Main point: Pride takes a heavy toll, it can and does bring down kingdoms.

Transcription

1 Showing Off Your Blessing November 17, 2013 Isaiah 39 If you were here last week, you know that I warned you about this week. Last week was the positive, this week is the bad. Last week we looked at Isaiah 38, the first half of this postscript on King Hezekiah s life. This week, we deal with Isaiah 39, the second half of the postscript. And as I ve already hinted, it s not a pretty picture. To catch you up to speed, King Hezekiah of Judah, a good and godly king was informed by Isaiah the prophet that he was going to die from the illness he had. He would not recover, he would not live much longer. At that point, Hezekiah responded as we would have wanted, he turned to his God and pleaded for his cause. He was not ready to die, there was work still to be done. Much to our surprise, God answered his plea by granting him 15 additional years of life, long enough to have and rear a son Manasseh to take the throne. The latter part of the chapter was a song of thanks, reflecting on his illness, recovery, and promise of additional life. I d like to bring us back to one verse of that song, 38:15. Hear these words once again as a reminder of Hezekiah s commitment before the LORD. But what can I say? He has spoken to me, and He himself has done this. I will walk humbly all my hears because of this anguish of my soul. Those were the words of Hezekiah as he entered this extra period of his life. Now hear the words of Isaiah 39, where we hear what then happens. READ Isaiah 39. Main point: Pride takes a heavy toll, it can and does bring down kingdoms. As I consider this short but powerful text, I am grieved. It turns my stomach to see what can happen and does happen to the best of intentions when pride takes over. We lose our senses, we make bad decisions, we bring down empires, and in the case of Hezekiah, we don t even feel bad when we do so because of a promise that it won t happen during our watch. Isn t that disgusting? But such is the alluring power of pride. It is not a coincidence that it is the foundational sin for all of mankind. Pride kills. Pride goes before the fall.

2 So, as we go through this text, use it as an opportunity to check your pride. Know going in that pride destroys. It will destroy you and it just might destroy those around you, even the generation after you. Yes, it is that dangerous. (2 parts) I. Pridefully showing off the blessings of God will lead to trouble. vv. 1-4 Admit it, you knew before we got to the end of the story how this was going to end up. You can t just show off all the gold and silver in your storehouse and not expect it to end up biting you. There is an overarching theme in this chapter, one we see repeated three times in the text: what will Hezekiah do with the blessing he has received? What he should do is what he committed to do back in chapter 38, live humbly before His God. What he does do is think only of himself and what it means for him, regardless of how it affects those around him. Pride does that to you, it causes you to focus only on yourself. v.1- At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery. Once again, the time frame here is approximate. It makes sense to me that this followed the victory over Sennacherib, king of Assyria. So, God has brought Hezekiah renewed health, long life, and peace from his enemies. Word has gotten out that he had been miraculously healed. Another king sent a goodwill gift and letters of congratulations. So far, so good. Does the king have ulterior motives? Without a doubt. 2 Hezekiah received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oil, his entire armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.-- Here is the problem. Hezekiah takes these representatives of another king and shows them all of his wealth. Why? Why would he do that? He showed them the gold, the

3 silver, the expensive spices, the expensive oils, all his weapons, and everything he had that was of value. Again, why would he do that? We are not told, but it is not hard to guess. It was not to intimidate this king of Babylon. This was not to cause him to fear his mighty power to dissuade him from attack. Right? After all, the only reason the Assyrians left town was that God led them away. They were not an intimidating nation. Was it to offer all these riches to the foreign king? No, that makes no sense either. The Jews owed them nothing and were not trying to curry favor. So, why show them? It s obvious, to show off, to build up self, to make oneself bigger than he ought to be. He wanted this foreign king to know that he was a legitimate power on the world stage. He was somebody. Look at all his wealth! Look at all his weaponry! He was important! Pause: can you see how much this is a part of all of us? We by nature are all filled with pride. We all want others to think highly of us. We all want people to think that we are somebody. So, Hezekiah is not really bad here, no he is just like us. He did what we would do. He had all this stuff and had to show it off to those who came for a visit. Life was good, he was in a good mood, what could go wrong? Resume. 3 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 to me from Babylon. - - Somehow, we are not told how, Isaiah hears about the visit from the envoys. He goes to the king. He asked the natural question. Who were those guys? What did they want? What did they say? At this point, the prophet is showing more concern than the king. He is asking the questions that the king should have been asking. Hezekiah answered that that the men came from Babylon, from a long ways away. The sense I have is that his answer was meant to say that they were irrelevant, no threat to the safety of Judah. 4 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. -- I love his brutal honesty. What did they see? Everything. I showed them everything. I didn t withhold anything from them. I showed them where we keep the precious jewels, I showed them where we keep the key to the safe, I gave them the combination to the wall safe behind the picture above the

