And He responds to it in a way that makes a real difference. We will see that difference when we come to consider “A merciful God” below.

Costly mistakes. While this encourages us not to despair over our imperfections, we must nevertheless not grow tolerant of our sin or foolishness. For, these are real and have real consequences. The key to 2 Kings 20:12 is what came with the “present.” The word is a word for “offering” or “tribute,” which helps us understand the “letters” in verse 12 and Hezekiah’s behavior in 2 Kings 20:13. 

Apparently, the envoys carried official diplomatic documents offering Hezekiah an alliance with Babylon if Israel was up to snuff. That’s why Hezekiah would make sure to show the envoys every last thing that he had (2 Kings 20:13) and not be ashamed to tell Isaiah that he had done what he thought was an excellent job of enlisting the most powerful anti-Assyrian ally (2 Kings 20:14-15). 

But Hezekiah would indubitably have known of Isaiah’s teaching about Egypt in Isaiah 30:1–3, which had corresponded to the situation back in 2 Kings 18:19–21. Isaiah 30:2 zeroed in not on forming the alliance, per se, but that Yahweh was not consulted about it.

That’s why 2 Kings 20:16 must have stopped Hezekiah in his tracks “Hear the word of Yahweh.”  A second time, the king had run headlong into something without consulting the word of the Lord. Now, we are not kings over Yahweh’s people and do not have a prophet of Yahweh assigned to us. 

But we do have the completed, sufficient Old and New Testament Scriptures. (cf. John 16:12–14; 1 Corinthians 13:8–10; 2 Timothy 3:14–17). And we do have particular shepherd-teachers assigned to us (cf. Acts 20:28; Hebrews 13:7–9, Hebrews 13:17; Ephesians 4:11–14). And we have an entire body of Christ who have been assigned specifically to us for our engagement and building up into Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:18, 1 Corinthians 12:24–25; Ephesians 4:15–16). Shall we make any important decision without refreshing ourselves in the Scriptures that touch it, consulting the undershepherds assigned to us, and keeping ourselves current in our participation in the body?

Though Hezekiah was a godly king, this error was profoundly costly. It will turn out to be the means by which Babylon gains much of its intel for plundering and enslaving Israel (2 Kings 20:17-18). Manasseh is the wicked one who irrevocably provokes Yahweh to the judgment of the Babylonian exile (cf. 2 Kings 21:1–18). But Hezekiah’s mistake will end up being a big part of how it ends up happening. 

The mistakes of the godly have real consequences, and they can be very costly indeed. Let them learn, then, that love to God and brother and neighbor demands walking in wisdom. It demands constant meditation upon God’s Word and humbly availing ourselves of the ministry of God’s assigned servants. And the godly will also be praying that the Lord will be merciful to spare them, and those under them, from the costliness of their mistakes. For, we will make many of them. But how often, God has softened the brunt of the blow, or even spared the harm altogether. How great is His mercy!

A merciful God. We are so sluggish toward God’s mercy that we are unable to see it in 2 Kings 20:18. After Isaiah 30:1–5, Isaiah 31:1–3, and how that dalliance with Egypt resulted in the back-breaking, terrifying siege of Assyria (cf. 2 Kings 18:9–19:19), Hezekiah has done it again. And now, rather than annihilate Judah immediately, the Lord’s response will not come for at least fifteen years. Hezekiah’s prior reprieve had included deliverance from Assyria (2 Kings 19:6), and now it will also include deliverance from Babylon! This is a great mercy. Some are tempted to read the response in 2 Kings 20:17-18 as severe. But to them Hezekiah might anachronistically quote some now famous words: “what’s wrong with you people?!”

To this mercy of reprieve, the Lord adds the mercy of humility—the mercy of sanctified eyes with which to see the mercy in the midst of the judgment. Even after he has done what had previously so provoked God, the Lord comes back with a merciful word. God is good, and this word has been good. Taken in the context of 2 Kings 18-20 as a whole, rounded out from the book of Isaiah, 2 Kings 20:19b is not indifference toward the plight of Hezekiah’s sons. Rather, it is an amazement at the mercy of God, even after another offense such as he has just committed. The Lord is always being overwhelmingly merciful to us. O that His Spirit would give us the eyes to see just how great that mercy has been!

And of course, once the mercies that we and the visible church receive in this world, there is an infinitely greater and longer mercy to come for those who are in Christ. In mercy, the Lord gave him a useful life (2 Kings 20:20). Man’s greatness is small, so the extra details went into a non-Scripture book. But that small greatness comes in God’s big mercy. Manasseh is coming (2 Kings 20:21), but the final word on a believer is that when he dies the death of the righteous (cf. Numbers 23:10–11, Psalm 116:15–16), he joins the souls of the just made perfect (cf. Hebrews 12:23; Philippians 3:12; Revelation 6:9–11). What a merciful God!

