Bible In One Year Day 184 (2 Kings 18, 2 Chronicles 29, Psalm 141)

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Agape Bible Study 
2 Kings 18 

2 Kings 18:1-8 ~ The reign of Hezekiah of Judah prior to the fall of Samaria

Chapter 18:1-8 returns to 716 BC, six years prior to the fall of Samaria and the third year of the reign of Hoshea, king of Israel.  Davidic heir Hezekiah succeeds his father Ahaz as king of Judah.  As with all the Davidic kings is mother is named (with the exception of Jotham whose mother is not named probably because she died in childbirth or before he ascended the throne and therefore never served as Judah's Gebirah).  Hezekiah's mother, Ahijah, must have been a devout follower of Yahweh because her son did not follow the path of his father, Ahaz.  She may have been a descendant of the righteous chief priest Zechariah (2 Chr 24:20-22).  See the parallel passages concerning Hezekiah's reign in 2 Chronicles 29-32.

Question: What is unique about Hezekiah in the list of Davidic kings?
Answer: He was more devoted to Yahweh than any other king since David.

Question: List his acts of reforming religion in Judah?
Answer:

1. He abolished the high places where illicit worship had been taking place.
2. He broke the pillars and sacred poles associated with pagan worship.
3. He destroyed an artifact from the time of Moses that they people had come to misuse as an object of worship.

Question: What did Hezekiah's devotion to Yahweh mean for the Kingdom of Judah?
Answer: Judah was once again under God's divine protection and the king was successful in everything he undertook, including regaining lost territory.

King Hezekiah on a 17th century painting by 
unknown artist in the choir of Sankta Maria Krka in 
Ahus, Sweden 

2 Kings 18:9-12 ~ The fall of Samaria

This passage is a repeat of 17:5-18; also see the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 32.  King Hoshea of Israel ruled for nine years and the siege of Samaria lasted through his seventh, eighth and ninth years, or three years as the ancients counted.  The divine judgment leveled on the Northern Kingdom was not only a fulfillment of the prophecy of the Prophet Abijah (1 Kng 14:15-16) but also a fulfillment of the warning given to Israel by Moses in his last homily to the nation concerning the consequences of violating God's covenant that would result in Israel's exile from the land (Dt 28:63-64; 29:24/25-28/29).

2 Kings 18:13-16 ~ The Invasion of the Assyrian Army

Ten years later the Assyrians threatened the Kingdom of Judah.  Sargon II died in 705 BC and was succeeded by Sennacherib who immediately set about putting down the revolts, but first he addressed the revolt in Babylonia which gave Hezekiah some time to prepare of an inevitable Assyrian invasion.  Hezekiah appears to have consolidated Judah into four administrative districts and stored food supplies for his army in specially marked containers.  He also prepared Jerusalem for a possible siege by repairing and strengthening the city walls, adding a new line of walls and building watchtowers.  The springs outside the city walls were stopped up and the city's main water source, the Gihon Spring, was redirected into a tunnel to fill a new reservoir made at the southwestern end of the hill of Zion in Jerusalem (2 Kng 20:20; 2 Chr 32:1-8, 30).  "Hezekiah's Tunnel" was an engineering marvel for its time and today still runs 1,748 feet from the Gihon Spring south to the pool of Siloam through the limestone bedrock of Jerusalem.  Two teams dug the tunnel from opposite ends and met at the mid-point.

The assault on Judah came after the Assyrians discovered Hezekiah was attempting to form an alliance with Egypt.   It was an alliance that was condemned by the prophet Isaiah when Hezekiah's embassy was leaving for Egypt to ask the Pharaoh for Egyptian support against the Assyrians in c. 703-02 BC (see Is 30:1-7; 31:1-3).  Sennacherib's campaign in Phoenicia, Philistia, and Judea in 701 BC is documented in Assyrian Annals and bas-reliefs.  According the Assyrian records, the imperial Assyrian forces captured forty-six Judean towns.  The most important fortified Judahite town was Lachish.  Sennacherib took the city in 701 BC and set up his headquarters there.  When Sennacherib took Lachish, about 30 miles southwest of Jerusalem, Hezekiah capitulated and sent a letter repenting is rebellion and large amount of tribute to the Assyrian king in Lachish, hoping to appease the Sennacherib and to save the nation of Judah.⁽²⁾

The Assyrian Siege of Jerusalem

2 Kings 18:17-25 ~ The embassy of King Sennacherib's chief ministers

All of 2 Kings 18:13-19:37 is repeated with minor differences in Isaiah chapters 36-37 (the Book of Isaiah follows 2 Kings in the canon of the Hebrew Old Testament Bible).  Instead of accepting Hezekiah's renewed avowed of loyalty and his tribute, the Assyrian king sent his chief ministers with a large force to confront Hezekiah at Jerusalem. 

The man who led the Assyrian delegation was the "Tartan."  Tartan was the title of the man who served as the Assyrian king's royal steward or vizier.  He was was the highest official after the king and occasionally replaced him when the latter did not campaign (see the same term in Is 20:1).  

2 Kings 18:26-37 ~ The exchange between Hezekiah's ministers and the Assyrian Rab-shakeh

See the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 32:9-23.  Aramaic had become the dominant language, and therefore, the diplomatic language of the region, but the Assyrian chief minister was speaking in Hebrew.
Question: Why did Eliakim want the Assyrian minister to speak in Aramaic instead of Hebrew and why did he refuse?
Answer: While the diplomats understood Aramaic, the common people did not, and Eliakim did not want the people standing inside the top of the city walls to hear the terrible things the Assyrian minister was saying to intimidate them and to cause a riff between the king and his people.  The Assyrian minister refused the request because it was his intent to speak directly to the people.

Question: What arguments did the Assyrian minister make to the people of Jerusalem in his attempt to persuade them to surrender?
Answer:

• King Hezekiah and Yahweh your God are as powerless and impotent as the king and the gods of the Northern Kingdom and are incapable of saving you.
• If they surrender they can stay on their own property until it is time for them to go into exile.
• They will be exiled into a land that is a virtual paradise.

A Daily Defense
DAY 184 Faith and Contrary Evidence 

CHALLENGE: “Religion is irrational. It requires us to maintain faith even in the face of contrary evidence.”

DEFENSE: No one instantly abandons his convictions upon encountering the slightest bit of contrary data. This is not true in religion, and it is not true in other areas.

We encounter vast amounts of data in our lives, some of which will contradict things we believe. When this happens, we have three basic choices: (1) ignore the new data, (2) revise our belief to fit the new data, or (3) abandon our belief.

Each choice can be rational in different situations. If we have strong evidence for our belief and the contrary data is minimal, we may assume it is a fluke and our existing belief is sound. If the new evidence has significant weight, it may be rational to revisit our belief to see if it needs to be tweaked. And if the new data is overwhelming, it may be rational to abandon the belief.

Each decision also can be irrational. For example, a scientist would be foolish to dismiss a well supported theory based on the first tiny bit of evidence pointing in the other direction. That’s not what scientists do. When only small points of contrary data emerge, scientists typically dismiss them, assuming the current theory will be supported by future evidence. As additional contrary evidence mounts, they may tweak the current theory, and they abandon it only when decisive contrary evidence has been accumulated.

It is rational for scientists to proceed in this way, and it is rational for religious believers to do the same. They can have the courage of their convictions and should not be, as Paul says, “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14).

In religion and other fields, being willing to instantly abandon one’s beliefs based on the slightest bit of contrary data is not rational and will result in a person being someone “who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7). 

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist