As a result of his faith and trust in God, God answered Hezekiah’s prayers and granted him miraculous victories over his enemies. God even extended his life by 15 years after he became ill and was at the point of death. However, after he was healed, he made a serious mistake. When he received the Babylonian envoys, he was very proud of what he had achieved and proceeded to boast and show all his kingdom’s treasures as though he had attained all these on his own, leaving God out of the picture. Like King Hezekiah, we can all easily fall into the false notion that what we have attained has been achieved through our own hard work.
The story of Hezekiah reminds us not to be consumed by our earthly accomplishments. All that we have acquired and possessed in this world are transient.
Hezekiah did not acknowledge God when he met the Babylonian envoys. On the contrary, he boasted of his wealth and achievements and this got him into “trouble”. Indeed if there is anything we need to boast about, it should be our Lord.
This week, let us heed the counsel of Jeremiah: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight, declares the Lord”.