What is your habit of consulting the Scriptures about decisions? What is your habit for consulting the shepherd-teachers and overseers specifically assigned to you? What is your habit for keeping your participation in Christ’s earthly body “current”? What are some mistakes that you have made that God has spared you and others the brunt of? When have you been thankful under a difficult providence that was more merciful than you deserved?

Sample prayer: Lord, truly You are merciful to Your people. We, like Hezekiah, are often foolish. We forget the costliness of our past sins and errors. And we stumble right back into the same sin. How often You have given us a reprieve like the 15 years of peace that Judah enjoyed! Forgive us when, under a painful providence, we forget that You are truly sparing us more than we can imagine. And sanctify our hearts to see Your goodness and call it good, we ask, through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH169 “Master, Speak! Thy Servant Heareth”

Provoked to Prayer by the Lord Who Personally Responds to it in Almighty Power [Family Worship lesson in 2Kings 20:1–11]

Why should believers pray? 2Kings 20:1–11 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eleven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Lord Who all-powerfully upholds all things at all times has planned to execute His holy will in personal responses to our personal prayer. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2023.03.22 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2 Kings 20:1–11

Read 2 Kings 20:1–11

Questions from the Scripture text: What was happening about the same time that Sennacherib died (2 Kings 20:1)? Who comes and tells him what from Whom? How does Hezekiah respond (2 Kings 20:2)? What does he ask Yahweh to remember (2 Kings 20:3)? What happens to Isaiah where (2 Kings 20:4)? What does this Word say is God’s response to what (2 Kings 20:5)? How much longer will he live (2 Kings 20:6)? What else will He do for that long? Why? What does Isaiah tell Hezekiah to do (2 Kings 20:7)? With what result? For what does Hezekiah ask a sign (2 Kings 20:8)? Whom does Yahweh’s prophet give the option of which sign (2 Kings 20:9)? How does Hezekiah “pick” (2 Kings 20:10)? In response to what does the sign happen (2 Kings 20:11)?

Why should believers pray? 2 Kings 20:1–11 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eleven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Lord Who all-powerfully upholds all things at all times has planned to execute His holy will in personal responses to our personal prayer. 

God’s invitations to prayer. We’ve recently seen in Exodus 32:7–14 how the Lord presented to Moses the situation as it was with the implication in Exodus 32:10 that if he prayed it would change the way the situation was. This is not an unique teaching. The Bible teaches everywhere that prayer changes things—even with the simple, “you have not because you ask not” in James 4:2.

Here, the Lord provokes Hezekiah to prayer by telling him the way that things stand (2 Kings 20:1). It’s a merciful message. We would all like the opportunity to set our house in order. Later, when the Lord gives him a definite time period (2 Kings 20:6), it involves the same mercy of “knowing the times” of his life. Those who are evidently short for this world ought to set their houses in order. 

And those who don’t know should keep in mind that they may be summoned from this world at any moment. The Lord has shown us the mercy of teaching this to us plainly enough. It is a biblical thing to conduct our business in a way that is considerate of those whom we would leave behind if the Lord summoned us suddenly.

But Hezekiah knows God. Despite his other failings, we still remember the summary that God Himself gave us in 2 Kings 18:1–8. And, knowing God, he knows that knowing God makes a difference. God has ordained that godliness makes a difference. God has ordained that prayer makes a difference. And, since our own faithful working is itself the work of God’s hand in our life, the godly plead those works not on the basis of merit but on the basis of grace. We plead with Him as the Creator Who made us in the first place, “Remember the work of Your hands.” And when the sobbing king prays, “Remember now, O Yahweh, I pray, how I walked” (2 Kings 20:2-3)… he is praying now to Him as the Redeemer Who produced that walking, “Remember the work of Your hands.”

The Lord teaches us the ordained effectiveness of the prayer of the righteous (cf. James 5:16b) even by the speediness and abruptness of His reply. The prophet hasn’t been able to vacate the premises before the word of mercy returns (2 Kings 20:4-5).

The greater mercies in every mercy. In God’s answers to believers’ prayers, there’s always more mercy than meets the eye. We tend to see or focus on one thing at a time. Often, what we focus on is relatively small and unimportant. The mercy of Lord’s answer to Hezekiah promises him is abundant: not just recovery from an illness, but fifteen years (2 Kings 20:6a). Not just fifteen years, but deliverance from Assyria (2 Kings 20:6b).

Yet, there is something far greater here than either the fifteen years or the military protection. 

