October 16, Isaiah 39
“Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in
your house, and that which your fathers have
stored up till this day, shall be carried to
Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD.”
- Isaiah 39:6
I remember a time years ago when a friend invited me down into his basement to see what he'd been working on for a long time. It was an old car. He’d invested many hours of labor and many dollars to restore it. In the days before the internet, he'd searched through parts catalogs to find the parts he needed to restore the car to its beautiful like-new condition. I think it was a 1949 Chevrolet, and it looked new despite being about 45 years old at the time. He was pleased when I drove it a short distance and admired his work.
I've done the same thing with stereo equipment I've owned in years gone by. And I've shown off my growing collection of antique typewriters to more than a few guests. You probably have something that you own or collect that you like to show to others. It's telling them more about ourselves and our lives than they would learn from a simple conversation. It's a grownup version of “Show and Tell" from our elementary school days.
Did you notice that description of what I did with my typewriters when I invited a guest to see them? I called it “showing off,” which brings us to our focus on Isaiah 39. Hezekiah welcomed the envoys from Babylon when they came to see him. He enthusiastically showed them his treasure house, with all his stockpiles of silver, gold, spices, precious oils and weapons. The tour must have taken some time, because Hezekiah showed them everything he had. Was he" showing off" in a prideful way? If his ancestor David's downfall came through lust, did Hezekiah's come from pride? It's one thing to share an interest of yours with a friend or a guest. It is quite another thing to be boastful about your possessions. If God is the giver of every good thing in our lives (and he is), what right do we have to boast about what he has given us?
God gave Hezekiah back all the treasure he had paid the Assyrians to leave him out of their plans to conquer the world. Of course Sennacherib was glad to take the money, but never meant to let Judah escape. But when the Lord destroyed the Assyrians before they could attack Jerusalem, the people of Judah recovered all that Hezekiah had paid the Assyrians and probably even more. So Hezekiah was glad to have something to show his guests.
Isaiah told Hezekiah what the Lord said about his foolish display of pride. He said the Babylonians would come and take everything Hezekiah had shown them and carry it all to Babylon. The envoys weren't really being neighborly, they were taking inventory. The king of Babylon was really more interested in Hezekiah’s wealth than his health. Neither Hezekiah nor anyone else could have imagined that Babylon, at the time a rebellious outpost of the Assyrians, would rise up to conquer their Assyrian captors and become a world power themselves within the coming century. God had always warned Israel that they would be taken away captive when they disobeyed him and served other gods. It had already happened to Israel. Isaiah said it would happen to Judah as well, and that Babylon would be their downfall.
It's fine to have personal interests, and it is okay to share those interests of ours with others. But we should all be careful to guard our hearts against pride and never allow a prideful display of our goods to be camouflaged under the guise of hospitality. Pride led Hezekiah to his downfall, and it is a danger to us as well.
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—October 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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