Chapter 10: The Treasure Room

The king of Babylon, Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan, sent envoys to Jerusalem with letters and a gift. They came to ask about the miraculous sign and to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery. But Babylon had its own ambitions. A king who had humiliated Assyria was worth studying.

And here, Scripture reveals something neither the envoys nor Hezekiah knew. God had left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart. The divine hand that had guided him through siege and sickness had deliberately stepped back. For the first time, Hezekiah was on his own.

He received the envoys warmly. And then he did something no king should do with a foreign power he barely knows. He showed them everything. The silver, the gold, the spices, the fine olive oil, the armory, every treasure in his kingdom. He gave a rising empire a full view of his wealth and his defenses. The king who had once credited God for every victory was now displaying his kingdom as though it were his own achievement. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

When the envoys left, the prophet Isaiah came to the king.

ISAIAH“What did those men say? And where did they come from?”— 2 Kings 20:14

HEZEKIAH“They came from a distant land. From Babylon.”— 2 Kings 20:14

ISAIAH“What did they see in your palace?”— 2 Kings 20:15

HEZEKIAH“Everything. There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”— 2 Kings 20:15

ISAIAH“Hear the word of the Lord. The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your ancestors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left. And some of your own descendants will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”— 2 Kings 20:16-18

Everything Hezekiah had proudly displayed would one day belong to the very people he had shown it to.

HEZEKIAH“The word of the Lord you have spoken is good.”— 2 Kings 20:19

A strange response to such a devastating prophecy. But Hezekiah was not calling the destruction good. He was accepting God's judgment and taking comfort in the fact that it would not come during his lifetime. The disaster would fall on future generations. The king who had once wept at the thought of his own death now received news of his nation's future ruin with quiet resignation.

Then Hezekiah repented of his pride, and the people of Jerusalem with him. And the Lord's wrath was held back for his lifetime.

When Hezekiah died, all Judah and the people of Jerusalem honored him. For Scripture says of him what it says of no other king:

Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. (2 Kings 18:5)