Welcome to this week’s online youth lesson. Catch up on previous sessions by clicking here.
We’ll start with a song we all know and enjoy from Casting Crowns:
Prayer needs continue for Sally Sheets, Pastor Paul and the extended family with Sally’s intense schedule of radiation treatments soon to start and Pastor Paul grieving the loss of his brother to COVID.
Betty Herman continues to slowly improve and may be moved to a nursing home soon. Please continue to pray for her, Roy and Star.
Please continue to pray for Pat and Candy Mitchell, Harold Bowersox and the Jordans.
Claire’s grandfather and uncle each are in need of prayer.
We also seek prayer for schools and students who are struggling with these times.
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Considering the state of current events, the pandemic and those we’ve lost during the past year due to COVID, take some time to read the following passage and think of those who may be able to relate:
In the very prime of life I have to leave. Whatever time I have left is spent in death’s waiting room.
No more glimpses of God in the land of the living, No more meetings with my neighbors, no more rubbing shoulders with friends.
This body I inhabit is taken down and packed away like a camper’s tent. Like a weaver, I’ve rolled up the carpet of my life as God cuts me free of the loom. And at day’s end sweeps up the scraps and pieces.
I cry for help until morning. Like a lion, God pummels and pounds me, relentlessly finishing me off. I squawk like a doomed hen, moan like a dove.
My eyes ache from looking up for help: “Master, I’m in trouble! Get me out of this!” But what’s the use? God himself gave me the word. He’s done it to me.
I can’t sleep — I’m that upset, that troubled.
Pretty intense, isn’t it? The passage is actually based on scripture … the modernized translation in The Message bible of a prayer that King Hezekiah shares shortly after becoming very ill, to the point of death, and prophet Isaiah delivers the message to him: “Put your house in order because you are going to die. You will not recover.” (Isaiah 38:1 NIV).
Up until that point, Hezekiah had been a great king in the eyes of the Lord over the country of Judah. He denounced the wicked idol worshipping and sinful ways of his father, King Ahaz. He led a great revival among the people, ultimately honoring God in public with a big gathering of musicians and praise. Then this illness — and God’s message via Isaiah — and Hezekiah is shell-shocked. He prays out in earnest, and God responds in an unexpected way.
God’s response to Hezekiah’s earnest prayer from Isaiah 38:5 (NIV): “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.”
It’s a moment of celebration for Hezekiah. It is an example of God’s grace and provision. However, today, I want to focus on the rest of the story … a phrase made famous by old radio celebrity Paul Harvey.
In Hezekiah’s excitement over the news, he invites a Babylon envoy to visit his palace and shows off what was in his storehouse: “the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine olive oil — his entire armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.”
The move creates major issues moving forward. Also, Hezekiah during those extra 15 years, fathered a son, Manasseh, who becomes king at the age of 12 when Hezekiah dies. Manasseh goes on to be an extremely wicked king, as we learn from 2 Kings 21:1-6 (NIV):
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my Name.” In the two courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing His anger.
What if God’s granting of Hezekiah’s plea for additional life was meant as an important illustration for all of us today? Maybe we’re faced with a fatal health situation or COVID seems to be overtaking our family. We pray for healing and response and for things to back to “normal,” but we rarely pray for God’s will in the situation.
God’s will for Hezekiah was for him to die before making such a huge mistake with the Babylonian envoy and before fathering Manasseh. God’s love would have been given via sparing Hezekiah from those fatal flaws, ending his legacy before the asterisks that instead define his place in history.
What does that mean today? Sometimes, we are faced with bad situations that make no sense. A loved one dies despite our pleas for healing, and we can’t make sense of it. Perhaps, however, that death was really God’s way of protecting that person — and the rest of the family from something worse down the road.
What do you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this concept by email at zaktansky@gmail.com
