FBC Morning Light – June 15, 2022

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you.

We are in the middle of the week already.

I hope your week is going very well for you.

Well, today we're reading in Isaiah again, chapters 39 and following.

And you know, Hezekiah was one of Israel's good kings.

They didn't have very many of them.

He was a king of Judah, the southern tribe, and the latter years of their history.

But by and large, he was a good king.

And you saw that earlier in Isaiah when they were being

threatened by the Assyrians and Hezekiah responded very well to that threat.

And he showed dependence upon the Lord, trusting in the Lord, and he did that repeatedly.

And the Lord blessed him for that.

And then in the last chapter, chapter 38, Hezekiah had been ill, he'd been

sick, he was going to die.

He prayed for the Lord to give him more time and the Lord answered his prayer.

Lord promised him, I'm gonna give you more years.

And what a great blessing.

So he was a good king, but he wasn't a perfect king.

And we see this in chapter 39, where we read in verse one that this

representative from Babylon, what's going to become the Babylonian Empire, by the

way, this representative from Babylon, a man by the name of Merodach -Baladon,

the king of Babylon, actually he sent letters and he sent a present to Hezekiah.

So the king of Babylon sent these letters and sent these emissaries to

Hezekiah, just as a goodwill gesture, apparently.

Because the king of Babylon heard that Hezekiah had been sick and he got better.

So he was sending him this get well gift and so forth.

So in verse two it says, Hezekiah was pleased with them and he showed them the house of his treasures.

He was pleased with them.

I wonder if he should have been a little more aware, maybe a

little more sensitive and not allowed himself to be, not allowed himself to be swayed

by what he saw and the generosity of the gifts.

But anyway, he was pleased with them and in response to that gift,

Hezekiah showed these emissaries from Babylon the house of his treasures, the

silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment and all his armory, all that was

found among his treasures.

There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

Why?

Why?

What would prompt him to do that?

Why would he take these emissaries from a foreign country

on a grand tour of his treasure house and parade his

armory before them?

Why would he do that?

Well, let's think about the similar kind of thing that goes on in our world, has for

years and centuries, I suppose.

You see these military parades in some capital

cities in other countries, right?

Where all the might and the representative power of the

country is paraded in front of the dictator or the leader of the land

as a show of power.

It's a parade of pride, is what it is.

And I think that's probably what's going on here, that Hezekiah has allowed

himself to become a little proud.

I mean, after all, he's been given extra years of life and he's been delivered from the Assyrians

and he's been able to amass a great amount of wealth.

And wow, look at what I've done.

It's a way of tooting his horn.

It's a way of impressing these emissaries with how great he has

become as a king in this kingdom.

Pride, well, as we all know, pride goes before a fall.

And the problem is with what Hezekiah has done, showing the

Babylonians all his wealth, that just becomes fuel for the fodder of envy.

This comes out in verses five to seven.

Isaiah sent to Hezekiah and said, what did these men say when they came to you?

And where did they come from?

He said, well, they came from Babylon.

And he says, well, what have they seen in your house?

Hezekiah says, well, everything.

They've seen all that is in my house.

There's nothing among my treasures.

I have not shown them.

Because after all, I've got such wonderful treasures.

But then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord of hosts.

Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and what your fathers have accumulated until this day

shall be carried to Babylon.

Nothing shall be left.

And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget.

And they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

Wow.

So what Hezekiah has just done is he has fueled

the flames of envy in the hearts of the Babylonians, given them

something to covet, something to want, something to fight

for, something to attack them over.

And that's eventually what's going to happen.

So in his pride, Hezekiah has actually

set the stage, put things in motion for Judah's own

downfall.

What a tragedy this will be.

And Hezekiah ends this interview in a little interesting way.

Verse eight says, Hezekiah said to Isaiah, the word of the Lord which you have spoken is good.

Why is it good?

Why is it good?

Because he said, at least there will be peace and truth in my days.

Now there are some who are very, very, very critical of Hezekiah here, saying that he was just totally selfish and he

did not care about the future or anything like that.

I don't know that that's quite the case.

I think Hezekiah is probably realizing his pride and the result

of his pride.

But the word of the Lord is good in the sense that God is gracious.

God has been gracious and merciful and forgiving and allowing me

to end out my years in peace.

So regardless of how evil and wicked Hezekiah's heart was at this point,

the thing to note is that even those who can be marked by

godliness and faithfulness in many, many ways can show vulnerability

and weakness in other places.

We need to be alert to that.

Watch out for it even in our own lives.

Be careful, be careful not to be so overly

critical that we expect perfection of everybody.

That'd be realistic.

Realize that all of us are growing.

All of us are weak in some area or another or multiple areas, and we all

need God's grace.

So our Father and our God, I pray that you would challenge us here to be mindful

and watchful in ourselves, and then to be patient, patient with others,

and gracious, gentle, even as we saw before.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, well have a good rest of your Wednesday.

I hope your middle of the week ends well, and you get over the hump as we look forward to another weekend

coming soon.

Good day, God bless.