With the sudden death of Tim Russert, a well known TV news reporter, many questions come to mind concerning our life on this planet. One question in particular revolves around asking God for more time in our life. If you were told that you only had a certain amount of time left, would you ask for more time? Do you think God should grant you that extra time? Why? What would you do different?
While contemplating this subject about life the story of Hezekiah comes to mind. God granted him fifteen more years after the time he was told he was going to die! What made Hezekiah so special for God to grant this request? Let’s examine his life to see what lessons we can learn about Hezekiah.
Background of Hezekiah
After King Solomon, Israel was split into two kingdoms: the northern kingdom including the ten tribes of Israel and the southern kingdom including Judah and Benjamin. From that point on the leaders were known as the Kings of Israel and the Kings of Judah. Hezekiah was the thirteenth King of Judah, the son of Ahaz, and became king at age 25. He ruled for 29 years and had many positive reforms that turned many people towards God.
Some of Hezekiah’s many accomplishments as recorded in the Bible include: reinstated the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread, had regular communication with God through prayer, removed idolatrous forms of worship,destroyed idols to other gods, cleansed and sanctified the Temple, restored the Levites to their priestly duties, expanded the borders of the land, built an underground tunnel (which still exists today), fortified Jerusalem’s defenses, and reinstated giving tithes to the Levites (2 Kings 18-20, 2 Chronicles 29-32, Isaiah 36-39).
Where did Hezekiah go wrong?
As we can see listed above, there are many positive lessons that we can learn from the life of Hezekiah. There are also two negative lessons that we can learn to avoid. First, Hezekiah took the credit for the blessings that God gave to him and to the nation of Israel. The Babylonians were shown all of the Kingdoms wealth and property which would eventually be theirs when the Babylonians conquer Judah (2 Kings 20:17).
Second, Hezekiah did not train his son Manasseh to follow God’s ways. We have no recorded history of Hezekiah spending time with his son in teaching or training him. When Manasseh eventually became king he reversed all of his father’s good accomplishments by building idols and establishing pagan worship in the land again. Jeremiah the prophet declared Manasseh as the most evil of all of Judah’s kings (Jeremiah 15:4). Hezekiah was content with the fact that there wouldn’t be trouble in his days as king and it is not recorded that Hezekiah even talked with his son after he was told by Isaiah his kingdom would not last after his death (2 Kings 20:19). Manasseh clearly felt rejected by his father which explains his immediate resolve to undo everything his father’s good accomplishments by building idols and establishing pagan worship in the land again. Jeremiah the prophet declared Manasseh as the most evil of all of Judah’s kings (Jeremiah 15:4). Hezekiah was content with the fact that there wouldn’t be trouble in his days as king and it is not recorded that Hezekiah even talked with his son after he was told by Isaiah his kingdom would not last after his death (2 Kings 20:19). Manasseh clearly felt rejected by his father which explains his immediate resolve to undo everything his father sought to accomplish after he became king.
God’s command and Hezekiah’s request
As Hezekiah was sick and near death, God spoke to him through the prophet Isaiah to set his house in order for he was going to die (2 Kings 20:1). Hezekiah asked God through prayer that God would remember the good things that he had done and he wept bitterly. God not only healed Hezekiah of his boil and granted him fifteen years to his life, but He also performed the miracle of moving the shadow on the sun dial back ten degrees! What an awesome display of power as a sign for Hezekiah! Ten degrees on a sun dial equates to roughly twenty minutes, so most people would have missed this unless they were looking at a sun dial or shadow at the time.
Even though God granted Hezekiah extra time in his life to test his character, those years ended up being the most difficult. Soon after his healing the Babylonian envoys came and Hezekiah showed all of the wealth of Israel, not giving credit to God for why the nation was so prosperous. We also do not see that Hezekiah strove to teach his son Manasseh God’s way of life before his fifteen extra years were up.
Do you need extra time?
If God granted us extra time in our lives, would we make better use of it? Would we try to pray more or study more of God’s Word? Would we make it to a family member’s big event in their lives? Usually it takes a life threatening event such as a heart attack or car accident for us to think about changing the way we live. Wouldn’t it be better for us to change before we had to go through such a traumatic experience? Each day that we wake up in the morning is a gift from God, and we should thank him every single day that we draw breath. On the other hand, Tim Russert was able to go to work in the morning but he didn’t make it home that night. Our lives exist in a very fragile balance where we are only one breath away from death. As morbid as that may seem, it should encourage you to live each day to the fullest. To praise the God of all creation and to make time for your family no matter how many other obstacles are in the way.
Hezekiah had both good and bad lessons that we could learn from his life. We only have a short time to improve our own character and make a difference in other peoples lives. If your life was written in a book, what lessons could we learn from you?
