2Ki 18:1-37 “In what are you placing your hope?” – Part 1 (2Ki 18:1-12)

[Study Aired February 2, 2023]

This entire chapter can be summarized in three distinct sections:  2Ki 18:1-12, 2Ki 18:13-18  and  2Ki 18:19-37. 

In the first part we are introduced to King Hezekiah who “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as David his father had done” who had faith in the Lord, the God of Israel; “so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah who were before him“. Hezekiah is a type of Christ and those who have Christ’s spirit in them as their hope of salvation (Rom 8:9, Col 1:27), and Hezekiah’s rulership over the nation of Judah exemplifies this. In his strength but also in his weakness God used to perfect His purpose for Hezekiah and the nation of Judah as He does for His people today upon whom “the ends of the world are come” (1Co 10:11).

Rom 8:9  You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God is in you. But if any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is not one of his. 

Col 1:27  To whom God was pleased to give knowledge of the wealth of the glory of this secret among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

The second part of this chapter, 2 Kings 18:13-18, is focused on “Sennacherib king of Assyria” who came  up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them, putting Hezekiah in a position where he sought peace with Sennacherib by giving him gold and silver from the temple of God, which actions only emboldened Sennacherib to further want to overtake the nation of Judah in war. Hezekiah turned to the Lord for deliverance with a humble and contrite heart that sought and hoped in the Lord in times of trouble. In this section of the study we will also look at how Hezekiah, who is a type of the elect, had to come to learn that one cannot make concessions with this world and expect that the trials will somehow be circumvented as a result of those actions.

The third part of the chapter, 2 Kings 18:19-37, is focused on how Sennacherib used Rabshakeh, who was a field commander, to send messages to Hezekiah and his foot soldiers to undermine their confidence in what Hezekiah could do in war against Assyria with the God of Israel as his helper and hope. Rabshakeh brought many fiery darts in the form of lies and unfounded accusations that he hurled at the nation of Judah and King Hezekiah but to no avail in the long run (2Ki 18:27-29). Rabshakeh is a type of Satan whose name means “the chief of the princes” (Eph 2:2), and he was used by God in His plan to deliver Judah and Jerusalem at this time (2Ki 19:34-35), enlightening our eyes of understanding (1Pe 1:12) to the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe (Eph 1:18-19). Judah’s enduring through these attacks of Assyria and Rabshakeh in particular is a type and shadow event of how the body of Christ has been promised we will be able to endure all the accusations and attacks of the adversary in our lives (Rev 12:10, Eph 6:16), and no doubt in the end, through the faith of Christ, will be more than conquerors through him  (Mat 24:24, Eph 2:8, Rom 8:37-39, Gen 32:28).

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Rev 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

Gen 32:28  And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Eph 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Eph 1:19  And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

Tonight’s study will focus on the first part of this chapter:

Part 1 – 2Ki 18:1-12

2Ki 18:1  Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
2Ki 18:2  Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.

The king of Israel and the king of Judah are spoken of in the same sentence, and it being the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, tells us that a process of judgment is going to come upon the nation of Judah via Hezekiah the son of Ahaz who was the king of Judah at this point. Hezekiah was twenty-five years old and reigned for twenty-nine years giving us several prophetic clues about this king as well.

‘Twenty five’ is the first clue which reveals that when Christ is ruling in our heavens we are being witnessed to what a grace-through-faith relationship can accomplish (2 fives 5×5=25).

‘Twenty nine’ years as a ruler shows the dream is one, as another witness [2] of the process of judgment [3×3=9] coming upon the nation of Judah that is accomplished by grace through faith in the lives of God’s elect (2 and 9).

Hezekiah’s mothers name “Abi” means “fatherly”, and typifies for us the church whose head is our zealous Christ, who is our olam father who strengthens us to be consumed for the temple and it’s cleansing as Christ was and we are now (Joh 2:17, 1Jn 4:17, Heb 11:7). That zealousness is typified by the very unrelenting desire Hezekiah had to cleanse the temple of God and the nation of Judah.

H21 Abi
– BDB Definition: Abi = my father 
mother of hezekiah
– Origin: from H1
– Strong’s: From H1; fatherly;

2Ki 18:3  And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did. 
2Ki 18:4  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.

In these verses we learn what it means to do what is “right in the sight of the LORD”, and that is only possible through Christ who is the vine, typified by this statement “according to all that David his father did.” David was a man after God’s own heart with right principles of leadership and similar attributes that were seen in Hezekiah’s heart as he was full of zeal to get the nation of Judah back on track.

The object of Judah’s worship was not toward God but toward “the high places” that symbolize the pride of life, and toward “the brasen serpent that Moses had made” that unto that day the children of Israel “did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.“

“Nehushtan” the “high places“, “the images“, and “the groves” were all destroyed at the command of the king.

