Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. 2 Kings 20:2
“Never trust anyone over thirty,” said young environmentalist Jack Weinberg in 1964. His comment stereotyped an entire generation—something Weinberg later regretted. Looking back, he said, “Something I said off the top of my head . . . became completely distorted and misunderstood.”
Have you heard disparaging comments aimed at millennials? Or vice versa? Ill thoughts directed from one generation toward another can cut both ways. Surely there’s a better way.
Although he was an excellent king, Hezekiah showed a lack of concern for another generation. When, as a young man, Hezekiah was struck with a terminal illness (2 Kings 20:1), he cried out to God for his life (vv. 2–3). God gave him fifteen more years (v. 6).
But when Hezekiah received the terrible news that his children would one day be taken captive, the royal tears were conspicuously absent (vv. 16–18). He thought, “Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?” (v. 19). It may have been that Hezekiah didn’t apply the passion he had for his own well-being to the next generation.
God calls us to a love that dares to cross the lines dividing us. The older generation needs the fresh idealism and creativity of the younger, who in turn can benefit from the wisdom and experience of their predecessors. This is no time for snarky memes and slogans but for thoughtful exchange of ideas. We’re in this together.
Read: 2 Kings 20:1-19 (NIV)
201 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death.
The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says:
Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,
3 “Remember,d Lord, how I have walkede before you faithfullyf and with wholehearted
devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him:
5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says:
I have heardg your prayer and seen your tears;h I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord.
6 I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria.
I will defendi this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’ ”
7 Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” They did so and applied it to the boil,j and he recovered.
8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go
up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now?”
9 Isaiah answered, “This is the Lord’s signk to you that the Lord will do what he has promised:
Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?”
10 “It is a simplel matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.”
11 Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go backm
the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
Envoys From Babylon
12 At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift,
because he had heard of Hezekiah’s illness.
13 Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his storehouses—
the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine olive oil—his armory and everything found among his treasures.
There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.
14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?”
“From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came from Babylon.”
15 The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”
“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord:
17 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day,
will be carried off to Babylon.n Nothing will be left, says the Lord.
18 And some of your descendants,o your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away,
and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”p
19 “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?”
INSIGHT
- In what ways do you think you may have ignored or disrespected others from a different age group?
- How might you use the gifts God has given you to serve them?
King Hezekiah ruled the Southern Kingdom of Judah from about 727–698 bc. One of the few “good” kings of the south, Hezekiah drove idolatry from the land and destroyed the “high places” where false idols were being worshiped. Second Kings 18:3–6 bears witness to Hezekiah’s spiritual character, asserting that “he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done” (v. 3) and that “he “trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him” (v. 5).
PRAYER
Forgive me, Father, for not appreciating others in a stage of life different from mine. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen!!
Read: 2 Kings 20:1-19 (NIV) | Bible in a Year: Ezekiel 45-46; 1 John 3
