He did what was right in the Lord’s sight just as his ancestor David had done. ~2 Kings 18:3
Some Saturday afternoon, when the weather is nice and warm, take a drive up and down the residential streets of your town. Without a doubt, you’ll see dads in their front yards playing pitch and catch with their children or kicking a soccer ball back and forth.
Usually, these faithful dads are just spending some good old “quality time” with their children. But sometimes the dads are motivated by something else. They want to teach their offspring the fundamentals of a game. They want their kids to excel in this sport and someday make their dads proud. Who knows, they may even be thinking about a college scholarship.
All these motives are appropriate. The kids are having fun with their dads. The dads are demonstrating good techniques. All good.
After David left the throne of Israel, few good kings followed. Many forgot their heritage and the lessons they should have learned from the past. Many completely forgot about God and His faithfulness to the Israelites.
Then there was Hezekiah. Coming to the throne as a twenty-five-year-old, he “did what was right in the Lord’s sight” (v. 3). He tore down the altars to false gods and dared to lead the people back to the one true God.
And who was his model? His ancestor David—his great-grandfather times eight! But the text gives David credit for being the fathering model for Hezekiah to follow. Imagine the implications of this. For ten generations, even though so many had ignored his example of godliness, people still remembered how David, the king and the father, had faithfully taught and modeled to his son—and their sons—the fundamentals of life.
Stop and think about it. Those things you are doing for your children—through instruction and example—will last for generations. The memory of your spiritual faithfulness and discipline will be like a snapshot of you playing ball with your child that will be pasted in mental scrapbooks for centuries to come.
Hezekiah was a blessed young king; he had David’s example to follow. What a good idea it is to give your children—and their children—the same blessing.