224
Prophets and Kings
that the shadow on the sundial had been turned back ten degrees, they
marveled greatly. Their king, Merodachbaladan, upon learning that
this miracle had been wrought as a sign to the king of Judah that the
God of heaven had granted him a new lease of life, sent ambassadors to
Hezekiah to congratulate him on his recovery and to learn, if possible,
more of the God who was able to perform so great a wonder.
The visit of these messengers from the ruler of a far-away land gave
Hezekiah an opportunity to extol the living God. How easy it would
have been for him to tell them of God, the upholder of all created
things, through whose favor his own life had been spared when all
other hope had fled! What momentous transformations might have
taken place had these seekers after truth from the plains of Chaldea
been led to acknowledge the supreme sovereignty of the living God!
But pride and vanity took possession of Hezekiah’s heart, and in
self-exaltation he laid open to covetous eyes the treasures with which
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God had enriched His people. The king “showed them the house
of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and
the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that
was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in
all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not.”
Isaiah 39:2
. Not
to glorify God did he do this, but to exalt himself in the eyes of the
foreign princes. He did not stop to consider that these men were
representatives of a powerful nation that had not the fear nor the love
of God in their
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hearts, and that it was imprudent to make them his confidants concern-
ing the temporal riches of the nation.
The visit of the ambassadors to Hezekiah was a test of his grati-
tude and devotion. The record says, “Howbeit in the business of the
ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire
of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that
He might know all that was in his heart.”
2 Chronicles 32:31
. Had
Hezekiah improved the opportunity given him to bear witness to the
power, the goodness, the compassion, of the God of Israel, the report
of the ambassadors would have been as light piercing darkness. But
he magnified himself above the Lord of hosts. He “rendered not again
according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up.”
Verse 25
.