Second Kings chapter 20. At this point in Israel, we are about 300 years after King David, and we're about 100 years before the end of Judah, before they go into captivity. Now remember, we're studying King Hezekiah, and there's at least, there's more than 10, there's like 14, 15 chapters dedicated to King Hezekiah in Kings, in Chronicles, in Isaiah, He's one of the best kings Israel had next to David. In fact, it says it on his sheet there, 2 Kings 18, 3, that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David, his father, had done. David, one thing about David, we all know his great sibling, Bathsheba, but David loved the Lord. He really did. The Psalms, you read the Psalms of David, he just delighted in the Lord, loved him. During David's reign, there was no idolatry in Israel. Hezekiah did the same thing. He removed all the false worship from Judah, all of it. all the high places, all the shrines, all the idols, everything in the temple. He cleansed it everywhere. Plus, he reinstituted, he restored the priesthood, he restored the temple, which had been in ruins, not ruins, but disrepair. And after many, many years, he reinstituted the Passover, as we saw. He also invited Israel, who was still there, to come south and repent and join back the worship of God, of course, most of them. rejected it. He was a righteous, godly king who God blessed. Second King 18.7 says the Lord was with him and wherever he went, he prospered. A lot to learn there. But like all the kings of Israel, as David Morris says, the best of men are at best just men. This guy's gonna make some mistakes, as they all do. He's gonna have some sins, as they all do. And I find comfort in that. We'll get to the end. We'll talk more about that. Guys like Peter, and guys like Hezekiah, and guys like David, they're in the Bible for a reason. But they're us. They're just like we are. They're only, they're fallible. We've seen already that Hezekiah, with his great reforms, all the good things he did, his Syrian empire came against Judah. Remember, Israel's gone now. Israel's been wiped off the map, the Northern Kingdom, but the Southern Kingdom, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came against Israel, or Judah, I mean, to destroy it. He actually, it's amazing, there's this massive Assyrian empire taking over the whole region, and there's this tiny little country of Judah standing against him. He besieged Jerusalem. Remember, he taunted Hezekiah. He said to them, don't let Hezekiah fool you. Don't listen to him. But the main thing is he mocked God. In fact, I have one example there. As you remember, 2 Kings 18.35. that Rabshakeh, he's the cupbearer for Sennacherib, king of Assyria, said, who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord or that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem? He's saying all those other kingdoms I conquered, their gods didn't help them at all. Where was Baal? Where was Ashtoreth? Where was Moloch? None of those gods could stop me. And you think Yahweh's gonna stop me? Of course, you know, whenever you say things like that, especially when you're a big ruler, there's some fireworks coming. Hezekiah, as we saw, one of the acts of righteousness, he humbled himself, put on sackcloth and ashes, he went into the temple, he spread the letters out before the Lord in the temple, and then he prayed this humble prayer, exulting God, saying, oh God, we are helpless, but you are God most high, Lord, please help us. Very humble, there's an awful lot to learn from that prayer. He just humbly asked for mercy. Lord, we are overwhelmed, we cannot stand against this massive army that's come against us. There's 185,000 plus soldiers surrounding Judah, camped outside Jerusalem. So he said, Lord, please help. And even he confessed their sins, that's one of the things the sackcloth means, that we're confessing that we have not been as righteous as we're supposed to be. So then God sends Isaiah the prophet, who was the prophet during these times, And through Isaiah, God promises total defeat of Assyria and of the king. And remember what happened, we saw this last time. It's an amazing miracle. It says, the angel of the Lord destroyed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. I gave you the second Chronicles, adds a little more details to this. It's on your sheet here. Second Chronicles 32. Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, prayed because of this and cried out. Picture, there's the king and there's Isaiah the prophet in the temple, probably on their faces, crying out to the Lord for help. And the Lord sent an angel who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he, that means the leader, he returned with shame on his face to his own land, this is Sennacherib, and when he came into the house of his God, some of his own sons struck him down there with a sword. Not a shot was fired, but as Isaiah said, he won't fire a single arrow in this city, and there wasn't. Israel was toast, there's no physical human way Israel, I mean Judah could have survived this. So God just sent an angel. Kings calls him the angel of the Lord, we don't know exactly, pre-incarnate Christ. I tend to think it isn't, just because it doesn't seem to be that way, but anyway. And this angel just kills 185,000. Think of all those dead bodies. They've been massive, to probably the mightiest army on earth at that time. An event that big, as I mentioned last time, something that massive, there's at least three secular writers outside the Bible who mention this. And they give other reasons for it, but they mention this great slaughter of the Assyrian soldiers by this tiny little nation of Judah. They mentioned it, so it was a big, major thing. Destroyed them all. And it struck them down. It's an amazing thing. That's an amazing miracle. Now, that's where we were last time. Now, chapter 20, we picked this up. There's still more about Hezekiah. Look at chapter 20, verse one. In those days, Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, came to him and said to him, thus says the Lord, set your house in order, or you shall die and not live. Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, remember now, O Lord, I beseech you how I have walked before you in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had gone out to the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him saying, return. and said, Hezekiah, the leader of my people." Notice that, my. Thus says the Lord, the God of your father, David, I've heard your prayer. I've seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day, you shall go up to the house of the Lord. I will add 15 years to your life. I will deliver you in this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. Then Isaiah said, take a cake of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. Hezekiah said to Isaiah, what will be the sign that the Lord will heal me that I shall go up to the house of the Lord a third day? Isaiah said, this shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he has spoken. Shall the shadow go forward 10 steps or back 10 steps? Hezekiah answered, it's easy for the shadow to decline 10 steps, but no, let the shadow turn backwards 10 steps. Isaiah the prophet cried to the Lord. He brought the shadow on the stairway back, 10 steps at which they had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz. A lot to talk about here. Now, sometimes I have a textual note. Most likely, what you just read there took place in chapters 18 and 19. We have this battle with Assyria. Chapter 20, this section I just read, probably takes place before that. Now, don't get all worked up. Often, there are many places in scripture where things aren't in exact order. Some reasons for that. In fact, a lot of old secular history does that, too. Notice, for example, verse 6 speaks of they will be delivered from Assyria. Well, that happened back in chapter 18 and 19. This probably happened just before that. And also, verse 13. We'll get there in a minute. He describes that the temple's full of all kinds of gold and silver and precious articles and all kinds of wealth. Hezekiah shows that all to Babylon. Well, just before the siege, Hezekiah stripped the temple of all that stuff and gave it to the king of Assyria. So probably this happening just before this. I'll get to that more in a minute. But also it says, verse one, he was sick to the point of death. Now, verse seven points out that he had some kind of a boil. Now today, no one dies from boils. But back in their day, you did. Think of it. Back before you had antibiotics and modern medicine, just a good scratch could kill you. Any infection, an abscess could kill you because you had no way to treat it. He's got some kind of a boil, and it's got that serious, probably very seriously infected. He's dying. He's all full of infection from this boil. And Isaiah confirms to him that you're going to die. This is it, get your affairs in order, you're gonna die. The Lord told me this, you're gonna die. So verse two and three, Hezekiah says he wept. He wept bitterly in prayer, bitterly. Hezekiah knows how to pray. Hezekiah knows the Lord. He knows the Lord and he loves the Lord. He prays bitterly about this. At this point, Hezekiah's probably in his late 20s, early 30s. He's a young man. We'll see that later on when we go to Isaiah. He's in the middle of his life. He's not an old man, he's a young person. but he's gonna die of this boil. And he also, he reminds God, notice what he says, he says, remember, I beseech you how I, how I, how I, I walked before you in righteousness. I did all these things. Now, this prayer to us sounds a little odd. We don't usually pray like this. We think of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, how the Pharisee, but he was bragging, proud of himself. Well, this is a very common, if you read the Psalms, this is a very common prayer in the Old Testament. David did this often, the Psalms, I got some examples there in your sheet. Often they would go to prayer when they're in trouble and say, Lord, remember how I served you. Remember how I loved you. Lord, remember how I kept my hands pure. Please, Lord, help me. Some examples, Psalm 17. This is the psalm of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord. Attend to my cry. Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit. From your presence, let my vindication. In other words, help me, Lord. Defend me against my enemies, what he's saying. Let your eyes behold the right. You have tried my heart. You have visited me by night. You've tested me and you will find nothing. I have purpose that my mouth will not transgress. With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips, I have avoided the ways of the violent. My steps have held fast to your paths. My feet have not stepped. Lord, please hear me. I serve you, Lord, and I love you, and I'm keeping my life pure, and I'm not living like the evil world around me. Please, Lord, help me." That's a valid prayer. Psalm 18. Again, David, with the merciful, you show yourself merciful. With the blameless man, you show yourself blameless. With the purified, you show yourself pure. With the crooked, you make yourself shrewd. Or that word in the Hebrew means something like you make yourself astute. You make it hard for them. Another one, Psalm 26. There are many, many of these. I could give you many of these. Psalm 26, again, Psalm of David. Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Prove me, O Lord, try me, test my heart and my mind, for your steadfast love's before my eyes, and I walk in all your faithfulness. I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers. I will not sit with the wicked. I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O Lord, proclaiming Thanksgiving aloud, telling of your wondrous deed. Lord, I love you. Lord, I serve you. Lord, I try so hard to keep myself pure. I'm not like the wicked. Lord, please hear me." Again, that sounds strange to us. We're not used to praying like that. But remember the book of Job? All through that book, Job keeps saying, I am innocent, God. Talk to me, please, Father. Job gets to cross this line, though, because he gets a little bit arrogant with God. He demands an audience. If you talk to me, I'll show you how right I am. But Job says, I know I haven't sinned against you. I know this isn't punishment. Well, there's many Psalms that do that. Lord, I've served you. I've been strong for you. I love you. Please, Lord, help me now. Not that God owes us anything, he doesn't. But God, there's many, many verses that say God blesses the righteous. God blesses the man who walks after his ways. And they're just reminding the Lord, Lord, you know I love you. Search my heart, Lord, you know. That's like David did. So Hezekiah prays his prayer. You know, Lord, what I've done to you. You've seen all the great things I've done here in Judah. He did all the things that pleased the Lord. Many, many, many good things. So in verse four, as Isaiah is leaving, before he even gets out of the house, he's turned around. The Lord turns him around, he goes back, and he says to Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord. He's heard your prayer, he's seen your tears, and he will heal you. He's gonna add 15 years to your life. Now think about that. We saw it again earlier when Hezekiah got on his face in the temple. God hears these prayers, especially these humble, he says, he's weeping bitterly. You don't have to read too much into this. I get the impression Hezekiah loved these people. In fact, notice what God says there down in verse, I pointed out earlier, verse five. Return to Hezekiah, the leader of my people. That seems to hint that one of the reasons Hezekiah is praying is that he's saying, Lord, these people need me. They're your people, Lord. I'm in the middle of, I need to lead them. Lord, please help me here. It may be, it doesn't say that specifically, but it seems to point that way. So Isaiah's turned around and he goes back and says, listen, God has heard your prayers. He's seen your tears. That's a neat statement. He's seen your tears. God knows your tears and he will heal you. So let's do the math. Think about this. Assyria invaded Judah the first time. Remember they came in and Hezekiah sent them money to pay them off. That's in chapter 18, 13. We're told there that happened when he was in his 14th year as king. Hezekiah reigned for 29 years. So this happened in his 14th year, and God gave him 15 more years. That's 29 years. So you know that this event happened just before the full invasion of Assyria. Now Hezekiah may be thinking, Lord, we're in the middle of this war here. Assyria's rising up, they're gonna come and destroy us all. Lord, please don't let me die now. They need me. I need to be king here. Imagine if the king died just before Assyria shows up and set up a siege works around him. That's not good. That's probably one of the reason here he's crying and begging the Lord. And that was the verse seven. I love Faith Newton's. So they take a fig cake and put it on the boil. I love fig newtons. Figs are good for you. Fig newtons aren't, but real figs are healthy. They're just good stuff. But again, this isn't the figs that healed him. You remember when Elisha, remember when there was death in the pot and Elijah made a thing of salt? It wasn't the salt. God used that salt as a object of faith, I guess. Remember when Elijah, when there was, death in the water. People were sterile and it was killing people in the water. Remember what Elijah did? He took a twig and threw it in. The twig didn't heal the water, God did, but he used it. Remember when that guy lost the axe head? Elijah grabbed a stick. It wasn't the stick that brought the axe head up out of the water. Remember when Moses, when they were going through the wilderness at Naira, when the waters were unable to drink. Remember what Moses did? God told him, throw that tree in, and the waters were healed. These are all Objects of faith, if you want to call it that. A way of showing that the prophet's doing something. And he's healed. He's completely healed. Now note this. I hate to read too much into these things. Notice verse five. Return and say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, thus says the Lord, the God of your father David, I've heard your prayer. I've seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. Notice this. On the third day, you shall go up to the house of the Lord. On the third day, you will rise to the house of the Lord. Now, I'm always looking for Christ. I don't know if that's meant to be an image, but the word just, how do you not see that? On the third day, you will rise and go to the temple, like you're longing to. Maybe, go with it, I love it. Verse eight then, Hezekiah asked for a sign. Now again, right away you think, he shouldn't do that. But remember the precedent here. Isaiah 7, 12, remember Hezekiah's father Ahaz, wicked, wicked, wicked king. Isaiah went to him to bring him the word of the Lord. And Isaiah said to him, ask the Lord for a sign, anything you ask, to prove what I'm saying. Remember what Ahaz said, I will not ask the Lord for a sign. And so Isaiah then pronounced judgment against him because of what's coming. It sounds like Hezekiah saw his father, Isaiah offered him a sign. So he asked for a sign here. It may be the same thing. In other words, my father was offered a sign. What sign are you going to offer me for this, that this is going to happen? I don't