Hezekiah’s father; King Ahaz; had made Judah a slave to the hated Assyrians. He had transformed the beautiful Temple into a pagan shrine; and had even sacrificed his infant son in the fire pit of Milcom. All to prove to the Assyrian king that he gave no allegiance to Yaweh. Then he anointed the young Hezekiah to rule Judah in his stead. “O Lord;” Hezekiah prayed; “make me the best king Judah has ever had.” Book 1 of 5. Hezekiah immediately restored the Temple and led the people of Judah back to the true God. In the face of seemingly inescapable defeat at the hands of Sennacherib; perhaps the most powerful—and the most cruel--of all the Assyrian kings; he clung to the promise that God would deliver Jerusalem. Hezekiah made mistakes. He had tragic failures; yet his life shows the heights and depths we all face—and how God can lead us through both.