First, Hezekiah has the mercy of the Lord’s personal compassion. “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you.” By stating it that way in 2 Kings 20:5, the Lord communicates just how personal His intervention is in Hezekiah’s and our lives. He listens to the sound of our voice. He sees when moisture leaves our eyes and wets our cheeks. He doesn’t just cause healing to happen from a cosmic distance; He personally does it in a way that is literally fleshed out by many of the personal touches (literally!) in the Lord Jesus’s healings. The personal compassion of God is not new in the New Testament; it is just newly visible in Christ.

Second, the Lord’s mercy to Hezekiah is powerfully comprehensive. It may seem to us a small thing when 2 Kings 20:5 says “on the third day you shall go up to the house Yahweh.” But this is actually the main part of the promise to which Hezekiah ends up responding in 2 Kings 20:8. What good is it to have our life extended, if it is only for this life and this world? 

Even if men still had gifts of healing or even resurrection, their beneficiaries would still eventually leave this world and face the judgment. But the Lord’s mercy to Hezekiah is not just healing of the body but maintenance of the soul. Yes, that was the Lord’s own work in Hezekiah’s life, to which the prayer in 2 Kings 20:3 had referred. And now, that spiritual work will continue. Hezekiah will continue to live as a worshiper of God. 

How important this is! For, while fifteen more years is significant in earthly terms, it is exceedingly small by comparison to eternity. When believers delight in the comprehensiveness of “all things for good” (cf. Romans 8:28), let us delight that this is especially spiritually comprehensive. It is for the good of being conformed to the image of the Son (cf. Romans 8:29). It is for the good of moving from “justified” to “glorified” (cf. Romans 8:30). It is for the good of having Him to Whom all other things are an ancillary addition (cf. Romans 8:32). 

Third, Hezekiah has the mercy of the Lord’s persistent covenant. The mercy that has been so personal in his life is a part of God’s eternal plan to glorify Himself (“for My own sake,” 2 Kings 20:6) by the redemption that He would bring through His Son as the Son of David (“for the sake of My servant David,” verse 6). This assures him of the certainty of this mercy, which also has the high privilege of having a place in this plan.

The great power behind every earthly mercy. Finally, we see the immense power that is at work when God responds to our prayers. The Lord had already given a sign, with the fig-poultice and the boil (2 Kings 20:7)—a sign that itself was a reminder that God employs earthly means and our obedience in His work. But Hezekiah is still unsure. 

Rather than rebuking His doubtful servant, the Lord offers him another sign, and this one is a doozy. It is not more difficult for God to suspend or accelerate time—to uphold all of existence by His naked Word, rather than all of the physical “laws” that are the normal pattern by which He does so—than it is for God to suspend the natural ways of figs and boils. This is even brought out more poignantly in the text by Hezekiah’s ignorant idea that “it is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees.”

And this immense power is exercised in response to prayer. The Lord does not “merely” reverse or accelerate time. He makes Hezekiah’s word (2 Kings 20:10) and Isaiah’s subsequent prayer (2 Kings 20:11) the trigger by which this occurs! Earlier, we were reminded that we personally have the ear and the eye of God (2 Kings 20:5b). Now, we are reminded of the infinite power of Him Who responds to our lives and to our prayers (2 Kings 20:10).

Thanks be to God Who is so personally and powerfully responding to His people’s prayers and working through His people’s lives, and Who rules and overrules all things for the sake of His glory and His plan to glorify the Son in redemption! How, then, ought we to live as those who have His eye, and pray as those who have His ear!

What part has prayer had in the ordinary course of your life? What part has prayer had in the intense moments of your life? When you think about the mercies that you have been desiring from God what, specifically, have you been desiring from Him? How does it compare with the greater mercies that you need from Him and should more desire? Realizing that there truly is such a thing as reward in this life and in the next—that even with Christ alone as all our worthiness, godliness makes a real difference—what changes do you hope that God’s grace will work in you? To make what difference?

Sample prayer: Lord, we thank You for being kind to us as You were to Hezekiah, and reminding us that we are short for this world and must live in a way as to honor You and do good to those whom we leave behind. Forgive us that we have not lived as those whose affairs are “set in order.” We thank You and praise You that any walking before You in truth is by Your grace, any walking with a loyal heart is by Your grace, and any doing good in Your sight is by Your grace. Forgive us that we have done so little of these. Forgive us that, for what we have done, we have not given Your grace enough credit. And forgive us that we have not pleaded Your gracious work more in our prayers. We thank You that You hear our prayers and see our tears. Forgive us when we have thought of You as a God Who is far off, rather than a God Who is near. Forgive us when we have abused the wonderful truth of Your sovereignty to deny the wonderful truth of the usefulness of prayer and godliness. Truly, O God, You are merciful, and we are needy of that mercy. Forgive us and continue to deal with us in mercy we ask, by Your Spirit, through Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP65A “Praise Awaits You, God” or TPH520 “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”

Supplicating the Sovereign God Under Duress [Family Worship lesson in 2Kings 19:8–37]