really think he's doubting the Lord here. He seems a better man than that. Now back in their day, there were several ways they kept time. One was that they'd have a water pot with various holes in it. As the water drained out, it was an hour, two hours, three hours. But another way, many houses, if you could afford it, would build their houses where the windows faced just the way there was a stairway. And just the way the sun hit the steps at one hour, two hours, three, they didn't go by hours, we do, but they would mark off the day by periods. They would know how late in the day it is. By the way, the shadow goes up and down these steps. So he says here, Isaiah says to him, what do you want to do here, Zechariah? Should a shadow go ahead 10 steps or back 10 steps? And he says, well, going ahead is nothing. That happens automatically anyway. Make the shadow go back 10 steps. And of course, it does. Just stop a minute. You know me. I love to try to take these things apart. So the shadow went back 10 steps. That's a long way. I mean, one step, you might, well, 10 steps. So what did God do here? How do you make a shadow go back? We're not told what he did. Now there is a hint, 2 Chronicles 32.24 seems to indicate this was just Hezekiah's shadow. Here's why, 32.34, the same account says, they answered him and gave him a miraculous, they gave him a miraculous sign. That doesn't mean 10,000 miles away, all the shadows went back. It sounded like just in Hezekiah's house, Hezekiah's stairway. Remember, he's still sick at this point. He's still dying of this boil. On Hezekiah's stairway, God made the shadow go back 10 steps, which still is an incredible thing to think about. That's impossible. We can't do that. You can't move light like that. Somehow God moved the sunlight, or maybe he did something with the sun or the rotation of the earth. God can do anything he wants. But the shadow went back 10 steps. I don't know if God reversed time or just a shadow. I tend to think it was just a shadow, but I don't know. Maybe it was. We don't really know. That is so totally impossible for us. Let's just confirm Hezekiah. You're going to survive. And I think this has something to do with his father. Isaiah offered his father a sign. And he said to his father, Ahaz, ask anything you want. Think of it. He could have said, make the stars spell out my name in the sky. He could have said anything he wanted. He said, I won't ask the Lord for a sign. Well, Hezekiah said, do I get a sign? And he did. He got this spectacular event. Now, Hezekiah is healed. Now, it's not in Kings. Keep your finger here. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 38. Isaiah records all of this. In fact, Isaiah has exact words from, I did a lot of research on this, what I could find. It seems like Isaiah wrote all this down, everything about Hezekiah, Isaiah recorded. And then later on, during the Babylonian captivity, when they were writing the book of Kings, someone took from Isaiah and wrote it, put it in the book of Kings, copy and paste, bing, bing, bing, you know? Their version of that. But anyway, if you look at Isaiah chapter 38, starting way back in 36, It's this whole story of Hezekiah we just read now from 2nd Kings. Word for word, almost exactly verbatim, Isaiah records it. But Isaiah records something that didn't get transferred back to 2nd Kings. Isaiah 38, verse nine. Now this is right after the son goes back 10 steps. Hezekiah writes a psalm. He sings a psalm, the psalm of Hezekiah. Let's just read through this, verse nine. A writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, after his illness and recovery. Sometime later, he wrote this psalm. I said, in the middle of my life, I am to enter the gates of Sheol. Sheol is a grave. That shows he wasn't that old. I'm still a young man and I'm going to die. I'm to be deprived of the rest of my years. I said, I will not see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living. I will look on no man no more among the inhabitants of the world. In other words, I'm not going to see the Lord anymore here. I'm going to leave this earth. I'm going to die. I'm a young man. Like a shepherd's tent, my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me. As a weaver, I rolled up my life. He cuts me off from the loom. From day until night, you make an end. In other words, like the shepherd's tent, they moved every day. They're very temporary. 14, like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter. I moan like a dove. My eyes look wistfully to the heights. Oh, Lord, I'm oppressed. That picture's him. He can't sit still. He's in a lot of pain. I'm looking out at the mountains and saying, oh, Lord, please heal me. Please hear me. 15, what shall I say? For he has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I will wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul. Oh, Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. Oh, restore me to health. Let me live. Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness. It is you who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness. Notice this. You have cast all my sins behind your back. That's a great picture. For Sheol or the grave cannot thank you. Death cannot praise you. Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. It is the living who give thanks to you as I do today. A father tells his sons about your faithfulness. The Lord will surely save me. So we will play my songs on stringed instruments all the days of our life at the house of the Lord. That's a Psalm of Hezekiah. He's basically crying out, Lord, I was so sad because I was in the middle of my life and I'm going to die. and my work isn't done here, and I can't praise you in the land anymore, I can't do anything, and my pain and everything, and they said, but the Lord heard me. And I love that line there. You put all my sins behind your back. That's one of those great pictures of salvation. You've forgiven me, Lord. Beautiful. Okay, back to 2 Kings. Just want to point that out. All this neat stuff about Hezekiah, like all of us, He loves the Lord, he serves the Lord, he really wants to do right, but he's also a fallen sinner. And he does some dumb things, and here we go. Some dumb things of Hezekiah. 