There once was a king of old
A king of faith, a faithful king –
Here is his story told –
Let’s begin…
There were none like before him,
Nor will we see his like again,
This King was a prodigy of
Faith and
Blessed was his reign.
A ruler known as wise –
A king of true beauty reigned
Who followed after David’s Lord
And dignity reclaimed.
With the repairing of temple,
He mended the ancient chord,
His offering true and ample
To the eternal Living One, restored.
Even when disease had taken him, to mourning and despair,
And an evil on the horizon with an army drawing steadily near,
Even when Isaiah told him he was soon to die,
He turned then to his Lord, and faithfully, he cried
“Oh my Lord forget not, I have served you true,
Lord you are my master
The choice is up to You.”
“Healed then! Restored! And in temple in three days!”
Was what Isaiah burst back into the room to say.
And the Sun moved in a miracle
To assure the king that day.
Isaiah spoke again with the Father,
then declared -
Hezekiah 15 more good years he’d be spared.
And That He, the Lord, would defend the city,
For the Living God does care.
Between the Prophet and the King,
Much peace that day was shared.
Assured Sennacherib would not triumph,
Not one arrow in the air.
Now, Sennacherib of Assyria boasted
That no god of any city
Saved its people from his hands,
He made them all slaves without pity.
No people could him withstand!
The tyrant’s vile emissaries, then to Hezekiah’s fold
Announced that the Lord would not save them,
They’d be burnt and killed and sold.
A letter from Sennacherib filled with vile blasphemies unscored,
Into the sacred temple,
King Hezekiah, brought this correspondence to the Lord.
With Sennacherib fast descending
Full of blasphemies and blood,
A legion of death impending
To take the city of the King beloved.
The soldiers ate and drank and slept,
Secure they’d take the city in the morn –
But the Angel of Lord slew them,
All dead bodies by the dawn.
The boasting legions quieted,
The eerie camp of death,
As Sennacherib stumbled
his fierce soldiers robbed of breath.
The city was saved.
Sennacherib fled…
The destruction waived,
The fame of the story spread…
To even another re-telling today,
Of the life and times of Hezekiah’s day.
