Living
Deliberate

Earlier in 2026, I had a Blog and three Daily Devotionals¹  about Hezekiah, king of Judah but as is often the case, I have continued to think of his life and lessons from his record that could apply to myself. First, a brief review of his early life:

Hezekiah became king of Judah at age 25 and reigned 29 years. ‘He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD for he held fast to the LORD’. During the fourth year of his reign over Judah the Assyrians began the seige of Israel and Samaria with the captivity of Israel beginning in the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign in Jerusalem.²

In the fourteenth year of his kingship, the Assyrians returned and threatened Judah with the same kind of treatment. The Assyrian commander challenged the LORD’s ability to withstand his vast army, Hezekiah took the matter to the LORD and in the night an angel of the LORD killed 185,000 Assyrian troops. End of challenge. King of Assyria goes home and is killed by sons. ³

‘In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death.’ Isaiah the prophet comes to him and confirms that his death is imminent. Hezekiah again turns in prayer to the LORD, reminding God ‘how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done good in your sight.’ ‘And Hezekiah wept bitterly.’ ⁴ God responds to this prayer and ‘I will add fifteen years to your life’ continue to protect Judah. The LORD even confirms that He will do this by giving Hezekiah the sign he requests of making the shadow on the sundial contraption go backwards ten steps. ⁵

Life is good—your kingdom is secured, your enemy obliterated, your health restored, God gives you what you ask. It doesn’t get any better. Unfortunately. How do we respond when we have it all? Frankly, some of the most trying times are when everything is too good, when we are content. Remember the parable Jesus gave of the man who had it so good:

“The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” ⁶

Hezekiah had a satisfaction problem. For the first 39 years of his life, he lived ‘all-in’ for the LORD but when the LORD had given him everything imaginable, he became complacent and more than a little self-centered. Let me quote a few glimpses from his lament over himself:

• ‘ I said, In the middle of my days I must depart…’ vs.10, presuming his days were his and he should have more
• because the LORD has spoken to me, ‘I walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul’ vs. 15, my heart does not match my circumstances with God
• ‘Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness’ vs. 17, I didn’t appreciate all God had done for my being⁷

Lest I seem too severe toward Hezekiah, let me be up front that after various high points in my walk with the LORD, I have then taken the low road with the woe-is-me mentality. I see that Elijah had this after God used him in the confrontation with Jezebel’s priests at Mount Carmel. It seems to happen enough that we should pay attention to the possibility of it in our life. 2 Chronicles 32 clarifies the circumstances of Hezekiah and give insight:

In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death, and he prayed to the LORD, and he answered him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem. But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.
And Hezekiah had very great riches and honor, and he made for himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of costly vessels; storehouses also for the yield of grain, wine, and oil; and stalls for all kinds of cattle, and sheepfolds. He likewise provided cities for himself, and flocks and herds in abundance, for God had given him very great possessions. ⁸

Success and wealth were primary but notice in the midst of this, ‘Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud.’ But when the correction of the LORD came, he humbled himself again. He was responsive to God but he did live the cycles just as some of us have. Later on in this chapter we have an insight into God’s purpose through these times,

And Hezekiah prospered in all his works. And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart. ⁹

Somewhere in the depths of Hezekiah’s relationship with himself, there was that thing about being more, of not resting entirely in the sufficiency of the LORD for his life. Take a look at those fifteen ‘added’ years which he so desired. His greatest prosperity came in those years and his successor Manasseh was born three years into those added years. His healing and wealth became the subject of interest to others including the arising Babylonians who sent emissaries to see all he had. He gladly showed his wealth, his military armory and his storehouses to these foreigners much to the dismay of Isaiah the prophet:

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?” ¹⁰

Consequences? One of the less mentioned stories of the Bible is the influence of fathers upon sons. Remember that son Manasseh born in the third year of the added fifteen? When the LORD granted Hezekiah the added fifteen years, part of Hezekiah’s prayer was,

The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness. The LORD will save me, and we will play my music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives, at the house of the LORD. ¹¹

Hezekiah dies at 54 when Manasseh is 12 years old and the record contradicts Hezekiah’s intention from 15 years earlier to ‘make God’s faithfulness known to his sons’. All references are that Hezekiah did not follow through in the last fifteen years to pass on the reverence of God which he had displayed publicly in his 29 year reign. His son did not follow the LORD until Manasseh had spent years leading the nation away from the LORD:

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem will I put my name.” And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. And the carved image of Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the LORD said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore out of the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that my servant Moses commanded them.” But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel. ¹²

You can draw your own conclusions but for my life, there is a lesson in being deliberate with the Grace of God. It appears to me that Hezekiah took the last fifteen years at ease, that ‘it is good for I have peace and security’ mindset that does come more easily to us as we age, that the fervor of younger years need not be persisted and we can ease up and enjoy life as we fade away. I can’t begin to imagine the influence this casual life had upon Manasseh but it doesn’t appear to be for righteousness. God so often challenges us to be true to Him, to serve Him fully, to serve Him with all we are and all the resources we have and yet that, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry” mindset takes away our good start in the LORD and leaves casualness in all that is important. The LORD seeks deliberate, committed responsiveness through all of our life.

LORD, may Your will be done in ALL of our life. Amen