More Lessons from King Hezekiah

At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. (Isaiah 39:1-2)


Hezekiah opened up for display all his wealth and treasures to the men from Babylon.  They came from another country bringing letters and a present - traveling all that distance just to pay Hezekiah a visit.  Who wouldn't be flattered?  Our enemy rarely shows himself in his true colors - pure evil.  Why or how would we ever be drawn in if that were the case?  Remember these words:  Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a  roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  (1Peter 5:8)  And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. (2 Cor. 11:14)  


We are often seduced through our pride.  Once we're vulnerable, exposed, we give our enemy a glimpse into the treasures he can plunder.  As was true for Hezekiah, all we have and are, are gifts from God (2 Chronicles 29:14).  In Hezekiah's prideful display, his sin was revealed and Isaiah prophesies that the very things he bragged about would be taken away during the reign of his son.  How amazing that Hezekiah's only response seems to be that he won't have to worry about it since these events would happen after his death and would not be his problem to deal with (see Isaiah 39:8).  The pride and self-centeredness is amazing!  Hezekiah has gone from (finally) falling on his knees before his God - the God of his people - in humility and wearing sackcloth to this boastful, arrogant man caught up in the enemy's flattery.  Prior to this event, God had healed the king of a condition that was fatal, granting him 15 more years of life.  Where is the thankfulness?  The gratitude?

We look at these stories and wonder.  If we, like Hezekiah, had been snatched from death's door, surely we'd behave differently!  We thank we'd never be as stiff-necked and rebellious as the Israelites who saw the incredible miracles of God as he delivered them from Egyptian oppression.  I challenge you (and myself!) to spend some time reflecting on the many blessings of God:  a home to live in, loving friends and family, the many and expensive "toys" and gadgets at close hand, our health, our jobs, etc., etc.  What is our attitude towards these things?  Are we, like Hezekiah, proud of ourselves for the ability to acquire all we have?  Are we seeking the praise and attention from those around us for all our accomplishments?  Are we holding out our hands for more or are we lifting our hands in praise and thanksgiving to the God who has poured out the blessings of our health, our intelligence, our abilities?  We can learn a lot from the story of Hezekiah.  God was, and will always be, faithful, loving, healing, just and merciful.  And God is also a jealous God:  my glory I will not give to another (Is. 48:11).

In closing, consider the words in Isaiah 48:17:  Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:  “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. (Isaiah 48:17) 

Lord, you have given us so much, so many gifts.  The greatest gift of all is your love.  Forgive our pride, our turning a blind eye to your many blessings.  Forgive our turning away from your love and turning a deaf ear to your voice calling out to us.  Create is us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within us.

When God Delays

Isaiah 36 and 37 relate the story of King Hezekiah and the people of Judah who are being threatened and invaded by the Assyrian army.  The attackers are mocking God, making false promises to the people and generally striking fear in every heart.  Garments are torn in distress, sackcloth is donned - the king and his people are in dire straits.  Hezekiah sends his assistants to the prophet Isaiah asking him to pray on their behalf:  And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the LORD your God  [emphasis mine] will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”  (Isaiah 37:2-4)  


God hears and answers Isaiah's prayer:  Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land. (Isaiah 37:7)  This is only a temporary reprieve, the threats and mockery continue.  This time, however, Hezekiah himself goes to God in prayer.  And this time, he is seeking the LORD our God.  Isaiah delivers the word of the Lord:  Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him. . . . (Is. 37:21) This time there is not just a reprieve, but victory.  Was Hezekiah not trusting in God the first time?  Did he believe Isaiah's faith was somehow "better" than his own?  God waited for Hezekiah to come on his own, to seek the Lord, to cry out from his his heart on behalf of his people.


