A Caution Against Complacency: A Study of Hezekiah's End

We are enjoying the very rural setting of the Nepal New Covenant College where we will be teaching this week (see below).

​2 Kings 20:16-18: Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘Hear the word of the LORD:17 Days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your ancestors have stored up until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the LORD. 18 Some of your own sons who are born to you shall be taken away; they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ 19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.’ For he thought, ‘Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?’
Dear Friends,
This past week Lisa and I completed a series of teachings on organizational leadership and renewal from the life of Hezekiah. Hezekiah’s is a powerful story, but with a sad ending. He was a good king, and his successes were spiritual, not military in nature. He had a deep vision of God’s people being led into worship of the LORD, and he carried this out. He looked to God when the mighty army of the Assyrian empire was at his door, and God saved him and his people. So, what goes wrong at the end? Why does he leave behind a son who was one of the worst of the Kings of Judah?
Isaiah is clear that Hezekiah’s disobedience in showing off the riches of his recent miraculous victory over the Assyrians to the Babylonian emissaries will bring about a Babylonian victory over Judah in the generation of his children, but he has been given 15 more years of healthy life and peace in his kingdom.
The news that judgment is coming on Judah should be terrible news, but to Hezekiah it is not an unwelcome word. These remaining years of Hezekiah’s life will be good years, not contingent on his prayers—these peaceful years are already in the bag! For Hezekiah is living on yesterday’s prayers! He prayed prayers of dependence, when he was desperate, and God answered. Now, in his legacy years, he is neither. This, rather than a more faithful posture, is the legacy he leaves his son Manasseh, who was born not during his faithful years but in his semi-retirement years. Manasseh doesn’t ever see his father as the dependent, faithful leader of the nation.
This is not an uncommon arc for a leader or an organization. Early challenges and small beginnings make for people of great faith, who trust in God because they must. As the ministry grows due to God-given success, prayer is seen as powerful, driving future growth. Leaders lean on God’s promises and power. But… eventually, continued growth and success often produces a comfortable existence, where the vision of the organization and its resources to meet the vision are at parity. The wineskins into which God poured the fresh wine of his Spirit 20 years ago are now old and crusty. New wineskins are needed, but those at the top of the organization are least likely to notice. They are, in fact, quite happy with “peace and security in my days.” I can see this tendency in myself at times, when I turn to media for comfort or make choices that are safer instead of going deeper in a conversation.
Lisa and I are grateful to be reliant on our own and our support team’s prayers for our work here in Asia. While I am close enough to retirement age to wish I could see exactly how our future will be provided for, I cannot.   Thanks for being a part of our support team, we are thankful and see God’s active provision to us through your love, gifts and prayers!
May we avoid Hezekiah’s complacency and consider how to leave behind a faithful legacy to the next (organizational or biological) generation that comes after us!
The Life of a Teacher
Lisa and I had a very full Fall 2023 schedule. Between us, we have been teaching this year with seven institutions: St. Paul's Theological College, Alpha Omega International College, Judson Bible College of Malaysia, and Bible College of Malaysia all here in Malaysia, as well as Nepal New Covenant College and the Development Associates International MA program in Nepal, and Lisa has recently begun teaching a doctoral level preaching course (electronically) at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena. Each of these schools works on different schedules and rhythms.
We are about to enter the Chinese New Year (CNY) celebration in Malaysia, a two-week break in our courses here. So we are using this break to go to Nepal, where we will each teach an intensive course for a week in Itahari, where I taught in September 2023. After the week in Nepal, Lisa will head back to Kuala Lumpur and I will have another 8 days in two locations in Odisha State, India, with some of my oldest connections in India and their colleagues who will be gathered for a few days of teaching and training. I expect to be serving nearly 200 pastors over the week.

• We are grateful for a safe and issue-free travel here. Please please pray for our health this week and remaining travel. Feb 9 Lisa returns to Kuala Lumpur, while on Feb 18 I return from India.
• Please pray for strong connections with students in Nepal. They are used to being instructed in English, but their English strength varies widely by student, and we are eager to serve them both capably and winsomely.
• Please pray for my time in India with Pastor S and Pastor M and their colleagues. They are both godly men who are serving in their own churches but also take leadership/training responsibility for dozens of other pastors in their districts. Pray for the gospel to advance in these relatively rural places among the rice farmers of Odisha.

We always love hearing from you and we are glad to know how we can pray for you!
In Jesus,
Rich and Lisa
​More goats below: A supporter couple gave us funds specifically to help the pastors we are working with become more self-supporting in their rural pastoral ministry. These two pastors will be able to provide almost 1/3 of their annual income from the productivity of these goats. (The woman on the right had been a witch doctor and now has an active and powerful ministry among former occult leaders.)