Tuesday,  6/23/15               
       Hezekiah was a very good king but I must admit that the more I read about him in the Bible, the more I can see that he was a hard man to figure out. Then again, this same thing can be said about the majority of us. There is no doubt about his outstanding general character for the scriptures say this about him: Hezekiah 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. (2 Kings 18:5)However, like everyone who has ever walked this earth, besides Jesus, Hezekiah had his character flaws and made some obviously unwise decisions. Nevertheless, most of them were good ones and there was one which I especially liked. I was reminded of it recently by a remark that was made at church by our praise team leader.
       The events that led to that decision are found in the 18th and 19th chapters of the book of 2nd Kings. The king of Assyria, who had previously caused much grief to Hezekiah and his people, came up to invade them again but before he did, he offered them a chance to surrender themselves completely to Him. He made a grave mistake, however, for in the letter that he sent to Hezekiah, he not only insulted God’s people, he insulted God Himself. In great distress, Hezekiah first sent some of his officials to the prophet Isaiah to have him intercede for them before the Lord. Secondly, he took the letter to the temple and opened it up before the Lord so He could see how the king of Assyria had insulted Him. That king had defeated every nation that stood in his path but this time He took on the mighty God of Israel. To the Lord, men’s armies are nothing and in response to Hezekiah’s prayer, the Lord sent just one of His angels who, by himself, destroyed the Assyrian army killing 185,00 men.
       What does that have to do with you and me? Well, we too have enemies of all kinds, very few of them human. They could be, among many other things, fear, worry, doubt, anger, bitterness, impatience, or an addiction of some sort, but like Hezekiah we can bring our petition to an intercessor. In our case we have the greatest One of all; his name is Jesus. We can tell Him what our enemies are doing to us and add that they have even dared to insult Him in the process. No one can do that and think he will be blameless. And the Lord has no favorites; all His children are equally special in His eyes. If he delivered Hezekiah and his people, He will deliver us too. Therefore, bring you case to the Lord. Its that simple.

Memory verse for the week: (Matthew 18:6 KJV) “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”