"At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah's illness." (2 Kings 20:12) The purpose of this visit likely had far more to do with securing Hezekiah's help against the Assyrians than with one king extending well wishes to another king. I suspect the Babylonians were much more interested in hearing about Jerusalem's deliverance from Assyria than about Hezekiah's deliverance from death. The Babylonians must have wanted to know what Hezekiah had done to repel the enemy army, not understanding that it was Hezekiah's God who struck the army with a plague that killed 185,000 soldiers.
Hezekiah is pleased with this attention from a wealthy nation; the book of Isaiah states that he received the visitors "gladly". (Isaiah 39:2) He's so flattered by this visit that he decides to show off his prosperity. "Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his storehouses---the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine olive oil---his armory and everything found among his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them." (2 Kings 20:13)
We have previously been told by the author of 2 Chronicles that: "Hezekiah had very great wealth and honor, and he made treasuries for his silver and gold and for his precious stones, spices, shields and all kinds of valuables. He also made buildings to store the harvest of grain, new wine and olive oil; and he made stalls for various kinds of cattle, and pens for the flocks. He built villages and acquired great numbers of flocks and herds, for God had given him very great riches." (2 Chronicles 32:27-29)
Why does Hezekiah take the Babylonian envoys on a tour of all of his treasure houses? Did he forget that God is the One who blessed him with this wealth and that he owes all his thanks to the Lord? I can't say whether or not he credited the Lord for all of his treasures when he was speaking with the men from Babylon but what I think is that he was eager to impress them. He was eager to appear like a valuable ally to the nation of Babylon in hopes that the two nations could put together an alliance large enough to overthrow the threat of Assyria.
We previously learned in our Bible study that an earlier king of Assyria, King Tiglath-Pileser III, had conquered Babylon and made it a vassal state of Assyria and had declared himself the king of Assyria as well as the king of Babylon. Succeeding kings of Assyria have also called themselves the kings of Babylon; therefore, the king of Babylon is a puppet king who is subject to the ruler of Assyria, who at this point in time is King Sennacherib. But the Babylonian king wants to throw off the yoke of Assyria and be a sovereign king over a sovereign nation. He thinks King Hezekiah of Judah might be a valuable ally in this endeavor and, likewise, Hezekiah thinks Babylon might be a valuable ally in protecting Judah from Assyria. I feel that Hezekiah's eagerness to make this alliance is the main reason he proudly shows off all his treasures so he will seem to be the equal of any king on earth. Hezekiah has heard of the riches of the land of Babylon and he takes great care to show the envoys that he too is very wealthy in gold and in silver and in jewels and in many other resources.
The child of God does not have anything to "prove" to the world. Hezekiah is in no way inferior to any other king. He does not need to feel insecure about who he is. What the king of Babylon thinks of him is of no significance because it is the Lord who will protect Judah from enemies. With the Lord on his side, what does Hezekiah need with an ally who is a heathen idolater? The Lord already supernaturally prevented the Assyrians from laying siege to Jerusalem and He did this without any help from the Babylonians. The Lord doesn't need help from Babylon and neither does Hezekiah.
Because Hezekiah has forgotten this, Isaiah comes to him with words of rebuke. "Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, 'What did those men say, and where did they come from?' 'From a distant land,' Hezekiah replied. 'They came from Babylon.'" (2 Kings 20:14) I doubt Isaiah is ignorant of who these men are. Their arrival (no doubt in a great and impressive caravan) could not have gone unnoticed in Jerusalem and I do not think it took long for word to reach Isaiah about the arrival of these men. Their nationality, if not publicly announced, could probably have been ascertained by observing how they were dressed. I think Isaiah knows or suspects where they are from and why they are in Jerusalem but he wants to give Hezekiah the opportunity to be honest and tell him everything that was said and done. Hezekiah appears quite pleased to announce that he's received a visit from influential men who traveled a long distance to see him. He's so pleased that the king of Babylon considers him a worthy ally that he holds nothing back when asked the next question, not realizing that the prophet does not approve of the answer.
"The prophet asked, 'What did they see in your palace?' 'They saw everything in my palace,' Hezekiah said. 'There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.'" (2 Kings 20:15) The nation of Babylon is not yet at the zenith of its wealth, but in time it will throw off the shackles of Assyria to become the most powerful nation on earth in its day. When that time comes, the tale of the riches the Babylonian envoys saw in Judah will come to mind and King Nebuchadnezzar will come for those riches. Jerusalem has been spared a siege of the Assyrians but it will not be spared a siege of the Babylonians. Isaiah relays this dire news and clearly and directly relates this coming tragedy to Hezekiah's actions. "Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, 'Hear the word of the Lord: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'" (2 Kings 20:16-18)
Hezekiah forgot that the Lord is the helper and defender of Judah. He thought his wealth and influence would impress the king of Babylon so that the leaders of Babylon will join their wealth and influence with his to make an undefeatable army. But all he needed was the Lord, who is an undefeatable army in Himself! Hezekiah is placing his confidence in the wrong things and in the wrong people. The treasures he so proudly displayed in today's text will someday grace the palace of another man in another country.
Isaiah's prophecy won't come true until about a hundred years later. Knowing that these terrible things won't take place during his lifetime, Hezekiah adopts a stunningly casual attitude to such horrifying news. He does not drop to his knees and admit that he has sinned. He does not pray a prayer of forgiveness or ask the prophet to intercede with the Lord on his behalf so that this calamity might be turned away from the nation of Judah. Instead he accepts the prophet's words with relief that the calamity isn't going to take place during his own lifetime. "'The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,' Hezekiah replied. For he thought, 'Will not there be peace and security in my lifetime?'" (2 Kings 20:19) The book of Isaiah phrases the king's thoughts like this: "For he thought, 'There will be peace and security in my lifetime.'" (2 Kings 20:19) Hezekiah is relieved that the nation won't fall to an enemy while he is on the throne. He is content to spend the remainder of his reign in a complacent attitude, not doing what he should to ensure the continued prosperity of Judah by being a godly example to his family and to his people. Judah will fall due to the idolatry of its people but Hezekiah sowed some of the seeds that led to this coming idolatry, not because he is an idolater himself (he isn't) but because he didn't take a firm stand for the Lord. He didn't set a godly example for the son he fathers during the final fifteen years of his life. We know he didn't because his son and successor, Manasseh, will despise the things of God and will reinstate all the idolatrous practices that his father outlawed when he ascended to the throne upon the death of Ahaz. If Hezekiah had invested in the spiritual health of his son and of his nation, I do not believe that Manasseh (who becomes king at the young age of twelve) would have already been so set in his ways against the Lord.
We now conclude our study of King Hezekiah and we are concluding it on a sad note. He is not ending his reign in the admirable way in which he began it. Not much is said about the additional fifteen years the Lord granted him and I assume this is because he did not do much for the Lord during those years. "As for the other events of Hezekiah's reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? Hezekiah rested with his ancestors. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king." (2 Kings 20:20-21) The book of 2 Chronicles mentions the water tunnel before it mentions the envoys from Babylon. By this I conclude that all of Hezekiah's great achievements were made before he showed those men everything in his palace and in his storehouses. I think that he spent his final fifteen years sitting back enjoying peace and prosperity. I think he decided he was just going to take it easy for the rest of his life. In becoming too lazy to help lay a secure spiritual foundation for his son's life, he set his son up for spiritual failure and he set the nation up for its eventual downfall.
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