Hezekiah's Pride: Displaying Treasures Instead of Character

When the Babylonian ambassadors visited Hezekiah, the king gave them a tour of his wealth—silver, gold, spices, precious ointments, and armor. "And Hezekiah was glad of them." Yet this gladness masked a catastrophic error in judgment.

Hezekiah failed to recognize what truly cannot be stolen. A thief requires no skill to plunder silver and gold; even a youth could seize the spices and ointments; a man of modest means could carry away armor. But character—high citizenship, rigorous self-discipline, genuine piety—these no king of Babylon could take away.

What a missionary opportunity Hezekiah squandered. Had he spoken of Yahweh's miracle—how the Assyrian army was destroyed, how Adonai preserved Jerusalem—the Babylonian delegates would have carried testimony of God's power across the world. Instead, Hezekiah displayed only what looters could claim.

The danger lies in uncontrolled, unsanctified power. It breeds insatiable appetite: much becomes more, more becomes most, and most explodes under its own dissatisfaction. Hezekiah sought to impress foreign rulers with material dominion, failing to show them the One who grants dominion itself.

Every believer faces Hezekiah's choice: display earthly accumulation, or declare the deeds of Elohim. As the psalmist asks, "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul."