SHOW AND TELL – 2 Chronicles 32:27-31
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on February 25, 2018 under 2018 |
Preached Sunday, February 25, 2018 from 2 Chronicles 32:27-31
Theme: God sometimes tests us with uncertainties about the future to prove our devotion to the Gospel in the present.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Over the past few months, we have been studying together from the life of King Hezekiah in the Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles. We have been looking at the story of the great revival that God brought about for the Jewish people under his rule; and we have been learning principles from that story that help us and guide us in our prayers for revival in our time.
Now; I have been reading about the history of revivals for some time now. And as we come to the last story that is told to us about Hezekiah, I believe we find a principle that I have found to be repeated in every past revival that I’ve ever read about. It’s a principle that—to be honest—somewhat frustrates me. But it is one that is nevertheless true; and if we’re going to deal rightly with the subject of revival, we need to face it.
That principle is this: Revivals don’t last.
Whether it’s a revival that’s found in the Bible, or one that is in our own history as a nation, every revival you can read about in history only lasts—at best—for one generation. A revival cannot transfer from one generation to another; and unless succeeding a generation experiences its own unique generation-transforming spiritual awakening from God, the effects of the previous generation’s awakening are soon gone—and its glories largely forgotten.
We may wish that the Great Awakening, for example, had lasted throughout the history of our nation. But it didn’t. It couldn’t. It needed to be followed in another generation by the Second Great Awakening in the early 1800s; and that one by the Prayer Movement Revival that began in 1859; and then that one by the Global Revival of 1904; and then that one by the Post-war Mid-Century Resurgence in the 40s and 50s; and then that one by the Jesus Movement in the 1970s. Each successive generation must experience its own unique spiritual awakening by the grace of God; because the gospel of Jesus Christ only saves individual men and women, and can only transform nations and cultures through the transformation of one redeemed person at a time. If there is no ‘new’ awakening for the future generation, then the blessings of a past revival come to an end; and that nation or culture will eventually revert back to spiritual darkness and judgment from God.
Now; it may seem discouraging that, when we work for revival, we work for something that cannot last. But it is, nevertheless, a fact. And it’s a fact that is meant to be a test to us. It makes us ask: “Will the uncertainties of the faithfulness of future generations cause us to despair in our efforts to pray for revival in this one?” Will it make us dare to say, as some have cynically said, “Why bother polishing the brass on a sinking ship”? Or will we be inspired by that fact to trust the future to God’s hand; and to work all the harder for the only generation that we can have anything at all to do with directly—the one in which we are called by God to live and serve?
In other words, will our response to the uncertainties of future generations reveal that we have a genuine heart for the power gospel here and now?—in our time?—in the only generation that we have the direct power to do anything about? That, I believe, is the great lesson about revival to be learned from this last story in the life of King Hezekiah.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; we find this story referenced to us in 2 Chronicles 32. We’re only told a very brief little bit about it. The context of this brief telling of the story is the great blessings and riches and prosperity that God had poured out on King Hezekiah and his kingdom in his later years.
Already, Hezekiah had led the people of Judah out of the terrible spiritual darkness and disobedience brought upon it by his ungodly father, King Ahaz. Ahaz had led the people into a horrific period of sin and idolatry and unfaithfulness to God. But as soon as Hezekiah had been seated upon the throne, he was used by God to bring about a great reform. The temple was cleansed, the priesthood was restored, and the people of Judah and Jerusalem once again worshiped God as they should. It was a great spiritual awakening; and the nation and culture was transformed by it.
What’s more, God had demonstrated Himself through great miracles to the people of Judah. You’ll remember that, when the dreadful Assyrian empire came and threatened to conquer and destroy Jerusalem, Hezekiah led his people in crying out to God; and God brought about a great victory. He sent an angel into the camp of the Assyrian army; and in one night’s time, that angel slew 185,000 Assyrian soldier. Hezekiah didn’t have to lift a finger in that great battle—all he had to do was bend his knees! And then, some time after that, God brought about a great healing for Hezekiah. He was at the threshold of death because of an infected boil; and when he cried out to God, God brought about a great healing for him—confirming it to him with a wondrous sign.