2 Kings 20, verse 12. At that time, Barodat Baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. Hezekiah listened to them and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and the house of his armor and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion 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 have they come to you? I'm sure Isaiah already knows. Hezekiah said, they've come from a far country, from Babylon. He said, what have they seen in your house? Hezekiah answered, they've seen all that's in my house. There's nothing among my treasuries. I have not shown 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 all that your fathers have laid up and stored to this day will be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. Some of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken away, and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon. Hezekiah said to Isaiah, the word of the Lord which you have spoken is good. For he thought, is it not so if there will be peace and truth in my days? Hezekiah, shortly after Hezekiah is healed. The king of Babylon. Now, remember, Assyria is the rising power in the Middle East. Babylon is also rising much farther to the east. And Babylon and Assyria are more and more clashing heads together. And eventually, not too long from this, Babylon's going to conquer Assyria. They haven't done it yet, but they will. Shortly after Hezekiah is healed, the king of Babylon, he hears about how sick he was. And he sends him and says letters. Sends him letters, Isaiah 39, and a gift, probably money or spices or some such thing. A get well card, you might wanna call it, from the king of Babylon. Now these letters, he apparently is seeking an alliance with Hezekiah. Babylon knows they're gonna need all the help they can get to take on Assyria. They will, they'll dominate and destroy Assyria eventually. So the king of Babylon is sending to Hezekiah, wanting to make an agreement, a treaty, if you will. And you don't really see it here in verse 13, but what Hezekiah is doing here, why would it be wrong to show him all your treasures and all your weapons? Yeah, but why? That's the punishment. Pride. You got it. In fact, we see the Chronicles are going to tell you that. And I can picture Hezekiah, he just got over this sickness, so he's healthy again. And all of a sudden he gets this letter and these gifts from the king of Babylon. Wow. That's, I feel like Leningrad being taken over by Russia. It's a little tiny town of country of Judah. Babylon wants me to be their friend. You know, Babylon wants a treaty with me. The king of Babylon wishes me well. It's like, he's kind of a flattered by all of this. That's the impression I get. And he probably thinks that if I align with Babylon, we just got rid of the Assyrians, but they're not gone. They're just not here right now. that if I make a treaty with Babylon, I'll be safe against Assyria. That's probably what he's thinking. But remember now, and you know this, you've seen this several times, God, through the prophets, has warned Israel over and over and over again, don't do this, remember? Don't make treaties with the pagan nations around you. Some examples of initiative, we've seen this before. Isaiah was big on this, Isaiah 30. He came to Hezekiah and his father Ahaz, and he said this. Woe to the rebellious children, declares the Lord, who execute a plan, but not mine. They make an alliance, this is with Egypt, but not of my spirit, in order to add sin to sin, who proceed down to Egypt without consulting me. Now you remember from way back when we were going through Samuel and through the life of David, And Saul, remember the mistake these kings make over and over every time they got in trouble because they didn't do what? They didn't consult the Lord. Had they consulted the Lord, David was good at consulting the Lord, but the several times he did stupid things, got in trouble, he did not consult the Lord. Saul did the same thing, did not consult the Lord. And here God saying through the prophet, you made this alliance with Egypt, but you didn't ask me. Why didn't he ask me? Why didn't he go to Isaiah and say, Isaiah, ask the Lord, should we do this? But he didn't. Isaiah 31.1, speaking of the alliances, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord. A king's duty in leading his nation is to consult the Lord. Israel was not a monarchy. Israel was a theocracy. There was a king. But unlike every other nation around him, every other nation, the king was a dictator. The Israeli king was not a dictator. He was under law. There were laws above him. That's where the founding fathers got our nation's ideas from, that we would have a president, but he would not be above the law, he'd be under the law, theoretically. We've lost that today, but that was the idea. The king is supposed to be under God's law. 2 Chronicles is on your sheet there. It gives you more information about this. Even in the matter of the envoys of the rulers of Babylon, this is talking about Hezekiah, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that had happened in the land. They'd heard about apparently these 185,000 soldiers being destroyed. They probably heard about Hezekiah being healed. He was dying and God healed him. So he sends him this letters and this gift, but notice what it says there. But God left him alone only to test him that he might know all that was in his heart. Think