This week we began learning about חזקיהו's actions that he took as king. The דברי הימים says חזקיהו refurbished the Beit Hamikdash, sent out messages throughout Israel telling the Jews to come back to Hashem, removed the במות, and that he was responsible for a religious revival where the people stopped worshipping idols and returned to the Beit Hamikdash and Hashem. In מלכים it virtually says the same thing, except it is also added that חזקיהו had complete faith and trust in Hashem, that he "clung to Hashem", that Hashem was with him, and that he rebelled against Assyria by refusing to pay the taxes. Altogether חזקיהו's actions make him look like the epitome of the absolute perfect leader.
However, we see here that חזקיהו's main focus was on idol worship. It was a HUGE problem and it needed to be fixed desperately, but he didn't seem to focus at all on the lack of צדק ומשפט. That was mostly taken up by ישעיהו who tried to help the people regain צדק ומשפט by relaying the messages and warnings of Hashem. Sadly, this was done in vain. There seemed to be no hope that the people would regain צדק ומשפט at this point in time.
As we continued to learn about חזקיהו's reign, we saw an exchange take place between Assyria and יהודה. At this time, סנחרב, the king of Assyria, has begun to reconquer; he has destroyed שומרון and now is beginning to attack cities in חזקיהו .יהודה hears of this and panics slightly. He tears his clothes and goes into mourning. These are reactions to רבשקה's (the messenger from Assyria) messages. He traveled to יהודה to make the people doubt their king and Hashem and to make them surrender to Assyria.
In רבשקה's first speech, he tries to cause the people to doubt their leaders by questioning their choice of allies, questioning חזקיהו's choice to destroy the במות, and saying that Hashem has turned His back on them (using שומרון as an example). He also tries to tempt them to come to Assyria by promising them safety and food and water. He tells them that Assyria will be so much better to them than חזקיהו has, because he was the one who caused them to be in their situation (being besieged by the Assyrians).
In the first speech רבשקה was speaking to the messengers of חזקיהו in Hebrew. After he stops, they tell him not to speak in Hebrew so the people won't be able to understand him and they won't be swayed by his words. Obviously he declines, saying that the people should be able to hear because they are all in the same situation together. Afterwards, in רבשקה's second speech, he tells the people that they shouldn't trust חזקיהו because he won't be able to save them. חזקיהו responds to this by mourning and going to the Beit Hamikdash. He then sends a message to ישעיהו asking him to pray to Hashem on their behalf.
ישעיהו responds with a prophecy. He tells חזקיהו that Assyria will be destroyed because of their haughtiness and because they thought they were more powerful than Hashem. The Perek ends with the prophecy coming true: almost all of Assyria is destroyed by an angel of Hashem and the rest flee out of the land. The people rejoice and highly praise Hashem.
My brothers play a video game that is based on trying to divide and conquer different lands. Strangely, their video game seems to relate to this part of חזקיהו's reign. They besiege the cities and they can send messages to the leaders of people and try to get them to leave or surrender. This is both good and bad. In a good way, this can teach people that this sort of thing is so terrible that it can only be played in a fantasy. In a bad way, it is used for entertainment. I am sure that during this time of the people, this was not very entertaining for them. But maybe it will teach them to rethink their actions so that their situation would never be repeated.
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