Having conquered the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel, the Assyrian army then defeated the fortified cities of Judah; next they besieged Jerusalem and called for its surrender (Isaiah 36:1-10). King Hezekiah prayed for God’s assistance (37:14-20), and overnight the angel of the Lord struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, forcing the Assyrians to retreat to Assyria (37:36-38).

Then Hezekiah himself became ill, and expected to die; but he prayed, and God extended his life by fifteen years (38:1-6); his prayer of thanksgiving is rather disjointed (38:9-20), yet it concludes well: “The living, the living, they thank you, as I do this day; fathers make known to children your faithfulness. The Lord will save me, and we will sing to stringed instruments all the days of our lives, at the house of the Lord” (38:19-20).

Even so, Isaiah prophesied, in days to come everything – including Hezekiah’s own descendants – would be deported to Babylon (39:5-7). King Hezekiah’s response is interesting: “’The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.’ For he thought, ‘There will be peace and security in my days’” (39:8).

That’s quite a surprising attitude on Hezekiah’s part: ordinarily in the Bible we see such a strong generational commitment, people routinely making sacrificial decisions for the sake of grandchildren yet unborn. Still, we can see where Hezekiah’s attitude was coming from: the nation had just survived the war; he himself had just survived serious illness; what Hezekiah wanted now was peace; and if the future looked bleak, the future would just have to take care of itself.

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O Lord God! We, too, often feel that it’s enough for us to survive our present problems, and to shrug over what the future will have to deal with. Teach us to consider our grandchildren, and our grandchildren’s grandchildren: give us the vision to care about and prepare for the future, for their sakes.

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