One of the most striking examples of individual consciousness awakening to the demands of Truth, is found in the story of Hezekiah's encounter with the Assyrian army, as told in the second book of Kings. He ascended the throne of Judah when quite a young man, and with a firm and uncompromising hand set to work to wipe out of the land everything that savored of idolatry. The "high places" were removed, the images broken, the groves cut down, and the "brazen serpent," to which the people still burnt incense, was broken in pieces. Indeed, we are told that Hezekiah "clave to the Lord," and also that "he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not." This kingdom of Assyria seems to have been a source of fear and often of bondage to the kings of Judah and Israel for many years. In the case of his father, Hezekiah had probably seen the baneful effects of association with and dependence on this kingdom, and this had strengthened his determination to rise above it.
Having ordained the worship of the one God and destroyed all the obvious hindrances to this worship, Hezekiah appears to have settled down very quietly for a period of fourteen years. At the end of this time Sennacherib, king of Assyria, suddenly came up and attacked him. Hezekiah, taken by surprise, was tempted into making a weak compromise; if only Sennacherib would retire he would promise him anything, —"that which thou puttest on me will I bear." It was a heavy toll which was exacted, and in his desire to be rid of this troublesome intruder, Hezekiah went to the length of taking gold and silver from the temple. What a fall for one whose ideal had been so high! Had he, in those years of quiet, forgotten the splendid promise of his earlier outlook? Had he been drifting into a state of slothful ease?
Whatever the cause of his mistake, the compromise helped Hezekiah not at all. The next thing he sees is that all the leaders of the Assyrian army are surrounding him and his people, and with mocking words are trying to prove that to trust in God is vain, and that Hezekiah is deceiving them. Has he not even given over to the Assyrians the gold and silver of the temple wherein this same God is worshiped? It is useless to trust in what Hezekiah says, but let the people make a covenant with Sennacherib and all will be well with them. Has the god of any other nation ever been able to deliver? No, and there is no god who can ever deliver from the power of Assyria.