Granted, this is an ancient event but the reactions and tendencies of Hezekiah are all too relevant.  When have we ever relied on someone else's faith instead of going to God ourselves?  God only asks that we come to him just as we are:  weak faith, doubts . . . whatever.  Just come to him, seek his face, pour out our fears, our prayers, and leave it in his loving hands.  As in Hezekiah's story, God doesn't ignore others praying on our behalf or in our stead; but perhaps the fullness of his answer is waiting for our realization that God wants us to trust him and come to him in whatever state or condition we find ourselves.  We don't have to meet a certain standard before we can come before our heavenly Father.  Because of Jesus, we can come boldly before the throne of grace; not because of our goodness, worth or righteousness but because of Jesus'.  GRACE.


We don't have to seek out a "holier" friend to pray for us.  We have a friend who is already doing just that.  Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Heb. 7:25)  Out of the deep desire of our loving Father that we enter into relationship with him, God may allow our circumstances to be the very thing that finally brings us to come to him in prayer and humility.  Remember the story of Lazarus?  Upon hearing of the illness and death of his friend, Jesus delayed in going to Bethany because of his love for this dear family.  (John 11)  He knew the greater purpose to be accomplished, the more glorious demonstration of God's love.  So, he waited.  


Only God knows how Lazarus' sisters were being prepared in their hearts to receive this love - how their spiritual eyes were readied to view the truth behind the miracle they witnessed.  Nothing is wasted in God's kingdom.  He is faithful to complete the work he has begun in us.  When he delays, when he answers our prayers in part, don't lose heart.  Know that God's ways are perfect and beyond what we can see, know or understand.  Lean on him with all your heart, all your faith, no matter how "weak" you perceive it it be. It is enough.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.  (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Holiness

I've been reading through the Old Testament (Leviticus, in particular, these past few weeks) - reading about all the details of the law, the sacrifices, the priestly duties.  It's not that hard to see how easily the people could get bogged down in analyzing the law, trying to understand every bit, so there would be no missteps.  From that perspective, it's not a big step to find oneself caught up in legalism.  Remember the harsh words Jesus had for the Pharisees who were so enmeshed in the letter of the law that they had completely ignored the spirit of the law leading them to miss the law-giver standing there in their midst.


It must be that legalism begins when mankind tries to fulfill the letter of the law in their own power - not trusting in God to guide them.  The law was a framework in which the image of holiness was framed.  Jesus Christ came that we might see, not the image of holiness, but holiness itself: in the flesh, in its purest form, in the face of God.  Holiness cannot be achieved by man, by his striving to keep the law, to be holy by his "acts" of holiness.  Holiness is a grace bestowed by God - it is a transformational process that begins with Jesus, continues in Jesus and is completed by Jesus.  We must not fall into the trap of thinking that our good deeds, our acts of holiness, will make us righteous in God's eyes.  Remember the word from Isaiah 64:5 (NIV) all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.  Instead, look to Jesus Christ, the founder and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2). Look to the Holy Spirit who comes alongside to guide, teach, empower us and transform us into the image of our holy Lord and Savior. Look to God our Father who has created us in his image - his holy image - and who calls us his children, giving us all the rights and privileges of sonship in the family of God.   


The mystery, the beauty and the reality of salvation is that because of Jesus' obedience, love and sacrifice, we have become - and are becoming - a royal priesthood, a holy nation, (1 Peter 2:9), sons and daughters of the King of kings, the beautiful, pure bride of Christ; and this is not accomplished by our good works, our close attention to doing the right and good things we should do.  


It is a beautiful work of God.

Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! (Psalm 115:1)

 Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. (Ephesians 1:3-4)

Prayer

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. (Colossians 4:2)



"Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honour of a Christian."  


From C. H. Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Daily Devotional

Happy Easter!

The Lord has made known is salvation, he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.  (Psalm 98:2)


Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb,  Amen!  Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever!  Amen.  (Revelation 7:10, 12)

Good Friday

Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers,  children who deal corruptly!  They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.  Why will you still be struck down?  Why will you continue to rebel?  The whole head is sick,  and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores  and raw wounds;  they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. (Isaiah 1:4-7)


Ok, granted, not a cheerful passage to start off with.  But can you close your eyes for a minute and get a mental picture of what these words describe?  It's hideous!  Like something out of a horror movie with zombies, and burnt out, desolate, abandoned cities, darkness and hopelessness.  Isaiah says the people are utterly estranged from God.  That's what sin does. We can sugarcoat it all we want to, but the ugliness of our sin, the hideousness of it as compared to the beauty and holiness of God is a reality we cannot change.


