King Hezekiah gets old, and he has a boil or something, and he's told by Isaiah to put his house in order. Hmmm...no one likes to hear that. So he prays in tears before God to remember him, and how Hezekiah sought to walk in the ways of God. And God heard Hezekiah, and added 15 years to his life. Which is nice, but...who wants to know the exact moment they will die. I'd host my own funeral. The preservation of Hezekiah was also a preservation of Jerusalem from Assyira, apparently. His son, Manasseh, was next in line, and who knows what would have happened. Lets hope he taught him some good things.
In asking for a sign from the LORD for his healing, Hezekiah doesn't ask for much. He just wants to see the shadow recede up the stairs. In other words, for the earth to rotate the other way for a couple of hours. That's all.
The king of Babylon heard about Hezekiah's illness, and sends him spies...I mean...messengers, a "Get Well Soon" envoy, as it were, with mylar balloons and those little flowers and all that. For some reason, Hezekiah shows the messengers all of the riches in Jerusalem's storehouses. He hides nothing. I don't know why he would do this, and it earns him a rebuke from Isaiah later on. Perhaps Hezekiah just thought the best of Babylon's king and people, figuring these were now going to be his allies.
Because of this error, Isaiah prophesies that it's all going to be carried off, and some of Hezekiah's own sons will become eunuch's in the Babylonian palace. Nice. There's no offspring in eunucy. Hezekiah still manages to call this good, possibly because he trusts God, but I wonder if it's because he believes he won't be around to see it?
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