Wednesday, 09 April 2008
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The Failure and Faith of a King
2 Kings 18:3,5,7 ~ Hezekiah..did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel; so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah after him or among those who were before him. The Lord was with him; wherever he went, he prospered.
So in the Bible, there is this story about King Hezekiah. And it starts with the verses above. We hear all about how Hezekiah listened to God, and did what God wanted. He destroys all the places to worship things other than God. He follows the rules God sets. He obeys God and trusts him with everything. We find out that God was with him in everything, and that he was even able to free his nation from the Assyrians, the biggest playground bully at the time. We hear that there was no one else like Hezekiah ever.
Pretty great recomendations, right? Hezekiah sounds like a great guy, with everything going for him.
I love Hezekiah, I discovered his story again yesterday, and I love the guy, not because of all the kudos he gets, but because of what happens next in his story.
God is with him, and he trusts God, and the next thing that happens is that the Assyrians come after him, and when they destroy a couple towns, Hezekiah sends them a message saying "You're right, I did the wrong thing trying to step out on my own, what do we owe you to be part of your friends again." And they tell him he owes them so much silver and gold, and Hezekiah goes to the temple where he worships God and takes out all the silver, and strips the gold off everything including the doors and pays the Assyrians.
He loves God. He trusts God. He does what God wants, and knows God is with him, but when the bully shows up and starts pushing him around, Hezekiah folds under the pressure. He not only gives up on God, he takes all the finery in God's house and gives it to the Assyrians. He takes his faith and puts it in worldly powers. Talk about changing sides.
I love Hezekiah. He's got everything going for him, and still he walks away from God for someone he thinks can take care of him better.
I know the feeling. Do you?
If you check the dates between this post and my last one, there's a pretty big gap. When I started this blog I said that one of the reasons was to be more conscious of God's presence in my life and in the world. Well, between November and now, there are lots of things that got in my way of writing down when I did see God at work, but to be really honest, a lot of the time, I wasn't seeing God. I was having trouble trusting, believing that God was moving and shaping things. I looked around at my life and decided that it was easier to put my trust in worldly things and not in God.
We all have those times. Things get in the way. We get shoved around by a bully. We get taken down.
Life doesn't seem to make sense. We face death, illness, unfairness, confusion, frustration, doubt, and lots of other things.
And sometimes, we give into that bully and pay them off. Sometimes we lose our trust in God.
But the best part of Hezekiah's story is that he is still described as the best king Judah had in a long time. He is described as a guy who loves God and does what God wants. Later in the story, God saves Hezekiah's life, not once but twice.
Hezekiah may have given up on God, but God never gave up on Hezekiah. God protects him, and heals him, and makes him a great king who does good work.
I love Hezekiah. He loves God and fails God, but God always loves him. And God never fails him.
Thank you for not giving up on me Lord. Amen.
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