Hezekiah’s Pride, Revealed in the Place of Grace

After Assyria is driven back, Hezekiah is healed even of a mortal illness; fifteen years are added to his life, and his nation is delivered as well. Yet when envoys arrive from Babylon, at the very moment he ought to bear witness to God, he shows them all his wealth as if to boast of it. Isaiah then brings him a word of judgment: everything in the palace will be carried off to Babylon.

Pride is not a particular act but a condition of the heart that leans on something other than God. The moment just after a blessing, when vigilance slackens, is the most dangerous time in the life of faith. Even after hearing the word of judgment, Hezekiah let it pass, content that his own generation would have peace; this was not repentance before God but a selfishness concerned only with being safe himself.

The place of blessing is not where faith ends. Hezekiah was granted a longer life, yet in those years he fathered Manasseh, the most wicked king in the history of Judah. The true blessing lies not in living long but in living in dependence on God alone, and only when we humbly hold fast to his grace can we overcome Satan.