What are weak believers to do with their worries? 2Kings 19:8–37 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirty verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that when believers are worried, they should turn to God in prayer that is full of adoration, trusting that all is according to God’s plan. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2023.03.15 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2 Kings 19:8–37

Read 2 Kings 19:8–37

Questions from the Scripture text: Who returns to whom in 2 Kings 19:8? Where does he find him, instead of Lachish? What had the king heard (2 Kings 19:9a, cf. 2 Kings 19:7)? From there, whom did he send where (2 Kings 19:9b)? Against Whom does he speak again (2 Kings 19:10)? To whom does he compare Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:11, 2 Kings 19:13)? To whom does he compare Hezekiah’s God (2 Kings 19:12)? What does Hezekiah do, as soon as he has read the letter (2 Kings 19:14)? What five things does Hezekiah say about God Himself (2 Kings 19:15)? How do these contradict what the Rabshakeh has said? After all of this adoration, what does he ask Yahweh to pay attention to and respond to (2 Kings 19:16)? What had the Assyrian kings done to the nations (2 Kings 19:17)? To the nations’ gods (2 Kings 19:18)? Why were they able to do this to them? What does Hezekiah call Yahweh in 2 Kings 19:19? What does he ask Him to do? Why? By whom does God respond to this prayer (2 Kings 19:20)? What is the basic answer to Hezekiah? About whom does God give Hezekiah a song/poem in 2 Kings 19:21-34? How does He begin by mocking Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:21)? What has Sennacherib done to deserve this (2 Kings 19:22)? Whom has he reproached (2 Kings 19:23)? How did he claim to have done what (2 Kings 19:23-24)? But Who had made all of these places (2 Kings 19:25a–c)? And how has Sennacherib been able to do what he has done (verse 25d–f)? What does Yahweh’s enabling him explain (2 Kings 19:26)? What does Yahweh know (2 Kings 19:27-28b)? What will He now do to Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:28c–f)? Now what does Yahweh give to Hezekiah, as an assurance that this will happen (2 Kings 19:29a)? What will they eat this fall, since they have not been able to farm (verse 29b)? And what will they be able to eat the next year, since Sennacherib will be dealt with (verse 29c)? And to what will they be fully restored by the year following (verse 29d–e)? What other “crop” will begin to flourish (2 Kings 19:30)? What will be different about Jerusalem than other besieged cities (2 Kings 19:31a–b)? How will this happen (verse 31c)? What four things will not happen (2 Kings 19:32)? What will happen (2 Kings 19:33)? How (2 Kings 19:34a)? For what two reasons (verse 34b)? Who acts in 2 Kings 19:35? What does He do to how many? What role do the Israelites have in the morning? And where does Sennacherib go (2 Kings 19:36)? Where is he in 2 Kings 19:37? What can’t Nisroch stop from happening? Who does it? Where do they go? Who takes the throne instead?

What are weak believers to do with their worries? 2 Kings 19:8–37 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirty verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that when believers are worried, they should turn to God in prayer that is full of adoration, trusting that all is according to God’s plan. 

The right response of weakness: prayer. 2 Kings 19:7 has already given a word from Yahweh about Sennacherib’s demise. Hezekiah knows that Sennacherib will be hearing a rumor, returning to Assyria, and dying there. Already, this is happening. Sennacherib is fighting Libnah, because he’s on his way to defend against a rumored attack from Ethiopia (2 Kings 19:8-9). Since it looks like he has backed off (he has!), he sends a new word of intimation to Jerusalem to keep them in line (2 Kings 19:10-13).  

Hezekiah should have rejoiced; it was exactly as Yahweh had said. But he was weak like we are. We don’t tend to say, “the world hates me; in the world I have trouble; I have many tribulations; I am suffering persecution; I am receiving painful chastening… praise God, it’s just as He told me!!” (cf. 1 John 3:13; John 16:33; Acts 14:22; 2 Timothy 3:12; Hebrews 12:5–11). But he is worried about this new blasphemous comparison of Jerusalem and Yahweh to the other nations and other gods (2 Kings 19:16-17). So Hezekiah prays. Be anxious for nothing, but pray (2 Kings 19:14-15a, 2 Kings 19:19a, 2 Kings 19:20a; cf. Philippians 4:6)! 

The prayer-cure for weakness: adoration. Hezekiah knows that this blasphemous reproaching of the living God (cf. 2 Kings 19:4, 2 Kings 19:6) will provoke the destruction of Sennacherib, so his prayer does just the opposite. When we are asking the Lord to act for the glory of His Name, let us learn to begin by adoring the glory of His Name! Behold how these glories are not just worthy of being vindicated and displayed by God, but they are glories that strengthen and gladden the heart of the anxious king:

“O Yahweh God of Israel!” The Lord is the everlasting, self-existent, self-sustaining God. And He has identified Himself with specific creatures whom He has chosen for Himself. One Name is entirely distinct from all creatures, “Yahweh.” The other is bound to and identified with specific creatures, “God of Israel.” We have this too. “Our Father”—identified with us. “Which art in heaven”—above all, distinct from all, hallowed.

