David Crowder often recorded some weird music that I loved. One of those weird albums was a live recording with Shane and Shane and the Robby Seay band called Beautiful Collision, I think. In it they broke into a foot stomping bluegrass section where they sang, “I saw the light” that took me way back to my roots. On that album there was a really interesting song called, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” In it there is a verse about king Hezekiah:

“Once upon a time there lived a man and his name was Hezekiah, He walked with God both day and night, but he didn’t want to die. He cried ole Lord please let me live, death is close I know. God smiled down on Hezekiah and gave him fifteen years to go.”

It’s an acquired taste, but it brings me joy. That song hits our topic today right square in the eyes!

2 Kings 20:1 About that time Hezekiah became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to visit him. He gave the king this message: “This is what the Lord says: Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will not recover from this illness.”

2 When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 “Remember, O Lord, how I have always been faithful to you and have served you single-mindedly, always doing what pleases you.” Then he broke down and wept bitterly.

4 But before Isaiah had left the middle courtyard, this message came to him from the Lord: 5 “Go back to Hezekiah, the leader of my people. Tell him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you, and three days from now you will get out of bed and go to the Temple of the Lord. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my own honor and for the sake of my servant David.’”

7 Then Isaiah said, “Make an ointment from figs.” So Hezekiah’s servants spread the ointment over the boil, and Hezekiah recovered!

8 Meanwhile, Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, “What sign will the Lord give to prove that he will heal me and that I will go to the Temple of the Lord three days from now?”

9 Isaiah replied, “This is the sign from the Lord to prove that he will do as he promised. Would you like the shadow on the sundial to go forward ten steps or backward ten steps?”

10 “The shadow always moves forward,” Hezekiah replied, “so that would be easy. Make it go ten steps backward instead.” 11 So Isaiah the prophet asked the Lord to do this, and he caused the shadow to move ten steps backward on the sundial of Ahaz!

Folks, you cannot tell me that the fervent prayer of a righteous man does not change the heart and mind of the Lord. We see it over and over and over in the Bible. The own brother of Jesus tells us this:

James 5:16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

Hezekiah should have just taken the healing as a sign that God was going to do what He said, but God even gave him a sign! I love the confidence in Isaiah. “Do you want to see God move the shadow forward or backward?” God heard Hezekiah’s prayer, and he gave him 15 more years and promised to defend Jerusalem for the endurance of that time.

Here is where the story gets a little quirky.

12 Soon after this, Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent Hezekiah his best wishes and a gift, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been very sick. 13 Hezekiah received the Babylonian envoys and showed them everything in his treasure-houses—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the aromatic oils. He also took them to see his armory and showed them everything in his royal treasuries! There was nothing in his palace or kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did those men want? Where were they from?”

Hezekiah replied, “They came from the distant land of Babylon.”

15 “What did they see in your palace?” Isaiah asked.

“They saw everything,” Hezekiah replied. “I showed them everything I own—all my royal treasuries.”

16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to this message from the Lord: 17 The time is coming when everything in your palace—all the treasures stored up by your ancestors until now—will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. 18 Some of your very own sons will be taken away into exile. They will become eunuchs who will serve in the palace of Babylon’s king.”

19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “This message you have given me from the Lord is good.” For the king was thinking, “At least there will be peace and security during my lifetime.”

20 The rest of the events in Hezekiah’s reign, including the extent of his power and how he built a pool and dug a tunnel to bring water into the city, are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. 21 Hezekiah died, and his son Manasseh became the next king.

I used to believe that because Hezekiah showed the envoys all of the treasures and storehouses of Israel, that he was the reason for the exile, but I don’t think that is the case. Isaiah does not say, “Because you have done this.” Which, in the other cases of God’s judgement has been the case. No, I think much like God revealed to Abraham the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah because they were so close, the same thing is happening here. Now, Hezekiah does not have the same reaction Abraham had. Abraham tried to prevent disaster while Hezekiah rejoiced that it wasn’t happening to him. and that was the chink in the armor of Hezekiah. He failed to prepare his sons, who God said would be part of this, for the future.

There are a couple things I want to tackle from this story. First, even though God wasn’t punishing Hezekiah for showing off his stuff, it is written in a negative light. Modesty matters. God doesn’t like boastful or proud actions. Hezekiah could have shown the envoys the kingdom, instead he showed the treasures. He could have introduced them to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but instead he showed his toys. Modesty and humility matter.

Secondly, Hezekiah didn’t spend his final years preparing his son, or sons, to continue the Lord’s work in Judah. By what we are told in both Kings and Chronicles, he just enjoyed the Lord’s blessings until his final day. Church, the blessings from God are awesome, but we need to be working HARD in them to help the next generation understand what it takes to please Him so that they can experience His blessings! We cannot afford to get lazy in the good times! We need to strive to leave the world better than we found it, not be okay that disaster might not be in our lifetime!

So today, know that God answers the prayers of the righteous. Keep praying for the lost, our schools, our communities, our country, and our world. God’s heart is moved when His people pray. Practice modesty in humility. Finally, invest in the next generation. Teaching them to follow the Lord as you are trying, leave the world a better place than you found it. That may seem big, but if you control what you can control, it will happen!