The Next Generation Depends on Faithful Fathers
Pastor Scott Uselman
2 Kings 20:1-21 · June 21, 2026
Chapters
Scripture
Hezekiah’s Illness [1] In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” [2] Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, [3] “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. [4] Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: [5] “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. [6] I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’ ” [7] Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered. [8] Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now?” [9] Isaiah answered, “This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?” [10] “It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.” [11] Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz. Envoys From Babylon [12] At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah’s illness. [13] Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine olive oil—his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them. [14] Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?” “From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came from Babylon.” [15] The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?” “They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.” [16] Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: [17] The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. [18] And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” [19] “The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?” [20] As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? [21] Hezekiah rested with his ancestors. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king.
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Scott Uselman teaches from 2 Kings 20, urging us to pray in difficulty, stay humble in blessing, and make godly decisions with future generations in mind.
The Weight of Our Influence
Scott opens by naming what isn't common to say aloud: men and especially fathers shape generations, often without knowing it. He recalls becoming a father and realizing instantly how every plan, every ambition, changed. Suddenly, the future widened beyond himself. Years later, he still feels the impact of both his father's and stepfather's choices, some with sorrow, some with gratitude. He says plainly:
"There were people now in my life that depended upon the things that I did or did not do."
This sets a thread for the morning: our actions travel further than we see, and the children, whether we have them yet or not, will reap what we sow.
The Pattern of History and Hezekiah's Legacy
Turning to 2 Kings, Scott frames the passage within the chronicler's purpose: to trace why God allowed Israel and Judah to lose their heritage. Again and again, he notes, the record says a king "did what was evil in the eyes of their God." What's missing, Scott observes, is faithfulness at home, where generations should have been taught the fear of the Lord, but weren't. The land itself was kept or lost according to the health of families and the habits parents formed.
He pauses:
"As Israel moved away from the Lord, especially it happened inside the homes. The homes would move away from the Lord. And the generation that's coming after... would even go a little further than the generation did before."
Hezekiah is a break in this pattern. Though his own father shut down temple worship, Hezekiah reopens it and calls Judah to renew their covenant. Despite ridicule from some, he leads with repentance and prayer, not just with words, but in costly, faithful acts.
Praying During Difficult Times
The heart of the passage comes as Hezekiah faces his own mortality. Isaiah tells him: get your house in order; you will not recover. Hezekiah, faced with what he cannot fix, does not lash out, manipulate, or withdraw. He prays, honestly, with tears, reminding God of the life he has lived in faithfulness and devotion (2 Kings 20:2-3).
Scott lingers here, noting that this pattern, running to the Lord when control is gone, sets a template for the generations. It is not self-sufficiency, but trust. He says,
"There are situations that come into our lives that we have no control over... we have to put ourselves at the mercy of the Lord."
He notes the timing: Manasseh, Hezekiah’s future son, is not yet born when God gives the king fifteen more years. Faith is established before the next generation arrives, not in reaction to it. Scott encourages young men to be people of prayer even before they see how far their influence will stretch.
He challenges:
"If you're going to influence the next generation, as the quote would say, we do have influence. And men of character, men of faith better be the ones who are influencing the next generation."
Scott laments that too often, even in the church, we teach people to pray only for relief in the moment, not as a shaping force for character that ripples forward.
Humility in Good Times
When healing comes, Hezekiah is visited by envoys from Babylon. Instead of using the moment to showcase God’s mercy, he displays his wealth to the visitors. Scott points out how, after all God has done, it would seem natural to testify to God’s goodness first. Instead, Hezekiah lets pride turn his eyes from the true source of blessing.
Scott imagines what could have been:
"My real treasure is the God who healed me. All of this right here means nothing."
He drives the point home for us: what we boast in reveals what we treasure. Too often, we take credit for what is only a gift, or let our own comfort distract us from what truly matters. And, importantly, our children and their children watch whom we thank, what we value, and how we respond to both success and suffering.
He connects this to everyday life with honesty:
"You can do something about ruining the next generation after you. God help us."
When fathers ignore God and focus only on building personal kingdoms, their children learn to do the same. When fathers treasure the Lord and confess that all they have is a gift, the pattern shifts. Through personal stories, Scott confesses his own failures and the cost of misdirected priorities, showing that the pain is not theoretical, it is lived and passed on, unless grace interrupts.
