2 Kings 20 – Hezekiah
becomes sick—he has some kind of boil—and Isaiah comes to tell him he
should set his house in order; he is going to die. He turns “his face to the wall” and prays that the Lord will “remember . . . how I have walked before you
in faithfulness with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight”
(20:3).
As Isaiah is
leaving, the Lord comes to him and tells him to go back and say to Hezekiah
that He has heard Hezekiah’s prayer, seen his tears and will add fifteen years
to his life (20:6). Furthermore, he will deliver Jerusalem and the king out of
the hands of the Assyrians. Hezekiah wants some kind of sign from the Lord that
this prophecy will be realized, and Isaiah tells him the shadow on the sundial
will retreat rather than advance for ten intervals as a sign that God fully
intends to make the prophecy come true.
The king of Babylon,
Merodach-baladan, sends letters and a present to Hezekiah when he is ill. Hezekiah
responds by showing his envoys all the treasure he has – foolishly revealing
everything of any value he has. Isaiah asks him about it and tells him at the
end that in the future Babylon will carry everything away, even his sons. Rather
than getting disturbed by this prophecy, Hezekiah gives a rather short-sighted [and self-centered in my opinion]
answer: “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?” (20:19).
When Hezekiah dies, his son Manasseh succeeds him.
2 Kings 21 – Manasseh is just twelve
years old when he succeeds his father; he will serve 55 years (687-642) as king
and will do what is evil. He backtracks on everything his father
did. He rebuilds the high places, erects altars for Baal everywhere (21:3). He
even makes his son “pass through fire” (21:6); he practices soothsaying, augury
and other such magical arts.
The Lord sends
his prophets to tell him that because of these things, “I will bring such a
disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will be
stunned. I will punish Jerusalem as I did Samaria, as I did King Ahab of Israel
and his descendants. I will wipe Jerusalem clean of its people, as clean as a
plate that has been wiped and turned upside down. I will abandon the people who
survive, and will hand them over to their enemies, who will conquer them and
plunder their land” (21:13-14).
Manasseh also
sheds much innocent blood. When he dies, he is succeeded by his 22
year old son Amon (642-640). He also does what is evil. He is killed by
servants of his, but they are caught and killed by the “people of the land” so
his son Josiah comes to the throne.
Luke 15 – The Pharisees and Scribes
who spend their lives dedicated to the Law and the religious life of the
community, complain that Jesus is always
eating with sinners and outcasts.
Jesus responds with a beautiful parable: “Suppose one of you has a
hundred sheep and loses one of them – what do you do? You leave the other
ninety-nine sheep in the pasture and go looking for the one that got lost”
(15:4). And if you find it, of course you rejoice! “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one
sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no
repentance” (15:7). Likewise, a woman with ten coins who loses one, will
“light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it” (15:8).
Then Jesus tells the parable
of the prodigal son: A man has two sons. One of them asks for the property
that will one day be his, and he goes off and squanders it “in dissolute
living.” When it is all gone, a famine comes and he is reduced to dire
need. He ends up caring for pigs
and envying the pigs their food. But he finally “comes to himself” and thinks
of his home—how even the hired hands there have bread to spare. So he resolves to get up and return in
shame. “I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you;
I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired
hands’” (15:18-19).
He returns home, and his father sees him coming. Seeing him, his
father is “filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and
kissed him” (15:20). Then the son says the words he has rehearsed, and the
father throws a lavish party. At
this the elder son become angry (15:28) and refuses even to enter the
house. When he speaks to his
father, he complains that he never did what the younger son did but his father
never threw him such a joyous party.
The father says, “’Son, you are
always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of
yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found’” (15:31-32.)
The father
tries to make him appreciate the miracle of his brother’s repentance and
return, but one is left with a feeling that those who are habitually obedient will
never understand the miracle of repentance and return that can happen after
making terrible life-choices, or the depth of love in people, parents
especially and in our Lord, that makes it possible.
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