Men of God

Dec 22, 2019 | by Natalie Kingsbury

Chapters 36-39 of Isaiah portray the living of a godly man, King Hezekiah, whom most of us would love to emulate. But if we look at King Hezekiah closely, we will see a man more occupied with self than with God’s own interest. Are we such people? We must be honest with ourselves and realize that we can see much of our own lives in this man. King Hezekiah was clearly a godly man but he was not a man of God. There is much that seems commendable in him. He received at times miraculously answered prayers, and he also had victories in battles in the Lord. Generally speaking, he was a very good king; he was a godly man; but he was not a man of God, a God-man. This may seem subtle, but what is the difference in being a godly man and a God-man? What is the difference you may ask?

We need to see beyond the attempt to make a distinction based upon word usage. To say that King Hezekiah was a godly man means that he believed in God, feared God, honored God, worshipped God, prayed to God and even humbled himself before God. He was serious with God, so he was godly. He realized that the Lord rules and that he was a king because of the Lord’s sovereignty. So he had what we may call a godly character in relation to God. But this is still quite different from a God-man or a man of God. One can be godly and pious and even “spiritual”, fearing God and worshipping God and still have quite an amount of self interest. Therefore, such a one may not really be one with God in a deep intrinsic way.

Moses, on the other hand, was called a man of God. Moses was more than just godly. He was a man saturated with and permeated with God. He was a man whose self had been fundamentally broken by God. He was a man in the resurrection life of God! He was also a man who could be trusted by God to carry out something quite crucial in relation to God’s purpose. King Hezekiah was godly so God answered some of his prayers. But he was not a man of God. He was not soaked and saturated with God. Hezekiah was not intrinsically one with God and ultimately at the core, hze was not for God and for God’s interest, even though he was a king in God’s kingdom.   This element of selfishness and self interest and the defects that issue from it, cause us to come to this conclusion, that although King Hezekiah was godly, he was too much for himself to qualify as a man of God and surely not a God-man.