The history of Nehushtan is understood in the story found in Numbers 21:8-9 and John 3:14-16 where a copper serpent was erected on a pole that the Israelites in the wilderness looked on in order to be healed when they were bitten by a serpent, all typical of how we overcome the fiery darts of the adversary, the devil, by looking unto Christ and His Christ (Rev 20:2, Gen 3:1, 1Co 15:55, Heb 12:1-2).

H5180 nechûshtân
BDB Definition:
Nehushtan = “a thing of brass”
1) name by which the brazen serpent made by Moses in the wilderness was worshipped in the time of king Hezekiah of Judah before he destroyed it

A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: from H5178 = copper, bronze, lust, harlotry

Num 21:8  And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, [Heb 12:1-2] shall live. 
Num 21:9  And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 
Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. [We look to Christ to confess our iniquities and are healed and forgiven (Lev 26:40-42, Rom 2:4)]

Joh 3:14  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 
Joh 3:15  That whosoever believeth [Joh 6:29] in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting^G166 life. [Eph 6:2]

Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 

1Co 15:55  O death, where is thy sting? [Heb 2:14] O grave, where is thy victory? 
1Co 15:56  The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; [By dying daily we do the same things as Christ did and overcome the power of death that Satan has and uses to try to hold us back from receiving aonion life that can only be accomplished through the faith of Christ (Joh 3:15-16). By mortifying the deeds of the flesh and being crucified with Christ, we fulfill that role of being saviors with Him (Oba 1:21) that was typified by Nehushtan (Gal 2:20, Joh 3:14, 1Co 15:31, 1Jn 4:17)].

Knowing Christ after the flesh can and did bring about many wonderful miracles that healed the people of his day as did Nehushtan in the wilderness, however these miracles were meant to point (1Pe 1:12) to the greater miracle of Christ’s spiritual healing that would come to the church on the day of Pentecost and going forward. Those who made Nehushtan an object of worship that they burned incense to, reflects a perverted understanding of only wanting to know Christ after the flesh [idols, crosses, rosaries, days, months, times, years, etc…], when in truth it is through the destruction of the flesh that the new man is birthed. The proper view of Nehushtan for God’s elect is to see it as a type and shadow of Christ and His Christ who have been quickened and “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Rom 4:25, Eph 2:5-6) in order that we may one day justify the world through our experience of suffering that God grants His people to endure in this life (Col 1:24). The seraphim around the throne of God in Isaiah (Isa 6:2) typify God’s elect in the book of Revelation (Rev 7:11), and that is the end result or finished workmanship of God that Nehustan only pointed to (Num 21:8).

2Ki 18:5  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.
2Ki 18:6  For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.

We don’t naturally trust “the LORD God of Israel”, but if God is working with us as we are dragged to Christ through our trials (Joh 6:44), our flesh will be put off (Tit 2:11-12) and we will be able to identify the will of God for us in this life, as we are received of God through those trials (2Co 4:8, 2Co 1:9, 1Jn 2:16-17, Heb 12:6-7). Hezekiah is a type of the church that cleaves to Christ (Eph 5:24), demonstrating our love to Him by staying close to the body (Heb 10:25) and keeping God’s “commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses” (1Jn 5:2). 

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

This statement about Hezekiah, “so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him” is a shadow of Christ and the elect who, from before the foundation of the world were ordained to bring forth spiritual fruit in the flesh unlike any before or after them as well “which he hath purposed in himself” (Eph 1:3-9).

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 
Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: [Joh 17:24, Joh 15:16]
Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 
Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 
Eph 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 
Eph 1:8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: [Rom 8:28]

2Ki 18:7  And the LORD was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not. 
2Ki 18:8  He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.

When we are blessed to cleave to Christ and His body, we will be given power over the enemy going from glory to glory (2Co 3:18), destroying the giants in our land little and by little (Deu 7:22) as we resist the devil, which is what this verse is saying “and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not” (Jas 4:6-10). 

2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Deu 7:22  And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. 

Jas 4:6  But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 
Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Jas 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 
Jas 4:9  Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Jas 4:10  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. [The question is not just who you are putting your hope in but also how are you putting your hope in our Father and Christ (Rom 2:4)]

The fruit of that resistance of evil (Jas 4:7) is what is being talked about in these verses as we are prospered of the LORD when we gain dominion over the devil and the powers and principalities that we wrestle against, which is typified by the words, “He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.” The spoils of war therefore go to the victor, and it is Christ who gives us the victory and who receives those spoils within us as typified by Melchisedec who typifies Christ who gave Abraham [who typifies the faith of Christ within us] the victory over the powers he went to war against. The tithe which Abraham gives back to Melchisedec represents our giving our whole life to Christ, and the lesser Abraham is blessed of the greater Melchisedec, as we are through Christ (Heb 7:2, Heb 7:7).

