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By David Wright “Father Knows Best” was a popular sitcom with a 6-season run (1954-60). The show portrayed the middle-class Anderson family. Jim was in the insurance business. He and his wife, Margaret, had three children--Betty, Bud, and Kathy. Despite the title of this program, human fathers do not always know best. But the heavenly Father does. The experience of King Hezekiah is an apt illustration. Hezekiah reigned over Judah in a troubled time (c. 724-695 BC). The people had rejected the Lord and embraced idols. Hezekiah's own father, Ahaz, outraged heaven by sacrificing his children in the fire. Divine wrath threatened to fall upon Judah like a swirling black thunderstorm. The cruel Assyrians had invaded Judah, fully intending to crush Jerusalem. However, King Hezekiah trusted the Lord. He fervently prayed for deliverance from the hosts of soldiers besieging the city. God heard and answered. One night an angel struck dead 185,000 Assyrian warriors. Invincible Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, was turned back from Jerusalem, even though the vastly outnumbered and badly frightened Hebrews hiding within the walls had shot not the first arrow. Shortly after this, Hezekiah became gravely ill. Dying so young, 39, seemed unfair for a man who had so completely trusted God. In prayer he begged for more time. The Lord granted him 15 more years. When the Babylonians learned of this sickness, they sent envoys to express sympathy. Flattered, Hezekiah proudly showed off all his treasuries. Isaiah sharply rebuked the king for his conceit. “The days are coming,” he said, “when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. […] And some of your own sons, who are born to you, shall be taken away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon” (Isa. 39:6-7). If Hezekiah had accepted God's timing for his death, he would now be remembered as one of the greatest men of faith in the Bible. Instead, he stained his record in those additional years with an act of pride that paved the way for the Babylonian invasion of Judah a century later. The heavenly Father truly does know best. |