of it, he just came off being healed. He just saw this amazing victory that God gave him. Why in the world do you need Babylon? God was doing this, allowing this to happen. Of course, Satan's behind this. God's allowing this to happen to test him. Will you trust me now? When that letter came from Babylon, he should have gone to the Lord. What should I do? And the Lord would have said, do not align yourself with Babylon. But he didn't do that. And then verse 13, Hezekiah takes this king of Babylon and gives him a grand tour of the temple, of the palace, of all the king's armories, of all the treasuries. This is before Assyria got it all. All the wealth of Israel, not Israel, Judah, all the wealth and the military might of Israel. And again, I'm sure that he wants to impress, look how tough we are, Babylon, you need us. That's all pride, forgetting the Lord. But then those pesky prophets show up again. Isaiah is a thorn in the side. Just this last couple of weeks, I'm reading a book at home, it's a survey of the Old Testament, and they pointed out something. You guys remember you were here when we started 1 Samuel. Who was the first king of Israel? Saul. Who anointed him? Samuel. Now Moses was a prophet, Abraham prophesied, but there weren't many prophets before that time. Until the time of Samuel, prophets were around, but there weren't many. There were judges, The office of prophets started with Samuel. He's the first, Samuel actually had a prophetic school. Remember all those prophets that were prophesying when Saul started prophesying? At the same time that Samuel, God used Samuel to set up the king, he also used Samuel to set up the school of the prophets. Because a prophet's main duty, apparently, is to get in the king's face and say, you shouldn't be doing that. And you see that all through the kings. If there's going to be a king on the throne, there's also going to be prophets. And all these prophets, you read Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, they all go into the king. Look at Daniel how he stood up to the king. That's part of their job, is to tell the king, thus saith the Lord. Jeremiah's amazing. He was told to put on a yoke and march right into the king's house and tell him, you're an idiot, and this is what's going to happen to you and all your family. Imagine that. Imagine being told to do that. They could have took his head off right then and there. The prophetic office in the Old Testament, one of its main duties was to speak, as you say today, speak truth to power, tell these kings. Remember how Nathan came to David? You are the man, David, what have you done? In that sense, the king was not absolute ruler. God through the prophets was. And the kings were supposed to ask the prophets and be led by the prophet. They had that office. Well, the king does this stupid thing, and guess who shows up? Isaiah walked into the palace one day. What's going on, kingy? Look at it again there, verse 14. Then Isaiah the prophet came to the king and said to him, remember, in those days, in any other country, you didn't dare come in and question the king. You didn't dare do that, but the prophets do, as well they should. This prophet comes in and says, what did these men say? And where have they come to you? He would have seen the entourage of the King of Babylon. It would have been quite a big show, I'm sure. And he tells them. And they say, OK, you gave them a tour of the place. What did they see? Hezekiah says, everything. I showed them everything. Everything I have, all the gold and silver and all the wealth and all the military we have, I showed it all to them. And Isaiah reveals there how foolish this is. He tells him a prophecy, again, verse 14. No, I'm sorry, where am I at? Verse 16, that Isaiah said to Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord. I'm sure God told Isaiah this before he got there. Here's what he's done. Go down there and tell him this. And he says, hear the word of, literally, the word of Yahweh. Behold, days are coming when all that is in your house and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon and nothing shall be left. Some of your sons who shall issue from you whom you will beget will be taken away and become official in the palace of Babylon. The day is coming, Isaiah says, when everything you showed him is gonna be taken out of here. Israel's gonna be looted to the ground. When Babylon shows up at the end of about 100 years from now, seven kings later, there's seven more kings, several of them only reigned for a few months. When Babylon shows up, everything you've showed that's left from the Assyrians is gonna go into captivity in Babylon. This begins that long road to Babylon. In other words, Isaiah is saying, they're not your friends. What are you doing trusting them? What are you doing putting your future in their hands? Why didn't you go to the Lord? Why didn't you, what do you think might have happened had he said, Lord, what do I do here? This might have been a much different story, but it's not. He's proud. He's proud. Of course, verse 19, Hezekiah, there's a mercy, and I'll get to that verse here in a minute from Chronicles. Hezekiah takes a little bit of comfort because this isn't gonna happen in his days. It's gonna happen, but not in my days. I'll die before this happens. That's the same kind of mercy God shows Ahab. On your sheet there is 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles gives a little more commentary on this. 2 Chronicles 32. Speaking of this very event, here's why it says Hezekiah did what he did. But Hezekiah gave no return for the benefit he received. In other words, God just healed him. God just saved their nation by a spectacular miracle of destroying an army of 185,000 men. Hezekiah just kind of blew that off. It didn't affect the way he gave, it says he gave