2 Chronicles 歷代志下29-32

2 Chronicles 31:20 Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God. 21 And every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments, seeking his God, he did with all his heart, and prospered. 32:1 After these things and these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself. 

歷代志下 31:20 希西家在全猶大都這樣辦理,在耶和華—他 神面前行良善、正直、忠誠的事。 21 凡他所行的,無論是開始辦 神殿的事,是遵律法守誡命,是尋求他的 神,他都盡心去做,無不亨通。32:1 在這些虔誠的事以後,西拿基立來侵犯猶大,圍困堅固城,想要攻破它們。

Immediately upon coming to the throne, King Hezekiah’s priority was to make a covenant with God. He knew that the sufferings of his people were the result of the turning away of his father Ahaz from God. So the first thing he did was that “he opened the the doors of the house of the Lord [which had been shut by his father King Ahaz] and repaired them”. Then he restored temple worship and reinstated the long neglected Passover celebration. Very interestingly, the Bible states: “After these things and these acts of faithfulness,” the enemy came to attack Judah. Our acts of faithfulness won’t stop the enemy from attacking us. They will, nevertheless, serve to prepare us to have the proper response to future crises in our lives, just as an army needs to be trained during times of peace in order to be prepared to fight when war actually occurs.

Let us be diligent like Hezekiah to seek the Lord and to wholeheartedly do the work of the Lord during this pandemic.  More storms will come, but our acts of faithfulness today will determine the outcome of tomorrow’s storms.

希西家王登基後的首要任務是與上帝立約。他知道,他的人民遭受的苦難是因他父親亞哈斯(Ahaz)離棄上帝的結果。因此,他所做的第一件事是“打開了耶和華殿的門(由他的父親亞哈斯王關閉了)並對其進行了維修”。然後,他恢復了對聖殿的敬拜,並長期以來被忽視的逾越節慶祝活動。有趣的是,聖經說:“這些虔誠的事以後,”敵人來進攻猶大。我們的虔誠行為不會阻止敵人攻擊我們。但是,它們將為我們做好準備,以對我們生活中的未來危機作出適當的反應,就像在和平時期需要訓練軍隊以便在實際發生戰爭時做好戰鬥準備一樣。

讓我們像希西家一樣勤奮地尋求主,並在這種大流行期間全心全意地做主的工作。將會有更多的風暴,但是我們今天的虔誠行為將決定明天風暴的結果。

Hezekiah

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