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[0:00] So we're going to finish up, Lord willing, we're going to finish up Hezekiah tonight. And as we've been looking through, this will be the fourth lesson on that. We're going to be looking at, in his days of Hezekiah here, as we finish up here in 2 Chronicles chapter 32 here tonight.

[0:20] And we know that the days of Hezekiah were a time of revival, but also reckoning with Samaria and Jerusalem, and the return to worshiping the Lord correctly and properly as the temple was reestablished and put back together.

[0:37] And we see here that there's a refreshing in the relationship between God and the children of Israel, and the blessing of the Lord we know was abundant in the kingdom.

[0:49] And it was easy to say, I trust the Lord completely, you know. But we're going to see here as God allows them to be tested here in this, even at the latter part of his reign.

[1:01] So we see here 2 Chronicles chapter 32. Let's look down at verse 24 is where we'll pick up here tonight. It says, In those days Hezekiah was sick and death and prayed unto the Lord, and he spake unto him and gave him a sign.

[1:14] But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him, for his heart was lifted up, and there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem. Notwithstanding, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah.

[1:39] Let's pray. Heavenly Fathers, we just take a few moments here tonight to look into your word and to look at Hezekiah, Lord, a man and a king who desired to serve you, Lord, but struggled with the same things we can struggle with, and we can learn also here tonight, Lord, of the dynamics of even pride in our life, you know, the dangers and the pride of one of rejecting you like the Assyrians, and the other of not thinking properly about ourselves, Lord, to not think in the right mind and the right perspective.

[2:13] And Lord, I pray just help us to see the need and the necessity to guard our own heart in regard to the things that how Hezekiah was also tested, both personally and publicly, before others.

[2:26] And Lord, we just ask your hand upon the things tonight, in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, as we've been looking here at Hezekiah, we know that he was tested both personally and publicly in his life, personally in regards to how it impacted his health.

[2:43] You know, we know that he had experienced a sickness unto death. If you remember that Isaiah the prophet had come and told him, what, get your house in order, you know. You're soon to check out, you know.

[2:55] And we know that Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, and the Lord heard his prayer. And he healed him and gave him another 15 years. But also publicly, we see that he was tested with Sennacherib and the Assyrian army that came down against him.

[3:13] And, you know, we looked at his death and that sickness that was associated with it, and what that was stayed when he humbled himself before the Lord. But, you know, we see here that verses 25 and 26 that we read reveal something here that happens kind of unseen in the heart of an individual.

[3:33] You know, one of the things is pride is one of those things that can manifest so many ways that we don't always see it on the outside. Because people can have pride ruling their life and still do what everybody thinks is the right things.

[3:51] But their heart is not right because the reason they're doing it is not the right reason. And we're going to see some of that here tonight as we see those unseen things in the heart of Hezekiah.

[4:04] And really, he began to think of himself more highly than he ought. You know, look over to Romans chapter 12 for a moment tonight. So we look over here to Romans chapter 12, and you see here in verse 3, the Word of God reminds us of the dangers that we find here.

[4:21] In Romans 3, it says this, For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, knows us not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think what? Soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.

[4:38] You know, I want you to understand, not to think of yourself more highly. You know, as people, it's very easy to begin to think of yourself more highly than you ought because it comes in a lot of forms. You know, false humility can be a form of pride.

[4:53] You know, most people don't. You know, some people, they try to downplay themselves so much it becomes a prideful thing in that. So, I mean, pride is a vicious thing. That takes a hold in our heart, but it has to do with our thinking.

[5:06] You know, of how we think about ourselves, to think about God, because throughout this last season, we're going to look at Hezekiah's life, we find that pride was a driving influence all around him, whether it was from the Assyrian enemy, or a heart of a king who the Bible tells us sought to do right before God.

[5:31] You know, you can have right intentions sometimes and still have pride issues. Pride is something that builds up in our life, and we see that we allow it to go because consider the dynamics of pride in this passage of Scripture.

[5:46] You know, we see or consider Sennacherib, the Assyrian king. I think if we looked last week at all the things he said about God, you can see he had a pride, he had a heart lifted up, that I am above God.

[6:00] I'm above those things. And, you know, he actually blasphemed the name of the Lord, the Bible tells us. And we see here he's breaking something very simple, because sometimes we need to connect what's going on.

