“Behold, the days come, that all that [is] in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.” (2Ki 20:17 AV)
These words are words from the LORD to Hezekiah following his very unwise act of allowing Babylonian visitors to see all his wealth. I’ve always assumed the LORD judged Judah because of this one act, but upon think of it a bit more, I don’t think that is the case. Hezekiah was responsible for the greatest revival that had ever occurred in Judah. He went so far as the remove all the high places. This hadn’t been the case since David’s time. Hezekiah cleansed the temple, re-instituted the Passover, and cleansed the priesthood. God blessed him for his faithfulness, courage, and integrity. At the height of his reign, Hezekiah thought it was a good idea to show a potential enemy all that he had been blessed with. He showed them the treasures of his palace as well as the treasures of the house of God. Again, I always thought this was the reason God judged Judah. NO doubt the treasures of Judah were a motivating factor in Babylon’s invasion. This morning, the Spirit led me to think of these words a bit differently.
Hezekiah would become ill and was told of the prophet to set his house in order. At the time, he had no son to assume the throne. It would have passed to a different descendent of David. Hezekiah wept and prayed. The LORD gave him fifteen more years. Three years later, his son, Manasseh, was born. Manasseh reigned for 52 years and when he was done, Judah went further into idolatry than they had ever gone before. It was because of his wickedness, and the wickedness of all those idolatrous kings that preceded him, that God brought judgement. Solomon, because of his wives, introduced the kingdom to idol worship. Israel had been carried away several decades earlier, and Judah never learned the lesson. Babylon would invade and carry it Judah into captivity. But it wasn’t because Hezekiah was prideful over God’s blessings. It was because of the idolatry of all those kings that reigned before and after him. That begs the question. What was the issue then? What was the thought the prophet was trying to convey? What lesson can we learn?
What I think was going on was the LORD’s rebuke to Hezekiah not to be prideful over temporary blessings. All the riches and relationships God had blessed Hezekiah with would be lost in two generations. It reminds me of the condition of our present world. And in particular, our nation. We pride ourselves on our wealth and success. We think we are the envy of the world. We think the world could not function without us. We think we are the originators and guarantor of all that is good and beneficial to mankind. We see our currency as the world standard. We see ourselves sitting at the head of the table. No doubt, God has blessed us greatly. No other nation is doing more for foreign missions than ours. No other nation has more gospel preaching churches than ours. The ideas of the Bible built our nation. Yet, we squandered it all away for the flesh. We turned our back on God and because we have, the LORD will judge us. Yet here we are, still bragging about how blessed of God we are. On a personal note, we can do the same thing. We don't stop to think that we can lose all the blessings that God has given us in a moment. One ill-timed tragedy can cause us to lose all that we have saved up, all that we have planned, and all that we have acquired. Hezekiah’s sin was pride. God wanted him to put those blessings into perspective. Present blessings are no hedge against future failures.
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