Today let’s look at the last part of the first half of Isaiah. Hezekiah, the king of Judah, “became ill and was at the point of death.” (38:1) Hezekiah prayed while crying to the Lord. As a result the Lord heard his prayer and added 15 years to his life. Hezekiah who was saved from death was overflowing in joy and was thankful to the Lord and praised Him, but at the same time he did something stupid that brought God’s judgment upon him. This is recorded in today’s passage. However, in the end he said, “The word of the LORD…is good” (8) and then died. There is a saying that if the end is good then the whole thing was good. He completed his life of upheaval in faith.
Today let’s look at his mistake and the judgment of God upon it. Let’s learn from Hezekiah who didn’t give up and until the end depended upon the Lord.

I. Hezekiah who became prideful (Vs. 1-4)
First of all let’s look at Hezekiah’s mistake. Please look at verses 1 to 4. I will read verses 1 and 2.
“At that time Marduk-Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery. Hezekiah received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses-the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine olive oil-his entire armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.”
“At that time” (1) was when Hezekiah was miraculously cured from his deathly illness. “Marduk-Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift” (1) by envoys. That was because Marduk-Baladan king of Babylon “had heard of his illness and recovery.” (1) At that time Babylon was still a rising nation. At that time Assyria dominated the world. However, Babylon was the country that replaced Assyria and later became a super major power. Until then Babylon many times revolted but each time was driven away. In reality in 710 B.C. Marduk-Baladan king of Babylon rebelled against Assyria and fought but lost the war and by the Assyrian King Sargon II he was banished from Babylon. However, after the death of King Sargon, once more he became the ruler of Babylon. Therefore, the reason that “Marduk-Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift” (1) was because he intended to form an alliance with Hezekiah and oppose Assyria. Marduk-Baladan king of Babylon “had heard of his illness and recovery” (1) and used the opportunity to come close to Hezekiah.

What Hezekiah did was he “received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses-the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine olive oil-his entire armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.” (2) Doing this became the root cause of the Southern kingdom of Judah being completely destroyed by Babylon in the course of time. It was Hezekiah who made the source of the root cause. This triggered the incident. 15 years were added to Hezekiah’s life, but during that time what he did was unthinkable. He made a mistake that couldn’t be undone.
This passage’s parallel passage is in II Chronicles chapter 32. Please open your Bibles to it. Let’s read verses 24 and 25.
II Chron. 32:24 & 25
The problem was that he had become prideful. He was proud of his riches and strength. What he needed to show was the acts of God who is alive and working, but he showed his own achievements. Rather than taking the envoys to the temple and witnessing to them that Israel’s God that made the heavens and the earth is the only God, full of grace and mercy, and that he shows mercy to all who fear the Lord. Rather than singing and playing the harp with the temple choir; rather than looking at and being excited about the gifts he received from the king of Babylon. Rather than being in ecstasy, and testifying to the miracles of God, he showed them everything that was in his store houses. He displayed his power and his prosperity. Put in a single word, for humanistic desires he lost the center of his faith. The center of faith is to depend only on God. Until now when he was threatened by the Assyrian King Sennacherib king of Assyria who attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them and then “sent his field commander with a large army from Lacish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem”,(36:2) he went up to the temple, spread the letter before the Lord, and prayed. When he “became ill and was at the point of death.” (38:1) Hezekiah just prayed while crying to the Lord. However, when he got out of the danger, he became proud imagining that he overcame by his own strength. Up until now he only depended on God and prayed, but now in his heart a crevice opened up.
If you say he was stupid, he was stupid, but occasionally man has this tendency. Man more than being thankful for God’s grace, tends to show his own glory. When we are healed of illness, or the family recovers from the danger of following apart, more than being thankful for the Lord’s grace and testifying to the mighty works of God we show our own wonderfulness. We have such an ugly nature. When threatened by King Sennacherib and his field commander there was the danger of falling away from the faith. However, more dangerous than that, the real danger is when you have victory over troubles and others say that you are really wonderful. When such letters and a gift arrive with envoys, our heart becomes elated and we must remember Paul’s words in I Cor. 10:13.
I Cor. 10:13
Let’s be modest and humble.

