awaken mercy

this sunday we are going to be talking at our church about the importance of raising up the next generation. as part of this conversation together, we’re going to look at a story from the Bible, found in 2 kings 20 regarding king hezekiah.

in this story, king hezekiah becomes ill and is about to die. in his desperation, he cries out to the lord, and god promises to heal him and give him 15 more years of life. not long some time after this then, hezekiah foolishly invites some representatives from the babylonian empire to come and see all of the riches of his kingdom.

through the prophet isaiah, god tells hezekiah that this was foolish to do, because now the babylonians would plan to attack them in order to take possession of all that hezekiah had shown them. obviously this would be a fairly frightening prophecy for the king to hear. to his surprise though, isaiah also explains to him that this would not happen until after hezekiah had died. we read in the story that this was a tremendous relief to him, because as he states in verse 19, at least he will be okay in his lifetime. in other words, he was only concerned with his life, and he had no care for those who would come after him.

the reason i point this out with father’s day coming up this weekend is that unfortunately, this is too often the way that many people live their lives and think about life. dads, as well as all of us, must care about those coming after us though. we must do what we can to raise up the next generation in a way that honors god and serves him well. it is simply unacceptable for us to only have concern for ourselves and how things will be in our own lives. we need to take seriously our responsibility to raise up the next generation. so do your part…care about those coming after you…set a good example…show them how to live wisely and rightly…and pray for the dad’s you know too…encouraging them to do their part as well.