Living For Others – 2 Kings 20

Fire has been set to the Amazon rain forest by people desiring the land for economic exploitation. To get a benefit now they are willing to sacrifice future generations around the world. The loss of the rain forest, the single most important oxygen source for our world, could be devastating. Hezekiah, the king of Judah shows the same disregard for his own future offspring and generations in Judah.

In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’” Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, “Now, O LORD, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD, and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.” And Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover.”

And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?” And Isaiah said, “This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he has promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?” And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. Rather let the shadow go back ten steps.” And Isaiah the prophet called to the LORD, and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz.

At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” Then Hezekiah said 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?”

The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place. (2 Kings 20, ESV)

We see now a more personal side of Hezekiah. He did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh like his father David and he trusts Yahweh to bring deliverance to Jerusalem and Judah from the Assyrians. But he is self-centered to a fault. It is hard for someone who is given great power to stay humble and consider others more important than himself (Philippians 2:3,4).

When Hezekiah is told by the prophet Isaiah he will die he fearfully weeps before Yahweh and pleads his cause as one who has been faithful. It is not uncommon for Yahweh to give such prophetic forecasts as a way of giving the recipient a chance to repent or ask for a change, so this is proper for Hezekiah to do. But why does he not seek Yahweh’s best in this matter and humbly ask for life while acknowledging that whatever Yahweh decides is what he will submit to? In Yahweh’s response to Hezekiah He tells him that He will continue to protect Jerusalem from the king of Assyria.

Hezekiah’s healing is of interest to us. He was suffering from a boil, an infection that was taking over his body and shutting down his organs and manifesting as an eruption on his skin. Yahweh tells him to make a poultice of figs to place on the skin eruption, to draw out the infection purportedly, and he would be healed. Yet the healing must be a miraculous one from Yahweh. So Yahweh tells him to use a conventional healing method but augments it with His own healing power. This may be the way God wants to heal us when we are sick.  Seeking Him for healing should be our first priority in our quest for healing, with openness to how He might want to accomplish that healing.

Hezekiah’s self-centeredness and pride is also demonstrated in his showing off his wealth to the Babylonian envoy.  He should have, as in all matters, sought Yahweh’s wisdom about this visit and what it meant. Isaiah’s rebuke and prophecy is received by Hezekiah because of his callous lack of concern for what will happen in the future to his offspring who will be taken captive to Babylon.   He is just happy it won’t happen in his lifetime.  As parents and leaders are we not responsible to work for the future well-being of our families?  Leaders don’t serve themselves but those they lead and even those yet to come.