Chapter 18

(MSB says 18 begins the last major division of the books of Kings.  It goes from Hezekiah in 722 BC to the captivity and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.  Kings opens with the building of the temple and ends with the destruction of the temple.  A sad story of a people who will not remain true to God.)

Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, begins to reign in Judah.  MSB has a lot of numbers, says Hezekiah was a co-regent for a number of years, and began to reign on his own in 715 BC and reigned until 695 BC.  He reigned another 9 years with his son, Manasseh.  Isaiah and Micah were active during this reign.

Hezekiah was a very good King, following the ways of David.  He removed the high places and cut down the Asherah.  I think he is the first one to do that.  Good kings before him still left the high places intact.  It says he also destroyed the bronze serpent Moses had put up in the wilderness.  Israel still had it and some were worshiping it up to this time.  They called it Nehushtan.  Says he was the best of all the kings that came after, and that came before.  I think this would make him a better king than Solomon - after all, Solomon let things go the wrong way.  (Says the same thing about Josiah later.)

2024 - Samaria fell to the besieging Assyrians in 722 BC.  Hezekiah was "of age" when this happened, though he only began to reign on his own in 715 BC at the age of 25.  By then, the northern tribes were taken into slavery, relocated, and Samaria had been resettled.  He had no allies to the north to help him.  Hoshea had appealed to So in Egypt, was found out, and then put in prison by Assyria because of his disloyalty.  Hezekiah was in a very precarious spot as he began to reign.

vs. 7 says he rebelled against the King of Assyria and would not serve him.  He struck down the Philistines.  In Hezekiah's fourth year, Shalmaneser, King of Assyria comes against Samaria and lays siege to it.  Takes three years for it to fall.  What was it like in Jerusalem, not so very far away, to watch Samaria surrounded for three years, to watch that nation try to go on with no King and no capitol city?  No word at all from their government for three years.  Did Hezekiah consider going to their aid?  Did Samaria under Hoshea appeal to Jerusalem and others for help during that three years?  That is a long time to do nothing....

Once the city falls, the Samaritans were taken away as captives.  This was the ultimate result of their choice to NOT follow the commands of God.  vs 12:

12 because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed. [2Ki 18:12 ESV]

The northern kingdom never existed again.  The people never came back.  Present day Israel encompasses that territory, but the people there were made up of the few who escaped exile and those that Assyria sent there to resettle the area.  As we read earlier, in Isaiah I think it was.  Could have been a footnote.  Or maybe it was in 2K17, and this is a repeat of it.  

In vs 13, another Assyrian King, Sennacherib, takes all the fortified cities of Judah.  Remember, Hezekiah has rebelled against Assyria.  Hezekiah sends a message to Sennacherib admitting he's made a mistake, and offering to pay whatever price Sennacherib asks.  The price is in gold and silver, and a lot of it.  Hezekiah puts together all he can find, mostly stripped from the Temple, its vessels, and it pillars and doors, overlaid with gold.  A delegation from Sennacherib arrives, and a delegation from Jerusalem goes out to meet them.  The message from Sennacherib is a question about whom Hezekiah is trusting to protect him.  Sennacherib thinks it is either Pharoah, in Egypt, and there are many aspersions cast on him by the delegation, or on God.  Sennacherib knows that Hezekiah tore down all the Asherah, and thinks those were for worshiping the God of Hezekiah, so why would he think God would help him.  Sennacherib has a lot of information, but it is interesting that his information is only twisted half truth and partial misunderstanding.

At the end of this, the delegation from Hezekiah asks the Rabshakeh who speaks for Sennacherib, to speak in Aramaic, and not in Hebrew.  They don't want the "public", the men assembled on the wall, to hear the words of Sennacherib.  So the Rabshakeh addresses the men on the wall directly, and in their own language.  He tells them they are doomed if Hezekiah persists in rebellion.  He says not to listen if Hezekiah tells them that God will deliver them.  He tells them if they'll come out and surrender, they will live on their own land, or on a land much like it elsewhere, but they will live.  He tells them that the gods of other nations didn't protect them from Sennacherib, how could they think the God of Israel could do better? 

The words are reported back to Hezekiah.

Study:  Seems like Sennacherib makes three claims.  Look at each.  I suspect he pitted himself directly against the living God, almost a challenge to God, and we will see the results in coming chapters.