[6:13] You know, what did Sennacherib break? What law of God did he break? Well, he broke the second commandment where it tells us in Exodus chapter 20, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

[6:29] You know what? He used the Lord's name in vain by saying, I'm above you. You know, he used it in a way that was counter to glorifying God. And we see that dynamic in his life.

[6:43] And, you know, take a look over, turn to Psalms 10, Psalms 10 tonight. And, you know, we'll talk a little bit about this, and we'll get into what's all going on here.

[6:54] But we find here in the 10th chapter of the Psalm, we see here, it says this in verse 4. It tells us that the wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God.

[7:05] So what did Sennacherib? He didn't want to seek after God by the pride of what? His countenance. He thought he was greater than God. For Sennacherib, that was what was happening there.

[7:17] That's the counter. And we understand that God is not at all in his thoughts, it tells us there in verse 4. You know, that's a sign of pride if people just forget God. Because you know what you're saying?

[7:28] I can do life without him. I can put God away and do life without God. That's pride saying, I can and I don't need God.

[7:39] And we see that dynamic. But notice in verse 5 it says, His ways are always grievous, thy judgments are far out of his sight. For all his enemies he puffeth at them.

[7:49] You know, and we see this dynamic in the life of Sennacherib that's impacting Hezekiah. But you know, we also see Hezekiah. You know, look over to Proverbs chapter 16.

[8:02] Proverbs chapter 16, we see this dynamic of what it tells us about pride. It says this, chapter 16 and verse 18 says, Pride goeth before what?

[8:14] Destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better it to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than divide the spoil with the proud. You know what? Hezekiah got hung up on the spoil.

[8:28] He got hung up on all that God had blessed him with. You know, and today we can do the same thing. We can get caught up on what we have and what God's blessed us with and lose sight of the one that blessed us.

[8:43] You know, instead of being just thankful for what God has given us, we can be like grabbing a hold and want to be proudful and prideful of what we have. And we see the blasphemy here of Assyria.

[8:56] You know, oftentimes we don't consider how prideful it was because we remember just a few weeks ago we talked about that because God sent a prophet to a city by the name of Nineveh and they had repented and turned to the Lord and now here they come.

[9:12] They went from a king in Nineveh that feared the Lord because Jonah, remember, preached through the streets and they repented and turned to God and you go back and look, you know, the king of Assyria there in Nineveh was like when the prophet told him what was going to happen because the prophet began to weep and he's just like, we'll never do that.

[9:38] But you know what? When you get lifted up in pride, you'll do things you said you'll never do. When pride gets a hold of you, you'll do all sorts of things that you said you'd never do. And in our life, that's very true and we can learn from that.

[9:52] The blasphemy of there, the king of Assyria and his servants spoke against the Lord, railing upon him. You know, we saw that. Look over here in verse 16 of chapter 32 and it says, And his servants spake yet more against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah.

[10:08] And he wrote also letters to rail on the Lord God of Israel and speak against him, saying, As the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their people out of mine hands, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out of their hand.

[10:23] You know? We see here, what's the dynamic? Sennacherib is telling his people to go blaspheme the Lord. But look down at verse 20 in chapter 32.

[10:37] Notice this, It is for this cause, Hezekiah the king and the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amos, prayed and cried to heaven. You know, we see here that Hezekiah and Isaiah prayed to the Lord and their prayer was heard, their prayer was answered, but we understand that it was not going to come by a sword or a chariot.

[10:58] It wasn't going to be come by Hezekiah rising up a great men of valor or battle-hardened soldiers to go out or even a great battle plan. You know, the Lord said, Stand by because I'm going to take care of things.

[11:12] You know? Look down here in 2 Chronicles 32, verse 21. Notice what it tells us here. And the Lord sent an angel which cut off all the mighty men of valor and the leaders and the captains of the king are in the camp of the king of Assyria.

[11:27] So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was coming to the house of his God, they came forth of his own bowels, slew him there with the sword.

[11:40] You know? So I want you to see what happens here. God is going to intervene. He answers the prayer of Hezekiah and Isaiah and God sends. It says, The angel of the Lord went out.

