Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Obedience
- Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity. Our true identity comes only from our Father.
When I
read this section of Isaiah I always get excited. This is the place where the promised
deliverance happens. This is where the
rubber meets the road. This is the crux
of the issue. This is where the Hebrew people
find redemption and salvation in the power of God against the Assyrian threat.
But look
at the qualities of leadership that we see displayed in Hezekiah in this
chapter. He gets bad news from the
Assyrians. Hezekiah tears his clothing
and mourns. He prays to God. He takes the letter to God’s holy temple and
bears his soul. He then turns to seek
God’s counsel in Isaiah. When the
Assyrians send another threatening letter he continues to believe in God and
listen to Isaiah.
We could
talk about so much with respect to Hezekiah.
His Up is clearly focused on God and the worship of Him. He wants the Hebrew people to be saved so
that God’s name is glorified! Hezekiah
certainly sees God as King and knows that the universe is under His
control. Hezekiah certainly is
displaying character by leaning upon God and not his own understanding or his
own fear.
But what
is the most dramatic of all of these things?
In the overwhelming face of oppression, Hezekiah is still obedient. When his obedience to God directly implies
making his greatest threat angry, Hezekiah is still obedient. When God tells him to trust that within three
years time the Hebrew people will be planting in the fields out of their own
stores of food, Hezekiah obediently listens and believes even though he has no
worldly reason to think that such an outcome was even possible. Hezekiah has every reason to crumble at the
Assyrian threat and yet he instead chooses to remain obediently humble in the
presence of the Lord.
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