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).

Yet even though the Lord will save Hezekiah right now, that didn’t mean everything would go well from now on. As 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).

It’s easy enough to see where Hezekiah was coming from. The nation had just survived the war, and he himself had just survived serious illness; what Hezekiah wanted now was peace. If the future looked bleak, the future would just have to take care of itself. Still, it’s quite a surprising attitude: ordinarily in the Bible we see such a strong generational commitment, people regularly making sacrificial decisions for the sake of grandchildren yet unborn. It feels like Hezekiah dismisses the problems of upcoming generations, thinking, “The Lord will save me, and that’s enough.”

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The Lord established a decree in Jacob … which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments (Psalm 78:5-7).
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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 sake.

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