2Kings 18:1-8
Against All Odds
Does faith work? Is what we preach and teach inside the walls of this building
really worth anything once you walk outside of it? The answer is YES. God is
real and faith works. We can see that in the life of an Old Testament king
named Hezekiah.
Let’s meet this man.
I. A Faith Built
A. To understand better Hezekiah's, let's look at how he was raised.
B. \\#2Kings 16:1\\ Hezekiah’s father was Ahaz. (2Kings 16 and
2Chronicles 28.)
1. To describe Ahaz briefly would be to say that he did not do
what was right in the Lord’s sight.
a. King Ahaz made alliances with Assyria, against the direct
counsel of Isaiah (Isaiah 7)
b. He practiced and introduced many of his people to idolatry.
\\#2Chron 28:4\\
c. Because of his wicked life, God took him at the age of 35.
d. He was such a wicked king that the people refused to bury him
in the cemetery with his fathers \\#2Chron 29:19\\.
2. I have to wonder what a man like that was thinking.
a. What kind of life did he want to lead?
b. What kind of legacy did he hope to leave?
3. More times that not, a man does not make the decision to live this
kind of life for himself. He makes it for his family
a. Children are mirror reflection of their parents.
b. It is proven that a father who abuses his children is more
likely to produce children who will abuse their own kids.
c. I see fathers whose everyday attitudes are sowed into the
fabric of their children all the time.
d. Attitudes about school, work, women, pornography, gambling,
profanity, tobacco, alcohol, church, God, and salvation
are often passed down from generation to generation.
4. To make matters even worse, I have noticed two more things.
a. I have noticed that what parents tend to do in moderation,
their children tend to do in excess.
b. I have noticed that it is easier to lead children the wrong
way than it is to lead them the right way.
(1) Like going downhill, a little push can get you started
but a far greater effort is required to get you stopped.
(2) Parents often realize too late the example they are
setting for their children.
C. But Hezekiah decided to build a life for God.
1. Hezekiah defied the odds and went the opposite direction from his
father.
2. Perhaps…
a. …he had a godly mother.
b. …he had a godly nanny.
c. …he had a godly teacher.
d. …he just had a tender and wise heart
3. The Bible gives a detailed description of Hezekiah’s relationship
with God.
a. \\#2Kings 18:4\\ Hezekiah removed the false worship.
(1) Sometimes, to worship God, wicked things must first be
removed.
(2) wicked lusts, wicked habits, even wicked influences
(3) Interestingly, the brazen serpent which Moses used to
heal the murmuring Jews of their snake bites (Numbers
21) had also become an idol.
(4) It too had to be destroyed.
b. \\#2Kings 18:5\\ He uniquely trusted the Lord.
(1) There was no king before or after him who trusted in the
Lord so.
(2) What a testimony.
c. \\#2Kings 18:6\\ He clave to the Lord.
(1) To cleave means that he would not let go.
(2) He would not be separated from the Lord not by trails,
or problems, or circumstances.
d. \\#2Kings 18:6\\ He kept the Lord’s commandments. He must
have really loved the Lord.
John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
D. Hezekiah, perhaps better than any other, illustrates the choice WE
have in determining our own walk with God.
1. Too many want to blame others for their decisions and errors.
a. "It’s my parents fault."
b. "It’s my environment’s fault."
c. And if they can’t find anyone specific to blame, "It ‘the
man’s’ fault."
2. Hezekiah had a rotten father, and corrupt environment, and all
the power and money in his kingdom to steer him the wrong way;
but he may a choice to live for God like no other man had ever
done!
3. If Hezekiah could do it, you can too!
4. What’s more, God requires it of you!
II. A Faith Enriched
A. Hezekiah not only built a faith. He enriched his faith.
1. 2Kings tells us how Hezekiah build his personal faith and how he
attempted to build a national faith by removing the false idols.
2. 2Chronicles 29-30 detail how Hezekiah attempted to lead both
Judah and Israel in a great revival, the like of which had not
been seen since the days of King David.
2Chron 30:1 And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to
Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at
Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel.
a. King David lived almost 300 years before Hezekiah.
b. During that time, Israel had split into two kingdoms.
(1) The northern kingdom, Israel, had not had a single revival
in those 300 years.
(2) Israel was being carried away captive during Hezekiah's
reign.
c. Hezekiah was attempting to so something that had NEVER been
done before, that was to bring Judah and the remnant of
Israel back together in worship of their God.