[11:53] And we're going to look a little bit at this tonight because if you look over in 2 Kings chapter 19, that's that parallel passage. You know, it kind of gives us those two different perspectives because in Chronicles, you might say the more, a spiritual God's view of what's happening.

[12:10] God didn't make too big a deal about it, but on the other side in 2 Kings, you'll find physically there was a lot of dynamic happening. You know, we find here in 2 Kings chapter 19, it says this down in verse 35.

[12:23] The Word of God tells us this, And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand. So who's our quick mathematicians?

[12:35] How many is that? 185,000. Including the captains and all those that were a part of the army there, of the Assyrians.

[12:46] And we see here, it says, And when they rose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh.

[12:57] You know, here we have one of those passages a lot of people like. They catch up on that thing. They woke in all dead corpses. You know, it's one of those terms that catches people's attention. You know, trying to figure out what's going on.

[13:09] And there's a lot of speculation as to what happened. You know, how did 185,000 die in the night? You know, but if you turn over, look over to Isaiah chapter 37 for a moment.

[13:20] Because I think Isaiah, his report on this gives us a little insight into this. And I think it fits what could have happened here.

[13:34] We find that chapter 37, verse 7, it says, Behold, I will send a what? A what? A blast upon him.

[13:46] And he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. That's Isaiah prophesying about Sennacherib. But he talks about, I'll send a blast.

[13:58] Chronicles in Kings says the angel of the Lord went out. You know, there's an interesting phenomenon in the Middle East. That until I got to study this, I didn't even realize what it was.

[14:11] But there's actually a term over there that they call, they refer to it as a poison wind. And what comes, you know, you think about it, Isaiah says he's going to put a blast upon them.

[14:28] And one of the things that happens here, it's a simun, is what they call it, and it's an extremely hot, dry local wind that blows through and the temperatures reach about 130 degrees Fahrenheit.

[14:42] And the humidity drops below 10%. And what it actually causes, it says, because this is recorded, they say that people will get caught in these and their body will actually overheat and they'll die from heat stroke.

[14:55] They can be sitting still and die of heat stroke from this wind that comes through. Now, whether God used that or not, but I think we have a pretty good case that it's a possibility of what took place there that night because it would make sense why they were all just laying there dead because what?

[15:12] They just died where they slept. You know? Now, you can agree or disagree or whatever, it really doesn't matter, but I think it's a good connection where Isaiah says it was a blast and we know historically and even currently, those things happen over there and they said that they'd wipe out entire caravans of merchants even crossing the desert when one of these would come across.

[15:39] And so, depending on where they were sleeping, it could very easily have taken place, you know, because I want you to understand when it says the angel of the Lord went out doesn't mean that there was a physical dynamic that took place.

[15:50] God uses weather all the time. You know? Days of Noah, you'll see God stir up things in Egypt and part of the plagues. I mean, none of this is beyond that, but I want you to just, something to think about there to connect because we ought to look for our answers not someplace else.

[16:07] We ought to look, what does the Bible say about it? You know? And so, I think that connection there makes a good connection of what took place and how 185,000 and those that happened to be in the right spot, including Sennacherib, that weren't overheated during the night got up and saw everybody dead.

[16:27] You know? And so, we see that. That's just one of those little side things for tonight. So, get your Bible trivia in, you know, on that. But I think it's important to realize that God explains Himself and gives us insight into those things.

[16:43] And we find here that God accomplishes His word concerning Sennacherib. You know, He turned back to Assyria, follows the devastating destruction of His army. You know, even in those days, if you lost 185,000 troops in one night, you're in trouble.

[16:59] You know? He needed to turn back. And we find also a rumor, we find when He gets back, His own sons kill Him. Two of His own sons kill Him in the house of His God, the Bible tells us.

[17:14] You know, exactly as Isaiah foretold was going to happen. Isaiah laid out all those things for us. And so, but, take a look here and then, back over in 2 Chronicles chapter 32, look down at the verse 22, and it says this, And thus the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all others, and guided them on every side.

[17:45] And many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem and present to Hezekiah, king of Judah, so that he was magnified in the sight of the nations from henceforth. Now, I want you to consider something here because we're talking a little bit about the pride taking place in the latter days of Hezekiah.

