LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
“Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for his people, because it was done suddenly.” (2 Chronicles 29, v.36)
What an encouraging reminder we find in this part of 2 Chronicles where the restoration of the Temple and the proper worship to be offered within it were brought about in less than three weeks! Hezekiah was instrumental in superintending this great recovery, but Scripture is clear in saying that it was God who had made it a reality. It is a timely reminder for us that no matter how hopeless or dismal a situation may appear, it can change in a hurry and change dramatically at that. This holds true of personal predicaments or those on a larger even national or international scale, when God’s people are crying out to Him in earnest and fervent prayer. When something is changed relatively swiftly as in Hezekiah’s above reform it adds to the intensity of the rejoicing, because the hand of God may be that much more evident in the developments. It is obvious that human efforts alone could never have achieved it. When God’s people are praying that way and moving in obedience they need to be prepared, for anything life-changing can happen and at any moment. Sorely needed revelation too can be present with the very next breath or thought.
Only four chapters later in the same book a notoriously wicked king named Manasseh is quickly transformed after feeling the weight of God’s severe judgment that had led him to immediately humble himself. He is an exceptional king in that he is a rare example of one that began badly and continued that way before ending well. (There are several examples of those that began well and even continued that way before ending badly, Hezekiah himself being one of those, and Solomon, Asa and, arguably, Jehosaphat being others.) Manasseh is also the king who reigned the longest of Judah’s kings, 55 years, five being the Biblical number of grace. This seems fitting in the sense that we all began “badly” in that we were all conceived and born in sin. (Psalm 51, v.5) But as we turn to God and accept His Son Jesus as our sacrifice for sin we are reborn or born from above into better things and a higher destiny for our lives as kings and priests (Revelation 1, v.6) and part of God’s family. Within our God-given destinies many good things unfold slowly and gradually, even painfully, but others seem interspersed to emerge “suddenly” amidst rejoicing and at just the right moment, when we most need it. So let’s “keep our eyes peeled,” this may be the season for the sudden....