“He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor [any] that were before him. For he clave to the LORD, [and] departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.” (2Ki 18:5-6 AV)
It is said of Hezekiah that no one had ever trusted the LORD as he had. No king before him; as in David and Solomon, and no king after him; as in Josiah ever trusted the LORD as Hezekiah did. That is quite a statement. Why? What made Hezekiah the most faith-filled king in the history of Israel/Judah? After all, he did make come blunders. Not as big as David and Solomon, but he did make some serious mistakes. One of them cost Judah their temporary autonomy. So, what was it about his reign that made it so commendable? I think the fact that Hezekiah had to overcome much spiritual darkness to bring revival to his nation is the factor at play here. Hezekiah has to cleanse the nation of generations of paganism. He has to have those close to him executed. He restored Judea to the glory it once knew as the temple was repaired and reused. Hezekiah risked far more than any king before him had to risk and far more than those who followed him were willing to risk. Sometimes it is not what we accomplish but what we overcome that determines the faith that we have.
Recently, there was a high school basketball clip that went viral. Things like this happen all the time. It was the charity of two competitors that took center stage, and what was lost was the bravery it took for two players to do what they did. The game was already in hand for the eventual winning team. There was no way for the losing team to catch up. So, the winning team’s coach sent in a player who was handicapped. He might have been a down’s syndrome student or some other physically impaired condition. As the ball was in-bounded to this young man, all the players on both teams cleared the court so this young man could go the length of the court and score a basket. What followed is why this clip went viral. The substitution buzzer blew, and the losing team did the same thing. They inserted a handicapped player, and the player went the full length of the court and scored a basket. For both players, the teams and the audience stood and clapped. What was missed was the courage it took for these two young men to do what they did. It was only two points. It didn’t affect the outcome of the game. But it took all the courage and faith in the world to overcome the obstacles that lay before them.
Overcoming is often overlooked. It is the king who can do great things because he had great resources and great opportunity who is heralded. It is the athlete who was given great strength and skill, placed on an all-star team, and who had favorable conditions who is recognized as the greatest of all time. The king who can take a nation seeped in wickedness and revive them unto spiritual life is not seen as all that special. After all, there are no great buildings built. No major wars won. He lost more from the treasury than he ever added. Compared to David and Solomon, Hezekiah did little to advance the physical condition of his nation. Sin was cleansed. Worship was rejuvenated. But there were no temporal monuments built to the king who had faith that no one else had. Overcoming is a huge deal. Often it takes more strength and resolve to overcome adversity than it does to slowly build strength over time. It is one thing to exercise faith a bit at a time and as a result, grow that faith. It is quite another to summon huge faith for a single project or task and see God do some great things. Overcoming is a big deal! It takes more faith to overcome that it does to maintain.
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