|Hezekiah, king of Judah|
|SERMONS, ESSAYS AND OPINIONS|
Hezekiah was a king of Judah, who trusted in God despite the advacing Assyrian army that destroyed much of his kingdom. 2 Kings records these words: "Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before or after"
During the reign of Hezekiah, the kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians and the Israelites were deported to Assyria; the Assyrians then threatened Judah, and Hezekiah prayed and Isaiah predicted that God would force the Assyrians to withdraw from around Jerusalem – God caused 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp to die one night and the Assyrians then withdrew and returned to Nineveh
Hezekiah became ill and Isaiah told him that he would die – Hezekiah prayed out to the Lord, and the Lord heard him and added 15 years to his life