II. Everything will go to Babylon (vs. 5-7)
Next let’s look at the Lord’s judgment on Hezekiah’s pride. Please look at verses 5 to 7.
“Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘Hear the word of the LORD Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”
This is a prophecy of the Babylon exile that occurred 115 years later from this time in 586 B.C. Jerusalem fell to the Babylon king, Nebuchadnezzar. Not only the people that were there captured and deported, but all the treasures that Hezekiah had shown the envoys were plundered by the Babylonians. Hezekiah’s sons were captured and became “eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” (8) How humiliating it was for the rulers of Judah to serve as eunuchs in a Gentile palace! They were destroyed not by the Assyrians who they were on the watch for, but by an attack of Babylon.
The root cause of this was that Hezekiah asked for help from Babylon, not God. It was because he wasn’t thankful for God’s grace, but persistently was prideful about his own glory. If he had depended on God and sought God’s help, Jerusalem would not have been destroyed. However he wasn’t thinking about God, but only about himself. If everything was o.k. for him, then it was o.k. He sought his own glory. That’s why it was destroyed.
In the literary world, the main character in a tragedy has a defect in personality. There is a pattern that the personality defect destroys the main character. This is called “the tragic flaw”. Uzziah King who appears in the Bible, was also like that. Uzziah became King of Judah when he was 16 and for a long time sought after the Lord and followed the Lord. God blessed such an Uzziah and gave him prosperity. “His fame spread far and wide…But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.” (II Chron. 26:15, 16) Probably he thought that he was special and that he was excluded from the commands that God had given all of mankind. When the priests came and said, “It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to LORD.” (II Chron. 26:18) He became defiant and got extremely angry. He wasn’t afraid of anything. Then the Lord afflicted him with leprosy.
In the literary world too, in the real world too, there are many cases of people who are proud of their good reputation lose their honor, their name is soiled, and they struggle. That is not just in the literary world, but can be said to be true in our world too. We too need to be careful that the sweet honey of praise isn’t changed into the poison of anger. To do that the only thing we can do is with a humble heart follow God.

III. Nevertheless don’t give up (Vs. 8)
Lastly, let’s look at verse 8. Hezekiah failed. He became ecstatic and showed the Babylon envoys what he wasn’t supposed to show them. As a result it brought a result that could not be undone. However, Hezekiah’s life was not over. If you look at verse 8, you will see that he repented and stood up. Please look at verse 8. “’The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,’ Hezekiah replied. For he thought, ‘There will be peace and security in my lifetime.’”
Here Hezekiah says to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD you have spoken is good…For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.” (8) This is really selfish. It is selfish thoughts of if I’m o.k., then its o.k.
However, if you look at this in context, you will see that that is not necessarily so. Previously in the parallel passage that we opened our Bibles to before, II Chron. 32:26, it says, “Then Hezekiah repented of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore the LORD’s wrath did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.”
Hezekiah realized that the cause of God’s judgment coming upon them was he himself and because he had been prideful. He did away with his pride and humbled himself. “Therefore the LORD’s wrath did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.” (II Chron. 32:26) In other words, Hezekiah wasn’t thinking that it was good that the Lord’s wrath wasn’t coming upon them during his lifetime, but that he learned from his mistake and repented and humbled himself so he realized that the Lord’s wrath would not come upon him in his lifetime. Certainly Hezekiah was prideful and it resulted in a result that Judah and Jerusalem could not undo. However he did not give

