Friday, September 12, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: 2 Kings 17-22
Key Verse
2 Kings 19:14 — “And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.”
Devotional Thought
The northern kingdom of Israel had been sliding toward judgment for generations, and in 2 Kings 17 the slide ends. Hoshea, her last king, does evil in the Lord’s sight, though “not as the kings of Israel that were before him.” He tries to play Assyria and Egypt against each other, and the scheme collapses. Shalmaneser besieges Samaria three years; in Hoshea’s ninth year the city falls, and the Assyrian king carries Israel away to Halah, to Habor by the river Gozan, and to the cities of the Medes. It is the end of a nation. The Spirit gives the reason plainly in verses 7 through 23: they sinned against the God who brought them up out of Egypt, feared other gods, walked in heathen statutes, built high places, served idols, and “sold themselves to do evil.” God had testified against them by every prophet and seer, saying, “Turn ye from your evil ways,” but they hardened their necks and would not hear. So the Lord removed them out of His sight.
Yet the chapter does not close without a flicker of hope. In 2 Kings 18, Hezekiah son of Ahaz begins to reign in Judah, and he does “that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did.” He removes the high places, breaks the images, cuts down the groves, and even shatters the brasen serpent Moses made, because Israel had begun burning incense to it. He calls it Nehushtan—just a piece of bronze. Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, clave to Him, and the Lord was with him. A single faithful king cannot undo all the ruin around him, but he can stand as a living contrast to it.
The rest of the reading turns on trust. Sennacherib’s Rabshakeh stands by the conduit of the upper pool and mocks Hezekiah before the people on the wall: “What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?” He calls Egypt a bruised reed that will pierce the hand, and then he blasphemes, claiming the Lord Himself sent Assyria to destroy Jerusalem. He offers the people their own vines and fig trees and cisterns if they will surrender. But the people hold their peace and answer not a word, because the king commanded them. Then Hezekiah rends his clothes, covers himself with sackcloth, and goes into the house of the LORD. He sends to Isaiah with the words, “This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy.”
As September settles in and the year begins to turn, this is a fitting word. We are often tempted to trust in bruised reeds—a strong economy, a favorable diagnosis, a reliable friend, our own careful plans. They may hold for a while, but eventually they go into the hand and pierce it. Hezekiah’s wisdom was not that he had no fear, but that he took his fear to the right place. He rent his clothes and went into the house of the LORD. The nations around Israel feared the Lord and served their own gods, mixing devotion with idolatry; the same temptation lives in our hearts. The call of this passage is not complicated: turn from evil, keep His commandments, and trust the God who brought His people out of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm.
Reflection
- When the Rabshakehs of your life mock your confidence and offer you an easier peace on their terms, where do you actually go first—to the house of the LORD, or to the bruised reeds?
- Is there a “Nehushtan” in your life—something good God once gave you that you now trust in more than the Giver Himself?
Prayer
O Lord God of Israel, who brought Your people up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, we confess that we have too often feared other gods and leaned on bruised reeds. Turn us from our evil ways, and keep us from hardening our necks against Your Word. When the enemy mocks and the siege presses in, give us the heart of Hezekiah—to rend our hearts, cover ourselves in humility, and go into Your house. Break in pieces every idol we have made, even the good gifts we have begun to worship. Be our confidence and our strength, and deliver us, for Your name’s sake. Amen.