Isaiah 39:1-8.  In yesterday’s post I mentioned the two divisions of Isaiah; chapters 1-39 and chapters 40-66.  I mentioned that the first part of the book is about things that were going on in the time of Isaiah.  I also mentioned that a Prophet is a messenger from God helping people get their lives right.  Sometimes though a Prophet does make predictions.  Remember that one of the main ideas in Isaiah is that God should be honored by what we do.  That goes for Prophets too.  If they make a prediction it is not so we will go, “Oh! Daniel is so great.”   It’s so we will know that Daniel (or whoever) is speaking for a great god, the one true God.  The second part of the book, which we will start tomorrow, is more of this second kind of thing, predictions about the more distant future.  Although for us, some of it is history.

Today’s reading is pretty short.  It’s the rest of the story about Hezekiah and Merodach-baladan, king of Babylon.  In today’s story Merodach-baladan sends some guys over to visit Hezekiah, he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and then healed. so he sent him a gift and a letter.   Since he was only king again from 704-703 BC we can figure Hezekiah got sick 705-704 BC.  Five times in verse 2 it talks about all “his” stuff that Hezekiah showed to these representatives of Merodach.  Usually a king would not be this open about their stuff with another king unless they were allies.  That is probably what the letter was about.  Sennacherib was a new king in Assyria and after Merodach.  Merodach was probably looking for some help getting rid of the new king.  Right off the bat Isaiah showed up and started quizzing Hezekiah about what the Babylonian ambassadors had seen.  No use lying to a prophet of the one true God so Hezekiah tells him, “Everything.”  To this Isaiah replies that one day all Hezekiah’s wealth will one day be taken to Babylon, along with some of his children or grand-children, who will be made eunuchs in the king of Babylon’s palace (ouch, if you don’t understand ask your parents).  Hezekiah’s response is probably one of the strangest ones in the Bible.  He basically says, “Cool!”  Hmmm!  Your treasure that you were so proud of is going to be taken away some day and your descendants are going to get “fixed” (No kids) and you think it’s cool.  We are told that he was happy there would be peace in his day.  Maybe he was getting ready to make a treaty with the Babylonians and thought that his kids would be important people there.  Maybe he thought that some of his money (even though Isaiah said all of it) would be going to a good ally.  Maybe he though that the peace would be a result of Babylon dealing with the Assyrians (this was right about the time he was trying to form alliances to be rid of the Assyrians).  What ever he was thinking  Isaiah was not congratulating him for doing a good thing, this was a curse or judgment.

So here at the end of the first big section of Isaiah we see Hezekiah making big mistakes, but also we see him as willing to turn back to God.  That happened in the biggest way in the history in chapters 36-37 when the Assyrians were dealt with by God not the Babylonians or the Egyptians.  The Babylonian conquest will not be for about 100 years but it is coming.  And remember that event comes after these two big blunders, making alliances with Egypt, Babylon, or whoever.  God deals with Hezekiah’s pride, God is faithful to his promises.  But there are prices.  The Babylonian conquest is severe and basically Israel won’t be an independent nation again until the 1940’s (AD, after World War II).  But as we will see in the next part of the book, God has a plan and is working it out.  It is amazing to me how forgiving God is, he seems to always be there when we return.  But there are consequences, Hezekiah’s grand-children will pay them, the future Israeiltes sill pay them, and wost of all Jesus will pay the ultimate price for our sins.  We need to appreciate God’s mercy but never forget he is serious about rebellion and pride.  Ahaz and Hezekaih were both pretty big screw-ups.  Ahaz never looked back, Hezekiah turned around so much he probably got dizzy (maybe that explains his attitude about this last judgment) but God was right there to catch him.  Thank you god for catching me.  Thank you for calling out to me when I was lost.  Thank you for always being there.  I’m sorry for the things I do that hurt you.  It’s easy for me to poke fun at Hezekiah but how many times have I been wrong because I have been “practical”.  Help me hear you clearly and honor you dearly.  Help me LORD, help me.