HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLE!! (my firstborn!)
Only people in Judah were left, and even they didn't follow God's commandments. The Assyrians had removed the Israelites out of the promised land. When they still didn't worship the Lord, he sent lions to kill them. When the king of Assyria heard about it he had a priest sent to them to teach them how to worship the Lord. Still, they continued making their own gods and worshiping both. There is a reason why the first commandment is "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" It seems that almost none of the children of Israel could remember this.
When Hezekiah became king in Judah, he ruled 29 years from Jerusalem. He also tore down the idols, trusted and obeyed God. The Lord helped Hezekiah, who was successful in everything that he did. No other leader was like him before or after him.
As time passed, Assyria controlled Israel. Then they went after Judah, so they controlled everything except Jerusalem. Hezekiah sent a message to the king of Assyria that he knew that he was in defiance of the Assyrians and asked to pay for the privelege of remaining separate. Hezekiah paid about 11 tons of silver and almost a ton of gold and even stripped the temple of it's gold. The Assyrian king sent 3 messengers to Jerusalem and Hezekiah sent 3 of his own. They spoke loudly so everyone could hear and told the people not to trust Hezekiah and the Lord. They wanted to make a bet that they would give them 2,000 horses if they had enough people to sit on them. Hezekiah's representatives remained silent as he had commanded them. Hezekiah was very sad and went to Isaiah his prophet to ask him to pray for them. Isaiah told them that the Lord would take care of them with rumors that bad things were happening in their own country. They would leave and find a violent end. The king of Assyria sent Hezekiah a note not to trust the Lord. Hezekiah took it to God in the temple and he prayed.
God was listening and heard Hezekiah. He spoke through Isaiah and told the king of Assyria His answer. The Lord told him that the people of Jerusalem laughed at him, and that God had seen what he had done. He had heard the insults hurled at Him. God had also heard Sennacherib's (the Assyrian king) proud boasts of how he had conquered the highest mountains, cut down the deepest forests and dried up all the streams. That God had heard him crow about how he had drunk water from wells he had dug. There's more, but we'll get to that tomorrow.
Tomorrow read 2Kings 19:25-23:9
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