type: Sermon Manuscript\

Date: 2026-05-20
belongs_to: "[[hezekiah]]"

Hezekiah - Manuscript

Take your Bibles with you and turn to the book of Second Kings, chapter 18. We're going to look today at one of the greatest kings that Judah ever had. In fact, we're going to read a verse that says he was the greatest before or after him, and I think that would include David. This one definitely deserves to be on the Mount Rushmore of the kings of Judah, and his name was Hezekiah.

We're going to spend most of our time tonight in Second Chronicles, but I want to start in Second Kings chapter 18 because it gives us a summary of the life of Hezekiah. Let's go ahead and read the first six verses.

[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.
[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.
[3] And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did.
[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.
[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.
[6] For he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses.

*> 2 Kings 18:1-6 (KJV)

Hezekiah is a king that almost nothing is said negatively about. He just has a perfect heart before the Lord. And it's interesting because his father was a wicked king. Hezekiah is raised by a wicked, wicked, awful king — maybe the worst king that Judah has.

Remember, his father is worshiping Molech and bringing in all kinds of false gods into the land and shutting up the temple. And yet Hezekiah is going to be godly.

And I think that maybe should be the first principle that we take down: that you don't have to be as your parents were. Just because your parents were wicked, or were not in church, or didn't live for the Lord, that doesn't mean that you have to follow in their footsteps. God is a God of second chances, and there are many men in the scripture and many men throughout history that have followed the Lord with a pure heart whose parents were not faithful to the Lord.

And on the flip side of that, there have been many faithful families who have had children that chose not to walk with the Lord, whose children have not acted right. Ultimately, we are responsible for ourselves. Every one of us is responsible for our own relationship to the Lord.

Hezekiah, for whatever reason, is looking at his father and he's looking at the terrible state that Judah is in. Maybe he's looking up north at Israel. He's witnessing, in the first six years of his reign, the destruction of Israel. Right away Israel is besieged, and then three years later Israel is taken away to Assyria. Hezekiah sees all that and he sees that this is a consequence of their sin.

The verse also tells us that his mother was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah. Zachariah is a man that's mentioned in the book of Isaiah as a man that had a godly testimony. It's very likely that though he had a wicked father, he had a godly mother. Hezekiah likely grew up under the influence of his grandfather Zachariah and even under the influence of Isaiah the prophet.

I think this should be an encouragement to people too, because this young man — even though he was raised by a wicked father king — was influenced by godly people and he turned out to be the most godly king in the history of Judah.

Maybe you have relatives or neighbors or people that you're wanting to bring to church and you think, "They're never gonna turn out because their dad is no good, or they live in a house where there's lots of wicked things going on." I wouldn't be so sure, because people like Hezekiah show us that God can do things with people that don't come from the greatest of homes.

Hezekiah was the great revival king. What we're going to talk about tonight is the story of the revival that Hezekiah led. To get there, we have got to go all the way to 2 Chronicles chapter 29. Take your Bibles and go to the book of 2 Chronicles.

So Hezekiah becomes king after his father has reigned in a very wicked way. What do you do to get the country back on track? What do you do to bring about revival in the land? Well, Hezekiah is a pretty good example of that, because God brings a mighty revival under Hezekiah. Let's read the first four verses here.

[1] Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
[2] And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.
[3] He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them.
[4] And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street.

*> 2 Chronicles 29:1-4 (KJV)

So the very first thing that Hezekiah does after he becomes king — in the first month of his first year — is he returns to the house of the Lord. His father had closed the doors of the temple and left it in a state of disrepair. He despised the temple, and the first thing that Hezekiah does is open it back up and repair it.

So if you want to have revival in your life, I think the first thing you have to start with is:

1. Return to the House of God

Just get back in church. Now, I know I'm talking to people on Wednesday night — obviously you're here in church — but God wants to commune with us on a regular basis, and God has decided that His house is a place where that happens. We need to be faithful in our church attendance. When we start getting lax about our church attendance, the rest of our life falls apart as well. They go in and they start with the temple.

The second thing that we're going to see they had to do is they had to:

2. Remove the Rubbish

Let's keep reading.

[7] Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel.
[8] Wherefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.
[9] For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.
[10] Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.
[11] My sons, be not now negligent: for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense.
[12] Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites: and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehalelel: and of the Gershonites; Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah:
[13] And of the sons of Elizaphan; Shimri, and Jeiel: and of the sons of Asaph; Zechariah, and Mattaniah:
[14] And of the sons of Heman; Jehiel, and Shimei: and of the sons of Jeduthun; Shemaiah, and Uzziel.
[15] And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord.
[16] And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron.

*> 2 Chronicles 29:7-16 (KJV)

So not only do they return to the house of God, but they've got to clean out the house of God. The temple is just full of junk — and not just in the common areas. There's junk in the inner part of the house of the Lord, in the part that people weren't even supposed to go to. The Holy of Holies is full of junk. And here's what's amazing to me: it takes them sixteen days to clean out all of it. But that has to be done first.