up, but from there once more repented and turned to the Lord. Through this mistake, through the painful events, he learned an important lesson. This is expressed in the words, “The word of the LORD you have spoken is good.” (8)
If you look at chapter 38 it describes what he was like when he was 39 years old and he was told that he was going to die. He is completely different now from that time. At that time he was obstinate that he didn’t want to die. Even though God said, “You are going to die; you will not recover,” (38:1) Hezekiah refused to accept those words, and cried out in a loud voice. He didn’t think the word of the Lord that was spoken was good. That comes naturally from the human heart, and expresses natural emotion, but this time is different. After Isaiah’s proclamation he didn’t cry and say even one thing about God’s judgment, except, “The word of the LORD you have spoken is good.” (8) The reason that he said these words this time is because he learned from his mistakes. Even though 15 years were added to his life the reason that he made such a big mistake was his conceit of assuming that he was a good person. He forgot that it was by the one way grace of God. Everything was by the grace of God. He is faithful and every promise of God is fulfilled. There isn’t even one thing that is not fulfilled. It was because of God’s faithfulness that his sickness was healed. It definitely had nothing to do with his accomplishments. It was only by God’s mercy. Therefore, the Word of God is the best. Therefore, he realized that to follow it is the greatest blessing. He expressed this in these words. “The word of the LORD you have spoken is good.” (8) He repented of his mistakes, and learned from them so he could say words like this. About Isaiah’s proclamation of God’s judgment, he didn’t cry or say anything. Also he didn’t protest against it. He only accepted it saying, “The word of the LORD you have spoken is good.” (8)
Therefore, if you look at Hezekiah’s words that follow this, they look like a selfish, irresponsible attitude. However, when you compare it with chapter 38, in fact, more of a spiritual attitude can be read from it that he recognized his mistake and accepted the proclamation of God’s judgment. If you look at II Chron. 32:33, this can be seen. About Hezekiah’s end of his life the Bible says the following, “Hezekiah rested with his fathers and was buried on the hill where the tombs of David’s descendants are. All Judah and the people of Jerusalem honored him when he died. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king.” (II Chron. 32:33)
When Hezekiah died “all Judah and the people of Jerusalem honored him.” (II Chron. 32:33) He was able to die in honor. That was because no matter how old he got, he learned lessons from his mistakes and failures, and sought to walk in the will of

God. Even if we get old, there are times that we sin. Even in one’s later years, we still are not perfect. We always make mistakes. If we accept this seriously, then like Hezekiah we can learn lessons.
C.S. Lewis said, “There are only two kinds of people in the end; those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Hezekiah before was a person that God said, “Thy will be done” to. He was the type of person that God’s will makes no difference, just do as I say, do as I want. Through that mistake he learned a lesson and said to God, “Thy will be done.” In other words, he was changed into a person that says, “Do whatever your will is”.
Kanzo Uchimura who was a Christian during the Meji period in Japan said, “Dying is also good. I don’t want to be separated from God. If I live in God, I have nothing to fear.” These are wonderful words. This is what Hezekiah learned and the state he reached. Do your will. Living is also good. Dying is also good…
However, Kanzo Uchimura didn’t from the beginning have such a powerful faith. It is said that his daughter’s death led him to such a faith. The daughter’s name was Rutsuko. They took her name, Rutsuko, from Ruth in the book of Ruth. When Rutsuko was 19 years old she went to heaven from a serious disease of unknown cause. 3 hours before she died, Kanzo Uchimura, his wife, and Rutsuko, the three of them celebrated the Lord’s supper. When Rutsuko partook of Lord’s Supper she said, “I’m thankful. I’m thankful. I’m going.” That was her last words. 12 minutes later she stopped breathing and went to heaven.
Kanzo Uchimura who saw this in the midst of sadness was deeply moved and at Rutsuko’s funeral said this, “This is not Rutsuko’s funeral. It is Rutsuko’s wedding. My daughter has entered marriage in heaven.”
Then at the entombment at the grave he took a handful of dirt, and raised that hand high and in a loud voice yelled, “Rutusko, Banzai! Rutusko, Banzai!” That was because through Rutsuko’s death Kanzo Uchimura for the first time was awakened to the faith of the resurrection, the faith in the second coming.
Therefore, in his later years Kanzo Uchimura tried to live so that no matter when Jesus Christ came back that it would be o.k. Also more than anything he looked forward to meeting Rutsuko in heaven again. It is said that he gave his life to powerfully witnessing and evangelizing.
Up until then he had been married four times. One time they were separated by death, but 2 times it was by divorce. Even though he was a Christian he had been divorced 2 times. Rutsuko was the daughter by his last wife. For him that this daughter went to heaven was a huge shock for him. By this happening he realized how up to this point his life was really irresponsible and was shown how sinful he was. Also he was thankful and able to accept that the daughter was really a blessing from God. He also was able to repent. So to speak by the daughter, Rutsuko’s death, his faith was regenerated. .
Kanzo Unchimura wrote a poem entitled “We are 4 people”. He says 4 people because besides Rutsuko there was one other child.

