Hezekiah was not necessarily a positive man. He was realistic. The empire of his time — Assyria — had destroyed 10 tribes of Israel and was now attacking Jerusalem and the two tribes that were left.

He did not listen to Oprah. He did not present a positive sight to his followers. He took the clothes and posture of mourning, and wrote a letter which describes the events to Isaiah, the prophet.

The letter, in fact, may have been sarcastic — Hezekiah said that Isaiah was to pray to his God, not their shared God.

2 Kings 19:1-20

¹When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD. ²And he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. ³They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. ⁴It may be that the LORD your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.” ⁵When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, ⁶Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. ⁷I myself will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.’” ⁸The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah; for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. ⁹When the king heard concerning King Tirhakah of Ethiopia, “See, he has set out to fight against you,” he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Thus shall you speak to King Hezekiah of Judah: Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹See, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered? ¹²Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my predecessors destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?”

¹⁴Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; then Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said: “O LORD the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. sup>16Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. ¹⁷Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, ¹⁸and have hurled their gods into the fire, though they were no gods but the work of human hands — wood and stone — and so they were destroyed. ¹⁹So now, O LORD our God, save us, I pray you, from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone.”

At the second occasion there is less rudeness, but there is still honesty. There is a clear evaluation of the position that the kingdom of Judah is in.

There is no

• Naming and claiming of promises
• Stating that there is peace and victory, when defeat was staring him in the face.
• Public calls that the nation was blessed, that he had a solution, and that things were under control.

Hezekiah, in other words, did not act like a politician or preacher in the modern era. He was defeatist. He was rude. He was honest. And he is commended for his faith, despite the difficulties he was in.

PS. Traditional Christianity is starting to read chronologically through the bible: the posts are well worth reading

Yesterday Terri wrote this:

Gratuitous caveat:Please be advised that there are risks involved whenever you take marriage advice from unlicensed anonymous third-parties.  We are not marriage counselors and are keenly aware that some marriage problems are beyond the scope of our experience and “expertise”. The author of this blog post shall not be liable for any claims for injuries , or damages whatsoever, resulting from or connected with the use of this site. We further disclaim any liability caused by intentional or unintentional negligence.

I argued. It’s my nature. I asked if we had become so afraid of lawyers. that even in jest, we have to tell people to test what we say and write.  Terri, Alte and Morticia are married. As a result, they write fairly consistently on the care and management of husbands, children, and the home: and they were inviting women in… to subvert the current bunch of false prophets. All power to them.

Matthew 7:13-21

13“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. 14For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.15“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus you will know them by their fruits.21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

There are minefields in this passage. There is a clear argument for limited atonement: there have been many who have talked about false prophets from a sectarian point of view

But the juxtaposition of a warning about the Christian walk being hard and false prophets struck me. I think that false prophets offer ease. They offer to take our guilt and place it elsewhere — on our mother (Post-Freudian psychotherapy: Freud blamed your father), on men (Feminism’s Patriarchy) on “Whitey” (Rev. Al Sharpton, Margeret Mutu). They say that there are ways one can pray, that allow for one to not struggle against sin, to avoid doing one’s duty, and not do good.

And the fruits of this are seen in any area that Race Hucksters run. Detroit is a warning, folks: if you follow these paths, destruction comes; if you seek perfection in others and happiness as a final goal, you will be disappointed, left bereft, and have your joy removed from you.

True joy comes from hard choices. Old wisdom, unacceptable to the modern elite, who falsely promise ease while the foundations of our society crumble.

Within the modern culture, getting married was the normal thing. The same thing applied in ancient times. In fact, it was virtually mandatory — raising children required both father and mother to put around 90 hours a week in… and it was best split between two people.

Victorian sentimentality elevated the feminine and domesticity, placing it on a pedestal, where Paul left the virgins, the single.

1 Corinthians 7:32-40

32 I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; 33but the married man is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please his wife, 34and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman and the virgin are anxious about the affairs of the Lord, so that they may be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please her husband. 35I say this for your own benefit, not to put any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and unhindered devotion to the Lord.36If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his fiancee, if his passions are strong, and so it has to be, let him marry as he wishes; it is no sin. Let them marry.

.39A wife is bound as long as her husband lives. But if the husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, only in the Lord. 40But in my judgment she is more blessed if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

Paul saw married life as hindering fervour and prayers. No wonder he said that you should remain single in this crisis. The apostolic life was hard — Peter did have a wife, but he did not travel as much. Paul would have had difficulty with his conscience if his wife and children where being flogged and in the stocks with him — and that happened in about every second area he tried to evangelize.

And… Paul saw getting married as a compromise you made because you were basically horny and could not be continent. The celibate are not looking for a relationship. They are looking for God. And God bless them — they are not at home with their cats. They are out doing good.

But. most of us are horny. Not many of us have the gift of celibacy (Calvin did, I don’t). And as Terri said, tamilies are the structure of our society, and families meen giving up rights.

