Isaiah Chapter 39 "Isaiah's Message, and Denunciation of Hezekiah." This Bible Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's transcription/ location is provided by http://www.theseason.org When Hezekiah was close to death with poisoned boils, God heard his prayer of repentance, and gave him fifteen more years to live. And God also gave Hezekiah signs, and those signs are important concerning the future. That is what signs are for, alerting us to the dangers ahead so that we will not destroyed by that trouble. Friend, it is only our Heavenly Father that can tell us according to His Word, what the tomorrow will bring. When the prophets of the Old Testament spoke, it was not them that spoke, but God speaking through them. They were God's messengers. Isaiah had brought the message from God that Hezekiah would be healed, and that the Assyrians would no return to give them trouble. The Assyrians were the enemies of Babylon also, and at this time Babylon was making peace overtures to Hezekiah. God is going to destroy the Assyrians and place Babylon in the world leadership from this point in time. The king of Assyria, Sennacherib was a type of how Satan would be in his role as the Antichrist [the Assyrian]. We will see from this time on the king of Babylon will also play the role as a type of Satan, when He returns to earth at the time of the end. The book of Revelation refers to Satan as the king of Babylon in the futuristic sense, that is the false Christ which comes to deceive the people of the entire earth. Once you receive great blessings from God, the first thing a person wants to do is talk about it. Well that was also what Hezekiah did, and we will see what happened when he did. We are to listen and learn the mistakes made by these children of God, so that we do not make the same mistake. Isaiah 39:1 "At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered." Merodach-baladan -4757 Mero'dak Bal'adan (mer-o-dak' bal-aw-dawn'); of foreign derivation; Merodak-Baladan, a Babylonian king: KJV-- Merodach-baladan. Compare 4781. 4757 Mero'dak Bal'adan- Merodach-baladan = "Marduk has given a son"; king of Babylon in the days of king Hezekiah of Judah King Merodach-baladan of Babylon sent Hezekiah a get well card, with a nicely wrapped present. This present is a way that Babylon had to soften Hezekiah and find out what God was going to do with the Assyrians. Babylon is about to take world control, just as the Assyrians enjoyed during the reign of Sennacherib of Assyria. When Sennacherib's army died in massive numbers at the gates of Jerusalem, Merodach-baladan wanted to know what went wrong and killed those 185,000 Assyrian troops, and caused them to run from Jerusalem. Remember that this is a type of how Satan shall also come to earth, and just as king Merodach-baladan came to Hezekiah and God's children saying all these sweet things and carrying gifts, so will the king of Babylon of the book of Revelation. God healed Hezekiah and he was feeling very good, he just couldn't wait to show and tell what God had done for him to anyone that would listen. The warning is to watch out what you show and tell to an infidel, one who does not know God or His Word, for that is what shall be used against you in due time. Pay attention... Isaiah 39:2 "And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not." Hezekiah thought he was going to die, and now God has given him fifteen more years. What could go wrong in that time? So when Hezekiah received these infidels from Babylon, and their letter with their gift, he treated them as next of kin. He wanted to show them everything he had. He was proud of all the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointments, as well as all of their armour, and other treasures that had been stored here sense the days of Solomon, with all his wealth. All the doors were opened, and they were allowed to view it all and record it for king Merodach-baladan. Hezekiah was filled with "I"s, I am, I have this and I have that. You know the type, they talk fast and stammer so they can repeat "I" more often. Hezekiah had just one problem, and that is that all that wealth from Solomon's day onward was the property of God. It did not belong to Hezekiah for he was only the steward over God's earthly property. You don't need spies to spy out the land, when the king himself takes you right into his innermost parts, and reveals his wealth and armour to you. Hezekiah's downfall was that he was so proud of all that he had that he tore down all of his defenses. This revelation of wealth to the Babylon king occurred about 603 B.C., and it would be some hundred and seventy years later that these same vessels of God would be used to bring down the Babylonian kingdom. This event is recorded in Daniel 5:1-5. Daniel 5:1 "Belshazzar the king made a great feast to the thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand." Daniel 5:2 "Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein." Daniel 5:3 "Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them;" Daniel 5:4 "They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver of brass, of iron, and wood, and of stone." Daniel 5:5 "In the same hour came forth finger of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote." When Belshazzar the king of Babylon took the precious vessels that came from God house, the temple, and made an orgy to his heathen gods, God took