And now, in the later years of Hezekiah’s life—after all these great works of faithfulness and reform—we find that he is abundantly blessed by God. Look at what it tells us in 2 Chronicles 32:27-29;
Hezekiah had very great riches and honor. And he made himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of desirable items; storehouses for the harvest of grain, wine, and oil; and stalls for all kinds of livestock, and folds for flocks. Moreover he provided cities for himself, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance; for God had given him very much property (2 Chronicles 32:27-29).
Note especially those last words, where we’re told very specifically that God Himself had given this great prosperity to him. And as we have gotten to know Hezekiah’s character throughout our study together, I believe we would agree that he would have humbly acknowledged that it was indeed God who had so graciously blessed him and his people in this way.
What’s more, we see that Hezekiah continued to serve his people well. Verse 30 tells us;
This same Hezekiah also stopped the water outlet of Upper Gihon, and brought the water by tunnel to the west side of the City of David (v. 30a).
You can still see this water outlet in Jerusalem today, by the way. And look at how verse 30 ends;
Hezekiah prospered in all his works (v. 30b).
What a great and honorable history. But then we come to verse 31. By the very first word of that verse, we see that—in the context of all this blessing and prosperity—there’s a change in the tone. We’re told;
However, regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, God withdrew from him, in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart (v. 31).
Because of the way that the writer makes only brief mention of ambassadors from Babylon, you get the definite impression that he assumed his readers already knew the story. We have to go elsewhere in the Bible to get the full details. But before we do, please notice something very important that the writer tells us. He says that God ‘withdrew’ from Hezekiah—or we might say, ‘temporarily left’ Hezekiah to himself—in order to “test” him. I think here of how a father who is teaching his child to ride a bicycle might run alongside—holding on to the bike for a while; but then ‘let go’ to see if the child can balance the bike on his or her own. The coming of these ambassadors was an occasion when God ‘let go’ of Hezekiah “in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart”.
By the way; that’s something that our loving heavenly Father often does for His children. Way back in Deuteronomy 8:2, Moses told the people of Israel just before they entered the promised land;
And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not (Deuteronomy 8:2).
I believe that He will—at times—do the same for you and me, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. He’ll allow us to undergo times of testing and—as it were—withdraw His hand; and all in order to see whether we will trust Him, and obey Him, and keep true to His Son Jesus Christ as our Lord and Master.
* * * * * * * * * * *
So then; this story that is before us is a test from God. But what exactly was the nature of this ‘test’? The fuller story of it is told to us in a couple of places in the Bible—and in both cases, the stories are pretty much identical. So let’s look at just one of them. You’ll find it in Isaiah 39.
The first verse of Isaiah 39 picks up the story after the remarkable healing of King Hezekiah; and it tells us,
At that time Merodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered (Isaiah 39:1).
A lot of commentators have suggested that this was because the king of Babylon—then only a fledgling kingdom—wanted to secure Hezekiah’s support against the fearsome kingdom of Assyria. But whether that suggestion had some truth in it or not, it’s not the reason we’re given in the Bible. Rather, we’re told that there were two reasons why the king of Babylon sent greetings to Hezekiah. One of them, as we’re told here, was because he had heard of the great healing that God had brought about for Hezekiah. And as we’re told in the 2 Chronicles 32 passage, it was also “to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land”—that is, to hear the story of the miraculous victory God had brought about for the people of Judah.
We’re then told in verse 2,
And Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his treasures—the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory—all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them (v. 2).
In other words, Hezekiah showed these Babylonian ambassadors all of the great treasures and blessings and prosperity with which God had blessed him. A lot of Bible teachers and commentators have criticized Hezekiah for this. They have suggest that it was prideful for him to have put these things on display—as if he was trusting in them and boasting in them. I admit that I used to think that way about Hezekiah’s story, too. But over time, I changed my thinking on this. After all, we really have no indication at all in the Scriptures that he was ill-motivated in this; or even that he had done anything inherently wrong. The Bible does not seem to condemn this action at all.
