2 Chronicles 32
The account in this chapter differs considerably from that of Kings, the latter reproducing nearly word for word the account of Isaiah (Isa. 36-39), except for the "prayer of Hezekiah," omitted altogether in both Chronicles and Kings, concerning which we have already spoken.
"After these things and this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fortified cities, and thought to break into them" (2 Chron. 32:1). How precious it is to hear God acknowledging the faithfulness of His servant here! In this regard Hezekiah had been irreproachable and had already reaped an abundance of joy and prosperity in this world. But if his religious life had God's approval, would he manifest the same faithfulness in relation to the world? Notice that the Assyrian's attack is presented here as a test and in no way as a judgment of God in which the Assyrian would have been an instrument against Hezekiah. All the past history of the kings and people of Judah which we have just perused called for this judgment, but not at the moment when Hezekiah had manifested an upright heart toward God was this chastisement to fall on him and on his people. The situation was quite different with the ten tribes whose history had terminated in final captivity at the very time when God yet saw "good things" in Judah. The latter had returned to Jehovah and had destroyed their idols, although in fact their heart was not changed, as we see in Isaiah 22. Nor was it a case of Hezekiah being punished for having done wrongly in rebelling against the king of Assyria (2 Kings 18:7), an incident about which, moreover, Chronicles is silent. In the entire chapter before us Hezekiah is not chastened, but put to the test, precisely because until then he had been faithful to his God.
The first of these tests thus is the assault of the Assyrian who thought to break into the fortified cities and take Jerusalem. What was Hezekiah to do in face of this attack? God's grace suggests the solution to him: "And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was minded to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the fountains of waters that were outside the city; and they helped him. And there was gathered together much people, and they stopped all the fountains, and the torrent that flows through the midst of the land, saying, "Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?" (2 Chron. 32:2-4). Hezekiah was determined not to leave the fountains that fed the city, whether on the east or on the west, to the hands of the enemy. Had the Assyrian taken possession of them, they would have furnished a valuable resource for continuing the siege of Jerusalem at the very time the people of the city would have been reduced to dying of thirst. Sennacherib was ignorant of the vast labor which Hezekiah and his people had undertaken to ward off this danger. While Jerusalem was abundantly provided with living water, Sennacherib through his servants says to the people: "Does not Hezekiah persuade you, to give yourselves over to die by famine and by thirst?" (2 Chron. 32:11). God bears witness to the king concerning all the zeal he expended in this respect: "And he, Hezekiah, stopped the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David" (2 Chron. 32:30). The works, impressive for that time, have been found by means of which the fountain of Gihon and the overflowing fountain were brought inside Jerusalem's walls. All this showed great foresight in face of this dangerous trial.
We can draw a serious lesson from this fact ourselves. In Psalm 87:7 the inhabitants of Jerusalem say: "All my springs are in Thee." It is the same for us; all the springs from which we drink are in Christ. He Himself is the spring of living water and can say: "If any one thirst, let him come to Me and drink." Our springs are the knowledge of Christ and fellowship with Him. This is what the world, the enemy of our souls, will ever seek to take away from us. The world knows only too well that a Christianity that does not drink at the fountain, that does not feed on Christ, will not sustain our life. The world's whole effort therefore consists in separating the Christian from Christ. It has a thousand means of occupying our hearts and our thoughts with anything but Him. Moreover, the world pretends to possess that which is exclusively ours. Let us not allow it to rob us of our springs, neither let us take the world's word that it possesses them. When we deal with the world, let us clearly prove to it the vanity of its pretensions. This is the greatest service which we can render to it; it can only discover Christ in the city of God by becoming part of the people of God. If we "stop the fountains," we can prove to the world that it does not possess them and show it that the only way to possess them is to be, not on the side of the enemies of Christ, but of His friends. Our activity must not be limited to guarding ourselves from being plundered by the world; we must expend all the energy possible to set Christ within the reach of all His redeemed, so that they may constantly drink of the living water and the unsearchable riches of Christ. We do not need a commonplace Christ, a Christ who is the world's property as well as ours; we need a Christ who has nothing in common with the image the world has made of Him — the world which fashions Him, so to say, for its own use. These waters which flow in the midst of the land must become like the waters of Gihon for us, hidden deeply under the surface of the ground and reaching to the very heart of the city of God.
