"Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon" (Isaiah 39:3).

Hezekiah, King of Judah, was righteous before the Lord, but shortly before the event described in our text, Hezekiah was "sick unto death" (38:1). Isaiah came to him to say, "Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die" (38:1). But Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord not to die and was heard. His health was restored, and he lived another fifteen years.

As a result of this sickness, the surrounding nations learned of his grave illness and at least one, Babylon, sent an emissary to Judah when they learned of his miraculous recovery. In Hezekiah's gladness, he took the visitor on a tour of all the treasures of the house -- "precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices" (39:2). Unfortunately, this became another step in the fulfillment of prophecy, for when the King told Isaiah that he had shown the Babylonians all the treasures, Isaiah, speaking for God, foretold that all these things would be "carried to Babylon" in captivity (39:6). This would be a fulfillment of God's judgment spoken of back in Deuteronomy 28:49: "The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth."

Hezekiah could have felt used by these well-wishers, but his faith in God was great. "Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. . . . there shall be peace and truth in my days" (Isaiah 39:8). There are going to be ups and downs in each person's life and in the history of man. But what counts in our time is what we are and do here and now for God, and how we respond to circumstances that bring truth and peace in our days. KBC