Most of the kings of the Jews were wicked men who did evil in the eyes of the Lord.  While all of the kings of Israel were unfaithful to God, there were a handful of kings of Judah who pleased Him.  One such king was Hezekiah.  He was a godly man.  This week I want to take a few words and phrases from 2 Kings 18:3-6 that reveal what makes a man godly.   Hezekiah is the kind of man that we should all want to emulate.  So, let’s get started.

Hezekiah was a man who wanted to do right.

2 Kings 18:3 (ESV)
³  And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.

There are two important elements to doing right.  First, it is having the right attitude.  The person who does right consistently is the person who wants to do so.  When Hezekiah took the throne, he cleansed the kingdom of Judah of the high places, the Asherah, and even the bronze serpent made by Moses which the Israelites turned into an object of worship (2 Kings 18:4).

The overwhelming presence of idolatry in the kingdom of Judah demonstrates the unfaithfulness of Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz.  This tells us that Hezekiah did not have the benefit of proper spiritual training.  Why, then, did he do what was right?  He simply wanted to do so, an extension of his desire to please God.  This is what led to Hezekiah’s godly life.

Godliness “denotes that piety which, characterized by a Godward attitude, does that which is well-pleasing to Him” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary).  Notice, godliness is not just doing right, it is doing right because one wants to be well-pleasing to God.  If we are going to follow in the steps of Hezekiah and be godly, it is going to be because we want to please God.  It does not matter what our parents did or what is popular to the people around us; our desire to please God overrides everything else.  That attitude toward God will almost always lead to doing right.

Another element in doing right is knowing what right is in the eyes of God.  Hezekiah knew God’s will, so he was in the position to do it.  There are many people today, including the majority of religious people, who do not do what is right in the eyes of God because they do not know what that takes.  The only way we can learn what is pleasing to God is through His Word.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)
¹⁶  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷  that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

We do not do right by following creeds written by man or by being guided by biblical scholars who are wedded to denominational theology.  We do right by turning to the Bible and doing what it teaches us to do.  It is by the Word of God that His grace trains us to do right.

Titus 2:11-12 (ESV)
¹¹  For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹²  training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

Let’s all determine to do right, and then turn to God’s Word to make sure we know how to do it.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.