[18:03] You think about that, I guarantee you, Hezekiah didn't have a problem pointing out Sennacherib's pride. You know, matter of fact, that was part of his prayer. Lord, are you going to let him talk about you like that?

[18:15] You know, are you going to let him be prideful and say he's more powerful than you? You know, the interesting thing about pride too, it's always easier to spot somebody else. It's always easier to analyze somebody else and what might be prideful than our own selves.

[18:30] And I think it's easy for us, even as Hezekiah, we're going to see here, gets caught up in pride because of God's blessing. Because he lost sight of where did he get the blessing from?

[18:44] You know, he had all this great dynamics. Blessings came upon them once again, it tells us. You know, the Lord blessed him. We see here in chapter 32 down in verse 22, it says very clearly that God was with them that came from the hand of all others and guided them on every side of Moses and many brought what?

[19:07] Gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem and presents to Hezekiah, king of Judah. And he was magnified in the sight of all the nations from henceforth. You know, suddenly Hezekiah, who was looked at as a weak, going to be wiped out by the Assyrians, suddenly Assyrians are gone.

[19:23] Everybody else is saying, hey, Hezekiah must be somebody great. The rest of the world, what they saw is what happened and said Hezekiah must be a great king if he defeated Sennacherib.

[19:35] You know, if he overcame this, he must be a great king because nobody else could stand against him. You know, pride, one of the things that gets us in trouble when you start believing in other people's reports.

[19:47] You know, when people build up and try to make you something that you're not, you need to keep in mind of keeping the right perspective and the right thinking about those things.

[19:58] Because we're going to see here because what goes along with that pride comes akin very quickly to flattery. You know what, when you have pride and somebody comes along flattering, you know what it does to pride?

[20:13] Builds it up pretty fast, doesn't it? Builds it up very quickly and we find that the people and the nations and the kings around about brought gifts to Jerusalem and to Hezekiah.

[20:26] The fact that Jerusalem had survived this Assyrian attack magnified Judah and Hezekiah in the sight of all others, even into Babylon. You know?

[20:37] So we see here that the blessing of the Lord was great upon them. You know, this blessing that God gave upon Hezekiah and Judah and the kingdom here was great.

[20:52] look over at verse 27 because I want you to keep in context for a moment when we get ready to read this because consider what had happened before the Assyrians came.

[21:02] Remember when the Assyrians came? What did Hezekiah's first response? Do you remember? Well, no, when the Assyrians came and he was afraid of Sennacherib, what did he do?

[21:15] He took all the gold out of the city and he stripped the gold off the doors and he gave it as a gift. So I want you to understand before this, the city was basically broke.

[21:28] They had nothing. Why? Because Hezekiah had given it to Sennacherib. Now afterwards we see that God blesses him. Now notice what he does here.

[21:40] It says, notwithstanding, or excuse me, in verse 27, Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honor. Where did he get that? You know, from everybody bringing it in.

[21:51] You know, suddenly he was the great conqueror. Everybody was bringing everything to Jerusalem. People were providing all those things. He had much riches and honor.

[22:02] And made himself, notice how much he has now, he made himself treasuries for silver and for gold and for precious stones and for spices and for shields and all manner of pleasant jewels.

[22:13] storehouses also for the increase of corn and wine and oil and stalls for all manners of beasts and coats for flocks. Moreover, he provided him cities and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance for God had given him substance very much.

[22:36] Now I want you to see here, God, when Hezekiah humbled himself before God, God answered his prayer and God blessed them in a mighty way.

[22:50] But you know what, it wasn't long before Hezekiah lost sight of what God did. You know, I think it's a good warning to us how quickly we can lose sight of God's blessing and get it out of proportion. Because I want you to understand, Hezekiah is still noted as being a good king.

[23:08] He's a man who sought after God. You might be seeking after God, but pride is one of those things the devil uses as a tool to leverage everything in your life, doesn't he? Pride is a very dangerous thing and we see what takes place here.

[23:24] We see a situation that we can easily fall into because Hezekiah didn't render the right response towards the Lord. He was not thankful but prideful.

[23:37] Look up at verse 25 for a moment. Look at what the scripture tells us. But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit what? Done unto him. Let that sink in for a moment.

