Hezekiah’s Mom
Her name was Abijah, daughter of Zechariah. She is typical of someone who exemplifies a character in both the books of Kings and Chronicles.
The history part of the Bible has 2 parallel books (Chronicles and Kings) that tell of the kings of both Judah (the southern kingdom) and Israel (the northern part). Abijah is mentioned in both as the mother of a good king, Hezekiah. Yet she had a bad husband, Ahaz. Let’s face it; he was a jerk!
(It’s hard to imagine our modern-day Israel was once split into two little kingdoms (Judea and Samaria) when they say that a jet airplane today can fly over Israel in about 8 minutes. Back in the old days, it took days to traverse the borders.)
Back to Chronicles and Kings.
Chronicles seems to “airbrush” the Judean kings and focuses on the dynasty of David, at least what was left of it after the great split-off of the kings after little Samaria said “no more” of David’s line and set up its own government under various kings.
David’s lineage was important because God promised it would continue if they obeyed and the Messiah would come through it someday. There were times that the lineage was “almost” snuffed out through usurpation or assassination, but miraculously one heir survived, and the line continued. (See II Chronicles 23: 10-12, wicked Athaliah and little Joash; II Chronicles 33:24-25, conspirators and little Josiah.)
The line of Jesus Christ duplicates the Davidic line in the book of Matthew. Scholars say that His line in Luke is from David up to Mary. God’s promise that David’s dynasty would continue happens through Jesus, the offspring of David. The Nicene Creed says that he will reign forever. Even blind Bartimaeus called him “Son of David.” It seemed to be common knowledge that He was a descendant of David.
The book of Kings gives a less flattering view of the Judean kings and tells more about their warts and pimples. 11 Kings does not mention the wife of Ahaz in chapter 16, but both II Kings and II Chronicles say that he sacrificed his own child in a fire to a pagan god. (II Kings 16:3, II Chronicles 28:3-4) Parallels to today’s abortion exist.
Perhaps one of Abijah’s own children had been sacrificed to this pagan god. When she saw that her son, Hezekiah, was spared from the flames, perhaps she gave herself completely to grooming him for his destiny, the throne of David, to continue the role of his g-g-g-g-g?--grandfather.
Why didn’t Abijah make Hezekiah a spoiled brat as a royal? She saw the bigger picture. He was to be leader of Judea, not to be idolized.
He did it well. His story begins in II Chronicles 29 and II Kings 18. Even II Kings compliments him in verse 5 by saying there was “no one like him of all the kings of Judah, either before or after him.” Wow! His father’s sin is summarized in II Chronicles 29:19.
The current events of Hezekiah’s day saw the sister kingdom end in Hezekiah’s sixth year. Samaria became extinct when Assyria marched in and captured her completely, deporting her people. Assyria thought it would do the same to Judea, but it didn’t happen. God was still honored there by none other than Isaiah the Prophet and Hezekiah the king. (A famous poem by Lord Byron, or George Gordon, describes for us the mysterious deaths of thousands of Assyrian soldiers who were bent on destroying Judea. See “The Destruction of Sennacherib”.) Hezekiah did have to pay an annual tribute amount.
A closing note: There are some beautiful scripture references in Chronicles. Notice these:
- Famous promise – “If my people…” II Chronicles 7:14
- Old Testament Lord’s prayer – I Chronicles 29:11
- Another promise – II Chronicles 20:9c – He will not turn his face from you if you return to him (NIV).