Dear Parents, He’s a chip off the old block. Like father, like son. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. These idioms exist because sons tend to look and behave like their fathers. When it came to Hezekiah and his father, Ahaz, however, the two were far from similar. When Ahaz was king of Judah, he did not respect God, God’s law, or God’s prophets. He worshiped idols. Ahaz “did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God” (2 Kings 16:2). He led the people away from God, provoking God’s wrath and anger. Hezekiah, on the other hand, “did what was right in the Lord’s sight just as his ancestor David had done.” ...

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Dear Parents, The Book of Isaiah contains four Servant songs—poems about the servant of God. (See Isa. 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:12–53:13.) In these poems, the prophet Isaiah describes God’s plan of redemption. We see a vision of the promised Messiah, the innocent substitute who would suffer for the sake of sinners. Through Jesus, God brings sinners back to Himself. The fourth and final Servant song is found in Isaiah 53. In this passage, Isaiah provides an answer to these questions: How can a just God justify the ungodly? How can He declare innocent those who are guilty? How can He treat bad people as though they are good? How can He ...

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Dear Parents, This week's Sunday message is about Noah and the ark. By the time Noah lived—10 generations after Adam—people had stopped following God. In fact, Scripture describes the terrible situation: “Man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth … every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5). God was right to punish this sin. He decided to send a flood to cover the earth and destroy everything. God graciously chose to save one man and his family, so he warned Noah about the flood and told him to build an ark. When the ark was complete, God’s judgment did come. The floodwaters covered the earth. ...

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