In fact, I have wondered if he was seeking to do the same thing for these Babylonian ambassadors that his royal ancestor Solomon had done for the Queen of Sheba. She had come to visit him, traveling a great distance, because she had heard of the blessings of God upon him. And when King Solomon showed her all the splendor with which God had blessed him, she was overwhelmed and gave praise to the God of Israel. Perhaps that’s what Hezekiah was hoping would happen with these ambassadors. After all, how else could he respond? These Gentiles had heard about the great works of God done in the land, and had come to inquire about it all. How could Hezekiah turn them away? How could he miss this opportunity to declare the praises of the God of Israel to these Gentile ambassadors?
Now; it might be argued that even it was not ill-motivated on Hezekiah’s part, it was also not necessarily wise. We’re told that God had ‘withdrawn’ from Hezekiah in order to ‘test’ him; and perhaps the ‘withdraw’ was in the form of not stopping him from an imprudent display of his riches to these ambassadors. I have learned over the years—and perhaps you have too—that there is such a thing as ‘indiscriminate sharing’—even if it is well-motivated. We can be too ‘open’ with some people. Sometimes such sharing can slip—without our noticing—into prideful displays of God’s blessings. Or sometimes we can go too far and end up ‘casting pearls before swine’—as Jesus warned us not to do. It’s always a good policy to be careful about too openly sharing our blessings from God; and instead, moderate it with the example of Paul, who said, “I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
But without being given any Scriptural evidence to the contrary, I believe we can take it that Hezekiah was intending no wrong in this—nor that he actually did any inherent wrong. He was simply displaying the blessings of God to these ambassadors who came to inquire about it all.
And it’s then that Isaiah came. He inquired too. Verses 3-4 tell us;
Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” So Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a far country, from Babylon.” And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them” (vv. 3-4).
Hezekiah simply told the truth as he knew it. And that’s when we discover that this ‘display of the riches’ had a prophetic significance:
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord. ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon’” (vv. 5-7).
Isaiah was telling Hezekiah about something that God had promised long ago to the people of Israel—even back in the days of Moses. He had warned that people of Israel would one day prove so disobedient and unfaithful to Him that He would allow them to be taken away into captivity. And this happened in history—a little over a hundred years after Hezekiah’s time. The generations to follow after Hezekiah’s would be extraordinarily unfaithful to God. In fact, it would be the profound ungodliness of Hezekiah’s son Manasseh that would be the final straw. As a result of that next king’s behavior, God declared that He would allow the Babylonian empire to grow, become the dominate world power, and come and conquer Jerusalem. In time, they came, took all of the treasures stored up by the kings of Judah, deported the families of Judah into captivity, and finally—in the year 586—destroyed the temple and burned the city. And thus it laid in ruins and its people kept in exile for 70 years.
And this makes me wonder; what exactly was the ‘test’ that came upon Hezekiah? Was it the great blessings God had given him? It may have been; but personally, I don’t think so. Was it that he was tempted to show these blessings to the ambassadors from Babylon? That too may have been; but I still don’t think so. Rather, I think the test was how he would respond to this distressing news from Isaiah.
Hezekiah had labored hard and faithfully to bring about a spiritual renewal for his people—only to be told by God that a future generation would fall into grievous unfaithfulness; and all the gains of the revival would be lost; and his people would suffer terrible judgment. How would Hezekiah respond to such news? Would he call it all a loss? Would he give up? Would he throw in the towel? Would he rail against God? Would he fall into despair, and cease all his reforms, and throw up his hands, and simply say, “Why polish the brass on a sinking ship?”
No! Verse 8 tells us what his attitude of heart was:
So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good!” (v. 8a).
