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Royalty and Ruin
through whose favor his own life had been spared when all other
hope was gone. What groundbreaking transformations might have
taken place if these seekers after truth had been led to the living
God!
Hezekiah’s Tragic Pride
But pride and vanity took possession of Hezekiah’s heart. In
self-exaltation the king “showed them 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.”
Isaiah 39:2
. He did not stop to consider that these men from a
powerful nation did not have the love of God in their hearts and that
it was unwise to show them the temporal riches of the nation.
The visit of the ambassadors was a test of Hezekiah’s gratitude
and devotion. “However, regarding the ambassadors of the princes
of Babylon, whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that
was done in the land, God withdrew from him, in order to test him,
that He might know all that was in his heart.”
2 Chronicles 32:31
. If
Hezekiah had borne witness to the goodness and compassion of God,
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the report of the ambassadors would have been like light piercing
darkness. But he magnified himself above the Lord of hosts, “for his
heart was lifted up.”
Verse 25
.
How disastrous the results! To Isaiah God revealed that the
king of Babylon and his counselors would plan to enrich their own
country with the treasures of Jerusalem. Hezekiah had sinned disas-
trously. “Therefore wrath was looming over him and over Judah and
Jerusalem.”
Verse 25
.
“Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him,
... ‘What have they seen in your house?’ So Hezekiah answered,
‘They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my
treasures that I have not shown them.’ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah,
... ‘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,’ says the Lord. ‘And they shall take
away some of your sons ...; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace
of the king of Babylon.’”
Isaiah 39:3-7
.