FINISHING POORLY
Opening Prayer
Lord God, use your Word to shape my thoughts and actions, to build in me the heart and mind of Christ and a life dedicated to serving you.
Read ISAIAH 39
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Envoys From Babylon
39 At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery. 2 Hezekiah received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine olive 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.
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.”
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.”
5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord Almighty: 6 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. 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.”
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.”
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What leader, missionary, or unsung hero from Christian history inspires you the most? Why?
I wish this chapter wasn’t in the Bible. I’ve been so inspired by Hezekiah’s gritty determination to seek God under pressure, but here, a friendly letter and gift from the king of Babylon turns him into a completely different leader: suddenly, it’s more important to him to show off his wealth than to remain faithful to God. Worse, Hezekiah seems nonchalant about the implications of his mistake (v. 8). What happened?
The answer is that good times proved to be a stronger temptation for him than bad times, which is a warning to us as well. When life is good, we can become complacent about our walk with God and casual about our need to trust him, which is exactly what our enemy wants. Hezekiah’s error may have been even more serious: his conspicuous hospitality may have been intended to prepare the way for an alliance with Babylon, which was the same mistake as Israel made with Egypt.1 Ironically, a little over a century later it was Babylon who destroyed Jerusalem and took God’s chosen people into exile, just as Isaiah prophesied (vv. 5–7). Trusting your security to anything other than God never turns out well.
Today, we don’t like to hear of Christian leaders who have feet of clay, who falter at the end of their ministry careers, but it’s not just leaders who are vulnerable. Every follower of Jesus is susceptible to the spiritual dangers of the good life, especially since the advertising world is hell-bent on convincing us we deserve it. So, we need to make a conscious commitment that, with God’s help, we will finish well. When I worked with Chuck Colson at Prison Fellowship, I liked the little plaque he kept on his desk that read, ‘Faithfulness not success.’ I wish Hezekiah had had one of those in his palace.
Apply
Pray for the Christian leaders you know today, that God may help them persevere in faithfulness to the end of the race.2
Closing prayer
O God, make me sensitive to things that are not of you and quick to use all you have given me to rebuff temptation, no matter how harmless it might seem.
1 Isa 31:1 2 Heb 12:1
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