no return. He didn't pay back God for that. He didn't thank, he didn't, I'm sure he's thankful, but he doesn't regard God. When Babylon shows up, oh boy, look, Babylon wants to be friends with me. All that God has just done for them should have won him over. All I need is the Lord. Let's read again. Hezekiah gave no return for the benefit he received because his heart was proud. Therefore, wrath came on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. That's speaking of what's going to happen 100 years from now. However, Hezekiah humbled the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come on them in the days of Hezekiah. When Isaiah confronts him, he goes, oh. And he humbles himself. He confesses his sin so it doesn't happen in his days. Remember Ahab did that? Wicked, wicked, wicked Ahab. When God said, you and Jezebel, your blood the dog's going to drink. Remember what Ahab does? He puts on sackcloth and goes around mourning before the Lord. And even though we know Ahab is a rat to the core, God saw that outward repentance and said, in your days, this won't happen. He spared him a little bit. But Hezekiah is a much, much more godly man than Ahab was. But here again. You know, Isaiah points out his sin. You made an alliance with Babylon. And that's an insult to the Lord God. You should trust me and not them. So God says, all that you've seen, Babylon's gonna come in here and scrape the nation clean, but not in your days, Hezekiah. Now, following Hezekiah, as I said, there'll be seven more kings, only seven left. About 100 years from this point, about a century, And Judah's going to go into captivity, but most of Judah comes back. The northern kingdom of Israel, they're gone already for about 135 years. They're gone. And they don't come back. But Judah goes into captivity, and some of the young children and then their children come back. We'll get to that as we go through this study. There's also a note here given. You're in chapter 20. Look at verse 20. Now the rest of the acts 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 and the Kings of Judah? Chronicles makes a big deal of this. What happens here, Hezekiah, before the Syrian siege happened, probably long before that, Jerusalem sits up on a hill and there are several streams that feed into it that way to get their water from. One of them is this water from the northeast corner flows into the pool of Siloam. But in a siege, what the first thing you do when you siege a city is cut off their water supply. Hezekiah, because he was a wise man, you ever notice how a wise man and wise guy aren't the same thing? He was a wise man. He had a building project where he took, I wrote this down, 1600 feet, he put this whole stream underground. He dug a big trench under the ground to bring water into the city underground. So that when the city ever gets laid siege against, they can't cut off their water supply, all right? It's that Hezekiah's tunnel. Yes, exactly what it is. It's also called the Tunnel of Siloam. It's still there. If you go to Israel today, you can see this tunnel. Some people actually walk through it. Have you seen this, Mike? I walked through it. Yeah, you were there. Which brings us to the point here in closing. Now, if he was a woman, it would have been a different story. Hard to say that. Yeah, right. Think about this. There's many things you can learn from these stories. I'm always thinking, what's the point? What are we supposed to learn from this? What do we see in this? Now, Hezekiah, he reminds me of something like the Apostle Peter in the New Testament. He's an encouraging example. I'm glad that there's Peters in the Bible. That gives me hope. I'm glad there's guys like Hezekiah in scripture. Hezekiah loved God. He loved him greatly. He did, like David did. But God's great love for him and God's great patience. When is God's mercy most shown? Through your failures. Isn't it true? Through your weaknesses. Paul says that in 2 Corinthians 12. Through my weaknesses. When I am weak, then he's strong. When I think I'm all great and I can handle this and I've got it, Lord. That doesn't glorify him at all. When I'm weak. when I'm in trouble, when I'm pressed back against the wall like Hezekiah was, that's our weaknesses show God's mercy. God's mercy is most seen in our weaknesses. When we were without strength, the Bible says Christ died for the ungodly. And Hezekiah is a good example of how God's love, his mercy, his patience is often faithfully shown to foolish, proud, Hezekiah was a believer, he was a child of God. For example, we love God, don't you? I do love God, I love Him. But our love is often fickle, isn't it? We love God, but we also love a lot of other things. And sometimes they conflict, and sometimes, we know, we're there, right? I do love Him. And often we're easily distracted, right? We hate that. That's us. Peter, he loved the Lord, he really, when he said, Lord, I'll die for you, he meant it. And then five hours later, he's cowering in fear before a little girl, I don't even know him, but he meant it when he said it. Hezekiah loved the Lord, he did. We try to live according to his word, don't we? I do, you do too if you're a Christian, you want to serve him. But you know, we often fail, we often fall, it's sad. We try, I want to, we want to, but we're, Be honest, often we're not very good at this. Our natural self-centeredness, we are by nature self-centered, me first. I'm just studying for Sunday school when Jesus said, if you loved me, you'd be glad I'm going back to my father. All they can think about is themselves. We're just naturally self-centered. And our pride, and our pride, the worst thing about me. Isn't that pride? And you, isn't it? Isn't that the worst thing about us? We still wrestle with this. Lead us to do stupid and evil things. Peter, he loved the Lord, but