3. There was a great revival in Judah, however much of the remnant
of Israel refused to participate.
B. By serving God, Hezekiah’s faith (and life) was enriched.
1. To serve God is not just us working. It is God’s means of
enriching our faith.
2. The more you do for God, the more of God presence and power you
get.
a. \\#2Kings 18:7\\ God’s presence was with him.
b. \\#2Kings 18:7\\ God prospered him.
c. \\#2Kings 18:8\\ God’s power was upon him.
C. The reason many Christians never have much of a relationship WITH God
is because they never do anything FOR God.
1. To have a relationship with someone, you must get to know them.
2. For you to get to know a person, he or she must reveal themselves
to you.
3. Why should God manifest Himself to someone who isn’t going to do
anything with it?
III. A Faith Tested
A. Here is the reality of faith.
1. Just because you choose God, that does not mean you will not have
problems.
2. In some ways, you will have more.
3. The promise of faith is not that you will not have problems but
that God will be with you in the problems.
B. \\#2Kings 18:7\\ As a result of Hezekiah’s faith, he felt he should
not serve the King of Assyria.
1. Hezekiah inherited some of the judgments of his father.
a. Ahaz, against the Lord’s commands, made a league with Assyria.
b. Because of that sin, God determined to judge Judah with
Assyrian.
2. Hezekiah was attempting to set right a wrong his father had
committed in making the league so he broke it.
a. When Hezekiah did that, Assyria turned on Judah.
2Kings 18:13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of
Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.
b. The FENCED CITIES are the fortified cities, those with an
army and defenses.
c. Assyria moved like a flooding river and conquered them all,
leaving only the capital, Jerusalem, remaining.
3. Hezekiah was in one of those situations where no matter what you
do, you are going to have problems.
a. Assyria’s victory was pre-determined from the time his father
made the league with Assyria.
b. Nothing Hezekiah could do would stop it.
c. Here Hezekiah was, a righteous king, serving his God like no
one before him or after him, and his whole kingdom gets
wiped out!
d. What do you do in a situation like that?
C. Hezekiah cleaved to God!
1. He didn’t do anything foolish.
a. One of my favorite verses relating to Job.
Job 1:22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
b. The reason it is my favorite is because so often, in times
of distress, my first reaction was a foolish reaction.
(1) Sometimes I expressed doubt.
(2) Sometimes I got angry with God.
(3) Sometimes I just rebelled against God.
2. He prayed.
2Kings 19:15 And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of
Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone,
of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.
16 LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear
the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God.
17 Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their
lands,
18 And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work
of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
19 Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand,
that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou
only.
a. Reading Hezekiah’s prayer, you quickly see how ordinary it was.
(1) There is no secret "get-your-prayers-answered" word in it.
(2) Hezekiah did not pray it while engaged in some religious
ritual.
(3) Really, as far as prayers goes, this one is nothing
special.
(4) Yet, Hezekiah got hold of God!
b. It wasn’t what Hezekiah prayed but who Hezekiah was that got
God’s attention.
(1) Hezekiah wasn’t using gimmicks to get God’s power.
(2) Hezekiah was using the faith that he built and enriched.
3. He trusted God.
a. Hezekiah did what he could.
(1) He prayed and cleaved to God.
(2) After that, all he could do was wait and trust.
b. Believe it or not, the hard part of faith is not building it,
but waiting on God to honor it.
(1) Now, if you are still in the building stage, that may
not seem possible, but it is true.
(2) Don’t take my word for it:
1. Ask Abraham who waited around 24 years for a son.
2. Ask Joseph who waited 13 years to get out of prison
and 22 before he say his family again.
3. Or ask David who was anointed to be king as a
sheepherder, but did not get to the throne until
he was thirty years old.
D. As a result of Hezekiah’s faith, God moved to deliver Israel.
2Kings 19:35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went
out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five
thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead
corpses.
1. This defeat defended Jerusalem and saved the nation of Judah.
2. But it also broke Assyria’s back. This defeat began a
decline in a mighty world power that eventually lead to it
complete destruction.
3. God spared one nation, toppled another, and altered the course
of world events because of a man’s faith!
The question we started with was, "Does faith work?" The answer is YES. God
is real and faith works. It worked for Hezekiah, and it will work for you.
Matthew 17:20 And Jesus said unto them…If ye have faith as a grain of mustard
seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall
remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
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