Hezekiah was one of the good guys amongst the Kings of Judah. (2 Kings 18:1-3) makes it clear that he was.
2 Kings 18:5-6 He trusted in the LORD God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses.
If we’ve heard any good messages on prayer from the Old Testament, we’ve probably heard how he fell sick and prayed to God and got 15 years added to his life.
He was a good guy.
But…
Word goes round that he was sick and the king of Babylon who’s name is a mouthful 😁 (Berodach-Baladan) sends envoys with a gift to come pass his good wishes and toss to his health.
He receives them well. Okay, rather too well, for he opens up and shows them everything, yes everything that he has. All that his fathers had gathered he gives the fellows a royal tour. The palace, the temple, the treasury…. Everything!
Bad move…
God declares that all that these fellows have seen will be carried away to Babylon, and his kids will be taken captive and be made eunuchs (that means castrated 😅)
So what does the good guy do?
Well, what do you think?
You’d expect a guy who had lived in obedience, who’d torn down the high places and who’d actually prayed and been dragged back from the brink to do something; right? Wrong.
The thing is, Isaiah makes clear the judgement will come in his children’s time; not during his time.
So?
Well, so what?
2 Kings 20:19 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”
So?
Faced with danger, not for himself directly but his progeny; Hezekiah the good guy basically says, ” To each his own! ” Wajipange!
And that’s how it was…
This story is to me quite shocking, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense even in our time.
The future danger, weighed against present pleasures seems an inadequate deterrent.
Psalms 36:1-2 Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
See this is the trouble. Sin speaks deep in the heart, and lulls one to the imminent danger. We rationalize it until we are suddenly broken, and that without healing (Proverbs 29:1). We postpone the repentance and before we know it, it’s too late.
For Hezekiah, this judgement was not only a threat to his being but to the future of his line. But what did he say? “It’s good!”
And we’ve been doing it too.
As long as we can enjoy today, the future threat is nothing.
Lord help us!
It is the rationale for most things we do, that we know to be wrong. And there lies the danger.
What makes the sinner go on in blissful confidence? It is that the threatenings of God are not an immediate danger in our eyes.
When death stared the man in the face, he cried out to God with such fervor that the prophet was sent back immediately to reassure him.
When it seemed that his skin was saved from the terror (never mind that he was the one who’d sinned); the man was okay with it.
And so are we.
The terror of judgement scares no one because it is in an indefinite future.
No one who continues on in this vein really thinks there’s any imminent danger… yet, yet the reality is quite different! It is a trap!
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