Sermon Tone Analysis

*Hezekiah “A Trio of Trials”  2 Chronicles 31&30*

*/It isn’t so much what happens to you; it’s what  happens in you that’s important./*

*Trials &Testings usually come after times of great blessing, and Hezekiah faced three of them.

Invasion, illness and pride.

*

*People are a lot like tea bags; they don’t know their own strength until they get into hot water.*

Last week we looked at all the good things King Hezekiah was doing.

His reign can certainly be called a reign of revival, as we see the nation come back to The Lord under the leadership of King Hezekiah.

The Temple was re-opened and made ready for worship.

The spiritual leaders consecrated themselves, they were prepared to serve and worship God properly.

Hezekiah invites the Israelites to join those in Judah at Jerusalem for the Passover.

Really good things are happening in the nation and it is even affecting some of the other tribes to the north.

Chapter 31 of 2 Chronicles records some of the results of this revival in Judah.

*2 Kings 18-20 and Isaiah (36-39) speak of same events.

*

*/1/**/ Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the Asherim and pulled down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all.

Then all the sons of Israel returned to their cities, each to his possession.

/*Good things are happening.

They’ve turned from their idols and then they smash them.

A sign of real repentance & revival.

*/ 2 And Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites by their divisions, each according to his service, both the priests and the Levites, for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister and to give thanks and to praise in the gates of the camp of the Lord.

/*

*/3 He also appointed the king’s portion of his goods for the burnt offerings, namely, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths and for the new moons and for the fixed festivals, as it is written in the law of the Lord. 4 Also he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, that they might devote themselves to the law of the Lord.

/*

The priests and levites again begin serving as the scriptures commanded in offering the daily sacrifices.

Also we see the King leading in providing for the sacrifices and the people follow and provide for the priests and levites, and actually they give such an abundance that room needs to be made in the Temple.

Things are going so good.

(Vs 5-19)This is awesome!

Now you can hear some of the pessimists just waiting for something bad to happen.

*/20/**/ Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah; and he did what was good, right and true before the Lord his God.

21 Every work which he began in the service of the house of God in law and in commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and prospered.

/*

Look at how wonderful all this is.

The King is sold out for The Lord here, he is on fire for God.

These are tremendous things that are said here.

Wow.

Look at the change that this good and godly leader made initiated in such a short amount of time.

*/2 Chron 29:36 Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, because the thing came about suddenly.

/*

In just months this is a different nation from the one his father had lead.

The King has been doing all this good stuff.

Now look what happens in vs 1 of Chapter 32

*/Chapter 32/*

*/Sennacherib Invades Judah/*

*/1/**/ After these acts of faithfulness Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and besieged the fortified cities, and thought to break into them for himself./*

After all these good things Hezekiah has been doing now comes this great big trial.

Things had been going so well.

Now this enemy is on the move, the enemy has set out to destroy.

And some would cry, but that’s not fair.

It’s not fair.

Life is not fair.

Trials come our way, to the believer and the unbeliever.

Some wrongly think that if you do everything right, if we are right with God we will never have any problems, never deal with any trials.

Nowhere do the scriptures teach that.

Often because we are doing the right things problems, difficulties, trials come our way.

Job was one of those people that faced some trials.

*Job 5:7  But mankind is born for trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.

*

*/Job’s attitude is inspiring: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (/**/Job 13:15/**/)./*

Job’s friends would have diagnosed that Hezekiah must have sin in his life.

The Health and wealth preachers would say that Hezekiah doesn’t have enough faith.

But it is clear in the scriptures that our Faith will be tested.

And faith that can’t be tested can’t be trusted.

Real faith can handle testing.

Real faith is made stronger through testing and trial.

Oswald Chambers penned this, the author of  My Utmost for His Highest.

A saint's life is in the hands of God as a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer.

God is aiming at something the saint cannot see; he stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says, "I cannot stand any more."

But God does not heed; he goes on stretching until his purpose is in sight, then he lets fly.

We are here for God's designs, not for our own.

\\ — Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

*/The Invasion./*

After other times of awakening, the nation was given protection and rest from enemies (2 Chron.

15:15; 20:29–30), but this time, God allowed the enemy to come in.

God was testing the faith of the king and the people to see how deep it really was.

It is one thing to participate in a religious meeting, even have a revival meeting but quite something else to have your land invaded and your capital city threatened by invasion.

*/2 Now when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to make war on Jerusalem,  3 he decided with his officers and his warriors to cut off the supply of water from the springs which were outside the city, and they helped him.

/*

*/ 4 So many people assembled and stopped up all the springs and the stream which flowed through the region, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water?” /*

They don’t lay down and say oh woe is me, The king leads the people to action, to deal with this trial.

They even accomplish an amazing achievement.

*SILOAM [sigh LOW um]* (/sent/) — a storage pool and water tunnel that provided a water supply for early residents of the city of Jerusalem.

The pool and tunnel drew water from the Gihon spring outside the city wall.

Hezekiah’s tunnel was discovered accidentally in 1838 and was explored by the American traveler, Edward Robinson, and his missionary friend, Eli Smith.

They found the Siloam tunnel to be about 518 meters (1,750 feet) long, although the straight line distance between the storage pool and the Gihon spring is only 332 meters (1,090 feet).

By any standards, however, Hezekiah’s tunnel was a tremendous achievement.

Some folks do their best work when in the midst of trials & testing.

And the King has further plans.

He is active in the midst of this, he is not passive just waiting for something to happen.

He is forward looking and makes preparations.

*/5 And he took courage and rebuilt all the wall that had been broken down and erected towers on it, and built another outside wall and strengthened the Millo in the city of David, and made weapons and shields in great number.

6 He appointed military officers over the people and gathered them to him in the square at the city gate, and spoke encouragingly to them, saying, /*

*/7 “Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be dismayed because of the king of Assyria nor because of all the horde that is with him; for the one with us is greater than the one with him.

/*

*/8 “With him is only an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.”

And the people relied on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

/*

1 John 4:4  *“You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”*

Hezekiah is saying trust The Lord, look to Him.

The people look to Hezekiah and  his leadership, his trust in The Lord.

What a great example he is to the people.

People are looking at you in the midst of trial & crisis as well.

*/Sennacherib Undermines Hezekiah/*

*/9/**/ After this Sennacherib king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem while he was besieging Lachish with all his forces with him, against Hezekiah king of Judah and against all Judah who were at Jerusalem, saying, 10 “Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, ‘On what are you trusting that you are remaining in Jerusalem under siege?

11‘Is not Hezekiah misleading you to give yourselves over to die by hunger and by thirst, saying, “The Lord our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria”?

12 ‘Has not the same Hezekiah taken away His high places and His altars, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, “You shall worship before one altar, and on it you shall burn incense”?

/*

*/13‘Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands?

Were the gods of the nations of the lands able at all to deliver their land from my hand?

/*

*/14 ‘Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed who could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand?

15 ‘Now therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you like this, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers.