{"id":64313,"date":"2019-10-13T18:21:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-13T15:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64313"},"modified":"2023-05-07T09:39:28","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T06:39:28","slug":"hezekiah-pure-of-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/hezekiah-pure-of-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Hezekiah, Pure of Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[384,898,429,402,621],"acf":{"old_id":"64313","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36277,"related_cahpter":"327","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The underappreciated hero of the spirit sets us a challenging standard of faith even today","content":"

Hezekiah was one of the most amazing figures in the Bible. His remarkable spiritual character seems to me to be underappreciated.<\/span><\/p>\n

His greatness is described as follows: <\/span><\/p>\n

He trusted only in the Lord the God of Israel; there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those before him. He clung to the Lord; he did not turn away from following Him, but kept the commandments that the Lord had given to Moses (II Kings 18:5-6).<\/span><\/p>\n

Hezekiah was unique among the Kings of Judah in his pure-hearted commitment to God. Even the better kings let syncretism creep into the kingdom and didn\u2019t eradicate the idols that were worshipped alongside God. Solomon himself allowed his wives to bring their pagan practices into the land.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Hezekiah was uncompromising in his monotheism. The most striking example of this was that \u201che broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moshes had made, for until that time the Israelites had been offering sacrifices to it.\u201d (v.4)<\/span><\/p>\n

This serpent, you will recall, was described in Numbers 21: 8-9. It was a kind of a talisman that God told Moses to make. If people looked at it, they were healed from the bites of snakes that God had previously sent as a punishment.<\/span><\/p>\n

What a venerated relic this must have been! A physical thing made by Moses himself on God\u2019s instructions! Can one imagine the precious sense of communion with God and the roots of the Jewish people that it must have given? Think too of the political legitimacy that possession of this totem would have conferred on the Kings of Judah, as a sign of the direct connection between them and Moses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet when Hezekiah saw that people were worshipping the snake as a substitute for God, he smashed it to bits. The historical value of the relic, its significance as a priceless piece of our heritage and its emotional power to evoke Israel\u2019s ancient origins were worth nothing to him if the object were treated as an idol.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hezekiah\u2019s act sets us a challenging standard of faith even today. Can we revere holy sites objects and places that connect us to great religious figures and events of the past while maintaining the pure-hearted consciousness to worship God alone?<\/span><\/p>\n

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