Making mistakes
Seven years after the northern Kingdom had been conquered, Assyria came back to attack Judah. Hezekiah tried to buy off Sennacharib with gold and silver from the temple he had only recently repaired. The Assyrians simply took the treasure and continued the attack. Should Hezekiah have given the gold and silver to the conquering attacker? He was doing his best to protect the city and the people. He also made practical and military preparations, reinforcing the walls, blocking off the springs outside the city to deprive the attackers of water. Mistakes are not always sin; they are often the outcome of our limited knowledge of the circumstances.
Sometimes we have to jump in, do the best we can and trust God for the outcome. Yet we are sometimes too quick to blame each other and our leaders for mistakes that are simply part of being human.
In the end it made no difference. He had to trust God to save them. Dealing with mistakes with honesty, putting them right, and admitting we were wrong, are some of the hardest things we have to do, particularly if others are dependent on our leadership. But these can be the beginning of a renewed and refreshed relationship with the Lord, and with others. When someone makes a mistake that affects us we need to reassure rather than demand recompense and repentance, telling them that we understand and that we might have made the same mistake ourselves.
'Hezekiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done' (18:3). Christian disciples are not the good, but the forgiven. They obey God out of love and gratitude. And they also make mistakes.
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