Before they can have a national revival, they've got to get the junk out. Listen, if we're going to have revival in our life, we've got to get in the house of the Lord and we've got to get the junk out of our life. We all have things that accumulate in our life that shouldn't be there, and we need to — with the Lord's help — get rid of those things.

Maybe there's a habit you're getting into. Maybe there are books or shows or magazines you shouldn't be reading. Maybe it's spending too much time on a certain website. Maybe it's music that doesn't edify you. It's junk, and it's going to keep you from worshiping the Lord as you should. You've got to take the time to get rid of it and get it out of your life.

Adam preached on Sunday night about the parable of the soils, and one of the soils is the soil that has the thorns. The ground itself might be good, but the seed can't grow because it's crowded out by junk. Listen, if you don't get rid of the junk — if you don't pull those weeds out of your life — they are going to destroy you. You're never going to have the relationship with God that He wants to have with you if your life is just cluttered with junk.

Return to the house of God. Remove the rubbish. Another thing you can see in these verses as part of Hezekiah's revival is:

3. Respond to the Call of Service

There was a lot of work to be done, and Hezekiah knew that God had people to do that work, so he issued a call for service. We've already read about all these different Levites, all the different people that had to answer that call and get back to work to clean up the temple and sanctify the things of the Lord.

If you want to have revival in your life, God is going to give you something to do for Him and for His kingdom. God is going to give you a job. In Romans, in Ephesians, and in Corinthians, it talks about how all the members of God's church are body parts with a job to do and different skills that God has given them. God blesses His people by keeping them busy about His work.

You've heard the saying, "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." I think it's important that we be busy about the work of the Lord.

Listen, if you don't know what to do, we can help you find something. There is plenty to do in the Lord's work — whether it's teaching a Sunday school class, doing work around the church, helping widows and people in need in the congregation, canvassing, inviting people to church, sharing the gospel. There are unlimited things to do for the Lord. And so if you want to have revival, it's going to start with coming back to the house of God and getting the rubbish out of your life, and then God is going to give you something to do to keep you busy.

Let's keep reading.

[17] Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the Lord: so they sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.
[18] Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the Lord, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread table, with all the vessels thereof.
[19] Moreover all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away in his transgression, have we prepared and sanctified, and, behold, they are before the altar of the Lord.
[20] Then Hezekiah the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the Lord.
[21] And they brought seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the Lord.
[22] So they killed the bullocks, and the priests received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar: likewise, when they had killed the rams, they sprinkled the blood upon the altar: they killed also the lambs, and they sprinkled the blood upon the altar.
[23] And they brought forth the he goats for the sin offering before the king and the congregation; and they laid their hands upon them:
[24] And the priests killed them, and they made reconciliation with their blood upon the altar, to make an atonement for all Israel: for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.

*> 2 Chronicles 29:17-24 (KJV)

For this revival they had a lot of work to do. Just a lot of work to do. The whole temple had to be cleaned out. Everything had to be cleaned and sanctified. All of these lost pieces that had been discarded by the wicked king Ahaz had to be found and repaired. They had to start killing the bulls again and sprinkling blood on the altar. They had to go back to Deuteronomy, Exodus, and Leviticus and figure out how God wanted these things to be done — because they weren't being done!

But they did it. They got busy. And you know what I like about Hezekiah? He does not waste time. All of this is in the first month of his reign. He's not letting the grass grow under his feet. He is just busy. It says in verse 20 that he rose up early. He is not wasting any time. He is getting everybody together and getting this thing done while he can, for the Lord.

Oh, to have a little bit of this youthful zeal that Hezekiah had. A lot of people say, "Oh, let's just take it easy. It'll get done if it needs to get done." No, no, no, no. Hezekiah got after it! He had a job to do. Things had been out of place too long. God was not being worshiped as He ought to. The people were not being instructed as they were supposed to. The sacrifices weren't being made. He had a huge job to do, and he used his influence as king to get it done.

Listen, if God has given you something to do, don't make excuses. You can get up earlier. You can find a way. Maybe you don't have time to serve the Lord because you're spending too much time watching television or too much time taking care of some expensive hobby. Have some urgency about it.

So they returned to the house of God. They removed the rubbish. They responded to the call of service. The fourth thing we see in this chapter is:

4. Rejoice in Worship

Let's read verses 25-36.

