Leaving the bill for someone else to pay

 This week's verses are 2 Kings 20:16-19:

 Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to the Lord’s message, ‘Look, a time is coming when everything in your palace and the things your ancestors have accumulated to this day will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord. ‘Some of your very own descendants whom you father will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’” Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The Lord’s message which you have announced is appropriate.” Then he added, “At least there will be peace and stability during my lifetime.”

King Hezekiah was a great king of Israel. He is remembered for fortifying Jerusalem, and resisting invasion by the Assyrians. But these verses describe a moment of weakness.

 Before these verses, God had cured him of a terminal illness. He was recovering when he received visitors from Babylon. He showed them all of his treasures, and then the prophet Isaiah showed up to tell him what would now happen because of his indiscretion.

It's a pretty horrible punishment: His family will lose its wealth and power and his kids will be kidnapped, disfigured, and made lifelong slaves. His response is basically, "hey that's fine, as long as it doesn't affect me. I'll be long gone by then." It seems really selfish.

But we're like that too. We make poor decisions that will affect future generations. Examples: growing national debt, dependence on cheap petroleum, wasting of natural resources, pollution, poor saving habits, bad health decisions, consumerism, indulging our social media addictions. Or maybe we've said or done things to harm others and just left them because it was easier that way. We know the consequences, but we kinda don't care if the bill doesn't come due in our lifetime.

It's the timeline version of tossing your garbage out the window and expecting someone else to clean it up. When Hezekiah realized his decisions would have consequences for the next generation, he should have interceded with God as he did when it was his own wellbeing that was in danger. Instead he took the selfish path and just focused on enjoying life.

So this is a case to examine our lives and ask, am I leaving a mess for others to clean up? If so, you can still intercede and try to save them from the consequences of your decisions.