Blinding Pride
The bible contains some amazing testimonials. The one story that illustrates God’s extraordinary power, perhaps second only to the creation, as recorded in Genesis, can be found in 2 Kings 20:9-11. King Hezekiah was sick and dying. After being told to put his house in order to prepare for death, Hezekiah prayed to God for mercy, pleading the case of his righteous, devoted life. His prayer was answered almost immediately and communicated through the prophet Isaiah. The cure for the King’s illness seemed ordinary enough, but Hezekiah wanted proof that the cure offered by God would indeed add the promised 15 years to his life. This was the beginning of Hezekiah’s missteps.
Without getting overly scientific, in answer to Hezekiah’s challenge, God momentarily altered the laws of physics in the universe by reversing the advance of a natural light shadow along a set of steps on the stairway of Ahaz. The laws of astrophysics; planetary rotations, revolutions and such dictate that shadows extend directionally opposite the position of the sun in the sky. God reversed the progression of the day’s shadow by ten steps. For normal steps that’s about eight feet. We’re not talking a couple of minutes here but enough time to kill off any alternative scientific explanations of what happened. A quick, extraordinary, non-destructive alteration of at least one galaxy in the universe. King Hezekiah was cured of his disease but not of pride, for which no prayer was made. As the story unfolds in 2 Kings 20:13-15 the King, soon after his cure, displayed “his” palace, “his” treasures, “his” storehouses, “his” spices and fine oils, even “his” defensive armory to total strangers, messengers from the son of the King of Babylon. These mistakes, stemming from the sin of false pride, would take a heavy toll on generations of his descendants.
God, in grace and mercy, displayed to Hezekiah, His total control over the universe and over life and death, yet King Hezekiah, with prayers fully answered, took credit for everything that God had given to him. There are several lessons in this story but there are two that we all should work to apply in our lives. 1) Everything in and beyond the universe belongs to God, not to us. Whatever He lends to us, He can take away. 2) God holds the one key to life. Once life is gone, nothing else matters. Accepting God, is a display of extraordinary wisdom, that even most kings don’t possess or command.
JC CALKINS with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE
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