Of Hezekiah, Paul and Rudyard Kipling

2 Kings 18:13-19:37
Acts 21:1-16
Psalm 149:1-9
Proverbs 18:8

A tale of two endings - or were the endings really all that different?

In the OT reading today, Judah, the weakened remnant of Israel, is attacked by the Assyrians. King Hezekiah offers a terrible ransom, striping the Temple bare, but it isn't enough. The emissaries of the king of Assyria demand surrender, threatening a war Judah knows it cannot win, refusing a peace Judah now knows it cannot buy.

Faced with its utter and incontestable helplessness, and with a wavering people tempted by the enemy's promises of abundance, Hezekiah finally does what he should have in the first place: he acknowledges his sin and his helplessness, he repents, and he cries out to God. And God hears his prayer, accepts his repentance, fights Hezekiah's battle for him and defeats the Assyrians. And in the progress from devastation to deliverance, God is glorified.

The NT reading is different...or is it? Paul insists on returning to Jerusalem, despite the fact so many have counseled against it, worried about the fate that awaits him. In fact, in today's reading we see how a prophet named Agabus took Paul's own belt and tied his hands and feet with it, saying "The Holy Spirit says 'In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'"

Yet for all this, Paul will not be dissuaded. He seeks to do God's will, whatever his circumstances at present, and whatever difficulties such obedience might bring. And in the coming days we will be reminded of the price he paid for such obedience: a most terrible price, so different in nature from the outcome Hezekiah and Judah received, but one that allowed him to be just as much an instrument of God's glory.

Two different sets of circumstances; two different results for the people involved. Yet God was glorified in both instances. My father used to read me a poem by Rudyard Kipling, called "If", and one of the lines he taught me was "if you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same". This makes so much sense now - because in Hezekiah's and in Paul's cases, God was in control, and He was going to be glorified either way. The triumph of Judah, and the suffering and crucifixion of Paul - they were the same: they were God ordained, for His glory.

I pray that I, that we, are able to take the example of Hezekiah and turn to God in times of trouble, and the example of Paul and persist in our obedience despite the difficulty God might permit, in both cases for His glory.




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