Every believing parent has a deep desire that their children love the Lord with their whole heart. Yet, there is no way to guarantee this reality. Righteous children follow unrighteous parents, and righteous parents sometimes discover that their children will not follow the Lord.

Although Hezekiah was a righteous king, his son and Judah’s next king, Manasseh, was wicked. He began to reign when he was only 12. Sadly, he chose to be the opposite of his father. Whereas Hezekiah tore down the high places and idolatrous worship centers, Manasseh rebuilt them (vv. 3–4). While Hezekiah tried to be like David (18:3), Manasseh followed the example of Ahab, the wicked king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (21:3)! To know the future, he didn’t avail himself of God’s ordained prophets, but instead “consulted mediums and spiritists” (v. 6). He even “sacrificed his own son” (v. 6). Furthermore, he abused the citizens of Jerusalem, putting innocent people to death (v. 16).

Surprisingly, Manasseh had a 55-year long reign, the longest of any king of Israel or Judah (v. 1). A result of this long reign was that the nation followed him in his wicked ways. “Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed” (v. 9).

The result of all this wickedness was that God finally declared that Judah would go into exile. While the declaration for the northern kingdom came after its first king, God delayed this judgment for Judah, but judgment did come. “I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria…and I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down” (v. 13).

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Often our heroes have complicated legacies. No one is perfect, but finding out that someone we respected has made bad or evil choices is disappointing. In the Bible, Saul, David, Solomon each had complicated legacies. That pattern continues with one of David’s successors, Hezekiah (2 Kings 18–20).

We’ve seen that Hezekiah was a righteous king because he faithfully obeyed the commandments of the Lord (18:1–6). Yet he faced a significant crisis when Sennacherib, a new Assyrian invader, attacked Jerusalem in 701 BC. Sennacherib besieged the city and cut it off from the outside world. True to his convictions, Hezekiah turned to the Lord and was delivered by an angel (19:15, 35–37)! Later, facing a mortal illness, he asked God for mercy and was spared (20:1–10).

Therefore, it is difficult to discover that at the end of his life, Hezekiah did something to mar his legacy. He received visitors from Babylon, an up-and-coming power in the ancient Near East. But when he met the emissaries, instead of drawing their attention to Yahweh, he took the credit: “They saw everything in my palace…There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them” (v. 15). Here, Hezekiah takes full credit for his success. He chose to ignore the reality that he was saved only because God had delivered him!

God did not take kindly to this misrepresentation. “The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left,” God said (v. 17). By showing off his kingdom’s power, Hezekiah revealed that his confidence was misplaced. He began his reign trusting God, he ended by taking the glory for himself.

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Life can change in a moment. A text message pops up with good news and things may never be the same. A phone call brings bad news, and your world is turned upside down. Most change takes a long time, but this is not because God is unable to come to our aid. When His time is right, He is fully capable of fixing things instantly.

Confronted with the encircling armies of Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, Hezekiah finally turned to the Lord for help. With the visible symbols of repentance on his body, torn clothing and sackcloth, he went into the Temple (v. 2). At the same time, he sent servants to Isaiah, the prophet, asking, “Pray for the remnant that still survives.” (v. 4). The cities of Judah had been destroyed. The capital of the country was surrounded. Hezekiah had tried everything! Now he was down to his last hope—the God of Israel.

Isaiah’s response came quickly. “This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard” (v. 6). It seems Hezekiah took these words to heart, because when Sennacherib sent another disheartening communiqué, he took the letter into the Temple and laid it out before the Lord. “Give ear, LORD, and hear; open your eyes, LORD, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God” (v. 16). He asked God to deliver them, “so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, LORD, are God” (v. 19).

God heard Hezekiah’s cry for help. Through the prophet Isaiah, He assured the king that his enemies would not enter the city. “I will defend this city and save it,” the Lord said. The defense came suddenly, and in one evening the lives of the Judeans were delivered (v. 35)!

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