We are Four People
We were four people. However, we are still four people.
On the city registry of the family one name disappeared, one side of the square dining room table is empty.
One part of the four part chorus is missing. Even if the hymn doesn’t come out right.
However, we are still four people.
We are four people. On the earthly records one name disappeared, but on the records of heaven, one name appeared.
There is an open seat at the three meals, but the remaining 3 people became closer.
She is still in their midst. One person tied the three people in the bonds of love.
However, they will not be three forever
When they hear the sound of the trumpet, when all those who are sleeping awake,
When the Lord comes again to this earth, when the New Jerusalem comes down out of the heavens,
We will be four people again.
What faith! This is the faith of one who knows Christ. This the faith of one who believes in the resurrection. “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21) It is the faith that doesn’t want to be separated from God. It is the faith of one who says to God, “Thy will be done.”
Kanzo Unchimura was able to say this because by Rutusko’s death, through her death, he was able to experience real faith. This is also Hezekiah’s faith. At that time Christ had not been resurrected, so it was a little vague. However, through many mistakes and failures he too reached the point that “The word of the LORD you have spoken is good.” (8)
Even when we get older, there are times when we sin. Even though we are in our later years, we make mistakes and bring the judgment of God upon us. David was also like this. In his later years he sinned by “taking a census of Israel” (I Chron. 21:1) and brought judgment upon himself. He relied on his military strength more than on God. As a result, “the LORD sent a plague on Israel and 70,000 men of Israel fell dead.” (I Chron. 21:14) In the same way, we too, no matter how old we get, we don’t become perfect. We sin, we fall to mistakes. However, God gives us another chance to stand in faith. There is for sure a lesson that we should learn from our mistakes and failures. Therefore, those words, those actions, those mistakes, have brought about the results of today. We shouldn’t be just crying, “It has affected my children, and my grandchildren. I regret that I pulled the people around me into the effects of my sin;” but we need to learn from our mistakes. We must never give up, and even then hang on to the Lord. So that we can say like Hezekiah, “The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,” (8)
let’s learn from our mistakes.
“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” (I Peter 5:10)
The Lord will “restore you”. (I Peter 5:10) The Lord will change us. It is by the one way mercy of God. When we talk about others and evaluate them, it means we have forgotten that we are all being constructed. In other word’s we are in the process of being changed. Peter knew that it took time for him to be changed. Therefore, he was able to wait patiently for others. He said, Christ will “restore you”. (I Peter 5:10) Now you are not completely restored, but you will be. You are still in the process of being constructed. He “will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” (I Peter 5:10) Let’s believe God’s promise and leave all in his hands. Then humble yourself, and serve him. Don’t be discouraged by your weaknesses. Like Hezekiah in order to be changed, come before the Lord with your weaknesses and learn from them. While praying for change for the things that should be changed, receive the Lord’s encouragement and stand up again. The Lord’s love and grace is inexhaustible. No matter how old you get, you will be changed anew. Believe that, don’t give up, believe in the Lord’s mercy, and let’s stand up each time. That was Hezekiah’s life, a life of glory.