UNROLL
Night in a palace storeroom in Jerusalem: its heavy wooden door stands open, and lamplight spills over shelves of silver bowls and small ingots, gold vessels, and sealed jars of spice and oil; nobody there.

Hezekiah’s crisis

Isaiah 39

Who have you been eager to impress, and what did it cost?

8 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
  2. 6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
  3. 7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
  4. 13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
  5. 24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
  6. 28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
  7. 36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoysChapter 39
  8. 40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the Servant
  9. 49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
  10. 56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

Hezekiah Shows His Treasures

At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard about Hezekiah’s illness and recovery.

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A lamplit stone storeroom of the palace: Hezekiah in his blue royal robe and circlet opens it to two Babylonian envoys, gesturing proudly at shelves of silver bowls and bars, gold vessels, sealed clay jars of precious oil, and open baskets and sacks of spices.

And Hezekiah welcomed the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, as well as his entire armory—all that was found in his storehouses.

There was nothing in his palace or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

Isaiah

Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “Where did those men come from, and what did they say to you?”

Hezekiah

“They came to me from a distant land,” Hezekiah replied, “from Babylon.”

Isaiah

“What have they seen in your palace?” Isaiah asked.

Hezekiah

“They have seen everything in my palace,” answered Hezekiah. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

Question

Quick question

Isaiah asked the king two questions about his visitors.

Where did the envoys come from?

Isaiah
A palace hall of cut stone and cedar beams in daylight: Isaiah stands, staff in hand, grave, facing Hezekiah, who sits on a plain wooden chair, seen from the side, the two alone.

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of Hosts:

Isaiah
The same palace storeroom, empty: bare plank shelves, dust, a broken jar on the floor, the door hanging open on gray daylight.

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 the LORD.

Isaiah
Isaiah

And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

Hezekiah

But Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.”

Isaiah 39:8

Hezekiah

For he thought, “At least there will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

Pray

Pray

Lord, I like to show what I have. Teach me to boast only in You, and to care about the generations after me, not only my own days.

From Assyria to Babylon

Assyria at thewall36The LORDdelivers37:36Hezekiah healed38Envoys fromBabylon39:1–2Carried off toBabylon39:6–7Chapters 40–66comfort for the exiles

Whiteboard

The book turns here. Assyria’s threat is over; the next one is Babylon, and so is the next word of comfort.

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 39

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A verse to carry with you

The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.

Isaiah 39:8

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