[25] And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet: for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets.
[26] And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.
[27] And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also with the trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by David king of Israel.
[28] And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded: and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.
[29] And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves, and worshipped.
[30] Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped.
[31] Then Hezekiah answered and said, Now ye have consecrated yourselves unto the Lord, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the Lord. And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings; and as many as were of a free heart burnt offerings.
[32] And the number of the burnt offerings, which the congregation brought, was threescore and ten bullocks, an hundred rams, and two hundred lambs: all these were for a burnt offering to the Lord.
[33] And the consecrated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep.
[34] But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings: wherefore their brethren the Levites did help them, till the work was ended, and until the other priests had sanctified themselves: for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests.
[35] And also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings, and the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of the Lord was set in order.
[36] And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people: for the thing was done suddenly.

*> 2 Chronicles 29:25-36 (KJV)

I like this: part of their revival was returning to the musical worship of God. Yes, they had to get the offerings right, and they do that — but they also made sure that God is worshiped in song. They make sure that God is worshiped by the congregation and by the singers and by the trumpeters. They go and find these instruments that were likely invented by David — these stringed instruments — and start using them again in worship.

As they worship, they start offering free will offerings to the Lord. Not just the required sin offerings, but giving more than was required of them.

The people who were supposed to be doing these offerings were the priests, but because of the wickedness of the king before, there weren't enough priests. The Levites step in and help. God gives a special grace for the Levites to come and work alongside them. The chapter ends by saying that Hezekiah rejoiced over all the people because the thing was done suddenly.

This revival was a move of God — God blowing His Spirit on the people, bringing the people back. God using this young king Hezekiah to come in and bring about revival among His people.

I don't know about you, church, but I don't want to be in a dead church. I want to be in a church where God is moving. I want God to be real and moving in my life.

I don't think we can manufacture revival. We might have something we call a revival service, but we can't schedule it on the calendar like we know exactly when we're going to come to life and when we're going to go back to death. That's kind of silly. Revival is a work of the Lord.

But we can take steps in that direction:

• We can join ourselves to the house of God.
• We can get rid of the junk that's in our life.
• We can dedicate ourselves to God's service.
• We can praise God in worship — both with our song and with our offerings.

Now, I don't have time to go through all of chapter 30, but I do want to summarize what happens there because it's really something. In chapter 30, Hezekiah re-institutes the Passover. Because of the wickedness of the people, they have not been observing the Passover for a long time. Let's just read the first five verses of chapter 30.

[1] And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel.
[2] For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep the passover in the second month.
[3] For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.
[4] And the thing pleased the king and all the congregation.
[5] So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written.

*> 2 Chronicles 30:1-5 (KJV)

Hezekiah sends out a decree not just to Judah but to all of Israel. He invites all of them — even the remnant of the northern tribes — to come and observe the Passover.

But there's a problem: they don't have time to observe the Passover on the day it's supposed to be observed. Remember, Hezekiah comes to the throne at the beginning of the year, in the first month, and the middle of the first month is when the Passover is supposed to be observed. They've missed that deadline. The people aren't prepared. The temple isn't prepared. There's no way to get it ready in time.

Back in the book of Numbers, there's a story about some people who were unable to observe the Passover because they had been in contact with a dead body. Moses goes to the Lord about this, and God instructs those people to observe the Passover not in the first month but in the second month. It seems like Hezekiah learns from this and applies it to the whole country. Because they've been defiled by their sin, they weren't ready to have the Passover in the first month — so they have it in the second month instead.

And the people came. People from Israel came. People from all over Judah came to celebrate and rejoice with God in the Passover. And you know what's interesting? In this chapter, they didn't get it exactly right. A lot of these people had never been taught how to prepare for the Passover, how to cleanse themselves. But at the end of the chapter, Hezekiah goes to the Lord and asks for special mercy to be given to them — because their heart is to seek the Lord. And God grants it.

Then they start cleaning the land. Hezekiah goes farther than any other king and gets rid of the high plaaces. Apparently people were worshipping the brazen serpent from Exodus, so Hezekiah even brakes that up. They had a might revival.

Conclusion

I just love these chapters. I love this story. Hezekiah is one of the greatest revival stories in all of the Bible.

And here's what I want you to take home tonight. Revival didn't begin with a great crowd. It didn't begin with a big event. It began with one young man who looked at the state of things and decided, "This is not the way it should be. We are going to turn back to God." And he didn't wait. He didn't make excuses. He rose up early, he got to work, and God moved.

Maybe tonight you're looking at your own life and you can see that some things are not the way they should be. Maybe the doors of your temple have been closed for a while. Maybe there's rubbish that's piled up. Maybe you've been sitting on the sidelines when God has a job for you to do. Maybe it's been too long since you truly worshiped the Lord with a free and grateful heart.

The good news is that God is still the same God who moved in Hezekiah's day. He is still a God of second chances. He is still a God who responds when His people turn back to Him — and notice in verse 36, it says the thing was done suddenly. When God moves, He can turn things around faster than you ever thought possible.

Don't wait for a revival service on the calendar. Start tonight. Return to the house of God. Remove the rubbish. Respond to His call. And rejoice in His worship. That's where revival begins.