Isa 39:1-8 There Was Nothing in His House, Nor in His Dominion, That Hezekiah Showed Them Not - Part 1 - Discussion

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Isa 39:1-8 There Was Nothing In His House, Nor In His Dominion, That Hezekiah Showed Them Not – Part 1

Isa 39:1  At that time Merodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered.
Isa 39:2  And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.
Isa 39:3  Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon.
Isa 39:4  Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them.
Isa 39:5  Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts:
Isa 39:6  Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.
Isa 39:7  And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
Isa 39:8  Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.

This chapter records events that occurred shortly after Hezekiah was healed of his "sickness unto death". Hezekiah, instead of being humbled by all the blessings the Lord bestowed upon him, rather became “lifted up” and proud as if the Lord did all these things for and through him because he, Hezekiah, was of himself just that good, just that special and just that deserving of the Lord’s special attention.

The admonition for  us in this story is three-fold:

The first lesson we will learn in the admonitions of this chapter is to give the Lord the credit for “all things”, and to take credit to ourselves for nothing at all. Not even our own sins are ours, as we will see.

The second lesson we will learn is how to apply the principle revealed in the Lord's instructions to His priests, which priests we are, if Christ is truly dwelling within us. We must strive to avoid making the mistake Hezekiah made of showing the house of God to those who are not part of His house.

The third lesson we will learn is that because of all the blessings the Lord has bestowed upon us, we as the anti-type, the reality which Hezekiah represents and symbolizes, will appropriate to ourselves the glory that is due only to Christ and His Father. It comes as naturally as breathing to appropriate the glory for all the blessings of God to ourselves and not to the very person who is working all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11), and is “working in [us] both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Php 2:12-13). We learn in this chapter that we just naturally appropriate His glory to ourselves, and we learn in this chapter how the Lord deals with this proud spirit within all of us.

Our first admonition is to give our Maker all the credit for everything He works. Notice how Hezekiah fails to credit his God with any of the things He did for Hezekiah when he met with the men who came from Babylon to congratulate Hezekiah for all that had recently happened to him:

Isa 39:1  At that time Merodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered.
Isa 39:2  And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.

Here is the second lesson which Hezekiah, a type of us, had to learn to apply in his own life: In type and shadow, the Levites and the camp of Israel were forbidden from even looking upon the holy things of the tabernacle; the reason being that the Levites who were not the sons of Aaron, and any Levite who was not a son of Aaron, as well as the camp of Israel, signifies Babylon and the world. Here is a link to an in-depth study of the spiritual meaning of these Biblical types and shadows:

The Camp, The Court, and the Tabernacle

The priesthood only, the sons of Aaron only, were permitted to look upon and handle the holy things of the house of God. Those who were not of the sons of Aaron, were condemned to death if they even looked upon the holy things of the tabernacle:

Num 4:17  And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
Num 4:18  Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites:
Num 4:19  But thus do unto them, that they may live, and not die, when they approach unto the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in, and appoint them every one to his service and to his burden:
Num 4:20  But they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die.

The severity of these words is demonstrated in the story of the Philistines taking possession of the ark of the Lord upon the death of Eli and the curses that fell upon their whole nation (1Samuel 5). We are not given the number of Philistines who died while the ark of God was in their possession. However, we are told that the Lord destroyed 50,070 men of Israel in and about Bethshemensh when the Philistines returned the ark to Israel (1Samuel 6).  A couple of decades later the Lord also slew Uzzah, who simply reached out to steady the ark while it was illegally being drawn by oxen on a cart instead of it being on the shoulders of the Levites as was legally mandated by the Lord (Num 4:15):

Num 4:15  And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.

1Sa 5:10  Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.
1Sa 5:11  So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.
1Sa 5:12  And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

1Sa 6:19  And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
1Sa 6:20  And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us?
1Sa 6:21  And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye down, and fetch it up to you.

2Sa 6:6  And when they came to Nachon's threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it.
2Sa 6:7  And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God.

Uzzah died because he touched the holy ark of God when he was not qualified to do so. The men of Bethshemesh died "because they had looked into the ark of the Lord", when they were not qualified to do so, and the Philistines died for possessing the ark when they were not qualified to do so. None of these deaths were the type of death that "[brought forth much fruit"] as symbols of the death of our old man:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

These men all died in their sins. "God smote [them] there for [their] error" (2Sa 6:7), and "these things all happened to them and they are written for our admonition…" (1Co 10:11).

