pride goeth before the fall

Good afternoon brothers and sisters,
We've been reading about Hezekiah and his faithfulness. We read yesterday about how God saved Jerusalem from the mighty Assyrians. Today we see Hezekiah slip up. You can read and decide for yourself, but it seems to me like it's boasting that gets Hezekiah in trouble. We're going to skip the next couple of kings, but as many of the kings before them, they are unfaithful to God and become part of Judah's fall. Fortunately, the judgment we see descending on Hezekiah and Judah here will not be the end of the story.

God bless,
Sam

2 Kings 20:12-21

¹²At that time King Merodach-baladan son of Baladan of Babylon sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. ¹³Hezekiah welcomed them; he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses; there was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. 

¹⁴Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? From where did they come to you?” Hezekiah answered, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” ¹⁵He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

¹⁶Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: ¹⁷Days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your ancestors have stored up until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the Lord. ¹⁸Some of your own sons who are born to you shall be taken away; they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

¹⁹Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?” ²⁰The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah, all his power, how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? ²¹Hezekiah slept with his ancestors; and his son Manasseh succeeded him.