Hezekiah: "A Leader’s Call to faithfulness"
The Amazing Amanda and I had our third child last week and this past week I took a break from blogging to help out a little more during the first week. Today I am back to work and a regular schedule. I hope you hear the call from Hezekiah today and pray for God’s grace to be at work in your life.
2 Kings 18:3-4 “He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, just as his ancestor David had done. He removed the pagan shrines, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke up the bronze serpent that Moses has made, because the people of Israel had been offering sacrifices to it. The bronze serpent was called Nehushtan.”
Here we get a picture of what a leader should be in Judah. Throughout 2 Kings we get picture after picture of Kings that are unfaithful and this text describes a King that is faithful and taking after David (the model King for the Israelites). A leader that does what is pleasing to God is a leader that removes pagan shrines, smashes sacred pillars, and cuts down Asherah poles. A leader is one that even gets rid of those things that were once sacred but have become idolatry like the bronze serpent Moses made. Here the author gives us a picture of what it means to be faithful to God in spite of opposition and unfaithfulness by the people and the enemy……I can’t help but here the voice of Isaiah that is going along side Hezekiah during this time……..I also must remember the Israel has been exiled (by Assyria) and now Judah stands in the face of the Assyrians and the faithfulness of Hezekiah is what holds them off.
The first question that pop into my mind this morning is that I know God is calling me to be this kind of leader and with that calling comes an amazing amount of fear in my life. I sense God trying to push me into those next phases of faithfulness and at the same time feeling the fear of actually taking those steps. However, I know that fear is the opposite of faith and that ultimately I have to rely on God’s grace to take this step and as long as I depend on myself I will never take the step that God is teaching me to take through Hezekiah. The next question is around those pagan shrines, sacred pillars, asherah poles, and bronze serpents that need to be destroyed. If I am going to be the leader that God is calling me to be I must speak against these trusting in the faithfulness of God. What are the shrines, pillars, poles, and serpents of my day? What is getting in the way of God’s people acting in faithfulness or mixing their faithfulness with things of the world? Perhaps those shrines are those places that claim “Jesus” or claim to be “the Church” but yet are nothing but instruments of the world where the focus is upon the people’s comfort and pleasure. Maybe the pillars are those entrenched ideas that prevent God from speaking change and life into His people…..maybe these pillars are people, structures, and systems within the Church and the world. Maybe the poles are those objects of idolatry that pull people away from giving themselves completely to Jesus……like money, power, comfort, status quo. Perhaps the serpent are those empty tradition and rituals that continue to push new people away and keep those present in a state of complacency. I come this morning hearing this call and asking for faith to respond.
Lord Jesus, I come to you this morning with a desire to be a leader like Hezekiah but feeling like Judas. May you redeem this broken life this morning and empower me to be the leader you’ve called me to be. I pray that you will deliver your people from this idolatry and that your mighty hand would reach down and save us. Protect us from this idolatry and empower us to rise up against it in complete faithfulness. May you be my rock today and may your mighty outstretched arm protect me from my enemies and empower me to act in complete faithfulness to you. Amen.
For God has called me for such a time as this.
Leave a Reply