So what is it we are being admonished to do or not to do? What is so important for us to know that the Lord slew so many Philistines in all five of their cities? What is so important for us to know that He slew 50,070 Israelites, for looking into  the ark? Why did He slay Uzzah for simply attempting to steady the ark, while being transported in a manner contrary to His Words?

Again, ‘all of these things happened, and they are written for our admonition’ to tell us that the Lord insists upon having a people who want to pay very close attention to what He tells us to do and how we're to conduct ourselves as His wife and His representatives and His ambassadors to this world.

He tells us clearly that He will take up His residence in no one else but those who pay very close attention to His Word to the extent that they “tremble at [His] words”.

Isa 66:1  Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?
Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look [as My temple, My house, and the place of My rest], even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

The Lord wants us to know that He expects us to fear and tremble at His every word, not just some of it which we might happen to like or agree with, as King Saul did when He was sent to destroy the Amalekites and all of their possessions. The Lord prizes obedience over sacrifice, as Samuel informed King Saul and all of us. Instead of destroying all of the Amalekites along with all of their possessions as he had been instructed to do by the Lord, Saul decided to keep alive King Agag and "the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them" (1Sa 15:8). When we do not listen closely and do not tremble at the very thought of not getting it right, we are in practice being rebellious and idolatrous in the eyes of our Lord.

This story is also "for our admonition" so we will know what is within us, and so we will learn to pay close attention to what the Lord tells us:

1Sa 15:2  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
1Sa 15:3  Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
1Sa 15:4  And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.
1Sa 15:5  And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
1Sa 15:6  And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
1Sa 15:7  And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.
1Sa 15:8  And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
1Sa 15:9  But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
1Sa 15:10  Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying,
1Sa 15:11  It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.
1Sa 15:12  And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
1Sa 15:13  And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.
1Sa 15:14  And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
1Sa 15:15  And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
1Sa 15:16  Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
1Sa 15:17  And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
1Sa 15:18  And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
1Sa 15:19  Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
1Sa 15:20  And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
1Sa 15:21  But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
1Sa 15:22  And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
1Sa 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

Not one person who allows "the people" to lead him to disobey the Lord's commandments will be given a crown of life to rule over the kingdoms of this world and to judge those who are cast into the symbolic lake of fire.

The Lord insists that we put His commandments and every word He speaks above our own way of thinking. It made no sense at all to King Saul and his people to destroy all those perfectly good 'sheep and oxen and fatlings and lambs'. The Lord's commandment to destroy all those perfectly good livestock along with all the people of the Amalekites was illogical to the natural mind, and therefore was rejected by King Saul, an Old Testament type of our 'rejected… anointed… old man’. Yet King Saul, a type of us, insisted that he had been obedient to the Lord:

1Sa 15:13  And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.

1Sa 15:20  And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

The Truth, of course, is that he had done nothing of the kind, and had instead rebelled against what the Lord had commanded him to do just because the Lord’s commandment made no sense to the natural man within Saul as it would within all of us.

It is to this spirit within all of us that Christ poses this question:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Is Hezekiah showing the princes of Babylon all of his treasures any different than King Saul saving the best of the sheep and oxen after being told to destroy them? No, it is not. The reason it is the same as King Saul is because King Hezekiah ignored the spirit of the commandment telling us that we are not to even show the holy things to the princes of the Babylonian system who may appear to express some semblance of concern for our welfare. The Truth is that they cannot really be concerned for that which is the exact opposite to everything they stand for.

Judah's treasures being shown to outsiders are gifts which the Lord has given Judah, and the uncircumcised Babylonians were not qualified to so much as look upon those gifts.

Babylon stands in defiance of all the commandments of our Lord. "The whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water" has been taken away from "that great city wherein our Lord was crucified" (Isa 3:1-2 and Rev 11:8).

