The first verse of the Book of Isaiah tells of the prophet’s vision regarding Judah and Jerusalem in the days of “Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.” They were solemn and critical days, for in them the ten tribes filled up the measure of their guilt that, in God’s government, brought them into captivity. With Judah there was also grave departure from the Lord their God, the people sacrificing and burning incense in “high places.” God bore with “high places” until the temple was built in Jerusalem (1 Kings 3:2), but there was no excuse for them when God’s house was built. Indeed, the “high places” became the centres of idolatrous worship, arousing the jealously of the God of Israel, and calling for judgment on those who despised the worship of the true God in the divine centre that He had established.
King Uzziah
There was much in the reign of Uzziah to commend, for it is written concerning him, “And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah did, and he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper” (2 Chr. 26:4-5). The reign of Uzziah was long, for fifty two years, “and his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong.”
Overcoming the Philistines and the Arabians, and receiving gifts from the Ammonites, king Uzziah was also a builder of towers and a digger of wells, keeping cattle and loving husbandry, having too a great army with engines of war invented by skilful men. There was however one outstanding weakness with Uzziah, “the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places” (2 Kings 15:4). The honour of the God of Israel was neglected, for the king allowed his people to worship as they pleased, and not as Jehovah had commanded.
Neglect of the honour of the Lord was accompanied with pride of heart, for “when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense” (2 Chr. 26:16). It was a very serious matter for anyone to interfere with God’s order in His house, and for a man to presume to be a priest as well as a king, an honour that God had reserved for His own Son (Zech. 6:13).
The judgment that fell so speedily upon the proud king as in anger he resented the priests who resisted his impious intrusion into the presence of God, serves as a warning to all who would challenge God’s right to appoint whom He will in His holy service. This is further emphasised in Isaiah 6, where it is written, “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple” (verse 1). The temple of the Lord is the place where God’s glory dwells, and man in his pride and earthly glory is not to intrude there.
King Jotham
Little is said of the reign of Jotham, but it is written of him that “he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah did” (2 Chr. 27:2). Even if God punished His servant Uzziah for his profanity, He is not unmindful of what had marked him in earlier days. King Jotham was evidently deeply affected by the divine judgment on his father, for “he entered not into the temple of the Lord.” Like David, after Uzzah had died for touching the ark, Jotham was evidently “afraid of the Lord” (2 Sam. 6:9). Reverential fear caused king Jotham to do that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but slavish fear kept him from God’s presence.
Like his father, Jotham prospered in battle, and was noted as a builder of cities and towers, and he became mighty “because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God.” With so much to commend his reign it is sad to read, “And the people did yet corruptly” (2 Chr. 27:2), and “Howbeit the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places” (2 Kings 15:35). How good it would have been had Jotham shown the same zeal for removing what was obnoxious to his God that he showed in his conflicts and in his building his cities, castles and towers.
The “high places” were rival to God’s centre of worship in Jerusalem. King Jehoshaphat, in the beginning of his reign, “took away the high places” for “his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord” (2 Chr. 17:6), but it would seem that his zeal was not maintained, for when he is commended for walking “in all the ways of Asa his father,” it is added, “nevertheless the high places were not taken away” (1 Kings 22:43). A blow for Jehovah at the high places was struck by Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4), and Josiah, in his zeal for the God of Israel, destroyed the high places of Judah and Israel, slaying their priests, and defiling their altars with the bones of the dead (2 Kings 23), dealing with the high places that Solomon had built, and with that of Jeroboam at Bethel (verses 13–15).
King Ahaz
Not content with allowing the people to worship in the High places, king Ahaz “sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places,” made also molten images for Baalim, and “burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel” (2 Chr. 28:1–4). Because of his wickedness, Ahaz and Judah suffered at the hands of the Syrians, Israel, the Philistines and the Edomites, “For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord” (verse 19).
Instead of seeking the Lord, and His help, Ahaz sought the help of Assyria, but “Tilgath-pileser…distressed him, but strengthened him not…and in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord” (verses 20–22). After introducing his idolatrous altar into the court of the Lord’s house, and sacrificing thereon, he “cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem…and provoked to anger the Lord God of his fathers (2 Kings 16; 2 Chr. 28:23–25). When Uzziah interfered with the order of the house of God the faithful priests resisted him, but when Ahaz sent from Damascus the pattern of the idolatrous altar, Urijah the priest built it for him, and supported the king in his apostasy.
There is not a good word to be spoken for king Ahaz who knew quite well what he was doing, for when the Lord spoke to him, asking him to ask for a sign of what He had spoken, he said, “I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord” (Isa. 7:12). There was the pretension of humility, but the Lord answered it saying, “Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?” God’s remedy for the evil of His people, and for the oppression of their foes, would be found in Immanuel, His own Son, and the true Son of David.
King Hezekiah
It is refreshing to turn from the history of the wicked Ahaz to read what is written of his son Hezekiah, “And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did” (2 Kings 18:3). Uzziah and Jotham had done what was right according to all their fathers had done, but not according to what David had done, for they tolerated the high places. It was different with Hezekiah, for “He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan (brass)” (verse 4). How delightful it must have been for the Lord to witness the zeal for Him in the faithful Hezekiah.
Moreover, “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.” Is it any wonder that “the Lord was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth”? There was true affection in the heart of the king for the Lord and His interests, and in his zeal for God he destroyed what dishonoured His Name.
The Spirit of God gives us three accounts of the reign of Hezekiah. In 2 Chronicles we have in great detail his purifying the temple, and his restoration of the worship of Jehovah. There also is the account of the great passover feast to which he invited the people of Israel left from the captivity. In all three accounts the story of the reproaches of Sennacherib is given, with the answer of God to that monarch’s blasphemy. Hezekiah took his reproaches, and his blasphemous letter to God, and God brought His judgment upon the forces of the Assyrian, and upon himself.
Hezekiah’s sickness is given in some detail in 2 Kings and Isaiah, but there is only one verse given to it in 2 Chronicles, and it is added, “But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him, for his heart was lifted up, therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem” (2 Chron. 32:24-25). Such is man! Even the best of men are apt to become inflated, and poor Hezekiah was proud because of being “magnified in the sight of the nations” through God’s intervention for him, both as overthrowing the Assyrian and in restoring him after being sick. Yet it is good to read, “Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah” (verse 26).
Only Isaiah gives “the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness” (Isa. 38:9-10). It is an excellent account of the exercises of the servant of the Lord as His hand is upon him, but how sad that he did not fully answer to the closing words of his writing, “The Lord was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord” (verses 10–20). It was during the fifteen years that were added to the life of Hezekiah that Manasseh was born, whose wickedness brought forth from the Lord this judgment, “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations…I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, and turning it upside down…” (2 Kings 21:10–16).
Both 2 Kings 20 and Isaiah 39 give the details of the folly of Hezekiah in showing all his treasures to the ambassadors of the king of Babylon, and of the word of the Lord through Isaiah which told of all the treasures being taken to Babylon. All that is said about this sad matter in 2 Chronicles 42 is, “Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land (the shadow returning backward ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz), God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart” (verse 31). Here we learn of God’s way with His poor servant, a good king indeed, but how very imperfect. The failures of these good men only serve to bring out the deep, deep perfections of Him who could say, “I do always those things that please Him” (John 8:29).
Such then is a short summary of the accounts of the four kings spoken of in Isaiah 1, telling us of the ways of God, of His long-suffering with an unfaithful people, and of His great kindness and forbearance.
R. 26.8.69