After decades and even centuries of the same thing of not destroying the high places and completely following the LORD, in comes Hezekiah.  He not only follows the LORD in the ways of David but he destroyed the high places, shatters the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, smashes the bronze snake that Moses made and makes a clean break with wickedness.

Wow.  Finally.

But now the real test was coming.  Assyria was invading the land and had already carted away northern Israel.  And when you think Assyria, don’t think niceness.  The Assyrians were some of the most wicked and cruel torturers in history.  If you google the images, they impaled people, skinned them alive, through the babies in the air for sport spearing them on the way down, etc…  Their phiosophy was to rule with such terror that victory was easy.  They were the torturing steam rollers of the time and they were skilled in the way they killed.

Now the Assyrians had turned their eyes to take little Jerusalem and Judah.  The fortified cities were captured and only Jerusalem remained.  Assyria demanded tribute and unfortunately Hezekiah paid it with the temple precious metals.  But it didn’t stop the Assyrian advance.

Instead the representative, the Rabshakeh came to the walls to taunt them and invoke fear.  He let them know that the God of Israel wouldn’t save them.  He then gave a list of other supposed powerful nations that had trusted their gods but had fallen before the might.

Hezekiah’s representatives asked him to speak in another language so as not to cause fear among the soldiers, but the Rabshakeh of Assyria refused.  His very intent was to cause fear and they knew it was real.  No one looks forward to being skinned alive.

But what would Hezekiah do?  The “sensible” thing would be to just submit.  To save your people horrific suffering and just grit your teeth through whatever the Assyrians had in store. Yet Hezekiah was not a man of the world, he was a man of God.  And the greatness of God is just getting ready to be revealed.

For a great book series detailing these events, check out Gods and Kings by Lynn Austin.