06/09/13 Compass Guide Comments By Dr. Daniel Daves

2 Kings 18:1-8 (NIV) 1 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan. ) 5 Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. 6 He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. 7 And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8 From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory.

After so many worthless, rebellious, trouble making kings in Israel, finally one emerges who is faithful to God.  His power and strength were not to be compared to any other king around him.  What was his secret? He FULLY obeyed the Lord in faithfulness! 

Hezekiah TRUSTED THE LORD.   This is huge and must be noted.  His faith led him out to stand against terrorist oppressors whom found it easy to beat down and oppress kings with no relationship or faith.

Hezekiah TORE DOWN THE HIGH PLACES.  He restored order and stopped the worthless Baal worship that the Israelites were involved in.  These people thought that they were serving God up on the high places of worship, but their worship was rebellion because God told them to bring all worship down to the central temple.  They offered worship in rebellion, which didn't settle well with God.  They also learned how to interact with Satan, receive humanistic ideas and warped lifestyles up on those high places.  Hezekiah ended it and became powerful. Gideon ended high place worship also, and he became very powerful.  There is a central key here that we can learn from.  (Read yesterday's forum to learn about the high places and central temple worship in our personal lives).

Hezekiah dealt with the BRONZE SERPENT.  This bronze serpent had been used in the past as a symbol of healing when Moses and the Israelites were on their move from Egypt.  When people looked it the bronze serpent on the pole, they were healed from their poisonous viper bites.  But we find generations later that the Israelites had dragged that piece of bronze into the temple, propped it up in the corner, and were burning incense to it as an act of worship.  Hezekiah dragged the bronze serpent out of the temple and destroyed it calling it a worthless piece of metal.  Today - many people worship Satan the serpent more than they worship God.  Or they talk about the devil in their church services and in their thoughts, just as much as they think about God.  Satan gets equal time with God, even in Christian minds and thoughts.  This is the bronze serpent that is being worshipped.  Cast it out and give no place to the devil in your thoughts or worship of God!

The Lord was with Hezekiah everywhere he went and with anything he put his hands do.  Hezekiah was simply SUCCESSFUL!  When God hangs around you, success will simply come as well.  

We can learn a lesson from Hezekiah, who was a breath of fresh air in a century of worthless, rebellious, idolatrous kings.  He loved and trusted God, and God made him great.  If you read the story of Hezekiah throughout various parts of the bible, you will see that he repaired the temple and set it back in order.  He gave offerings to the temple and commanded the people to also give.  The offerings and blessings came upon the people to such a degree that the donations and offerings stood up in great heaps. At one point, Hezekiah had to deputize more priests just to carry out the duties of God's abundant blessing, and hey finally called for the people to STOP giving because there was too much to handle.

Here is a man who was focused on God's purposes rather than his own.  He trusted and obeyed God and was greatly blessed along with his people.  Hezekiah is a king that we need to learn from.  We can experience exactly what he lived through - if we will tear down the high places, filter out the wickedness, rebellion, sin, and evil, and FOCUS on the core vision of the temple.  Worshipping God is honoring Him and being who He called us to be.  This will incite Heaven's blessing and help in everything that we have need of.  This is the heart of the COMPASS GUIDE student program!  

Tomorrow's Reading: