Imagine you’re a Jew living in Jerusalem in 696 B.C. A few decades earlier, under the reign of King Ahaz, you saw your land torn apart by evil. While you were never the most observant Jew and didn’t offer up your sacrifices as often as the Law of Moses required, it was obvious to you that the gods Ahaz had gone after were idols of wickedness and destruction. You heard how your king had sacrificed his own sons as a burnt offering to the false god Baal, and you saw how many of your people followed his example, believing the vicious lie that the stench of their children’s charred flesh could somehow grant them peace. You watched your neighbors being carried away on raids by foreigners as a sign of God’s judgment against the king’s idolatry. Even though you didn’t go up to Solomon’s temple anymore, you still felt anger and humiliation as Ahaz stripped and boarded up the house of God in his war against Him.
But then, everything changed when Ahaz’s son Hezekiah arrived. Immediately after taking the throne, he ordered the temple to be reopened and cleansed. He fixed the doors of God’s house and ordered the priests to rid the temple of all the pagan rot Ahaz had brought in and to restore proper worship. And while you still didn’t feel compelled to bring your animals to the priests that they might splatter the blood on the altar, you still recognized things were infinitely better with a king who followed the ways of David than the ways of Ahaz. Things were purer and more peaceful. Hezekiah had ended the days of madness.
Then Hezekiah died, and his son Mannasseh immediately brought back the wickedness of his grandfather Ahaz. He rebuilt the pagan altars his father tore down, redefiled the temple, and reemboldened those who wanted to pollute the land with filth and violence. And when you once again began to smell the stench of infant flesh on the garments of the king, you started to realize you need something greater than a hero whose most glorious accomplishments could quickly be buried under an avalanche of wickedness. You needed rescue from the God whose glory the temple could not fully contain. You need something greater than a king who can die.
It seems many non- or not-so-religious people have begun to realize something similar in response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
While religious Republicans have always been an essential part of the coalition, the broader conservative movement has also included a large swath of less-than-religious members — people who perhaps grew up in pious households but eventually drifted from the faith, people who had marginal exposure to the words of Jesus but haven’t really hungered for more, people who have virtually no exposure at all but still drew many of the same political and cultural conclusions as believing conservatives. And while I doubt that many of these secular conservatives saw Charlie Kirk as the Hezekiah of our time, I imagine many saw him as part of a Hezekiah-like movement.
While they didn’t share Kirk’s faith, they recognized that his religious zeal was accomplishing good things. He was winning debates, convincing many young people to aspire for something greater than victimization complexes and class resentment. He was helping rebuild an orderly and safe society that seemed to be driving back the violent idol worshippers of leftism. They were happy to have a temple-cleansing king on their side, not because they wanted to go to the temple, but because they recognized that leaders who cleanse temples also keep the baby-murderers, the rioters, the child-transitioners, the fentanyl smugglers, and the gang bangers at bay.
But what hope can you have when the faithful king dies and the wicked immediately return? What political comfort can you find when Kirk’s good work was instantly stopped by an avalanche of violence, violence that many indicate they’d love to see poured out on anybody else fighting the good fight? Even if you won every election and recaptured every institution, how long would it last in the face of evil that just won’t die?
Whether by an assassin’s bullet or natural causes, every Hezekiah-like figure will one day draw his last breath. And when he does, there will always be a thousand idol worshippers ready to undo the king’s accomplishments and resume setting fire to innocent flesh. As many nonreligious folks are now seeing through tearful eyes, we need something more than mere men who can temporarily help us. We need a God who can eternally save us. We need something much greater than kings who can die.
And God most certainly has something greater than that to give us. In Jesus Christ, He’s given us the King who died and rose again, the King who conquered death, the King who gives that same victory over the grave to all who believe on His name.
As Charlie Kirk knew and confessed, Jesus Christ is the Son of God, born of the virgin Mary, who was pierced to the cross, shedding the blood that forgave the sins of all mankind. Jesus Christ is the King who conquered His enemy, the devil, not by shedding the blood of men, but by allowing men to shed His blood. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God whose saving blood was promised in the sacrifices Hezekiah reinstituted in the temple, the sinless, spotless Lamb who died in our place, taking the condemnation we had earned and giving us the eternal life He merited for us.
How can we conquer the evil that always finds its way back into the land? We can’t. But Jesus has already conquered evil in His bloody cross and empty tomb. And one day we will see His victory in all its glory when He lifts us from the grave, burns all wickedness before our eyes, and blesses us to dance upon the ashes.
How can we find comfort in a world where so many rejoice at the death of Charlie Kirk? We find it not by looking for someone like Hezekiah, but by looking to the offspring of Hezekiah, Jesus Christ, the one who has already conquered death and sworn to give eternal life to Charlie and all others who believe in Him.
So, if you’re feeling that aching, that longing for something better than a faithful leader who can die, follow that feeling back to church. If you haven’t been in years, even if you’ve never been, that’s where you belong. Find a church that will feed you the promises of Jesus. In Him, you will see that God has not abandoned you to a world of violence, hatred, and despair. Rather, He can save you through the blood of the King who died and rose again, the blood that can clothe you in peace, love, and never-ending joy.