I think your critique of traditionalism leaves out something key. It’s not that we are uninterested in men’s rights. We’re not all that interested in women’s rights, either. We are more concerned with what’s best for societal stability as a whole and believe that frankly, the idea that everything that makes people feel good or makes life easier is a right is a distasteful notion. To put it mildly. I’d just as soon see all the “rights” women have had bestowed upon us rolled back and return to a time where we all lived with the consequences of the choices we make, for better or worse.

Those with us with families are concerned about them and therefore our society. The Single can be radical, and confront us. We need both.

One of the first things I did today was telephone my parents, who had sent me a package for today. As my son says, I can no longer say that I am a half century older. The odometer has clicked on.

To make life a little more interesting, today is the start of daylight saving in New Zealand, which means that my ability to work out what times things are in North America & Europe will be “out” for a week or so.

Today, Barry talked about a recent conference he had been at in the UK about Congregational growth. And when he heard from the UK (we went from four to eight people! The church is now a skateboard park and at least people are coming!!!) he tried to feel humble. Instead he was smug. In case you are wondering, this is a photo of Batch a couple of weeks ago.

What Barry used as his text today was:

Philippians 2:1-4¹If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, ²make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others

This was to confront his feelings that he was running a perfectlyu successful little church. Look how it has grown, from 12 people we now fill the hall. Look what our people do.

Look at me boast, instead of thinking others were greater than me, and encouraging them…

But what does one do for encouragement? I’m 51, well and truly hit by the ugly stick, and reminded daily my my quite geeky and uncool progeny that I’m decrepit, old, and definately not with it. Well, there are two things that ere my duty: to be steadfast and to do good.

Psalm 108

1 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make melody. Awake, my soul!2 Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn.3 I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples, and I will sing praises to you among the nations.4 For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Acts 9:36-39

³⁶Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. ³⁷At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. ³⁸Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us without delay.” ³⁹So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them.

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

We should be steadfast in the faith, and in doing good. As one moves on in life, this does not end. Dorcas may not have been a young woman — but she did good, and all the pauper women (for if you were a widow, no man would provide for you) wept — showing what they had been given by her.

We should steadfastly encourage, defending the younger when they are doing good and making errors (for if we do anything, we will make errors. We are not God), to being open handed, generous (of money, prayer and time). I’m not that good at this — I provide for my family but tend not to be as hospitable as I ought.

And we should not see the newbies as below us. Instead, their fervour should encourage our fervour. None of us are without faults. None of us are perfect. And when we reflect on even the broken beauty of this world. We should be humbled, and give God the Glory.

UPDATE

Photo

Today is Saturday. Which means that I am the taxi service: music lessons, friends to pick up and take to other places, groceries to get. Saturday gets busy. It’s a consequence of my situation — raising two teenage boys by myself. Things that have been left over the week need to be sorted.

And some things can wait. The guttering needs clearing — there is grass growing in parts — but the forecast is correct. Snow is coming. And that can be sorted out once we truly have spring.

Paul would argue that we are placed where we are to do good. And Jesus asks where we hold our treasure.

1 Corinthians 7:17-24

17However that may be, let each of you lead the life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you. This is my rule in all the churches. 18Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. 19Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but obeying the commandments of God is everything. 20Let each of you remain in the condition in which you were called.

21Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. Even if you can gain your freedom, make use of your present condition now more than ever. 22For whoever was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed person belonging to the Lord, just as whoever was free when called is a slave of Christ. 23You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of human masters. 24In whatever condition you were called, brothers and sisters, there remain with God.

 

Matthew 6:19-21

19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

Now, over in the markets, there is doom and gloom. There are people arguing for re regulation, in the belief that, like Canute, they can somehow halt the tide. It demonstrates that only a fool believes a paper bank balance, and a wise man mistrusts his count of gold. For wealth is not permanent. It is what we do with what we have that matters.

Our treasure should be the people of God, and the glory of God, not cold gold. Let’s not forget, that from God’s perspective we are all desperately weak, poor, and broken. None of us are rich. All of us need mercy.

So let’s not worry over-much about the markets. Let’s think about each other, and if the roof is not leaking, there is food in the pot and clothes on our back let us be content.

This is a follow on from yesterday’s post. Jesus gave us some advice about prayer, and it is to avoid the Christainese jargon, and to speak plainly.

Matthew 6:7-15

7“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9“Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.11 Give us this day our daily bread.12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.13 And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.

14For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; 15but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

We can speak plainly because of our relationship with God. God knows our needs. God delegates to is the power “of the keys” to forgive — being aware that if we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven.

It follows that cursing is not smart. In his teaching, Jesus noted that if you called someone a fool (minimal translation” “Raca” would be better translated as “Fuckwit”) then it is as if you murdered him — in the same way that looking with lust at a woman is the equivalent of adultery. So Cursing people is risky. Remember Balaam. He was hired to curse — but the Spirit of God took over and he blessed. Our prayers are not for hire.

On the issue of sexual lust, Paul had some very blunt advice tor the Corinthians: Marry and make love.

1 Corinthians 7:1-9