he was self-centered and he had this foolish pride. What do you think would have happened when Jesus said to Peter, you're going to deny me three times? Peter says, oh, no, I won't. These might, but I won't. What do you think would have happened if he fell to his knees and said, oh, Lord, help me, please. Lord, don't let me do this. What do you think would have happened? We're there all the time. Hezekiah is there. and self-centered, and yet, like we see here in this amazing story, like we see in the story of the Apostle Peter and Abraham and how many others, Moses and David and how many others, find one major figure in the Bible besides Christ who doesn't have to be bailed out of something by God. With all of our failings, we love him, we want to serve him, we really do, but with all of our failings and our missing the mark and stupidness and pride and selfishness that props up, yet God is always faithful. He was faithful to Hezekiah. He was faithful to Peter. God is always with us. Jesus said, I'm with you always. Even in your stupid days when you're really messing things up, I'm with you. I remember years ago, I talked to a believer who had really done something bad at home and we were talking and he's hanging his head. No, I'm such a wretch. Why do I do these things? And I said to him, you know, yet all the while you were doing that, God still loves you in Christ. And he goes, oh. It just broke. It's true. All the while you're doing these stupid, wicked, foolish, prideful things, God is faithful in loving us and keeping us and taking care of us. And he works in and even through these stupid things we do. As I said, God's mercy shines the brightest through our failings. Someone said, if you take a crack pot, one of these clay pots all full of cracks, it's good for nothing. It won't hold water. What good is it? But if you put God's light in there, put a candle in there, Where does the light shine out of? The cracks. The cracks. That's a good analogy. God's mercy, God's power shines most, as the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, through my weaknesses. Paul says, therefore, I'm content to be weak. I'm content to have persecutions and problems, because in those problems, God's power shines. That's just how this is. Hezekiah learned this kind of thing. Peter learned this kind of thing. Even through our failings and our foolishness, God accomplishes his purpose for his glory, the glory of his son, and to transform us, to move us from where we are to where he's taking us. It all works for our good. Even the stupid bad thing, isn't it? That's an amazing thing here. Think if God had your patience. Yeah, you got it right. You know how patient God has to be, but he can be patient because of Christ. God has a temper. God's patience comes to an end, but in Christ, it'll never come to an end. Because Christ has paid for us. Christ has covered us. Christ has made us accepted in the beloved. A good verse to close with there is Judah teaches this very thing. To him who is able to keep you from stumbling. Get that. I'm not able to keep me from stumbling, but he is. and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy. God is able to take this stupid, weak, proud, foolish Rick Cantner and somehow get me before God's throne. Blameless. Blameless through Christ. Blameless. If you're in Christ with all your failings, you're gonna do a lot more stumbling before you die. Yet you will end up before the throne of God. Not just there, but before his glory and majesty. God's holy, holy holiness shining down in you and God can't see a single thing in you to condemn you for. God is able to do that because of Christ. All these things teach that. I'm glad there's Hezekiahs in the Bible. I'm glad there's David. I'm not glad David sinned, but God loved David and God restored David. David paid for his sin dearly. Hezekiah here paid dearly for some of these things. But God is always faithful. God doesn't depend on us. Everything's about him. Isn't that good? It's good to know. Let's close in prayer. Holy Father, we thank you for these histories. We know they're true. And I thank you, Lord, that the Holy Spirit determined that we would know about King Hezekiah and his He loved you, Lord. He served you. He worked hard for you. He was diligent. He had a zeal for you. And you blessed him and worked with him and did great things through him. But Lord, like us, he also had pride, foolishness. He was easily flattered by the King of Babylon. Lord, we too, Lord, we know that we thank you for putting Hezekiahs and Peters and Davids and others in the Bible. Lord, that's us. Lord, we know that you have great, great patience. Great is your faithfulness. You keep us, you work with us. Lord, if you were like us, you would have great reason to turn your back on us long ago. But Lord, we thank you that your faithfulness, your plan, your purposes work in our hearts. Lord, I thank you for that. Lord, thank you for these encouraging stories. Lord, we thank you that you are the God you are. Lord, you take a broken, empty vessel, Lord, and fill it with glory for the sake of the Lord. Father, how we thank you for that. Oh, you are good. You are a gracious, kind, forgiving God. And we see that nowhere more clear than in the sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Lord, you were willing to do that for us who didn't deserve a bit of it. Lord, thank you for your grace, your love. Help us, Lord, to appreciate you, to desire to serve you more. And Lord, help us to realize our brokenness as well as the Apostle Paul's. Help Lord to realize that our weaknesses is your strength and to depend on you and not to be foolish like Hezekiah was. And thank you for these words. We know they're written to us. Give us a hearing ear and a believing heart, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.