[23:48] In other words, Hezekiah did not acknowledge what God had given him. In other words, for some reason he began to believe the reports everybody was saying.

[24:02] Hezekiah, you're so great. You know, people flattering him, bringing him gifts. God was blessing him but yet in his mind and his heart it was building up a prideful dynamic towards the things of God's blessing.

[24:18] He rendered not again. Let's simply put it this way. He didn't recognize where he got it from. He began to think it was of himself instead of what God had done. You know, it's easy to get caught into that and we see here, look at the rest of that verse.

[24:34] It says, for his heart was what? Lifted up. His heart was lifted up. In other words, when he started getting past the danger and past the dynamic and the situation in life that had distressed him and God began to bless again, what did he do?

[24:53] He forgot about God. He forgot about what God had done. And we're going to see here that God sends a test upon him to reveal this.

[25:06] And we're going to see that God does this instead of walking humbly with God and giving the glory entirely to him, Hezekiah takes honor to himself.

[25:17] And so we're going to look here at the business of pride. Notice this next section here. It tells us in verse 31, notice this, says, how be it in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon.

[25:29] Babylon. Now we're going to look here because what does God do? We're going to find that God allows some princes of Babylon to come and what happens here is going to expose the heart of the king.

[25:43] Now notice this, who sent unto him to inquire the wonder that was done in the land. God left him to try him that he might know all that was what? In his heart.

[25:55] You know, one of the things that I think God allows things into our life to make sure we recognize when pride is building up. When we get too much of a focus upon ourselves and what we have instead of what God has done.

[26:12] God allows things to come into our life. We notice here, God allowed these to come and he used it as a test, as a dynamic to see what was truly in Hezekiah's heart.

[26:25] what was there, what was truly there because, you know, we notice and we've talked about this the last few weeks, you know what, you don't really know how you're going to respond until you're in a situation, until you're actually in the dynamic.

[26:41] You know, have you ever noticed there's a lot of easy to, you know, couch quarterbacks, you know, they know exactly what they would have done. You know, if they'd only done what I would have done, everything would have been fine.

[26:54] You know, they sit there and they analyze and they sit on the couch, but you know, it's a lot different when you're out there in the midst of it. To see how are you going to actually respond in the circumstance.

[27:10] Because, you know, oftentimes you don't know until you're tested. You know, we're in football season. Here's a good example of this. You know, think about pre-season polls.

[27:23] Nobody's played a game yet. And they're already hyping people up. And you know, they're going to be great and all this. And you know what? They have a lot of hype, but guess what? Sooner or later they get on the field and a test comes.

[27:37] And that's the reason at the end of the season you don't usually see a lot of the same teams that started out at the beginning. What happened is the test, they failed. They had a lot of hype.

[27:47] They thought what they were going to do, but it didn't materialize in what they did do. You know, in our own life that's the same dynamic. Are we going to do and accomplish what God would have for us to do?

[27:59] Are we going to be faithful to do those things, this business of pride? And we see here that the kings, when they saw the Assyrians retreat, they all came bearing gifts and flattery to Hezekiah.

[28:12] And when these particular ones come from Babylon, and to get a little more information, we need to go back to 2 Kings. You know, 2 Kings chapter 19, or excuse me, chapter 20, gives us some more insight into what takes place here.

[28:29] Because Chronicles just says, hey, God used this to see what was in his heart. And then you go over to Kings, and Kings describes what actually took place. How did this play out?

[28:40] What was the dynamic? And it tells us here in 2 Kings chapter 20, look down here in verse 13. It says, in Hezekiah, or excuse me, let's go to verse 12.

[28:53] And at that time, Beradish Balan, the son of Baladin, the king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah. For he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. In other words, he heard that Hezekiah was supposed to die, and now he lives, and the Assyrians have departed.

[29:09] You know, he's like, hey, we need to butter this guy up some, you know. And so notice this, and Hezekiah did what? What's that next word there in verse 13?

[29:21] Hearkened. What did Hezekiah hearken unto? That's the question. Flattery. Building him up. Because I guarantee you the representatives from Babylon didn't come and say, Hezekiah, you're a fool, you're an idiot, you're all sorts of things.