This was Hezekiah's first care, but on the other hand he neglected nothing for Jerusalem's defense. He who had stopped the fountains also turns his attention to the walls: "And he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken down, and raised it up to the towers, and built another wall outside, and fortified the Millo of the city of David" (2 Chron. 32:5). It is not that Hezekiah trusts in his own resources and strength to resist the king of Assyria: quite to the contrary, when the king of Assyria presents himself, he cries out: "There is not strength to bring forth" (Isa. 37:3), knowing that help can be found in dependence on God alone; but all this in no way excludes constant vigilance in relation to the enemy. If through negligence we have let breaches be made through which the enemy may mount an attack, we must diligently repair them instead of allowing them to become larger. Moreover, Hezekiah made "darts and shields in abundance." In anticipation of an attack, weapons were necessary for all. This necessity still exists today. To fight the enemy victoriously it is not enough that one or two eminent persons among God's people be provided with the necessary weapons. These weapons, as we see in Ephesians 6, are not only the Word of God, but also a state of soul in conformity with the knowledge of God. Without doubt, when the enemy presents himself, it is God who fights for His people, as Hezekiah says here: "Be strong and courageous... for there are more with us than with him: with him is an arm of flesh, but with us is Jehovah our God to help us and to fight our battles." But that is in no way to hinder us from putting on the whole armor of God (Eph. 6:11). God desires on the one hand, the confidence and dependence among His own that so remarkably characterized Hezekiah's career; but on the other hand He also desires the energy of faith that contends, withstands, and stands firm with the arms of the Spirit so that the Lord may be glorified in our warfare, just as He is to be glorified in our walk.
How humiliating that this deliverance which the Lord brought about could only be momentary! Even if the Assyrian could not seize Jerusalem, later on Babylon succeeded in doing so, because not only was the king's heart lifted up, but above all, the people's heart had not changed. "Ye have not had regard," says Isaiah, alluding to the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib, "unto the Maker thereof, neither have ye looked unto Him that fashioned it long ago" (Isa. 22:11). And so the historic judgment through Babylon came upon this people before the prophetic judgment that will come through the Assyrian in the last days. We find a very interesting description of this latter judgment in Isaiah 22, which alludes to the historical events we are considering in order to make known what will take place at the time of the end. Firstly, in Isa. 22:1-6 we find an obvious allusion to the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, as it is described in 2 Kings 25:4-5; then, in Isa. 22:7-11, an allusion that is just as striking to the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib under Hezekiah; but this siege reveals the moral condition of the people (Isa. 22:11), resulting not in their deliverance, but in their judgment, for their iniquity is not forgiven (Isa. 22:14). This whole scene ends with the destruction of Shebna, the unfaithful administrator, (the Antichrist); and with the establishment of Eliakim, (Christ), who will in righteousness bear the whole administration of the kingdom of David (Isa. 22:15-25). The first siege of Jerusalem in the last days corresponds to the two events in this chapter, whereas the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib under Hezekiah is in fact a picture of the second prophetic siege in which Jerusalem will be spared and her last enemy, the Assyrian, will be destroyed by the Lord's appearing.
