Hypothetical situation: Would you rather deal with trouble during your lifetime to protect your children and your children’s children, or enjoy peace and safety during your days on earth and have destruction befall your descendants? For King Hezekiah, this scenario was laid out for him in a visit from the prophet Isaiah.
Thomas Paine, stalwart of the American Revolution, said, “I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.” It seems Hezekiah had an entirely different attitude. After having the Lord answer his prayer from his deathbed by graciously extending his life by 15 years, the king was told by the prophet Isaiah that all of his accumulated wealth and treasure that he had just revealed to Babylonian envoys in a prideful manner would be looted and his descendants would become disgraced servants in Babylon. How did Hezekiah respond? He said, “The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?” (2 Kings 20:19, NIV).
It seems puzzling that King Hezekiah, who followed the Lord for most of his reign, would be so short-sighted regarding the land of Judah and God’s chosen people. Consider God’s response to his servants Abraham and David. For his faithfulness, God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the “stars in the sky” or as “grains of sand on the shore.” The Lord promised David that through his line, a Savior would come. But for Hezekiah, he had no regard for his progeny or his legacy. Indeed, his legacy seems to be selfishness and self-preservation.
We would do well to conduct ourselves as Paul directed in Philippians 2:3-4 NIV, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
Lord, May I have a legacy of putting others’ needs before my own. AMEN
Joe Pritchett, Garner, N.C.
Extended Scripture: 2 Kings 20–22