“Who dwells among the cherubim!” Here, too, is a combination of God’s transcendence and His nearness to His people. He is exalted above the most glorious of the creatures, but it was a picture of this exaltation that He built into the mercy-seat, the atonement-cover, for the Ark of the Testimony. He is God Who dwells in the highest heaven, but also in the midst of His people. He is God of unspotted holiness, from Whom angels hide their faces, but also Who removes the iniquity of His sinful people. So let us even learn to adore as we pray, “You Who, having by Your own blood purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as You have by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they!” (cf. Hebrews 1:3).

“You are God, You alone!” Others may claim to have other gods. And other things may lay claim upon our hearts, as if they were gods. But there is only one God. When others reject Him, they are doomed to be destroyed. And we have no other hope, however foolishly we may think that we did. When He removes all other supports, He keeps us from falling into hoping in those supports. What a blessing to address Him as the one true God!

“Of all the kingdoms of the earth.” There are other kings, but there is only one King of kings. There are other lords, but there is only one Lord of lords. Even as we saw in Psalm 82, there are other judges but only one Judge of judges. Even the reality of many nations and many kingdoms is a reality that came into being specifically so that men might know that they are not God (cf. Genesis 11:4–8). The only King Who is over all is God. As Sennacherib rose in power, taking down other kingdoms, it was an assault not only upon God Himself, but upon Christ, the only Man, the only King, Who is also God. And whenever others seem to be making a similar ascent, we may do much for the help of our own hearts simply by adoring God, by adoring Christ, as the King of kings.

“You have made heaven and earth.” As we adore Him over the nations, our praise may rise even higher. For what are the nations? They are a drop in the bucket. Man could look at moon and stars and marvel at his own, collective, comparative smallness (cf. Psalm 8:3). Now, man has been just to the moon, and looking back could see from there the smallness of all the kingdoms of earth taken together. But our God has made the heavens and the earth. He spoke them into being (cf. Genesis 1:3, Genesis 1:14; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Romans 4:17). He not only numbers the stars but knows them inside and out as One Who names them (cf. Psalm 147:4). All things are from Him and through Him and to Him. To Him be the glory, forever, Amen! (cf. Romans 11:36, Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 2:10).

By this exercise of adoring God in prayer, Hezekiah not only draws strength and gladness in the Lord, but solidifies in his own heart a right motivation for desiring deliverance: “that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You, Yahweh, are the only God” (2 Kings 19:19b). 

The Lord’s song-answer to weakness: predestination, “the decree.” We usually think of predestination with respect to God’s predestining the elect to be conformed to the image of the Son, the adopted and glorified children of God (cf. Romans 8:29; Ephesians 1:4–5). But we mustn’t forget that the Lord is the One Who rules and overrules all things. Sennacherib indeed is responsible for his rage against God and his wickedness in oppression and violence (2 Kings 19:26-27). But it is the decree of God that has ordained to do good and display glory through this (2 Kings 19:25d–f). He planned this from before the world began (verse 25a–c). 

So, Yahweh answers Hezekiah’s prayer (2 Kings 19:20b) by sending to Hezekiah (verse 20a) a song that addresses Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:21). Zion’s part in the song is to despise this “great and powerful” king. Those who are familiar with it may remember a film in which the curtain was pulled back on “the great and powerful Oz.” A god-like figure is reduced in a moment to a laughing stock for a young girls. Such is true of all the greatest threats in human history. The Lord sets them up for ridicule by comparison to the Holy One of Israel (2 Kings 19:22d), Who will devastate and humiliate them. The great reveal isn’t so much who Oz/Sennacherib isn’t, but Who Yahweh in fact is!

Let us never fear the proud. Let us rather fear to be proud along with them. For when we think that we are something, we become like Sennacherib: “my chariots” (2 Kings 19:23b), “my feet” (2 Kings 19:24b), “I have come up” (2 Kings 19:23c), “I will cut down” (verse 23e), “I will enter” (verse 23h), “I have dug” (2 Kings 19:24a), “I have drunk” (verse 24a), “I have dried up” (verse 24b). 

Ironically, Sennacherib is particularly self-impressed by the greatness of what he has overcome (mountains, cedars, cypress, forests, river-moats, fortified cities).  He knows the script, but he has mistaken his place. He is not the one whose greatness is shown by what he has overcome; he is the one who will be devastated in order to display the greatness of Yahweh. Why is [insert enemy of Christ] so strong? Because God has planned it that way to glorify Christ in destroying [insert enemy of Christ]!

