28 April

Bible in 365 Days                                                                            

2 Kings 20-22

2 Kings 20

In this chapter we have the account of the last days of Hezekiah. From a severe sickness he was delivered in answer to prayer and by the intervention of the prophet. He again manifested weakness during the Babylonians visit, by showing them all the treasures of his house. For this he was rebuked by Isaiah, who prophesied that the things they had seen the visitors would ultimately bear away.

At the close of the chapter we have a brief incidental glimpse of the home administration of the king, but we are referred to the Book of Chronicles for particulars. This reign is in very many respects most remarkable, coming as it did in the midst of days so full of darkness, and so terribly characterized by corruption. Everything seemed to be against Hezekiah, and yet perhaps in his loyalty we may see the protesting reaction of the son from a father which does sometimes manifest itself in the life of a man brought under such influence as that of Isaiah.

At least, the story reveals how much one man, seriously loyal to truth, may accomplish in the midst of the most adverse and difficult circumstances.

2 Kings 21

Here we have the story of reaction. It manifested itself in two reigns, both utterly evil, Manasseh's, lasting fifty- five years, and Amon's, lasting two years.

The story of Manasseh's sin was not merely of personal wrongdoing, but also of the deliberate undoing of what his father had been at such pains to accomplish. What we have hinted at more than once as issuing from such failure as that of the chosen people is here declared in so many words. Manasseh seduced them to do evil more than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel. Nothing can be clearer as a warrant for the absolute righteousness of the judgment that fell upon them when they were driven out.

After Manasseh, Amon became king. Some of his servants conspired against him, and slew him. But so utterly depraved had become the people of the land, and so completely were they in sympathy with the evil ways of these evil kings, that they slew the man who had slain Amon.

2 Kings 22

With Josiah's accession came the last attempt at reformation before Judah was finally swept into captivity. Josiah's first act of reformation was to restore the Temple. All that followed grew out of that.

In connection with it came the discovery of the book of the Law. The condition of affairs in Judah may be gathered from this discovery. The nation had become utterly corrupt during the fifty-seven years covering the reigns of Manasseh and Amon. The Temple was neglected and deserted, and it would seem as though neither king nor priest knew of the whereabouts of this book. No doubt they were aware of its existence, but so far had the people grown from recognition of, and response to, the divine government, that the sacred writings had been neglected and the actual Temple copy lost.

The effect of the book on the king revealed his ignorance of its content. Therein he found how far the nation had wandered from the divine ideal, and how terrible were the curses pronounced on them for their wandering. Having a conscience quick and sensitive, he at once realized both the danger threatening them and its cause, and turned for counsel to the prophetess Huldah. Speaking on divine authority, she recognized the sincerity of the king and the corruption of the people; and declared, in effect that the reformation to follow would be unreal so far as the people were concerned, but that because of Josiah's loyalty to Jehovah he would be gathered in peace to his fathers before the final blow should fall.