1. In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
2. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years.
   His mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.
3. He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done.
4. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles.
   He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it.
   (It was called Nehushtan.)
5. Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel.
   There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.
6. He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses.
7. And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook.
   He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.
8. From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory.
9. In King Hezekiah's fourth year, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel,
   Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege to it.
10. At the end of three years the Assyrians took it.
   So Samaria was captured in Hezekiah's sixth year, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel.
11. The king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah,
   in Gozan on the Habor River and in towns of the Medes.
12. This happened because they had not obeyed the LORD their God,
   but had violated his covenant--all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded.
   They neither listened to the commands nor carried them out.
13. In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign,
   Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
14. So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish:
   "I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me."
   The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
15. So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the temple of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace.
16. At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with
   which he had covered the doors and doorposts of the temple of the LORD, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
17. The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander,
   his chief officer and his field commander with a large army,
   from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem.
   They came up to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman's Field.
18. They called for the king; and Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator,
   Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to them.
19. The field commander said to them, "Tell Hezekiah:
   "'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours?
20. You say you have strategy and military strength--but you speak only empty words.
   On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?
21. Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff,
   which pierces a man's hand and wounds him if he leans on it!
   Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him.
22. And if you say to me,
   "We are depending on the LORD our God"--isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed,
   saying to Judah and Jerusalem, "You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem"?
23. "'Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria:
   I will give you two thousand horses--if you can put riders on them!
24. How can you repulse one officer of the least of my master's officials,
   even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
25. Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the LORD?
   The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.'"
26. Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander,
   "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it.
   Don't speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall."
27. But the commander replied,
   "Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things,
   and not to the men sitting on the wall--who, like you, will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine?"
28. Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew: "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!
29. This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand.
30. Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says,
   'The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.'
31. "Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me.
   Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,
32. until I come and take you to a land like your own, a land of grain and new wine,
   a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey.
   Choose life and not death!
   "Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, 'The LORD will deliver us.'
33. Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
34. Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?
   Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?
35. Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me?
   How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?"
36. But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply,
   because the king had commanded, "Do not answer him."
37. Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator,
   Shebna the secretary and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah,
   with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.




히스기야왕과 앗수르왕의 침략
앗수르의 랍사게(군대장관)가 이스라엘을 향하여 모욕하다.

북쪽 이스라엘은 히스기야가 남쪽 유다의 왕으로 있을때에
앗수르에 의해 멸망하고 만다.
하나님을 떠나고 하나님의 계명을 지키지 아니하며
우상을 섬기고 우상에 절하는 백성을 아수르라는 도구로 벌하신 것이다.

그러나 유다는 계속해서 위태하나마
하나님을 섬기는 왕들이 나아오고 그들로 인하여
하나님의 심판을 조금씩 연기할 수 있었다.

히스가야는 하나님 보시기에 신실한 왕이었다.
아세라와 바알을 버리고
그 신상과 제단을 훼파아였을 뿐아니라
산당과 놋뱀까지 제하여 버리는 개혁을 단행한다.
성경은 이후에도 이전에도 이러한 왕이 없었다고 기록함으로
그가 하나님 앞에 신실하였을을 말하고 있는 것이다.

그러나 그의 신실함도 배역한 이스라엘을 완전히 돌리지는 못하고 있다.
이미 백성들과 유다 온 족속은 하나님을 깊이 떠나 있었고
그들의 표면이 치유된다 할지라도 그들의 근본을 바꿀 수는 없었던 것이다.
북 이스라엘을 멸망시킨 살만에셀은
남쪽 유다도 멸하려고 쳐들어 온다.
그리고 군대장관 랍사게는 형용치 못할 말로
유다를 조롱하고 그 하나님을 조롱하기에 이른다.

참으로 하나님의 백성과 그 하나님의 존엄이
땅에 떨어지기에 이른 것이다.
하나님을 떠난 백성을 인하여 하나님이 조롱받는 이 상황을 통해
우리는 나의 삶의 부족과 죄악이 어떻게 하나님을 조롱거리로 만드는지를 볼 수있다.

하나님은 결국 이러한 이방민족을 심판하실 것이지만
우리의 삶이 잠시나마 그들의 조롱이 되고
그들로 하나님을 멸시할 꺼리를 주는 것은
나의 불찰과 죄악임을 깨달아 알아야 할 것이다.


나는 나일 뿐아니라
하나님의 백성이며 자녀인 것을 잊지 말 것이다.

또 부끄럽고
또 서글프다.


오늘도 봄빛은 따뜻하고
오늘도 하나님은 온 세상을 아름답게 비취신다....