The Fool Who Tears Down His Own Wall

The Assyrian army falls in a single night, and Hezekiah recovers from an illness that should have killed him. Yet the son born to him in the fifteen years God added to his life in answer to his prayer becomes the most wicked king in Judah’s history.

Hezekiah came to credit his healing to his own godliness, and his judgment grew clouded, until he went so far as to open the temple and the treasuries to the envoys from Babylon and show them everything. His son, who did not inherit a faith that was whole, tore down with his own hands the wall of grace his father had kept, leaving the people bitten by snakes and stripped of their safety. The lives of this father and son show that sin frightens us the first time it is committed, but once it is repeated, the fear disappears.

Those who cling to God alone in times of trouble can easily forget that grace once peace returns, and lay claim to their own righteousness. But whoever breaks through a wall is bitten by a snake, and whoever digs a pit falls into it himself. After a prayer is answered, one must take all the more care and live always in thankfulness and humility; only then is there safety within the hedge of the Holy Spirit.