You can imagine the scene … year approx 700BC .. great pomp and ceremony.. grand dinners .. flattering speeches.. Hezekiah flushed with pride and self-importance .. flinging the door open of all the treasure houses in Jerusalem for the Babylonian envoys to see. After all, it looked good on him, didn’t it? (Babylon was soon to obtain superpower status.) How very naïve, of you Hezekiah, unaware of the ambition of the rising power. Yes, and I bet those envoys looked with greedy eyes on all his treasure and went back to report to their master all they had seen.
Isaiah, solid, solid, Isaiah the prophet - he just seemed to hover in the background like some wise old bird of prey, hovering, waiting, hearing, seeing and then he plummets, the word of God prized between his talons: ‘Hezekiah, it’s all going to be taken away to Babylon – and not only your treasures – some of your sons too.' Hezekiah doesn’t seem too worried. In fact he is even happy. ‘Never mind, it won’t happen in my lifetime,’ he said
Not only is Hezekiah naïve. He’s also selfish. His glory so important - but what about God’s glory? And what about his own sons? His people? ‘Never mind, I at least will die in my own bed.’
Hang on a minute .. naïve, selfish, caring about me alone but not about whose glory? God’s of course! How we need seers, people who cannot only see our pitfalls in the present but sense the shape of the future – both inside and outside the church. And yes, what about when we’re gone? What will we leave? And most important of all, His glory, God’s glory .. help us God. And Hezekiah, lets not judge you too harshly because after all .. some of you is in all of us .. and certainly in me.
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