2 Chronicles 31 – When all this is finished, “all Israel”
goes out to the cities of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh and break down the pillars, the sacred poles
and high places. Hezekiah organizes the priests and Levites, reestablishes
the system of offerings and reinstitutes tithing so the priests and Levites can
devote themselves to the Law. People give generously.
Hezekiah oversees everything carefully.
They have a surplus of wealth left over, so they build storage
facilities for it. Hezekiah did “what was good and right and faithful before
the Lord his God. And every work that he undertook in the service of the house
of God . . .he did with all his heart, and he prospered” (31:20-21).
2 Chronicles 32 – After this, King Sennacherib of Assyria
comes against Judah. In response, Hezekiah and his officers “stop the flow of
the springs that were outside the city” (32:3) so that the enemy will find no
water.
He also builds
up walls that were broken and builds another wall outside the old wall. He
gathers his soldiers and encourages them with this speech: “Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the
king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him; for there is one greater
with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our
God, to help us and to fight our battles” (32:7-8).
Sennacherib
sends an emissary to Jerusalem to try to persuade the people not to trust Hezekiah.
He reminds them of the victories they had won over other peoples, the
helplessness of their many gods to
defend them. He also sends letters and has them read in a loud voice in their
own language. “They spoke of the God of Jerusalem as if he were like the gods
of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of human hands” (32:19).
Hezekiah, and Isaiah with him, pray and cry out to the Lord. In response, the
Lord “sent an angel who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and
officers in the camp of the King of Assyria. So he returned in disgrace to his
own land. When he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck
him down there with the sword” (32:21). So they were saved.
Hezekiah
becomes sick and nearly dies. He prays to God and God answers him; but this
time Hezekiah (it says) does “not respond according to the benefit done to him,
for his heart was proud” (32:25). The Lord’s wrath spills out on him and all
Judah. When Hezekiah humbles himself, the Lord relents for a time.
Hezekiah’s
reign is very prosperous materially. He makes changes in the water flow,
closing the upper outlets of the water of Gihon and directing them down to the
west side of the city of David. He also is said to do something about the
envoys from Babylon sent to inquire “about the sign that had been done in the
land,” but it is very mysteriously alluded to. It says, “God left him to
himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in hers heart” (32:31).
When he dies, his son Manasseh succeeds him.
Augustine’s Treatise
on the Profit of Believing
33 - Wherefore,
although I am not able to teach, yet I cease not to advise, that, (whereas many
wish to appear wise, and it is no easy matter to discern whether they be
fools,) with all earnestness, and with
all prayers, and lastly with groans, or even, if so it may be, with tears, you
entreat of God to set you free from the evil of error; if your heart be set
on a happy life. And this will take place the more easily, if you obey with a
willing mind His commands, which He has willed should be confirmed by so great
authority of the Catholic Church. For whereas the wise man is so joined to God
in mind, as that there is nothing set between to separate; for God is Truth;
and no one is by any means wise, unless his mind come into contact with the
Truth; we cannot deny that between the
folly of man, and the most pure Truth of God, the wisdom of man is set, as
something in the middle. For the wise man, so far as it is given unto him,
imitates God; but for a man who is a fool, there is nothing nearer to him, than
a man who is wise, for him to imitate with profit: and since, as has been said,
it is not easy to understand this one by reason, it behooved that certain
miracles be brought near to the very eyes, which fools use with much greater readiness
than the mind, that, men being moved by
authority, their life and habits might first be cleansed, and they thus
rendered capable of receiving reason.
Whereas, therefore, it needed both that man be imitated, and
that our hope be not set in man, what
could be done on the part of God more full of kindness and grace, than that the
very pure, eternal, unchangeable Wisdom of God, unto Whom it behooves us to
cleave, should deign to take upon Him (the nature of) man? That not only He
might do what should invite us to follow God, but also might suffer what used
to deter us from following God. For, whereas no one can attain unto the most sure and chief good, unless he shall
fully and perfectly love it; which will by no means take place, so long as
the evils of the body and of fortune are dreaded; He by being born after a
miraculous manner and working caused Himself to be loved; and by dying and
rising again shut out fear. And, further, in all other matters, which it were
long to go through, He showed Himself such,
as that we might perceive unto what the clemency of God could be reached forth,
and unto what the weakness of man be lifted up.
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