Sin is what separates us from God.  If left unconfessed, unrepented, it can harden our hearts to the point that we become  utterly estranged from God; it becomes more and more difficult to hear his still, small voice calling out to us to turn away from the sin and turn to him.  What a dismal picture!


Today is Good Friday, the day we remember and enter into the last hours of Jesus' life on earth, his great suffering and death on the cross, the physical pain and suffering he endured, the whipping and abuse before the cross and the torturous, agonizing hours he endured nailed to that cross.  He also endured spiritual suffering the likes of which we can never know.  By taking on himself the horror and ugliness of our sin, he must have endured an anguish in his spirit that was unimaginable - only God could have withstood it. The King of kings and Lord of lords left the glory and beauty of heaven and the continual, blessed communion with the Father and the Spirit to die the most horrendous death man could devise.  Out of love and obedience, God became man, dwelt among us, walked, talked, taught, healed and saved, only to be crucified as a criminal.  The gentle Lamb of God was slaughtered.

• He was despised and rejected by men; 
  a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; 
  and as one from whom men hide their faces 
  he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  (Isaiah 53:3)
• All we like sheep have gone astray; we have 
  turned—every one—to his own way; 
  and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. (Isaiah 53:6-9)
• I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax;  it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. (Psalm 22:14-15

In John's Gospel, Jesus told his beloved brothers what was coming and why:  Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.  (John 12:31-32)  In Jesus' life, words, suffering and death, we see the face of God:  LOVE.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.  (John 15:13)

On this Good Friday as we remember these events of some 2000 years ago, may we look on them with fresh eyes,  We need to see our own sinfulness that separates us from God - from LOVE - that caused our dear Lord to cry out in anguish from the cross.  We have to face the ugliness of our sin, confess it, repent of it, and leave it at the cross never to be picked up again.

Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did.  (Romans 6:6-11 The Message)

Wait For It

Reading my Lenten devotional this morning, the author wrote powerfully and honestly about suffering, being in the midst of suffering:  "Lent is an opportunity to recognize that Jesus will return to set all things right, but he hasn't yet.  In the midst of suffering it is terrifying to feel the pain, tell the story, ask God for help and wait for it."  Please read those words again, put yourself in that place - we've all been there to some degree.  It can be a terrifying place to be!  No end in sight, just the place of suffering, of crying out to God, unanswered questions of "Why?" and "How long?".  We know that Jesus himself asked those questions in his own unimaginable suffering.  He is fully acquainted with our grief and suffering:  

He was despised and rejected by men;

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.  (Isaiah 53:3-5)

Look once again at the quote from the devotional, it ends with the words, "wait for it".  That's what it means to be a follower of Christ.  We can wait because we have hope.  We can ask the unanswered questions of the one who holds all the answers. We can hold on to God's promises because they are sure and true.  We can sit in our places of suffering and know that we are not alone; we have one who is closer than a brother - closer than our very breath - who knows the depths of our pain and suffering. He knows our fears.  We can say, with Paul, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.  (2 Timothy 1:12)   

I have seen time and time again how tenderly, lovingly and even reverently, Jesus ministers to his hurting and suffering children.  As a prayer minister, I'm constantly awed by Jesus and the ways he is with someone in their time of pain.  I often feel as if I'm standing on holy ground - to be allowed to share in the intimacy of Jesus' presence and ministrations to a suffering child of God.

Wait for it.  Wait on the Lord.  He is always faithful, always near.  His promise is that we will be renewed, restored and revived.  Even more than that:  they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

We are just days away from our Easter celebrations:  the glory, the beauty, the hallelujahs.  But we must go through these days of remembering the suffering and passion of our Lord.  Wait for it.  The light will burst forth.  Easter is coming.  The darkness and suffering of Good Friday is not the end of the story.

Wait for it!

2012 Lenten Devotional from Trinity School of Ministry  http://www.tsm.edu/