When you think of Hezekiah the first thing you think of is the tunnel for the water that his engineers dug to bring water into Jerusalem and the sun going backwards ten steps to confirm his healing. There is an urban legend that brings in NASA and extended space travel with the “lost day” of the Bible. I would love for this story to be true but after reading more on the topic I may let this one rest as NASA would have to confirm it and they are denying that the test ever took place.  The tunnel is still active and can be visited so that is an undeniable proof of Hezekiah and the truthfulness of the Bible.

Like other kings of Judah he “did right in the eyes of God” but he has an added statement in 2 Chronicles 29:10 that it was “in his heart” to make a covenant with God so that His fierce anger would turn away from them.  He did not follow in the footsteps of his physical father and in fact he undid and reversed many things his father had done in Jerusalem. I counted the kings who did “good” vs. those who “did not do right in the eyes of the Lord.”

Good Kings

David, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash*, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, Josiah,

Bad Kings

Saul, Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Joash*, Ahaz, Manasseh, Amon, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah

Joash started off good and then ended bad and some of the “bads” did have a change of heart towards the end of their life but they are still listed as bad. If you count Saul it is 13 “bads” to “8” goods.  A very telling verse is 2 Chronicles 27: 1,2 Jotham did what was right but the people continued their corrupt practices. So you cannot blame it just on the kings because the people’s hearts were not with the Lord.  If you read Mary’s genealogy you can see that Jesus did not come from this line of kings; He did come from David but through Nathan another one of his sons.

I guess the two important spiritual things that Hezekiah did was reopened the Temple with worship and praise and he held a Passover.

Tunnel Picture and a good informational websitehttp://www.generationword.com/Israel/jerusalem_sites/hezekiah_tunnel.html