I was thinking about this blog post for a few days now. And it started from my daily bible readings in which I'm going through the book of 2 Chronicles.
I love history! And when I can dive deep into the history of Israel and Judah and their divided kingdoms, I'm all for it. And nearing the end of the book I had quite a revelation of sorts. Let's pain the picture:
One of the kings of Judah was named Hezekiah. And according to the bible, he was a pretty decent king. He lived a pretty good life up until the end of it, and lost his way a bit. Got into a few spats and disagreements and you start to see some pride rise up in the King. He did repent and is in the books of history as a 'good king' but let's continue his story...
After he dies, his son Manasseh takes the reign. If you are looking for the definition of 'evil king in the bible', you are sure to find Manasseh's picture front and center. He set up idols, did crazy sacrifices and from all accounts was rotten to the core. But the amazing story of redemption can be found in this king. He ended up repenting, tore down all the idols and altars. And from the pages of Scripture we see him literally humble himself and turn back to God.
Manasseh's legacy though....Is hard to read. In fact, after he died, his son Amon took reign. Amon's story is really sad because in 2 Chronicles 33, his story lasts about 4 verses or so. Amon 'followed after his father Manasseh', committed great sins and never repented. He was killed by his own people only a few years after his reign began at a very young age.....
And I hope you can see where I'm going with this...
The Book of Proverbs hold some interesting foreshadowing of sorts because this book was written by King Solomon who was like Hezekiah's great great great great (really great) grand father.
Here's some lineage for you to follow the line along history...
(via Wikipedia)
Here's King Solomon, literally warning his descendants to 'train up a child in the way he should go..' And Solomon would know. He kind of stumbled a bit, as did his father David. Self fulfilling prophecy here. But the king knew the dangers of letting a child go down a wrong path even early in their life.
I'm speaking directly to fathers here in the faith, but anyone raising kids in today's day and age....
The devil is PREYING on kids. From social media, to this new AI stuff, to cartoons, to violence, drugs, you name it...We are at war with this spiritual wickedness and our children are targets. It happened in Hezekiah's age, and there's nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
So what do we do?
Proverbs 22:6 is the answer. Written by King Solomon under the guidance of the Holy Spirit so many centuries ago. And yeah, it's not the easiest thing to do in today's day and age but our kids salvation and ours depends on it!
