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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I wonder if you’ve ever wished for more time? More time to finish a project when a deadline approaches? More time to develop a team? More time to live, as a terminal illness cannot be stopped?
Have you ever begged God for something and then later regretted that He gave you what you begged Him for?
Yesterday we looked at the remarkable story of king Hezekiah. His father had been a terrible man and an even worse leader of God’s people, in Jerusalem. After his father’s death and Hezekiah’s coronation as the new, young king, Hezekiah courageously led the people in reversing many of the horrible practices his father, king Ahaz, had put in place. God greatly honored the repentance of the people, and brought enormous blessing upon them, including a miraculous rescue from a huge Assyrian army of over 185,000 soldiers, without a single Hebrew casualty! How do you thank God when He answers your prayers and provides for you or protects you in amazing ways? How do you respond when God does, what only God can do, as you face challenges bigger than you can handle?
We don’t know how much time passed, but after these remarkable events, king Hezekiah became ill and grew worse fairly quickly. He sent for the prophet Isaiah, who brought him unexpected bad news. “This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die,you will not recover.” (2 Kings 20:2) Perhaps you or someone you know has received such terrible news. Probably your response was to call everyone to prayer, asking God for more time. That’s what Hezekiah did. . . and God once again did an amazing miracle, and almost instantly. This story is so remarkable you’ll actually find it in three places in the Bible… 2 Kings 20; 2 Chronicles 32 and Isaiah 38 & 39.
The record says: “Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: ‘Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of My people, ‘This is what the LORD says: ‘I have heard your prayer and seen your tears, I will heal you…I will add 15 years to your life. And I will defend this city…” (2 Kings 20:4-6) And God did as He promised. Hezekiah recovered and lived 15 more years, and God protected Jerusalem during that time! And so I must ask. . . how did you respond when God answered your desperate cry and did a remarkable miracle in your life?
Have you found that sometimes outrageous blessings can corrupt our hearts? That’s what happened to king Hezekiah. In his gratitude for his healing, he became proud. As kings sometimes do, he received high ranking official visitors from a far away empire, Babylon. In his pride, king Hezekiah paraded the visiting officials around Jerusalem, telling them the stories of God’s great protection and provision, and even proudly showing them his treasury. With their official visit completed, they returned home to Babylon, and Hezekiah then received an unexpected visit from his friend and spiritual advisor, the prophet Isaiah. “What did those visitors say and where did they come from”, Isaiah asked. “From a distant land’, Hezekiah answered,’They came from Babylon.’
“And what did they see in your palace?…They saw everything in my palace, there is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them” Hezekiah answered.” (2 Kings 20:14,15)
Can you hear Hezekiah’s pride? Certainly God had greatly blessed him and the people who had turned to God in Jerusalem. But there is great danger when we take credit for what God has done, or when we do not give God credit for the great miracles He has done for us. This was Hezekiah’s opportunity to draw a clear distinction between the Almighty, Holy God of the Hebrews, and the idols whom the Babylonians worshiped. God’s design for His people was that all the peoples of the earth would come to see and understand what a great God Jehovah is and what a great thing it is when God’s people live in worship of their Holy God. (Ezekiel 36:23) But instead Hezekiah evidently drew the attention to himself and the Babylonian officials left awed by Hezekiah’s treasury but having no better understanding of the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, and the God of king Hezekiah and the Hebrew people.
What the prophet Isaiah said next to king Hezekiah must have shaken him to the very core of his being. “Hear the word of the LORD: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon! Nothing will be left, says the LORD.” (2 Kings 20:17) Can you see the shocked look on king Hezekiah’s face, his eyes growing large and maybe even his mouth dropping open? I imagine he was speechless. Isaiah likely paused to let the magnitude of what he had just said sink deeply into Hezekiah’s mind. But Isaiah wasn’t finished.
“And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, that will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” Now the horrificness of Isaiah’s message moved from mind to heart. As king Hezekiah reflected, he understood… Isaiah was predicting that just as the Sennacherib the king of Assyria had come with a huge army intending to conquer and destroy Jerusalem and carry off its people and its bounty, so now someday in the future some great king of Babylon would do the same. The big difference, of course would be, that Isaiah was predicting that in this future invasion God would NOT protect Jerusalem, for the leader of the people in that future day would not be a God honoring man like Hezekiah was, instead he would be wicked, like Hezekiah’s father had been and Hezekiah was becoming!
As you may know that which Isaiah predicted did in fact happen, as king Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem not once but twice and in the final 586bc invasion, destroyed the city and burned the Temple to the ground, taking the wealth and the people of Jerusalem back to Babylon as captives.
My friends, may I show you one other important thing in this story? God had granted king Hezekiah 15 more years of life, and at his death his son Manasseh was crowned king. . . at the age of 12! Did you hear that? Manasseh was conceived and born during those miraculous additional 15 years. I’ve often wondered what stories Hezekiah told his son Manasseh about God and all that God had done to protect, bless and provide for the people of Jerusalem during Hezekiah’s 29 year reign? Did Hezekiah explain how he had courageously led the people in repentance back to God after his father Ahaz had died? Did he tell Manasseh about Sennacherib’s defeat and about his miraculous additional 15 years? Or had the pride in his heart somehow silenced his tongue of praise to God? Is it possible Hezekiah even had some resentment that caused him to be critical of God when speaking with his son prince Manasseh?
Whatever the reason, listen to this: “Hezekiah rested with his fathers and was buried on the hill of the tombs of the kings. All Judah and the people of Jerusalem honored him when he died. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king. Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem 55 years. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD. . .” (2 Chron. 32:32ff) The record goes on to recount a long list of amazingly wicked, horrible, violent, immoral things Manasseh practiced as king over God’s people. Finally this statement: “Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.” (2 Chron. 33:9)
So what are the lessons here my friends? Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah and Manasseh… 5 generations of kings in the same family and three of them what you might call chain breakers! Ahaz broke the chain of the God honoring kingships of his father and grandfather, but then Hezekiah broke the chain of the wicked rule of his father. Sadly, Hezekiah’s heart turned proud at the end of his life, and the Dad Manasseh saw was not at all the man Hezekiah was in his younger, God honoring years. What will it take, my friends, for you and me to finish well, spiritually strong and vibrant, all the way to our last breath, so we consistently point our descendants to Jesus all the way to our final goodbye?
Here’s a powerful video link a dear friend sent to me, which I hope will help us consider the power of being a Chainbreaker, but also staying faithful to the very end of the journey.
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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