As I worked with a recent Bible Lesson from The Christian Science Quarterly, I had a little trouble following the story involving King Hezekiah and the Assyrians, so I dug into the two chapters in II Kings (18 & 19) from which the Bible Lesson citations were drawn. It turns out it’s an object-lesson in the subtle ways we may inadvertently trespass the First Commandment, the results of that, and how to get ourselves back on track—not to mention an illustration of how animal magnetism, a.k.a. mortal mind, a.k.a. the carnal mind, attempts to accomplish evil contrary to God’s good will. (See Parts II-IV for more on that!)
Christian Scientists love the book of Nehemiah as an example of how to defend thought from aggressive suggestions, those that would oppose themselves to God and His goodness. What I noticed was that where the story of Nehemiah shows us how to prevent the negative consequences of taking in false suggestions, the story of Hezekiah shows us how to handle them if we've mistakenly let them in.
Because the story takes a while to tell, I’ve broken my discoveries into four sections. I hope you’ll enjoy this four-part series!