This whole story is typical of us, and it is written down for our admonition (1Co 10:6 and 11). The main lesson for us from this story of Hezekiah showing all his armaments and his treasures to the princes of Babylon, is that we are not to make that mistake with the Lord's treasures. To do so is to ignore and to rebel against these words of our Lord:

Mat 7:6  Give not [show not] that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye [show ye] your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

"Turn again and rend you" is exactly what the kingdom of Babylon did to the nation of Judah just a few short years later, as Isaiah prophesied:

Isa 39:3  Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon.
Isa 39:4  Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them.
Isa 39:5  Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts:
Isa 39:6  Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.
Isa 39:7  And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

This is what 2Chronicles 32 informs us of how the Lord viewed Hezekiah's actions in response to these visitors from Babylon:

2Ch 32:24  In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death, and prayed unto the LORD: and he spake unto him, and he gave him a sign.
2Ch 32:25  But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.

Once again, we must remember, ‘These words are written for our admonition because they are types of us’ (1Co 10:6 and 11).

1Co 10:6 Now these things became types of us, for us not to be lusters after evil things, (CVL)

1Co 10:11 Now all this befalls them typically. Yet it was written for our admonition, to whom the consummations of the eons have attained."

Ask yourself, "What is it that we fail to 'render… again' to the Lord for the benefits rendered to us?" Obviously, what we all at first fail to render again to the Lord is to be sure to give the Lord all the credit for all He does and for all of His works. And what are His 'works'? The scriptures are overwhelmingly clear, and yet our flesh refuses to acknowledge this Truth:

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

It is we who "render not again according to the benefit done unto [us]". It is we who take pride in our own accomplishments and who refuse to give all the glory to Him without whom we "can do nothing", and in whom we "live and move and have our being", as we are clearly informed both of our Lord Himself and of the apostle Paul:

Speaking to the pagan Athenians, the apostle Paul made this revealing statement:

Act 17:28  For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Let's be specific. What exactly are the works of the Lord for which He wants us to "render… again [honor unto the Lord] according to the benefit done unto [us by the Lord]?"

2Ch 32:25  But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.

To be specific about that for which the Lord wants us to credit Him, here it is:

Pro 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

There we have it as clear as the Lord can tell us. "Yes, even the wicked" are made by the Lord "for the day of evil" in all of us. We can take credit for nothing. Not even our sins.

The third lesson for us contained in this 39^th chapter of Isaiah is that Hezekiah and all of his people, as "types of us" (1Co 10:6), have been favored of God before all men, and we simply are not of ourselves equipped to deal humbly with so much blessing and honor, and we learn how the Lord works with us to overcome that inherent flaw in our composition.

Hezekiah had been miraculously delivered from the armies of the Assyrians, and immediately following that deliverance, Hezekiah was stricken with a "sickness unto death". The natural fruit of such an affliction immediately following such a great victory would be to keep Hezekiah humble. When Hezekiah humbled himself and cried to the Lord for mercy, he was again miraculously delivered along with being given the miraculous sign of returning the shadow on the sundial by ten degrees. These are unfathomable miracles of mercy and favor shown by the Lord unto Hezekiah. Yet when those men came to him from Babylon "[because Merodachbaladan] had heard [Hezekiah] had been sick and was recovered", Hezekiah took all the credit to himself, and instead of using this opportunity to witness for the power of His God, Hezekiah, as a type of us, gloried in all of his possessions and took unto himself all the glory for all the victories the Lord had given him.

That is what we are told:

Isa 39:2  And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.

Isaiah tells  us "Hezekiah was glad of them", but notice how this is worded in 2nd Kings 20:

2Ki 20:13  And Hezekiah hearkened unto them [H8085: shama, 'listened to'], and shewed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.

Hezekiah was persuaded by these men to show them all he possessed, and instead of using this opportunity to explain how the Lord, his God, had destroyed the Assyrian army, and how his God had turned back the sun and how his God had healed him of his deadly disease, he instead used all these blessings from the Lord to fuel his own glory in all of his possessions which the Lord had given him. Hezekiah had been given the destruction of the armies of Assyria, he had been sick unto death, and he was given a miraculous sign of the turning back of the sundial to assure him that he would receive a miraculous healing, and on the third day his healing was completed. Besides all of these miraculous blessings, he is now being recognized and honored by other nations for his victory over the Assyrian armies, and for all the blessings which the Lord Himself had actually accomplished and with which Hezekiah himself had absolutely nothing to do. However, our old man and the world will always glorify men instead of glorying in the Lord.

We will stop here for now, and next week we will continue to examine how Hezekiah as a type of who we are, just naturally appropriates the Lord’s glory to Himself, and then we will also learn how the Lord deals with that fault within us all.