In 2 Chron. 32:9-15 Sennacherib sends his servants to Jerusalem to Hezekiah and all those of Judah who were in Jerusalem. Here we see the enemy's delusion. He says: "On what do ye rely that ye abide in the siege in Jerusalem?" (2 Chron. 32:10). He considers the people to be besieged even before he has begun the siege. He little suspects that he, Sennacherib, will be the one besieged by God, and he does not know that his power and all the great army with which he is covering the land, conquering all its fortified cities, will not stand for one day before a handful of weak, distressed people whose confidence, however, is in the Lord. "If God be for us, who against us?" Sennacherib says: "Does not Hezekiah persuade you, to give yourselves over to die by famine and by thirst?" (2 Chron. 32:11), and he is unaware that Jerusalem already possesses for herself alone all the hidden fountains of water and will soon be channeling them away in view of future aggression! Where do such delusions on part of the enemy come from? From knowing neither God nor His power. Sennacherib's pride causes him to esteem his own power much higher than that of the God of Israel, whom he likens to the idols of the nations. He confounds the false gods with the true God. To him, it is foolish to want only one God, only one altar. Are such thoughts foreign to the present-day world? True, the world has not yet "reproached the living God" like Sennacherib, but does it have any more esteem for God than for its own idols, and in the objects of its lusts is it not seeking something to put its conscience to sleep with regard to the judgment which is rapidly approaching?
In our book Sennacherib particularly emphasizes these words: "How much less shall your God deliver you out of my hand!" (2 Chron. 32:15). What a terrible awakening this proud, ungodly man will have: the destruction of his army, shame, and his own children becoming his murderers!
Sennacherib despises and blasphemes the Lord, and likens Him to idols (see 2 Chron. 32:14-17,19), and this stands out in our account whose brevity contrasts with those of Kings and Isaiah. His servants speak "against Jehovah, the true God, and against His servant Hezekiah." What a privilege for this godly king! The enemy in his hatred points him out as a companion of the sovereign God! Indeed, Hezekiah, following the example of Christ, could say: "The reproaches of them that reproach Thee have fallen upon me," and, again, "He that rejects me, rejects Him that sent me" (Psa. 69:9; Luke 10:16).
The enemy sought to frighten the people of Jerusalem and "to trouble them, that they might take the city" (2 Chron. 32:18). It is the same in all ages. When Satan fails to seduces us he seeks to frighten us in order to rob us of our possessions, spoil us of our joy, and replace the security and peace that we enjoy under our God's protection with agitation, distress, and grief. Let us be firm, like Hezekiah, and we shall see the enemy's defeat: "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly," and nothing will stop this judgment. The angel of Jehovah annihilates Sennacherib's army; he himself falls beneath the blows of those "that came forth of his own bowels" in the presence of a powerless god whose protection he was seeking and whom he opposed to the living God; whereas Hezekiah is delivered, protected on every hand, overwhelmed with goods, and magnified in the sight of all the nations (2 Chron. 32:22-23).
Thus ends the first trial of Hezekiah, to the glory of the God whom he served.
In verse 24 we find the second trial. The accounts of 2 Kings 20:1-11 and Isaiah 38:1-22 are quite different. Our account here consists of but few words: "In those days" — in the days when Hezekiah was grappling with the Assyrian — "Hezekiah was sick unto death, and he prayed to Jehovah; and He spoke to him and gave him a sign" (v. 24). We will limit ourselves to what is told us here, having treated this subject in detail elsewhere.
Death by sickness, the usual end of all men, here threatens the faithful king. What is even more poignant is that he, God's instrument for the salvation of the people, is about to be brusquely cut off at the very moment when Judah needs him more than ever. Hezekiah's only resource is to commit himself to God in humble dependence on Him: "He prayed to Jehovah"; he had recourse to the One who had raised him up and guided him up to that very point. And Jehovah "spoke to him." Wasn't that worth more than anything else? For such a result, was the trial too great? When the believer can say, "The Lord spoke to me in the trial," would he desire, however it may be, to have escaped the suffering? "And [God] gave him a sign"; He worked a miracle in his favor. How precious Hezekiah was to God! In the trial he not only experienced divine communications, but he obtained certainty of the immense interest God bore toward him. Hezekiah was reduced to the most complete nothingness here; after having been without strength in the presence of the enemy he found himself without resource in the presence of death; yet nevertheless his position was infinitely elevated, since he had God for him, identifying Himself with all his interests and all his being! Thus, in this second trial Hezekiah acquires new blessings.
