Seeing ourselves in Hezekiah

At Yorkshire Training this afternoon I got my group to blitz prepare two Bible studies on Isaiah 36-37 and 38-39.  It was a really enjoyable experience just to sit, discuss, encourage and help people see how to open up the Bible for themselves and then begin to prepare it for others.  To see how the questions we had about the passages opened up avenues of exploration to explore, and how the Bible again and again confronts us with characters whose hearts have the same foibles and failings as ours.

Just one example, Isaiah 39 ends with these words "'The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,' Hezekiah replied.  For he thought, 'There will be peace and security in my lifetime.'"  Now in context he has just been told that the Babylonians will come and carry Judah into exile, including some of his own descendants.  Rightly we find ourselves bursting with indignation - how can that be good?  How can he be OK with that?  What a self-centred attitude, how can he be so 'I'm alright Jack'?

But then as we mined this together it began to expose our hearts, how often do we have the same attitude.  Not about our children and their well being but about other churches, about the gospel in other parts of the country, or the world.  How often do we care so much about our life, our family, our church, that we mirror Hezekiah, and don't care beyond that?

May God help us as we repent of that sinful attitude and increasingly have his heart and his concerns as ours.