Yes, others were powerless before Sennacherib, (2 Kings 19:26). But it was because the Lord had planned it that way (2 Kings 19:25), in order to glorify Himself in rendering Sennacherib utterly powerless (2 Kings 19:28). 

And predestination applies to bread as much as it applies to baddies. Hezekiah has been too occupied (literally!) with Assyria to plan for food, but God has planned for it. Even after Assyria is gone, what will Judah eat, having neglected to plant crops this year? The Lord gives them another song to sing in 2 Kings 19:29-31. A song about two seasons of “volunteer plants” (2 Kings 19:29b, c) and a season of gardening (verse 29d). It might not sound like much to an American who has never really worried about how he was going to eat. But for those who do worry about what they will eat or what they will wear (cf. Matthew 6:31), let them remember that they have such a Father Who predestines meals (cf. Matthew 6:32) and gives His people songs to sing to remind themselves about it (2 Kings 19:29). For He plants not only food, but nations of churches (2 Kings 19:30-31). 

Finally, the Lord gives a third song in 2 Kings 19:32-34: “He will not enter the city.” What seemed impossible when the song was written would become a song of perfect assurance after the events in 2 Kings 19:35-37. It was just as the Lord had said in 2 Kings 19:7, complete with the final image of the prostrate body of the assassinated king before his god Nisroch, who could not save him from his own sons, let alone from the One True God. “He will not enter the city,” Judah’s descendants could sing, when Babylon came. Or Persia. Or Greece. Or Rome. Or the Muslims. Or the papacy. Or the British throne. Or China. Or North Korea. Or the pluralistic western potentates of today. 

“He will not enter the city.” All of these can only do what is “for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.” All of history serves to glorify God as the One True God and Christ as the King of kings, the rightful Heir to the thrones of the nations.

What powers on earth seem great right now? Who decided, when, that this is how history would go? How must these powers ultimately end up? How does remembering this protect you both from imitating their pride and from fearing it? What place does adoring God currently have in your prayers? How might this improve by application of this Psalm?

Sample prayer: Holy Father, You dwell in unapproachable light, and yet You have adopted us as Your children. You atoned for us by Yourself in the Son, our Lord Jesus, Who has taken His throne above the angels. You scattered the nations so that all would know that none is God but You alone, and You are displaying Your glory by the Lord Jesus, Who was lifted up on the cross and is now gathering all nations to Himself! Forgive us for when we are proud, and forgive us for when we fear those who are proud and seem great among men. O Lord, by Your Spirit give us humility about ourselves and joyful confidence in You alone, we pray, through Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP2 “Why Do Gentile Nations Rage?” or TPH375 “All Hail the Power of Jesus’s Name” 

2023.03.08 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2 Kings 18:9–19:7

Read 2 Kings 18:9–19:7

Questions from the Scripture text: In what year who comes up against Samaria in the north (2 Kings 18:9)? How long does it take them to take it (2 Kings 18:10)? What does the king of Assyria do to Israel (2 Kings 18:11)? Why had this happened (2 Kings 18:12)—what didn’t they do? But what did they do instead? What wouldn’t they do? Who comes eight years later, against whom (2 Kings 18:13)? How does Hezekiah respond (2 Kings 18:14)? Before whom does he repent, asking how to atone? What does the king of Assyria answer? Where does Hezekiah get the silver (2 Kings 18:15)? Where does he get the gold (2 Kings 18:16)? How well does this work—now what does the king of Assyria send (2 Kings 18:17) with whom? And who come out to meet them in 2 Kings 18:18? What hope does the Rabshakeh attack in 2 Kings 18:19-20? What hope does he attack in 2 Kings 18:21? But then what hope does he attack in 2 Kings 18:22? What does he urge Israel to do now in 2 Kings 18:23? In what circumstances does he mock them that they still wouldn’t be able to win (2 Kings 18:23-24)? Whom does he now claim to have on his side (2 Kings 18:25)? What request do Eliakim, Shebna and Joah make in 2 Kings 18:26? But why does the Rabshakeh say he should speak a language that all understand (2 Kings 18:27)? How does he begin addressing them all (2 Kings 18:28-29)? What does he then tell them not to let Hezekiah make them do (2 Kings 18:30)? What strategy does he counsel them to follow (2 Kings 18:31, cf. 2 Kings 18:14-16)? What does he say Assyria will do for them if they do this (2 Kings 18:31-32)? What does he tell them not to be persuaded by Hezekiah? Whom does he suggest are similar to Yahweh (2 Kings 18:33-35)? What did the people do (2 Kings 18:36)? Why? Now what do Hezekiah’s envoys do (2 Kings 18:37)? What have they done with their clothes? How does Hezekiah respond (2 Kings 19:1)? Now to whom does he send the envoys (2 Kings 19:2)? For whom do they speak (2 Kings 19:3)? What three things does he say about this day? How does he describe the weakness of the situation? What is Hezekiah’s hope (2 Kings 19:4)—who has Assyria reproached. And Whom does Hezekiah hope has heard it that way? And how does he hope Yahweh will respond? So, what does the king ask Isaiah to do? How does 2 Kings 19:5 summarize the entire presentation to the prophet (verse 5)? What does Isaiah say on behalf of Yahweh (2 Kings 19:6)? What does he tell him not to do with the words which he heard? Whom does Yahweh say they have blasphemed? What will Yahweh do to the king of Assyria (2 Kings 19:7)? What will the king hear? Where will he go? What will happen there?