Godly Decisions With Children in Mind
Returning to the aftermath of Hezekiah's pride, Scott traces the chain reaction: Isaiah confronts Hezekiah, who admits what he showed the Babylonians. The consequence is harsh, everything will be carried away, even his own descendants, who will serve in a foreign court, powerless to have more children (2 Kings 20:16-18). Hezekiah does not fight this; instead, he settles for peace in his own life, neglecting what will happen after he is gone.
Scott lets this linger, exposing how easy it is for us to settle for our own comfort, taking what we can get during our years, instead of considering the toll on those who come next. He says,
"Your pride has tripped up your own flesh and blood that you don't even know that you're going to have yet."
He presses us to see that faithfulness is not just for those who share our blood, but for every child who will learn what God is like through our example:
"I'm also going to make decisions based on how they are going to impact children who have no fathers in their lives. And I'm going to be a father to them as much as I can this morning."
The way forward, Scott argues, is simple though not easy: pray when things are out of control, walk humbly when blessed, and allow love for God (not possessions) to dictate the choices we make, knowing that most of what is truly essential is invisible, and most pain passed down did not have to happen. The story of Manasseh, who reverses his father’s reforms, shows again how quickly things can unravel, but also, how much difference even one generation’s faith can make.
Living It Out
Today, we have a chance to write a different story than the one handed to us. We do not walk alone. We pray not only for ourselves, but for every soul touched by what we do or neglect. In God’s grace, each of us can start the list of things that “did not have to happen” because faithfulness stood up in our generation.
Discussion Questions
- Where have you felt the long-term impact, good or bad, of decisions made by the adults who raised you, and how has that shaped your own approach?
- When something happens that you cannot control, what is your honest first reaction? How might prayer lead you to respond differently?
- What are some ways you can intentionally make decisions this week with those who come after you in mind, whether or not they are your own children?
This Week’s Devotional
Facing the Wall: Learning to Pray When Control Is Gone
4 min read · Pastor Scott
Think of Hezekiah, king and father, standing at the edge of everything he could control. When the news came, your time is up, the options narrowed to one: he turned his face to the wall and wept out his prayer. We do not always want to be this vulnerable. We come from many traditions, some that prize stoic strength or quiet endurance. But there are seasons every one of us comes up against a wall we cannot move, a diagnosis, a loss, a turn in the family story we neither invited nor can fix. What then, when all our learned responses fail? Hezekiah prayed not to impress, not to manipulate, but because he had reached the end of himself. His faith was not instant or cheap; it had grown year by year in less desperate times. That was what prepared him to face the final wall.
If you are carrying the weight of a hard situation right now, perhaps something no amount of problem-solving has budged, what if your best gift to those watching you (your children, the unseen young, even the neighbor's struggling boy) is not perfect strength but a willingness to turn, honest and bare, to the wall and to God?
Let that picture root itself in you: not as a mark of defeat, but as a new starting point. Vulnerability and faith are not the absence of struggle, but the practice of bringing every fear and memory to the Lord who sees. Prayer, in seasons like this, might sound more like tears than words, more like trembling than victory. But this shapes the next generation in quiet ways they may not even know to name.
Meditation focus: When we confess we cannot fix everything, we make space for God’s mercy to work in us and those who come after.
Practical step: Set aside ten minutes this week for wall-facing prayer, alone, honest, without pretense. If there is a child or young friend in your life, invite them into prayer alongside you, not with answers but with trust.
Prayer:
God, You are holy, loving, and beyond what we can build or boast. We come to You as people who depend on Your mercy and kindness. We do not always know how to let go of control or humble ourselves when things are good, but we want to trust You with all that we have and are. Where we have tried to carry things alone or make decisions out of fear or pride, grant us grace to begin again. Provide what our families need, strength to endure, courage to do what is right, and help that we cannot earn. Forgive us where we have shaped our values around what will not last, or where we have passed down patterns of pain, and help us to forgive those before us as well. Lead us away from choices that wound the generation coming after us, and shelter us when we are at the end of our own wisdom. May Your presence be our treasure, and may You gently shape us into people whose trust changes our children, and every child who watches. We ask all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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