Lux Lucet

He trusted in the LORD God of Israel. – 2 Kings 18:5

As a long time history buff, the historical writings of the Old Testament have always had immediate appeal to me. In the Pentateuch, God gave us doctrine. In the historical books, he shows the practice, or non-practice as the case may be, of that doctrine by the children of Israel.  Reading through the books of Kings and Chronicles one finds example after example of kings either acting in faith or rejecting God and going their own way. And as readers, were not left to interpret the examples on our own, but God provides a summary commentary on the lives of the kings, passing judgment on their thoughts and their actions.

A review of the Bible’s commentary on the lives of the kings of Israel and Judah reveals that a distressingly high percentage of these rules not only lacked faith, but were actively evil in their doings. Among the most damning of these commentaries was that on the life of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat. Now Jehoshaphat was one of Judah’s best kings, but his son was an appalling individual. Of Jehoram it was said, “He was thirty-two years old when he became king. He reigned in Jerusalem eight years and, to no one’s sorrow, departed. However they buried him in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.” (2 Chron. 21:20). How would you like that as your epitaph?

On the other end of the spectrum was king Hezekiah. The Scriptures have high praise for this man, of whom it was said, “He trusted in the LORD God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses.” Now there is a great deal that could be said about Hezekiah, and the Scriptures devote quite a bit of time to his reign in Judah. But for our purposes, I would like to focus on the one aspect of Hezekiah’s character: his trust in God.

When the Bible tells us that Hezekiah trusted in God, what does this mean? Were we to use the traditional definition of faith – the notion that faith, like all of Gaul, is divided into three parts: understanding, assent and trust – then we would hold that when the Bible says Hezekiah trusted in God, it meant something more than Hezekiah merely accepted God’s revelation as true. It would mean Hezekiah not only believed God spoke the truth, but also that he added a certain something-I-know-not-what to his mere belief. It would mean, as a friend of mine would say when heaping scorn on this view of faith, that this meant Hezekiah really, really, really believed God.

On the other hand, were we could argue, as Federal Vision folks might, that Hezekiah’s trusting in God meant his works. After all, Hezekiah had a number of very good, eminently photographable works to which he could point: he cut down idols, appointed priests and made provision for their maintenance, extended an invitation to the remnant of the northern kingdom to share in the Passover, and stood up the greatest international bully of his day, Assyria. If we were to argue that trust means works, certainly Hezekiah would be one of the premier exemplars of trust in all of Scripture. But is this idea, the notion that trust means works, supported by the text?

The Hebrew verb translated “trusted” in 2 Kings 18:5 is batah, which has “trust” or “trust in” as its basic meaning. It can also mean “rely upon,” “have confidence” or “feel safe.” In other words, it is a verb that describes a mental act, not a physical action. Mivtah is noun built on the same Hebrew root meaning “confidence,” another word for belief or faith, all nouns describing states of mind, not physical actions. To show these words used in context, consider the following passage taken from the history of Hezekiah’s reign as recorded in 2 Kings. This passage records for us the words of the Assyrian commander sent to Jerusalem to intimidate Hezekiah and the people into and easy surrender.

“What confidence [mivtah] is this in which you [Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem] trust [batah]? You speak of having plans and power for war; but they are mere words. And in whom do you trust [batah], that you rebel against me? Now look! You are trusting [batah] in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust [batah] in him. But if you say to me, ‘We trust [batah] in the LORD our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?” ‘ Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses – if you are able on your part to put riders on them! How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust [batah] in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?’ “…” ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you from his [the king of Assyria’s] hand; nor let Hezekiah make you trust [batah] in the LORD saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria’ ” (2 Kings 18:19-24, 19:10).

Consider the words “And in whom do you trust…” As Gordon Clark has pointed out, when we trust in a person this is another way of saying we believe him. In this case, the people were trusting in, that is to say believing the words of, Hezekiah and God. That the language is used this way is further demonstrated by the Assyrian’s warning the people not to be deceived by Hezekiah’s promise of the deliverance, “Do not let Hezekiah deceive you…nor let Hezekiah make you trust [batah] in the LORD saying, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. ‘ ” According to the Assyrian, the people should not trust, that is to say, they should not believe the proposition, “The LORD will surely deliver us…”

Trusting God means believing his words. When the Scriptures say that Hezekiah trusted God, this is not to be construed as a reference to his good works, as impressive as they were. Rather, this means that Hezekiah understood and accepted as true the verbal, propositional revelation of God. Or to put it still another way, Hezekiah had faith in God. And his good works were the fruit of that faith.

The words above are quotations of the statements made by the Assyrian commander to the Hezekiah and the Jews, who were shut up in Jerusalem as a result of the Assyrian siege. The focus of his attack was on their misplaced – according to him, at least – trust in the promises of God and the words of Hezekiah. It was not their actions that were the primary target of the Assyrian’s words, but their belief, their faith, their trust in God. This is especially clear in the quotation from verse 20, “In whom do you trust, that you rebel against me?” As Gordon Clark pointed out, to trust in a person is to believe his words. Trust and belief are the same thing.

When the Scriptures say that Hezekiah trusted in God, this was not a reference to his actions, however impressive and honorable they were. It is simply another way of saying that Hezekiah, as his forefather Abraham, believed the words of God.