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Text of the Lesson, III Kings xviii, 13,
to xix, 37-Memory Verses, 80, 33
Golden Text, Ps. XVI, Com
mentary Prepared by Rev. ID. Nj.
Stearns.


In our last lesson all that we saw of
Hezekiah was good. except in the mat
ter of his not honoring the Lord before
the visitors from Babylon. but this les
son gives little more insight into the
heart of the man, who. like all the rest
of us. would be nothing but sinful but
for the grace OF God. His great turn
Ing to the Lord, with the great Passover
and the two weeks feast of unleavened
bread and the cleansing of the land
from idols, was In the very beginning
Of his reign. But to begin well is one
thing, while patient continuance In well
doing is often quite another, and it is
in the continuance that many fail.
Paul said that, having obtained help Of
God, he continued (Acts XVI, 22, and
that same help is for all who really de-
sire II.
In the sixth year Of Hezekiah's reign
the ten tribes were carried into captiv-
ity In Assyria by Shalmaneser In the
ninth year Of the reign Of Hoshea, their
king, because they obeyed not the voice
Of the Lord their God, but transgressed
all that Moses, the servant OF the Lord,
commanded xviii, OLD. Eight years
later in the fourteenth year Of Heze-
kiah, Sennacherib came against judah
and Jerusalem, and at first Hezekiah
tried to buy him of by a measure Of
submission to him by giving him gold
and silver, even the gold from the
doors and pillars Of the temple xviii,
1916. That was certainly not trust
ing in the Lord, as he had done at the
beginning, and gave the enemy ground
to reproach God and scoff at Hezekiah's
trust xviii, 22) and made them bold to
blaspheme and defy and lie, saying.
The Lord said to me, Go up against
this land and destroy it xviii, 25).
While those who bear the name of
the Lord may terribly fail, as did
some of the kings who sat upon the
throne of the Lord in Jerusalem, so
that Jerusalem herself was called a
harlot, and also called Sodom and Co
mofrah lisa. /, 8, 10, 21, those, who
like Pharaoh and Sennacherib, and the
antichrist OF the last days, openly
defy God, are the devil in human form,
but all such loftiness shall be brought
down, and the Lord alone shall be ex-
allied lisa. ii, IL, 10. The Assyrian
generals were not far from the truth
when they said that it was vain TO
place any reliance upon Egypt xviii,
1921, for the Lord Himself had said
the same thing through Isaiah, 1.-THE
strength Of Pharaoh shall be your
shame, and the trust In the shadow Of
Egypt your confusion, for the
Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no
purpose" Elsa. Xxx, 10. But when it
came to exalting the king of Assyria
above the living God and putting Him
on a level with idols, the gods Of the
nations, that was unbearable, and to
such blasphemy the people held their
peace, and at the kings commandment
answered not a word (xviii, 2S-30. So
3e). This brought Hezekiah In hu-
mility to his knees and to the Lord in
whom he so fully trusted at the begin
ming. To mere words we should be
able to act according to Ps. xxxviii, 13,
"I as a deaf man heard not, and ] was
as dumb man that openeth not his
mouth"