The word in Hebrew that is translated “good” here means “fitting” or “appropriate”. It may not be that King Hezekiah came to this settled attitude of heart right away. It may be that he struggled a bit at first. Who could blame him if he had? But it seems to me that he eventually recognized the rightness of God’s prophetic declaration. It truly was good. It truly was fitting.
And look at what we’re then told;
For he said, “At least there will be peace and truth in my days” (v. 8b).
And in saying this, there’s no indication that Hezekiah meant anything indifferent or selfish. It doesn’t appear as if he was saying, “Well; that’s certainly bad news! Too bad for that future generation! But at least these terrible things wont happen in my time. At least I will be able to live my remaining years in ease.” Far from it! The story doesn’t end in hopelessness. It goes on with a note of victory. If you go on in the Book of Isaiah, you find that, right after this, we come to the second half of that great prophecy—the section of hope and victory for Israel; the section that promises the glories of the earthly reign of Jesus Christ; the section which begins with the declaration from God, “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” (Isaiah 40:1).
I have grown to believe that Hezekiah was saying something like this: “This sad promise of judgment will yet most certainly be. God has declared it so. And because of our many sins, His judgment upon us is just. But nevertheless—as much as it is in my power to see to it—there will be peace and truth in my day! With all my power—in my time—as much as depends upon me—I will secure safety and favor for my people from God; and I will declare faithfulness to the truth in this generation!”
This, in other words, was not a sad declaration of resignation; but rather a bold declaration of resolve! Hezekiah could do nothing about another generation’s faithfulness. He may be able warn them. He may be an example to them. He might be able to set some footprints down for them to follow. But that generation was in the future—and the future was in God’s hands; and not in Hezekiah’s hands. Nevertheless; as much as it was in King Hezekiah’s power, he would declare the faithfulness and goodness of God to his own generation and in his own day. He would be a faithful steward of peace and truth in the times in which God called him to live.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Now; please look back again with me again at 2 Chronicles 32. Look at what we’re told in the verse after our story—in 2 Chronicles 32:32.
We’re told that the records of his story declare King Hezekiah’s ‘goodness’. He died; and he was buried by his people in honor. And so; given this (and along with it, the whole character of Hezekiah’s life), I believe we can take his words about this ‘test’ to mean that he went on to labor with his remaining days with great diligence to the cause of the God of Israel. He worked hard to stave off the promised judgment; and to reserves the blessings of revival for his people.
And if this is so, then the real test from God—the real reason God, as it were, only withdrawing from him in the sense of letting him choose how he would respond to this promise regarding Babylon’s conquest of a future generation—was in order to see what he would do in the face of the uncertainties of the future generation’s faithfulness. And it was a test that he passed. God had discovered what was in Hezekiah’s heart; and what He found in the king’s heart was an unshaken devotion to the cause of spiritual awakening in his own time.
And here is a lesson for us. In a time of revival—or even in our efforts today to pray for and bring about revival—we can pray for future generations somewhat, but can only meaningfully impact our own. Each generation urgently needs its own gracious outpouring of a spiritual awakening from God. But this generation that God has called to live in is the only one that is ours. It is entrusted to our stewardship. Will we be faithful to the cause of the spread of the gospel in it?
The day of judgment will come. We are clearly told so in Scripture that future times will be hard; and that a great falling away will come. But does that mean we will we check-out now? Will we embrace that wrong-hearted attitude of ‘ceasing to polish the brass on a sinking ship’—as so may have done today? Or will we faithfully declare—as I believe Hezekiah illustrates for us—“I cannot control what happens in a generation yet to come. I can only do my best to warn the next generation, and influence it somewhat, and leave a good legacy of faith for it to follow. But as much as God has given me power and opportunity, there will be peace and truth through the declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in my day!
May the the uncertainties of future generations test us, and show forth what is really in our hearts in the ‘here-and-now’. And may it be that what God finds in us is a bold, resolute, active commitment to the ‘peace and truth’ of the gospel that our Savior commanded us to proclaim.
EA
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