Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Defeat of the Assyrians”. The title of the lesson indicates the thrust of the weekly lesson. The amazing defeat of the Assyrian army due to the faith of Hezekiah and the faith of the Children of Israel. A great story of faith in the face of overwhelming odds. I pray this lesson encourages us all in our walk of faith, too.
But this part of Hezekiah’s life is not what I want to write upon this week. It is touched upon in Thursday’s lesson. The Divine announcement to Hezekiah of his imminent death, the prayer of Hezekiah to extend his life, and the result. Not a very good result to those graciously added 15 years of life. But those 15 years displays a truth that fits us all. A truth that we must learn…hopefully earlier rather than later. A truth that started for the human race in the Garden of Eden long ago. The truth about our unconscious mind. Our “you do not know” condition (see Revelation 3:14-21).
Guilt was created in the human mind in the Garden of Eden when we “fell”. When the innocent “Pair” fell, we all fell (see 1 Corinthians 15: 22). The first evidence of this guilt was shame (Genesis 3:8). The second was fear (Genesis 3:9-10). And the third was the erection of a barrier creating the unconscious mind (Genesis 3:12). Adam and Eve found themselves unable to realize their guilt and confess it. When Adam and Eve “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord” they did so because they were hiding from themselves as well. Their conviction of guilt was unwelcome to their conscious mind. They could not face themselves. Shame overwhelmed them. For some mysterious reason, they felt naked before each other and before God. “The Lord God walking in the Garden in the cool of the day” had suddenly become an unwelcomed intruder. Thus it has been with all of us ever since. The knowledge of God is repressed because it awakens the intolerable sense of guilt we all long to escape from. Thus it is driven into our unconscious mind. We see this in the life of Hezekiah and the 15 added years.
(See 2 Kings 20 and 21) Hezekiah had been a good king. So good, that if he had said, “So be it, Lord” to the Lord’s statement, “Set thine house in order; for you will die and will not live”, he would likely have gone down in history as the finest king God’s people ever had. He was not aware of the hidden buried roots of evil latent in his unconscious heart and mind. He prayed, “I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore” (2 Kings 20:3 KJV). But his heart was not perfect! When 15 years was added to his life, he became the victim of unconscious prideful and selfish motivations, and undid all the good he had achieved in his former period of health.
According to 2 Chronicles 32, the Lord, “left him to try him that he (Hezekiah) might know all that was in his heart”. And what was in Hezekiah’s heart was pride that led him to boast before Baladan, king of Babylon. And a willful selfishness that led him to begat, raise and train wicked Manasseh. Jeremiah passes a retrospective judgement on the last era of his reign. Judah’s downfall came “because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah for that which he did in Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 15:4). All the evil that Hezekiah did in those last 15 years was already latent in Hezekiah’s heart before his illness. The true extent of Hezekiah’s sinful heart was not seen until there had been opportunity to develop it.
For me, this is the real lesson of the added 15 years. The lesson for us all is that every one of us has a “you do not know” sinful condition, so says Him who is “faithful and true” (again, see Revelation 3:14-21). This is the reason for the final atonement. A time when the work of Christ takes on special significance as our “most holy place” of our unconscious mind is revealed to each of us. Revealed so that we may see it, acknowledge it, confess it… and be healed. Healed, so that we can stand naked and transparent before our God with no shame, no guilt. All open before Him. Unlike Adam and Eve. Unlike Hezekiah. Unlike all mankind in their natural state. This healed condition of transparency describes those who stand before our God when He comes in the clouds of Heaven. All else, call “to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb’” (Revelation 6:16) because they are hiding from themselves, too.
Let us not continue any hiding. Any hiding from our neighbors, our God… and hiding mostly from ourselves. Let us come to our God and stand before Him in all our ugliness and sin. He alone knows it all anyway… and loves us anyway. And He alone can heal us from all the damage that has been done. The “curtain” separating our conscious and unconscious mind has been torn asunder, and we can stand before our God with a totally open mind… if we will.
With brotherly love,
Jim