What hope do backsliders have? 2 Kings 18:9–19:7 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirty-six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that while believers may fail in much, their hope is that God has invested the glory of His Name in granting them repentance and saving them. 

The sin that endangers us, 2 Kings 18:9-12. Verses 9–12 recap the fall of the northern kingdom. We had heard about it at length in chapter 17, but in this passage it serves as a reminder of the real reason they were exiled: “because they did not obey the voice of Yahweh their God, but transgressed His commandment” (2 Kings 18:12).  Assyria is not the problem; it is an instrument by which the problem is addressed. 

The false hopes to which sinners look, 2 Kings 18:13-16. This is important because, despite Hezekiah’s overall godliness (as summarized in 2 Kings 18:1-8), in a moment of weakness he treats Assyria not only as the problem but as the solution (2 Kings 18:14). Rather than repent to Yahweh and ask Him for help, he repents to Assyria and asks Assyria for help! Even worse, he empties Yahweh’s temple of silver (2 Kings 18:15) and strips its doors and pillars of gold (2 Kings 18:16)—pillars that he himself had just overlaid. How quickly a little backsliding can undo the work of our repentance! 

After Israel is destroyed for transgressing the covenant, Judah fails to trust in Yahweh. Hezekiah trusts in Sennacherib instead, impoverishing and humiliating the temple in order to appeal to Assyria for mercy. 

The failing of false hopes, 2 Kings 18:17-27. Well, to indicate just how much of a fool’s errand it is to look to Assyria for mercy, the very next verse records the threat on Jerusalem itself. Initially, Sennacherib’s lackeys mock other confidence in which they trust (2 Kings 18:19): their own plans (2 Kings 18:20, 2 Kings 18:23) or an alliance with Egypt (2 Kings 18:21, 2 Kings 18:24). 

The reason all competitors must fail: they set themselves up against Yahweh, 2 Kings 18:28-37. The Rabshakeh implies not only that Yahweh won’t help them because of Hezekiah’s reformation to purity of worship (2 Kings 18:22), but that Yahweh can’t help them (2 Kings 18:30b, 2 Kings 18:32b), because He is no better than gods that Assyria has already defeated (2 Kings 18:33-34). 

Here is Assyria’s fatal mistake. They were so desirous of repeating the bribe/tribute from before (2 Kings 18:31) that they thought little of mocking Yahweh. Ultimately, any hope that is not dependent upon Yahweh and submitted to Him is in competition with Him and therefore despises Him.

The one hope that we have: looking to Yahweh in Word and prayer, 2 Kings 19:1-5. So Hezekiah sends to Isaiah, asking for prayer (end of 2 Kings 19:4)—specifically prayer that Yahweh would hear and rebuke those words. Hezekiah had sinned by not honoring God’s Name, but in his repentance he could hope that God would honor His own Name when His people and His Name were attacked.

The certainty of hope in Yahweh, 2 Kings 19:6-7. Unlike previously with Assyria, this hope was indeed well placed. Yahweh replies through His prophet that He will respond to the blasphemy (2 Kings 19:6), and send Sennacherib back to Assyria to die (2 Kings 19:7).

We too misplace our trust in other things. We spend money and time and effort and care on those things that we think will bring security and comfort and pleasure and purpose. May God grant unto us repentance. Hope in Him is well placed, for He has determined from all eternity to save sinners for the honor of His Name. 

What competes with the Lord for your purpose? For your pleasure? For your comfort? For your security? How can you see this in the competition for the use of your time, money, efforts, and care? What hope can there be for people who have treated Him as of such little worth and trust?

Sample prayer: Lord, like Hezekiah, we have often backslidden and neglected Your worship to put our time and money into lesser hopes. But You have mercifully invested the honor of Your Name in saving us. We ask, through Christ, that You would forgive us and grant unto us repentance to love and honor Your Name more. And, out of Your own love for Your Name, save Your people upon whom You have set Your glorious Name, we ask in Jesus’s glorious Name, AMEN!