[29:38] They didn't know, Hezekiah, you're a great guy, look what you've got, look what you've done, look what you've accomplished, look how great you are. You must be a great individual because he hearkens unto them and he gets caught up in the flattery and he begins to march them around and shows them everything that's there.

[29:57] Look at the next thing that happens here. And he showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures.

[30:11] There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not. Now, you read that verse, think about what actually took place.

[30:22] What's that verse describing? Yeah. Here's Hezekiah, the king of Babylon sends his messengers with all this flattery, and Hezekiah, well, yeah, I am great, let me show you how great I am.

[30:38] Look at all this stuff that I have. Look at all the things that I've gained. Look at all the different things that God has, you know, that I have, and He didn't give pride, or He didn't give honor to the Lord.

[30:54] We see here this dynamic. We'll look a little later here in this passage in verse 14, where Isaiah the prophet comes and says, hey, what'd you do? But you know what?

[31:05] I want you to understand, pride comes in different forms. Or should I say it manifests itself in different forms. Think about Uzziah, the kings that we talked about, Uzziah.

[31:19] Uzziah, his great grandfather, Hezekiah's great grandfather had a problem with pride. Do you remember what Uzziah did? Remember, he was the king that charged into the house of God and wanted to burn incense before the Lord where only the priests were supposed to?

[31:39] You know, here's Uzziah, his great grandfather had a spiritual pride, you might say, of saying, I'm great enough, I can just do whatever I want and don't have to worry about what God said about it.

[31:52] But here with Hezekiah, we have it show up in a different form, what we might say is a worldly pride. The pride of life. You know, look at me.

[32:03] You know, when you see this dynamic, a lot of people want people to look at them. They want to be built up in that, you know. But look over to the New Testament for a moment. Go to 1 John.

[32:13] 1 John chapter 2. John's writing to believers and he's telling us some important information. He says, I have written unto you fathers because you have not, you have known him that is from the beginning.

[32:28] I have written unto you young men because you are strong and the word of God abideth in you and you have overcome the wicked one. Now that sounds pretty good, doesn't it? But think about the next verse here.

[32:39] Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world.

[32:56] You know, Hezekiah stands as a stark warning to us to keep our eyes on the right thing. To keep our eyes on the Lord because if we begin looking to love the world, you know what happens?

[33:09] Those things become the attachment. You know? And we understand in this case of Hezekiah, he faced a test and failed under temptation that's common to so many of us.

[33:23] You know? It's easy to get caught up in pride. To think more highly of yourself than you ought to think.

[33:34] Pride is something that causes a lot of problems. You can look through the, if you want a little Bible study, just type in the word pride in your little digital thing there and look up what the Bible has to say about it.

[33:44] You'll never find anything positive associated with pride. Destruction, stumbling, heartache, pain, agony. I mean, the road it leads you down is never good.

[33:55] It either causes a direct problem for you or others around you. Because what happens is pride means we forget about God. Look back in the Old Testament for a moment. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy chapter 8.

[34:07] You know, as you read the Bible sometimes, it's good to try to put things in context and even order. Because it's interesting as you read through Deuteronomy how many things that happened to the kings, God warns them about.

[34:21] Before it's even happened, God says, hey, you better pay attention. Look down here at Deuteronomy chapter 8. Look at verse 11. Notice what God tells them.

[34:31] They're not even in the land yet. He says, Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I command thee this day. Now notice this.

[34:43] Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied.

[34:57] What's that next phrase? Then thine heart be what? What happened to Hezekiah? When God multiplied everything, what did he do?

[35:09] He forgot about God and his heart was what? Lifted up. You know, the great thing about God is he gives us the warning beforehand. He gives us insight to the dangers that lie ahead.

[35:22] He said, you're going to face a danger of pride in your life if you don't keep your eyes on the right things. You're going to face a danger of it, and Hezekiah revealed all that he had to them because of pride.

[35:36] Instead of giving glory to God, he presented himself and his glory instead. Now, I want you to consider, if you remember Hezekiah's prayer to God, in his prayer to God, he said, God, they're blaspheming your name.

[35:50] You know, you need to be, take care of them so your name would be glorified in the world. And I'm summarizing there, but that's the synopsis of Hezekiah's prayer. It's interesting that after it was solved, what did Hezekiah do?

