Responsive Heart

2 Kings 22:19
Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people, that they would become accursed and laid waste, and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD.

Once again, a passionate prayer wins the day. This is Josiah, the last good king, if I am not mistaken. Because of his repentance on hearing the Law, he wasn't the last king. The verse following this one details his reward. He would be buried in peace, without witnessing 'all the disaster I am going to bring on this place.'
But to return to the verse and the heart. I think this is a new one, the responsive heart.
It is almost unimaginable. The Word of God is a lost and forgotten scroll in the ruin of the temple. As they repaired the building, Hilkiah the priest found the Law. He passed it on to Shaphan, aide to the king, who brought it to Josiah's attention with the words, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." Then he read from it, and Josiah was struck with grief.
God, give me a heart responsive to your word. Help me to mourn my own sin and the sin of the world I live in, to the point that I tear my clothes and weep. God, hear me...

Wholehearted Devotion

2 Kings 20:3
"Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Fast forward ten chapters and however-many kings. Hezekiah was one of the good kings. How good? Just listen: "He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it."
He removed the high places! He even broke up the ancient bronze serpent! In fact, there was no one like him.
Interestingly, there is no mention of a devoted heart. Rather, it was said he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. It was said he held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses.
I don't think there are accidents in the Bible.
In the nineteenth chapter of 2 Kings, God defeated the Assyrians and saved Jerusalem. Right after that, for no reason given, Hezekiah was sick and told by Isaiah that he would die. He didn't want to accept that verdict, so he went to God.
I remember teaching a Sunday school lesson on this. I'm not so sure this is a model prayer, though it worked for him. He reminded God of his own goodness in 3 phrases, one of which is "wholehearted devotion." He claimed for himself what the writer of
2 Kings did not. And he cried. I think it was his passion that won God over. He knew he hadn't given cause for a death sentence, and he didn't mind telling it to God.
I think that is a good lesson. Just tell it to God. Let it come from the heart. Don't accept the worst case. Beg God for the best.
He just might say yes.

Heart Law

2 Kings 10:31
Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.

How big a surprise was this? For what qualities was Jehu chosen? One had to be his absolute ruthlessness. This verse comes after he has seen to the death of everyone in Ahab's family. That whole judgment is pretty interesting in itself.
God--El Elyon--made the decision that Ahab's genes would not be allowed to continue. His power assured that they did not. He got the right man for the job.
Jehu made another good move, as well, executing every prophet of Baal that he could corral inside their temple.
Thus the 'yet'. He turned bloody violence on the enemies of God, which won him four generations on the throne, but his heart wasn't so pure. This is the first time I recall seeing this idea, keeping the law with all the heart. In fact, I looked it up, and it's only found anything like this in Psalm 119.
Sins of Jeroboam? The golden calves. The pesky golden calves that originated with Aaron. They represented God, as if El Elyon was a prize specimen of livestock. So there was one law in particular he didn't keep in his heart, one of the big ten, the one about no graven images.
In those days (verse 32) the LORD began to reduce the size of Israel.

Pierced Heart

2 Kings 9:24
Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot.

This is only one incident of violence in a bloody chapter. On the whole, it is the wicked who are done in.
Jehu was unexpectedly anointed king by a disciple of Elisha's, who ran for it after doing the deed. Jehu was a soldier, a commander under Ahab, and the apprentice prophet commissioned him to carry out judgment on Ahab's son Joram.
He wasted no time. That may be a great lesson here. When God speaks, do it. I am the worst for procrastinating, second-guessing, making excuses. I'm trying to do better.
What Jehu did is in this verse. We're talking Joram's muscular organ essential to life, and Jehu put an arrow through it. No messing around.
No need to go through the rest of the chapter. Suffice it to say this is the one where Jezebel gets eaten by dogs.

Hearts Turned Back

1 Kings 18:37
Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again."

This is the climax of Elijah's confrontation with the prophets of Baal and Asherah that hung out with Ahab and Jezebel. In this reading of the chapter I noticed the physical work Elijah did there on Mount Carmel as the people of Israel watched, after the pagan prophets had failed. He started by building an altar in the traditional way, from twelve stones. Then he butchered the bull--think of that job alone! The cut-up pieces were laid on the firewood, which was then all soaked with water.
Where the desperate pagans had not only shouted and danced, but slashed themselves to let their own blood flow, Elijah prayed a simple, to-the-point prayer, of which this verse is the end.
Many of the past verses have been about the heart devoted to God. I like this verse because it shows that the heart turning to God is itself a work of God. This time He did it with a grand gesture--the fire burning bull, wood, water, and all. I would just pray that He would do what it takes today to turn hearts to God.