Hoping in and Praising the Perfect Savior of Imperfect Saints [Family Worship lesson in 2Kings 18:1–8]

What does the initial summation of Hezekiah’s reign teach us? 2Kings 18:1–8 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eight verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that although we all fail much, there is a walking with the Lord in overall principle that marks those whom the Lord is saving. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2023.03.01 Hopewell @Home ▫ 2 Kings 18:1–8

Read 2 Kings 18:1–8

Questions from the Scripture text: In what year of which king’s reign, did which other king, where, begin to reign (2 Kings 18:1)? How old was he (2 Kings 18:2)? How long did he reign? Who was his mother? What did he do (2 Kings 18:3)? In Whose sight? According to what who had done? What did he remove (2 Kings 18:4)? What did he cut down? What did he break in pieces? What had who done to it until that day? What had they called it? Whom did Hezekiah trust (2 Kings 18:5)? To what extent? What is this trusting called (2 Kings 18:6)? From what does someone who “holds fast” to Yahweh not depart? What does he keep? Who was with him (2 Kings 18:7)? Where did he prosper? Against whom did he rebel? Whom did he subdue (2 Kings 18:8)? How far? 

What does the initial summation of Hezekiah’s reign teach us? 2 Kings 18:1–8 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eight verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that although we all fail much, there is a walking with the Lord in overall principle that marks those whom the Lord is saving. 

A glowing summary. Hezekiah receives quite the commendation here. He receives not only a “did what was right in the sight of Yahweh” but even the “according to all that his father David had done” (2 Kings 18:3). Like David, “he removed the high places (2 Kings 18:4a). Indeed, he does better than David, because Nehushtan (an Egyptian name) had long since gone from instrument-of-God to idol-of-Israel during the time of David, but it wasn’t until Hezekiah that its use for worship was eliminated (verse 4b). 

Hezekiah’s faith is very instructive to us for what a saint looks like on earth. A saint trusts in Yahweh (2 Kings 18:5) as both God over all, and covenant God (“God of Israel”).  A saint holds fast to Yahweh (2 Kings 18:6). A saint follows Yahweh. A saint keeps Yahweh’s commandments. A saint knows the presence of Yahweh. A saint knows the prospering of Yahweh. In particular, we do all of these to/with the Lord Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, as beloved children of the Father.

A governing summary. We are going to read of a couple significant failures of king Hezekiah. Toward the beginning of his reign, he is going to give Assyria all of the silver of the house of Yahweh and the gold off of the doors and pillars of the temple of Yahweh. Toward the end, he is going to foolishly show off to the Babylonians and demonstrate a disregard for his descendants.

So, it is helpful to us to read this extremely positive summary of Hezekiah and his reign. It reminds us that the Lord is patient with His imperfect saints. This doesn’t excuse our sin, but it does enables us to think and deal gently with ourselves and others. For, the true repentance that He does give us is real, despite its imperfections; and, we must not fail observe and appreciate this work of His grace. 

And for some believers, though glaring imperfections exist, yet they may be exemplary saints. The governing, over-arching summary of a believer’s life may be of how the work of grace in his life differentiated him even from many in the church.

A gracious summary. By reminding us that our governing view of a believer’s life is to consider His gracious work above all, the Lord is gracious to us. He graciously gives us reason to be gentle in how we think of others and ourselves. By giving His grace due glory, we may be patient and even-handed with where they fall short. 

He graciously gives us reason to be hopeful in how we think of ourselves and other believers. Though we may have fallen spectacularly, and may feel even now the potential that would still fall, yet His grace is the greater story of the believer’s life, and this gives us reason to hope as we pray for them and serve them—and reason to hope as we ourselves pursue holiness. 

He graciously gives us reason to be vigorous in pursuit of holiness. If God’s gracious work in us is the main story of our lives, and if there are some beliers about whom Scripture teaches us to see this as a more consistent and more completed work, then this should be great motivation for us to seek that consistency and maturity. Do we not desire that others would be more encouraged by an account of His work in our lives? Do we not desire to give more occasion for His praise? Then let us pursue integrity, consistency, and maturity of holiness with all that we are!

When you think about your own trusting, holding fast to, following, obeying, and walking with the Lord, what would you say have been positive and negative highlights so far? How is this helping you to praise God for what He has already done? How is this helping you to pursue more of His work in you? 

Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for Your merciful and powerful work in the life of Hezekiah. And thank You for teaching us, through Your summary of His life and reign, to focus upon Your gracious work in the life. Forgive us for how our many stumblings and remaining sin have often detracted from the display of Your grace in us. Forgive us for when we have not pursued holiness and maturity, because we have so little desired Your grace to be glorified in us. And forgive us for when we have seen our stumblings or other saints’ stumblings as a bigger story than Your grace in our lives. Work in us by Your Spirit to correct these things we ask, through Jesus Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH433 “Amazing Grace”