[36:03] He said, look at me. Because he had an opportunity, all the nations, all the kingdoms, everybody was coming to Jerusalem to recognize Hezekiah, and Hezekiah had an opportunity to say, no, it's not me, it's God.

[36:17] He had a chance to glorify God, instead he allowed himself to be glorified. Pride. Dangerous thing.

[36:29] As we look at the life of Hezekiah, and we see here, turn back over to 2 Chronicles chapter 32 here, as we get back over here.

[36:41] because notice what God allowed this to happen. It says this, and who sent unto him to inquire the wonder that was done in the land, God left him to try that he might know all that was in his heart.

[36:52] Now think about that. What did God want to know? Hezekiah, are you really going to keep, do you really going to glorify me in the moment? Are you got pride that needs to be dealt with?

[37:05] Are you going to deal with the right thing? And we find here, God allowed this test to see what was in his heart. It's a test that revealed his lack of gratitude toward the one that redeemed him out of the hand of the enemy and out of death.

[37:21] And the problem is not recognizing, the problem of not recognizing the source of our blessing can easily creep into our life. You know, when we forget that what we have is because God has blessed us.

[37:33] Whether it's little or much, you possess it because God has blessed you. But that's very easy to lose sight of that, isn't it?

[37:47] Very quickly to lose sight, just as Hezekiah, because we find here the prophet Isaiah reveals the judgment upon his house and it's going to be reserved for a different day.

[37:59] Now, this is another dynamic. Look over in 2 Kings chapter 20 and verse 19. Because Isaiah comes and says, hey, you're going to face the judgment of the Babylonians.

[38:11] Matter of fact, the Babylonians are going to come, not in the too distant future, and conquer Jerusalem.

[38:22] You know what they're going to do? They're going to take all this that Hezekiah showed them. Basically, Hezekiah set up his own destruction. But we're going to see here, notice here in verse 19 of chapter 20 of 2 Kings, then Hezekiah, then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken.

[38:42] And he said, is it not good if peace and truth be in my days? I'll let you think on that one for a moment. God tells him that your grandchildren are going to be facing great hardship.

[38:55] And Hezekiah's response of, well, it's good not my day. Now, we can talk about that a lot for America today. Because you know what? That's one of the problems we have. We're a nation that's been blessed. And we say, well, if judgment comes, as long as it's not my day, that's fine.

[39:07] Pretty short-sighted. Things to be concerned about. And we need to understand the importance of what we're looking at. You know, Proverbs chapter 4, here Solomon is instructing Rehoboam, you might say directly here in verse 20, it says, my son, attend to my words, incline thine ear unto my sayings.

[39:29] Let them not depart from thine eyes. Keep them in the midst of where? Thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them in health to all their flesh.

[39:42] Keep thy heart with all diligent, for out of it are the issues of life. What was Hezekiah's problem? He had a heart problem.

[39:54] You know, we can easily get, we can easily ourselves get a heart problem. Not the ticking kind of heart either, but a core issue in our life. And we see here, as we finish up quick with Hezekiah here, that the epitaph of Hezekiah reveals that overall he was a good king that loved God and desired to serve Him.

[40:13] You know, if you remember back in 2nd Chronicles chapter 29 in verse 2, it says, he did that which is right in the sight of the Lord according to all that David his father had done. So in other words, I want you to see that Hezekiah's, God's report on him said he was a good man who sought after God.

[40:32] But you know, you can have good intention of seeking after God and have a desire and pride can still become a problem. You see that throughout. That's the reason that people get in trouble in life is because pride takes over.

[40:46] Because let's look at the closing statement. Look at verse 32 of chapter 32 of 2nd Chronicles. It says, Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his goodness, behold, they are written in the vision of the Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

[41:01] And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the chiefest of the sepulchers of the sons of David. And all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did honor him in his death, and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.

[41:17] You know, we're going to pick up here in a few weeks talking about his son. Because you go from a godly king to one of the most wicked kings of Judah.

[41:31] Big flip. Makes you wonder, was that attached to Hezekiah's pride? and how his son seen some of these things happen that impacted. We'll take a look and see here in a few weeks as we pick back up.

[41:45] Let's close in prayer. Thank you.