Month: December 2023

2 Kings 20:15 And he said, What have seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them.

After Hezekiah was healed he received messengers from Babylon, and he showed them all the treasures in his house and his kingdom. This was not a wise move for later Babylon came and took the king’s treasures. He was a good and faithful king, but he made this one mistake.

It appears that Hezekiah’s prosperity, success, and deliverance from sickness had made him proud (2 Chronicles 32:24-31). Rather than giving credit to God for all his blessings, he tried to impress the foreigners. We do not use God’s blessings to impress others. A testimony to victory can quickly degenerate into vanity and self-congratulation.

A continually thankful heart is our right response to all the blessings we have received from the Lord. We do not show off to impress others. We simply thank God for His undeserved kindness. We are beggars who have been graciously showered with riches of body and soul. We give God the glory, and we do not take credit for the health and wealth we enjoy, and we do not live to impress others. The Spirit teaches this hard lesson: God is always good, and we are not.

2 Kings 19:1 And it came to pass, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.

King Hezekiah heard the taunts and threats of Sennacherib, who was besieging Jerusalem. He had mocked Hezekiah’s trust in the Lord. When he heard it he responded in humility, repentance and faith, and he went into the house of the Lord to lay his problem before the Lord. He responded neither in surrender to the strong enemy nor in pride in his own strength and defenses.

Hezekiah showed humble trust and beggarly repentance by sitting in sackcloth and ashes before coming into the presence of the Lord to make an earnest plea for help. The Lord responded to his trust by sending an angel to kill 185,000 soldiers of the Assyrian army. Sennacherib returned to Nineveh.

We also respond to threats and troubles that arise from our spiritual enemies with humility, penitence, and faith while we approach the Lord in believing prayer. We do not respond with our own strength or wisdom or in pride of self. With humble faith we “resist the devil, and he will flee from you [James 4:7].” We recognize the scares of the Enemy and turn to the Lord in time of need.