2 Kings 20:1 “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.”

Hezekiah was a pretty great king in the Old Testament, but he really drops the ball in chapter 20 of book of second Kings, which is the last chapter about his life in this book.

The chapter begins as quoted above, where we read that Hezekiah gets sick “unto death”.

And the prophet comes to see him and tells him to get his house in order, because he’s done for… and this is Isaiah, one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament telling him this.

… If Isaiah has said that God has said it… he’s pretty well sunk!

And Hezekiah is understandably very upset, and he weeps and prays earnestly that God would heal him…

It’s amazing how much of a motivator self interests are to get religious when our neck is on the line! But who could blame him, I’d have done the same thing.

… but God does shew him mercy and heal him! And Isaiah comes back to tell him God has heard his prayer and that God is going to give him 15 extra years of life.

There you go… prayer does make a difference. Jesus made us many precious promises about answered prayer, time to claim some don’t you think?

… but the chapter goes on. Because the king of Babylon, a foreign nation and power, has heard that Hezekiah has been sick and recovered.

And he seems a pretty nice guy (well, to Hezekiah anyway), because he sends ambassadors to extend his well wishes and full recovery to Hezekiah.

And Hezekiah is so touched by this extension of friendship and concern from an enemy king that he goes ahead and shows the ambassadors all the riches of the realm.

It might seem innocent, but it really is so stupid. … To give you an idea of how stupid Hezekiah was here, it’s like you inviting people in off the street and showing them where you keep your gold and money, what the key code to your safe is.

Babylon is an enemy nation, they don’t fear or serve the same God, they are not his friends… but Hezekiah has been so disarmed by a “nice” gesture that he makes a huge mistake that’s going to cost a lot of people… but not himself.

With his actions, he has basically invited Babylon to invade them at a later date… because he’s just given them all the reasons and information in the world to.

And he gets another visit from Isaiah to tell him that the Babylonians are going to come for the riches and the gold they saw, the nation will conquered, and his sons are going to be castrated…

… and so you’d expect Hezekiah to go into weeping and prayer like he did earlier in the chapter when he received the bad news concerning himself!!! … wouldn’t you?

… but he doesn’t! For the horrible news that Isaiah tells him, Hezekiah simply says “Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken”.

Goodness me Hezekiah, it’s pretty easy for you to accept God’s word now when it’s affecting people other than yourself!

See, Hezekiah was a bit like all of us… he only cared about himself. So long as he was ok, it’s all good… doesn’t matter if he’s completely ruined the lives of the next generation with his actions.

As the Bible says in another scripture, God let this thing happen to prove Hezekiah, and for as great a king as he was… this was a glaring problem in his life that seemingly never was addressed.

… Being a Christian is about a cause far beyond a selfish little life, and Hezekiah should’ve cared as much (if not moreso) about the fate of his sons over his own fate.

Our actions aren’t just affecting ourselves! We are all guilty of being totally selfish, maybe some more than others… and I’ve been moreso in that category in my life personally… but it is a condition common to us all.

In this chapter, Hezekiah sold their future to the dogs, and he didn’t care a bit… just so long as “Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?”

Not good hey.

We all can get so busy in our life fighting for self interest and our place and what we deserve in this world that we completely miss the mark. Maybe we should leave the promoting part to God, and look outside ourselves and how our actions are affecting those who are relying on us to be faithful with what was given to us and expected to pass on intact.

More people are relying on you and me than we may think or ever know… may we prove worthy of their trust, and the trust God has committed to us as stewards in his house.

We have one chance to do so. And we all will give account… let’s make sure it wasn’t us who dropped the baton on our leg of the race.

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