4 fireplace. Why? What s the problem with that? Again, I don t see in Hezekiah any alarm or concern over what he had done. These men were strangers, from a distant land. He didn t know them at all. But they came bearing gifts. Surely their intentions were good, right? Surely there could be no harm to showing them everything, right? What a fool he was! Can you see how blinded he was? It doesn t take a rocket scientist to know how this is going to turn out. You only show people you trust what you have. You don t parade your trophies. If you value the things you have, you ought to protect them, not flaunt them. Why would he do that? Pride. Pride blinds us to the danger. For Hezekiah, it blinded him to the risk. Isaiah was naturally skeptical, naturally cautious, naturally protective. But Hezekiah was more than eager to show off all his blessings. Why? He wanted to show them off. He wanted everyone to know how rich he was. And his pride blinded him to the dangers of doing so. But such is the nature of pride. It lowers our defenses, it cancels out our common sense. It overrides our responsibilities. So, what foolish things has your pride led you to do? Has it set you up as an expert? Has it put a target on you by those who were not impressed? Has it exposed not only you but the gifts God has given you? Such is the nature of pride. Pride destroys, pride leads to the fall. II. The prideful person fails to learn his lessons. vv.5-8 I can t help but think we are seeing this lesson lived out before us on a national stage. Humility accepts mistakes, deals with them and moves on. Pride refuses to accept responsibility, multiplies mistakes, making problems even bigger. 5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD Almighty:-- When you hear these words, you already know what is coming. This cannot be good news. God has input into this situation. It is significant that He is addressed as the LORD Almighty. He is the God of the covenant, the One

5 who has complete control over all things. He is the One who entrusted all those things to you. He is the One who sets all governments in place, the One who gave you the extra 15 years, the One who sent Sennacherib packing, who delivered you from the hand of your enemy. And now, He has seen what you have done and He has a word for you. 6 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says thelord.-- In other words, they will come and take everything you showed them. You have been accumulating all this stuff, adding them to your stacks, counting it all in your little book. But in one fell swoop, they are going to come and take it all. Just as you did not withhold from showing them anything, so they will not withhold from taking anything. This will surely happen. Notice that not only will they take all of his stuff, but all the stuff of his fathers before him. For generations, they have been building up this treasury. God had protected it from the hands of the Assyrians. But now, because of the pride of one king, it will all be gone into the hands of a foreign king. But there is more. 7 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. -- Not only will the Babylonians take all their treasures, but they will take some of their children. Indeed, some of them, like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, will serve in the house of the king of Babylon. Now, remember, these extra years were given so the promise might be fulfilled. And now, because of his pride, the fruit of that fulfillment will serve a foreign king. Such is the nature of pride. The source of his pride would be taken away from him. Sadly, many people would suffer because of his sin. A nation would suffer because of one man s pride. And lest you think this is a bit harsh, notice the next verse. 8 The word of the LORD you have spoken is good, Hezekiah replied. For he thought, There will be peace and security in my lifetime. -- I can hardly believe what I am reading. Does the text actually say that Hezekiah approved of the pronouncement because it was going to happen after he was dead and gone? Yes, that is what it says. He doesn t get it, does he? He has failed to

6 learn from his mistakes. He really believes it is all about him, his agenda, his legacy. He doesn t care that a whole nation will suffer because of his pride. As long as it doesn t happen during his reign! The word of the LORD you have spoken is good. What a foolish man! And yet, this really ought not surprise us. We see this played out on a regular basis before us, whether it is in the business world, the political world, the entertainment world, the sports world, the church world. No segment is exempt. All who have been blessed are susceptible. For you see, the problem is pride. Pride destroys our decision making ability. It negates our common sense. It ruins all it touches. Have I made my point? So, we have come to the end of chapter 39. In a very real sense, we are at the midpoint of the book of Isaiah. Isaiah was too long for one scroll, so this was the dividing point. Some commentators actually believe there were two Isaiahs, First and Second Isaiah, some think with different authors, written in different eras. I think that goes way too far. But clearly we are at a mid point. And where are we? As we see throughout Scripture, God has been faithful. He has shown grace and mercy to His people. He has delivered them in spite of their sin, He has sent their enemies packing. And they in turn have gone right back to the trouble from which they came. Because of their sin, because they failed to keep their promises, trouble was right around the corner. They once again were in need of rescue, deliverance, saving. And now we come to Part 2. I for one could not be more excited. Because their Savior is none other than our Savior, Jesus the Christ. The picture before us will be unmistakably clear. If we believe this passage is the Word of God, then what should be different about our lives? 1) We will value, but not idolize the blessings God gives to us. We will see ourselves as stewards, not owners. 2) We will take our positions of leadership seriously. 3) We will get rid of our pride before it destroys us.

7 4) We will heed God s measures to stop us before it is too late. 5) We will answer God s warnings with contrite hearts, with appeals for forgiveness, not more pride and denial. 6) We will live humbly before our God, blessed by His grace and mercy, not deserving that which we have.