Last week Pastor Doug shared from Joshua 24 and asked us, “Who are
you going to choose to serve?” This reminded that in 2016 when I read
the Bible through chronologically I realized how many of the kings of
Israel did not lead them in true worship. Hezekiah was one of those
kings…he didn’t always get things right. There are some very interest-ing
stories in the Old Testament about him. But early in his reign, he
obeyed God in a way that no other king had to that point.
2 Kings 18:3-7 says, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord,
just as his father David had done. He removed the high places,
smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He
broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time
the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.
Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like
him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He
held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands
the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was
successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of
Assyria and did not serve him.”
The “high places” were sites on hills or mountains where the people of
Israel followed the traditions of other nations and worshipped other
gods. They were places for idols and altars to things who were never
alive and could never help the Israelites. God said of them in Isaiah
44:9 “All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are
worthless.”
But you can tear down your own high places and return to God. Isaiah
30:15 and 18 encourage us with this: “This is what the Sovereign Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, says: ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.’…
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to
show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all
who wait for him!” Amen.
Pastor Cindy