the kingdom from him that night. The writing on the wall is given in Daniel 5:25, and explained by Daniel in the next verses. This would mark the end of the Babylonian kingdom, and the freedom of the Jews. Daniel 5:25 "And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN." Daniel 5:26 "This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it." Daniel 5:27 "TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." Daniel 5:28 "PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." God kept His word that night, and that same night King Cyrus entered Babylon and split the kingdom with the Medes and Persians. King Belshazzar died in the night. Daniel 5:30 "In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain." Daniel 5:31 "And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old." "Darius" is a title "Darejavesh" in the Hebrew, and not a name; and it means the "maintainer". That maintainer was Cyrus the Great, ruler over the Medes and Persians. Poor old Hezekiah, he was told that he was going to die by the prophet Isaiah, and when God added fifteen years to his life, the first thing that he did was to give all the secrets of God's House, and the wealth of his kingdom away to the very one God compares to Satan himself. God helped Hezekiah in the natural way of a fig cake to heal the poison for his body, and here we see how quickly he runs out to these Babylonians and takes the glory for himself. Whether you are talking about property the size of a nation, or the size of a farm, man likes to think of himself as the owner of that property, however it is all God's property. He owns it all, and He created it for our use. When we lose sight of just who owns it, our "self" can get in the way of reality. No matter how long you have owned it, you only have the deed to it for a short period of time. God is going to call in the mortgage on all property very shortly, and call it all back to himself. When you die, or at His coming somebody else will live on that piece of land and consider it theirs. What ever God has placed in our hands, our duties are to be good stewards of it, and thank Him for what He has given to us. Isaiah 39:3 "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." You talk about a big head, king Hezekiah forgot just who he was and what his responsibilities were in his excitement of receiving the healing and added years to his life. He though these men came all the way from Babylon just to give him a gift and get well card, and be his friend. He lost sight of the fact that he was the king, and the gifts were an attack on the kingdom, and his people. Hezekiah was responsible for the protection of God's house, God's people and the things that God gave to his people, yet Hezekiah laid it all open this false friend, including the strength of his armor. Hezekiah opened up the sacred thing of God's temple so that the unbelievers could trample on them, and ultimately make a mockery of them, as we saw in Daniel 5. Isaiah 39:4 "Then said he, "What have they seen in thine house?" And Hezekiah answered, "All that is in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them." Now that Isaiah knows who these men are that have been escorted around Jerusalem and shown all the hidden secrets of the city, Isaiah wants to know exactly what Hezekiah has shown and told them. Can't you see Hezekiah standing proudly before the prophet of God, and bragging over the fact that he has shown and told them everything. The king has to much pride to see the stupid thing that he has just done. In Hezekiah's mind, he really impressed them, as he revealed the secrets of the city. Isaiah 39:5 "Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord of Hosts:" Isaiah 39:6 "Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, " saith the Lord." Years before this, the ten tribes of the House of Israel had been taken away, then in the past few months, the Assyrians overthrew over forty of Hezekiah's walled cities and forts. These Assyrians took captive over 200,000 men, women, and children of Judah, besides all the people that the Assyrian army had kill in the battle. And now Isaiah is telling Hezekiah that all the rest of the things that the Assyrians did not take, the Babylonians would take. They now have all the secrets of the city, the army, the temple, the people and they know exactly where everything is located. There is nothing they have not seen; "All that is in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them." Does it sort of sound like the foolishness that is taking place in our land today? God has warned us that Russia will come back to power, and be a major force in the world against the people of God. Yet, our leaders and military generals seem bent on showing them all of our armour, and telling them the capabilities of their use. Our weakness are blabbed around the world, and we just cant give our wealth away fast enough. Remember what God told Isaiah back in Isaiah 3:4" Isaiah 3:4 "And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them." Isaiah 3:5 "And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another and every one by his neighbor: The child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable." Isaiah 3:6 "When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, "Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thine hand:" The day spoken of here is the time of the end, in the final generation, and