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Saturday 14 December 2013

2 Kings 20 - The seeds of future disaster

Hezekiah became ill. Isaiah sent him a word from the Lord, telling him he was going to die and that he should put his affairs in order.
Hezekiah did not want to die yet, and he wept before the Lord. The Lord then sent another word to Isaiah telling him that Hezekiah would indeed recover and live for another fifteen years.
Now this raises interesting questions. First, a prophecy is not final. When God speaks He does respond to our actions, there are many instances of this in Scripture. Prophecy must never be treated as fatalistic. Secondly it seems that it would have been better if Hezekiah actually had died, then the Babylonian incident would not have occurred.
Hezekiah demanded a sign from God, and indeed he received one.
Babylon was under Assyrian control for a period of time, but did gain independence briefly (later she would become the regional superpower herself). In that time she sent envoys to Hezekiah. Hezekiah showed the envoys all his wealth. Isaiah sees this as a sign that Babylon would one day carry off all of Judah's wealth, as indeed she did.
Hezekiah accepts the word. His response can be either viewed as selfish, or as humbly accepting God's word and being grateful for the time of peace.

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