There remains yet a third trial for him. Job had had the same number and the same kind of trials: first enemies (Job 1:13-22), then sickness (Job 2:7-10), and lastly friends (2:11-13). Such also was Hezekiah's third trial. Would he come through victoriously when, facing the same trial, Job had sinned in words and had fallen?
In 2 Chron. 32:31 we read: "However in the matter of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart." Such was Hezekiah's trial and also the occasion of his fall. Berodach-baladan seeks his friendship and compliments him on his recovery. At this moment the Lord leaves Hezekiah to himself to prove him. This was necessary; this man of God had to learn to know his own heart. God could have kept him from falling just as on the first two occasions, but then he would not have experienced the root of evil that was within himself. Here was a matter much more important than certain partial failings, or certain acts of sin, of which Hezekiah's career, considered in the three accounts we have of it, offers more than one example; this was a trial which, as in Job's case, exposed the evil hidden in the depths of his heart and caused the patriarch to say: "I abhor myself!"
2 Chron. 32:25 shows us what this trial by which Hezekiah was worsted consisted of: "Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was lifted up; and there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem." When Jehovah Himself had magnified him in the sight of all nations (2 Chron. 32:23), Hezekiah's heart was lifted up. Instead of continuing in the humble attitude that characterized him at the time of the first two trials, he used divine blessings to feed his pride, that pride which ever since Adam is at the very bottom of sinful man's heart.
We will not lay stress on the details of Hezekiah's fall, related elsewhere; it seems to us that even to mention them would be to spoil the impression the Word of God would give us here. Our account is so well suited to the divine plan of Chronicles that any other addition would detract. Chronicles brings out grace, not responsibility. But here it shows us a believer's heart left to his own responsibility only one time, without grace intervening. The only time in Hezekiah's history where this took place his fall is complete and deep, even irremediable, since its consequence was the destruction of Jerusalem and the carrying away of Judah. But now our book insists on one thing that the other two accounts scarcely mention: At the moment when everything is irremediably ruined grace intervenes to set Hezekiah's conscience before God, in a condition which He can fully approve. If sin has abounded, grace much more abounds; grace triumphs and delivers Hezekiah and his people (momentarily, no doubt, for here it is not a matter of the counsels of God, but rather of His ways) from a judgment which would have utterly destroyed them. "Hezekiah," we are told, "humbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of Jehovah came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah" (2 Chron. 32:26). The king humbled himself with regard to the pride that he had nourished in his heart and manifested outwardly. Having learned his lesson, he again takes his only proper place in the presence of God, and in the words of another, says like Job: "Behold, I am naught: what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth" (Job 40:4). Like Job, Hezekiah added: "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6).
What a precious thing it is that Hezekiah's humiliation produces fruit in those around him; "the inhabitants of Jerusalem" humbled themselves with him. Once again the eyes of the Lord could discover "good things" in Judah; it is interesting to see that God attentively looks for any manifestation of conscience that may give Him an occasion to continue in patience toward His people. "The Lord... is longsuffering towards you," the apostle Peter tells us. Now the trial is over; the lesson has been learned.
God can give to His beloved king which He will give in another measure altogether to Christ, the king according to His counsels, because He has always walked — that which Hezekiah failed to do — in the path of humility and meekness, yet at the same time in the path of truth and righteousness (Psa. 45:4).
"Hezekiah had very much riches and honor: and he made himself treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all manner of pleasant vessels; storehouses also for the increase of corn and new wine and oil, and stalls for all manner of beasts, and he procured flocks for the stalls. And he provided for himself cities, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance; for God gave him very much substance" (2 Chron. 32:27-29).
The friendship of the world is the greatest danger we can run up against. In this trial Hezekiah was worsted, but the God of grace did not abandon him; He restored him, and, after this restoration, bore testimony to him. Even in his death God gives him a place of honor that no other son of David ever had! "They buried him in the highest place of the sepulchers of the sons of David: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death" (2 Chron. 32:33).
What a God is ours! He it is who gives grace and glory. If man is to be reckoned with at all, it will only show that he does not merit grace nor would ever attain to glory!