we are living in that generation. We see our leaders acting just as Hezekiah did, though they have the bodies of men and woman, their minds function just as the minds of babies. "I want, I, I, I" that is all they can think of. They destroy the things that are precious of God, they open the armory to the heathen nations and the one world system coming to power that Satan will rule over. They still can not see nor understand the parable of the fig tree, nor do they care to. When you watch the leaders stand before the nation in their press conferences, you can't help but notice how well dressed they are, yet when the open their mouth it sounds like the dribbling trot of a baby babbling. All their estimates are based on their own pride and wishes, and thus everything they do is a failure. The soundness of their treasury has eroded to the point that very shortly the entire national monetary system will fall. Our cities, states and nation is bankrupt, yet they continue to give massive amounts to the enemy, and build them up to our own demise. Friend, we are witnessing what happened in Jerusalem under Hezekiah's rule, coming to pass all over again, and the people have closed their eyes to the prophecies that Isaiah has given to us. Today we select our leaders by the way that they look and the clothes that they wear, rather then what comes out of their mouth. As a nation we are taking the presents that the Kenites are giving us, and buying into their one world system. They are writing the interpretations of God's Holy Word, and the churches are believing their lies and traditions, just as they did when they crucified Christ in Jesus' day. When the Babylonian army finally moved against Jerusalem, they stripped it bare. First they took the gold, and then the silver. Trip after trip, year after year until they had all of it. Then they came for the vessels, the art, the brass and all the other things of lesser value. At the end of the fall of Jerusalem they virtually stripped the temple bare, and tore it down to the ground so nothing of value was left behind. The Babylonians even took the toilets, the brazened tanks, and hauled them to Babylon. The city was burned and left in rubble, and the children of God were marched into the camp of the king of Babylon for the seventy years of captivity. Stop and look around you today. The wealth of our nation is being taken away and redistributed to other nations to equalize them, and prepare the world for the Babylon of the end times. The president and the congress thought it was a great victory to have the Kenites draw up their trade agreements, to allow our jobs and industry to relocated in the lands of the heathen. The president and the congress have given the "New World Order" and its many agencies all the secrets, and they are allowing the new world system to prepare the world for the coming of this false messiah, who the elect know to be Satan. All the signs of the end times are here, and they chose not to observe them, because God has closed their eyes to them. They will walk into Satan's kingdom gladly, because they have been taught to do so by their traditions that the Kenites have set up for them. Isaiah 39:7 " 'And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.' " This is the only good news that Hezekiah will receive, for Hezekiah did not have any sons at this time. It happened just as Isaiah predicted that it would. Some of these sons or grandsons were well know to us today, such as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and they all became eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar promoted Daniel to second under him in all the land, the chief tax collector for the one world system, and the others became princes providences of the kingdom. Isaiah 39:8 "Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, "Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken." He said moreover, "For there shall be peace and truth in my days." Hezekiah was pleased for the fact that God promised him that there would be peace for the fifteen years that was extended to his life. He was also pleased that God now promised him sons that would be given to him. Hezekiah was a good man, only he just lost sight of reality at times and allow his pride to take over. When a person tries to show that he is something that he is not, that is a sin to God. Hezekiah was representing these vessels and wealth to be his, when in fact it was not his but belonged to the Temple of God. In the end Hezekiah humbled himself, and this event of the showing of wealth to the Babylonians brought destruction on Jerusalem. Hezekiah did die after he had lived the fifteen years that God had promised him. Today many congregations build their new church houses, put the biggest and best organ inside, the place is decorated with all sorts of fine art, windows, and what not, with the most comfortable seats of any church. Then they stand back in their pride and pat themselves on the back over the new temple they have just built. They invite outsiders in to see their fine structure, and leave the teaching of God's Word out. In their services they have a few selected verses that supports their traditions, and throw out the rest. This is what Hezekiah did in part, and God doesn't like it. What was intended for God, was used to build their own pride in themselves.
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