Isaiah 28:19

Hezekiah, the King of Judah, was sick, and God told him that he was going to die. But Hezekiah pleaded to the LORD, and God let him live for another fifteen years. Isaiah 38 then goes on to record Hezekiah’s song of praise to God. Verse 19 says:

‘The living, the living man, he shall praise You,

As I do this day;

The father shall make known Your truth to the children.’ (Isaiah 28:19)

These are the words of a man with a second chance at life. This is what he considers of utmost importance. And what is it? The living man shall praise God. To praise God he considers one of the prime objectives of life. He knows he will live only another 15 years. And so he says he will praise God for all he’s worth! This situation is much like the hypothetical situation we might sometimes put ourselves into- ‘If I knew I only had one day to live, what would I do with that day?’ Well, we have the added task of spreading the Gospel, but Hezekiah’s words are a stark reminder as to what is important in this life. Praising God is what we were created for.

Secondly, the father shall make God’s truth known to his children. He wants to pass on His knowledge of God, and all His truth, to his children, so that they in turn can pass it on to their own. Paul had a similar need in Second Timothy. Hezekiah names this as of the utmost importance as well. This is something we should all be doing (okay we’re mostly not very old but we can still teach Sunday school or be a role model for those younger than us). We need to keep passing on God’s truth, which has been passed on for two millennia!

I hope this gets you refocused on what God truly wants from us most.