the personal character of religion even under the Old Testament, than that Ahaz should have been

succeeded on the throne of Judah by Hezekiah. His name,* "Strength of Jehovah," or, perhaps

better, "God is might," was truly indicative of the character of his reign. In every respect - not only

as regarded the king personally, but also in the results of his administration, as affecting his

country and people - this p eriod was in complete contrast to that which had immediately preceded

it.

* In Hebrew Chizkiyyah. But this seems an abbreviation of Yechizkiyyahu, "Jehovah

strengtheneth him," which is the form generally adopted in Chronicles (also 2 Kings 20:10; Isaiah

1:1; Jeremiah 15:4); in Hosea 1:1 and Micah 1:1 it is Yechizkiyyah; in Isaiah (36-39)the name is

also Chizkiyyahu (so also often in Kings); in the Assyrian inscriptions, Cha-za -ki-ya-u.

Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, ascended the throne at the age of twenty-five, towards the close* of the

third year of Hoshea's reign in Israel.

* A comparison with the dates in 2 Kings 18:1, 9 has led some writers to substitute "the fourth" for

"the third" year of Hoshea (so already Josephus, Ant. ix.13, 1). But there seems n o necessity for

this.

He was therefore a witness of the events which befell Samaria. From a merely political point of

view, the position of a king of Judah must have been one of no small difficulty. In the northern

kingdom Pekah had sown the wind, and Hoshea would reap the whirlwind. The one had brought

upon himself the might of Assyria; the other would ultimately lose crown and life in his attempts

to shake off the yoke of the conqueror. And in his ruin would Israel be involved. Assyria was the

paramount power, not only in Samaria, which was so soon to become a province of that empire,

but in Judah also. For Ahaz had made himself tributary to it, and held his crown almost at the

mercy of the great world -empire. And, as will appear in the sequel, Hezekiah h imself was to feel

the power of Assyria even before he came into actual conflict with it.

All this succession of evils, and those which were still to follow, were the consequences of the

disbelief and unbelief of Ahaz. As he had discarded the religion of Jehovah, so he despised His

Word. In the political circumstances of the country, the only alternative before him was either to

trust in the Lord for deliverance, or else to surrender to a foreign power. Against the admonitions

and warnings of the great prophet, who had assured him of Divine help, Ahaz had chosen the

second alternative. His resolve was not only sin: it was folly. His short -sighted policy brought in

another power whose domination could never afterwards be permanently shaken off. Afterwards,

when the kingdom of Israel came to an end, the two rival world -empires, Assyria and Egypt, stood

face to face, only separated by little Judah - an object of ambition to both, a help to neither, yet

whose subjection was absolutely necessary to Assyria, not only in view of its further projects, but

even if previous conquests were to be preserved. And for an Assyrian monarch not to be

successful was, as this history has shown, to lose crown and life.

So matters stood when Hezekiah ascended the throne. Of all the political combinations possible to

him, he chose none. He returned to the point from which Ahaz had departed. His policy was not to

have any policy, but to trust in the living God, to obey His Word, and to follow His guidance. His

policy was his relig ion, and his religion was true policy. The only occasion on which he was

tempted to deviate from it was at a later time, and it well-nigh proved fatal to him, as in the sequel

it certainly did to his successors. Not that Hezekiah neglected to avail himself of political

combinations as they arose. Indeed, this became the source of his danger. He may have argued that

not to make use of the means placed within his reach was fatalism, not faith. In this he erred. Yet

he did not put his trust in such alliances. He treated them rather as means for defensive, than as

instruments sought for offensive purposes. The only real help which he sought was that of the

living God.