Good News, Bad News

 November 3, 2021

Sometimes bad news can become good news and good news can become bad news. 2 Kings 20 tells the story of King Hezekiah, who was deathly ill with an infection. The prophet Isaiah told him to get his affairs in order because he was going to die. Hezekiah’s response was to pout like a child. As Isaiah was leaving the palace, God spoke to him, telling him to go back and inform Hezekiah that his prayers had been heard; he would not die, but be given fifteen more years—bad news became good news!

However, during that fifteen years, Hezekiah fathered a son, Manasseh, who would prove to be the most corrupt king the nation had ever had, and the final straw leading to Babylon’s overrunning the kingdom and taking the people into exile. Good news had become bad news.

We think we can tell the difference between the two, but it’s not always as easy as it might seem. The concept of good and bad news switching places occurred to me when I read this chapter this morning, but I had no idea that before the day was half gone, I would be on the road to North Carolina to see my brother in law, perhaps for the last time. He’s back in the hospital with more complications from the surgery he had in August, and now the doctors are telling him that the surgery that he had hoped for that would restore some semblance of normality to his life is no longer an option. Back in August, his surgery was to have been good news; reconnecting his esophagus. It turned out to be bad news when he almost died. A week or so later, it was good news as he came out of his induced coma and gradually gained strength to come home. The good news became bad news as he aspirated his food. Back and forth it went, to the point where we weren’t able to tell which was good, and which was bad news. 

Right now, I cannot see the good news in all this. I had been confident in my prayers that he would recover. I haven’t given up on those prayers, but he and his wife are not hopeful. I wish I were able to tell how this will turn out, but all I know is that figuring out what is good, and what is bad news is not always as easy as it might seem. The only good news that remains so is the Good News of Jesus Christ, who assures us by his death and resurrection that even the worst news we can receive becomes good news for those who like my brother in law, trust in Christ for forgiveness, healing, and eternal life.