In Second Kings, chapter eighteen, verse five, after the fall of Samaria and the northern kingdom, the history of Judah continues for the southern kingdom. The beginning of the reign of Hezekiah: He is one of the best kings Judah ever had because of his trust in and reliance upon God. Hezekiah trusted deeply in the Lord, kept His commandments as in verses three through six, and urged the people to turn from sin and return to God as in Second Chronicles thirty, verses six through nine. At the beginning of his reign, he repaired and cleansed the house of the Lord, restored the priests and Levites to their ministry, and reinstated the celebration of the Passover feast as in Second Chronicles twenty-nine, verse three, and chapter thirty, verse five, respectively. He vigorously sought to destroy all idolatrous altars and high places in Judah, as in verse four.
Unlike Hoshea in Second Kings seventeen, one through four, unlike Ahaz in Chapter sixteen, seven to ten, Hezekiah discarded trust in man and – it may be after some hesitation – put his trust wholly in God. Faith is what God required as the condition on which He would give His aid, as in Isaiah thirty, verses one through seven, and what no previous kings since the Assyrian troubles began could bring themselves to do.
In abolishing idolatry, there was danger, as has been intimated, of disobliging his subjects and provoking them to rebel. However, he trusted the Lord to bear him out and defend him in what he did. When he came to the crown, he found his kingdom encompassed with enemies but did not apply to foreign and heathenish powers for aid or assistance as his father Ahaz had done, but trusted in the God of Israel to be the keeper of Israel and to establish him in his kingdom.
Devout people of all ages and stations are very much like each other. The elements of godliness are always the same. Christians today have the family likeness on their faces. These words, which are an outline sketch of the king’s character, are a sketch of the religious life at all times and in all places. He realized it. Why may not we? He achieved it amid much ignorance; why should not we amid our blaze of knowledge? He accomplished it amid the temptations of a monarchy. Why not we?
So this king had a certain measure of knowledge about the character of God, and that measure led him to lean all his weight upon the Lord. You and I know more about God and His ways and purposes than Hezekiah. However, we can make no better use of it than he did – translate our knowledge into faith and rely with simple, absolute confidence on Him whose name we know in Christ more fully and blessedly than was possible to Hezekiah.