HEZEKIAH’S FOOLISHNESS
2 Kings 20:12-21
The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. (17)
chapter 20
12. At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah’s illness.
13. Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his storehouses - the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine olive oil - his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.
14. Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, "What did those men say, and where did they come from?" "From a distant land," Hezekiah replied. "They came from Babylon."
15. The prophet asked, "What did they see in your palace?" "They saw everything in my palace," Hezekiah said. "There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them."
16. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD:
17. The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD.
18. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."
19. "The word of the LORD you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replied. For he thought, "Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?"
20. As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?
21. Hezekiah rested with his ancestors. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king.
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1. After King Hezekiah’s miraculous recovery from his illness, he received a seemingly friendly visit from representatives of the king of Babylon. He welcomed them and showed them all his riches and rare treasures (13). Hezekiah really should have known that this kind of showing-off would trigger the envy and greed of any worldly king. But his pride in his earthly wealth caused him to act foolishly. Hezekiah was one of the most godly kings to rule in Judah, but he was still a sinner like all of us.
2. When Isaiah heard of what the king had done, he came with a dark prophecy of how the Babylonians would be instruments of God’s judgment against Judah. The devastation that they would bring would be even greater than what the Assyrians did, and this judgment would come against Hezekiah’s own descendants (17-18).
3. Hezekiah said that the word of the Lord through Isaiah was good, but inwardly he was indifferent, because this punishment would not come in his lifetime (19). If Hezekiah had instead earnestly repented, perhaps God would have done even greater things through him.
Prayer: Father, forgive me for my desire to show off. Help me boast only in you, and not put my trust in riches but in your promise only.
One Word: Showing off is sin