He held fast his faith in God when Sennacherib and his Assyrian army
were camping round Jerusalem; for God had said, 'I will defend this
city to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.'
He defended his city bravely and nobly, and showed himself a true,
and valiant, and godly king. And perhaps Hezekiah expected to be
rewarded for his faith, and rewarded for having done his duty: but
it was not so. He had to wait, and to endure more. And now this
fresh trouble was come upon him. Isaiah told him he should die and
not live: and he must prepare himself to meet death.
Hezekiah, you see, was horribly afraid of death. I do not mean that
he was afraid of going to hell, for he does not say so: but he
felt, to use his own words, 'The grave cannot praise thee, death
cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope
for thy truth.' And, therefore, death looked to him an ugly and an
evil thing--as it is; the Lord's enemy, and his last enemy, the one
with which he will have the longest and sorest fight. He conquered
death by rising from the dead: but nevertheless we die; and death
is an ugly, fearful, hateful thing in itself, and rightly called the
King of Terrors: for terrible it is to those who do not know that
Christ has conquered it.
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