Immediately after the Assyrian troops were out of Palestine, however, Hezekiah returned to his old policy and began a war to regain the forty-six cities which Sennacherib had conquered and in which he had left Assyrian governors.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Prophet Triumphs.
The fearful crisis through which Judah and Jerusalem had passed, before Sennacherib withdrew from Judah to fight his subjects in Babylonia, set both the king and the people to thinking.
Hezekiah had evidently become convinced that Isaiah's counsel for peace with Assyria was the best; for, after he had reconquered several of the fortified cities and towns captured by Sennacherib, he made an arrangement with the Assyrian king to pay an annual tribute peacefully, in order that his country should be at rest.
During the ten years that followed, Hezekiah, instead of seeking alliances with foreign nations, for the purpose of rebellion, devoted himself to building up his own country, and to reforming his own people, in line with the preaching of Isaiah.
Once, when Hezekiah was sick, Isaiah called on him at the palace. The prophet cheered him in his illness and expressed his hope for the king's speedy recovery. This call established a friendlier relationship between the king and the prophet.
At another time, Hezekiah invited Isaiah to the palace; and Isaiah was glad to go, because Hezekiah, in his new policy, was following the commandments of God which, as taught by Isaiah, were destined to save the nation from its enemies.
"The Remnant," which Isaiah educated, now grew in great proportions, until it included the majority of Jews who were leading upright lives. Isaiah, himself, was established as a true prophet of God among his people.
Upon his recovery from his illness, Hezekiah began to reform the religious life of the country. He destroyed the "high places" on which many people offered sacrifices to strange gods. He broke up the brazen serpent to which the people sacrificed and which they worshiped from the days of the Wilderness. He destroyed many idols and practically banished idolatry from the land. Men turned from their evil ways; they left off their wrongdoing and dealt justly and honorably, one with another. Not only did they worship their God, but they had full faith in Him.