Heb 7:1  For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
Heb 7:2  To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; 

Heb 7:7  And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.

If Christ is working in us both to will and to do of God’s good pleasure as we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Php 2:12-14), then that overcoming will take out the hidden enemies in our lives within, like pride symbolized by “the tower of the watchman” right “to the fenced city“, which represents a heart that is unrepentant and not worked with, until God tears down [‘down with the tares’] that defense in the flesh through His word that will smite the “Philistines, even unto Gaza” that are within us.

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 
Php 2:14  Do all things without murmurings and disputings: [‘working those tares out of our lives through Christ’]

2Ki 18:9  And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it.
2Ki 18:10  And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

Here we see a contrast being made between Judah and Israel, and the numbers mentioned are again significant as at this point in the story they signify what is going to happen to the nation of Israel that goes into captivity.

It is in “the fourth year of king Hezekiah” representing the whole of something that coincided with the “seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel” that “Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it“. The whole nation of Israel [4] was at a point of being so completely [7] corrupt, that God was going to use “Shalmaneser king of Assyria [to come] up against Samaria, and besieged it“.

No trial is pleasant, especially one of this magnitude that had the city of Samaria besieged and at war for three years (Heb 12:11, 1Pe 4:12). Three is the number of the process of judgment our flesh has to go through in this life, and it is in the “sixth year of Hezekiah” and the “ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel” that Samaria was taken. Those numbers just remind us that the beast [6] in all of us has to be judged [9] by being taken into a captivity that only God can free us from through judgment (Joh 8:36, 1Jn 4:17, 1Pe 4:17).

Heb 12:11  Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby

Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? 

2Ki 18:11  And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah^H2477 and in Habor by the river of Gozan^H1470, and in the cities of the Medes:

If we put these two words together, Halah^H2477 and Gozan^H1470, we are shown that this experience of going into captivity was a “painful” “cutting off” which brings to mind these verses that were in Mike’s study on Sunday (Exo 2:21-22, Exo 4:25-26). 

Halah – H2477  chălach
BDB Definition:
Halah = “painful”
1) a city or district in Mesopotamia under Assyrian control where the Israelite captives were taken

Gozan – H1470  gôzân
BDB Definition:
Gozan = “a cutting off”
1) the Mesopotamian city on or near the middle of the Euphrates where exiled Israelites were settled

Exo 2:21  And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.

Exo 2:22  And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.

Exo 4:25  Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said,  Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.
Exo 4:26  So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.

The point being, we are all strangers in a strange land like Gershom the son of Moses until we are spiritually circumcised, as typified by this story of Moses’ son’s circumcision. It was Zipporah who represents the church who took a sharp stone that represents Christ to circumcise the foreskin of her son. Zipporah’s name means “little bird” as in a sparrow reminding us that we are precious to God and that we are the very-valued apple of His eye as He takes us through this painful process of being spiritually circumcised (Mat 10:31, Rom 2:28-29).

Zipporah – H6855 tsippôrâh  tsip-po-raw’
Feminine of H6833; bird; tsipporah, Moses’ wife: – Zipporah.

H6833 tsippôr    tsippôr  tsip-pore’, tsip-pore’
From H6852; a little bird (as hopping): – bird, fowl, sparrow.

Mat 10:31  Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. [Mat 22:14, Mat 21:44]

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men [the beast on the throne (Rev 13:15)], but of God [Joh 4:23-24].

2Ki 18:12  Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.

The heart of the first man Adam is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer 17:9-10) and obeys not the voice  of the LORD their God, but rather transgresses his covenant, and “all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded” who typifies Christ, they, we, “would not hear them, nor do them” (Luk 6:46, Rom 2:13, Mat 13:11,  Mat 13:16).

Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 
Jer 17:10  I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

[God is in charge of the spiritual circumcision that happens through the church (Eph 3:10) or the non-circumcised in the world who know a way that is right in their own eyes that leads to death (Pro 14:12), “every man according to his ways”]

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Rom 2:13  (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 

Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

Next week, Lord willing, we will look at the second part of this section of chapter 18 of Kings that encourages us to see that, despite our wholehearted service to God, there is and will be things that need to be burned out of our lives in order to truly be placing our hope continually and deeply in what God has promised He can do for us as His little flock (2Ki 18:13-18, Php 3:14-15, 1Jn 1:7). 

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

1Jn 1:7  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Luk 12:32  Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

God will not utter words that are not obtainable, and so the negative question asked of the king of Assyria, “In what are you placing your hope” can be answered with absolute assurance that our hope is in Christ our savior who tells us not to fear, as He makes known “what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27, Luk 12:32).