According to 2 Kings 18:2 Hezekiah’s father had been an ungodly king. Ahaz and Hezekiah’s son Manasseh would also become ungodly. Yet under Hezekiah’s reign the nation reinstituted the Passover, rebuilt the temple which took 16 days just to clear the rubble. He also destroyed the bronze serpent that God had used to heal the people who had been bitten by poison snakes back in the time of Moses.
Think of this the nation had begun to worship a symbol of God’s grace instead of God. Anything, even a God-given blessing and instrument of His grace and healing in our lives can become an object of idolatry if we put our trust in the object instead rather than solely in the One from whom all blessings flow. Later Hezekiah was near death and prayed that God would heal him and extend his life and was during this extended life that his son Manasseh was born and became one of the worst kings Judah ever had. But the rest of the story of Manasseh according to 2 Chron. 33:11-13, 18-19 is that once taken captive he repented and God restored Judah and he reigned wisely the rest of his life.
There was also Josiah whom we are told in 22:2 “Did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.” The nation gone so far away from God that as they repaired the temple we are told in 22:8 that the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.” Think of this they had moved so far away from the Word of God that they didn’t even know that it was lost and needed to be found!
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