2 Chronicles 32:1-33

EXPOSITION

This chapter of thirty-three verses is paralleled by the sixty-one verses that begin with 2 Kings 18:13 and end with 2 Kings 19:37; and by Isaiah 36:1-22; Isaiah 37:1-38. Our chapter gives, as might be anticipated, but a very partial and somewhat broken account, therefore, of this stretch of Hezekiah's career, and no adequate impression whatever of the great power of some portions of the parallel. A close comparison of the two places leaves us tolerably clear as to the order and consecutiveness of the history, although perhaps not entirely so. The style of our present chapter betrays the usual marks of disjointedness, in the case of extracts from fuller history, in the indefiniteness of its connecting phrases, found, e.g; in Isaiah 37:1, Isaiah 37:9, Isaiah 37:24, Isaiah 37:31. Our compiler, by omission, seems to shield Hezekiah, probably designedly, from the disrepute that must be felt to attach to his want of faith, courage, and fidelity in his trusteeship of the sacred property of the temple as indicated by what is written in 2 Kings 18:14-16, of which see further infra.

2 Chronicles 32:1

The establishment thereof; translate, and this (his) truth. The word is the same with the third of the trio (see above), as given in 2 Chronicles 32:20 of the foregoing chapter. The evident meaning intended to be conveyed is, "After these things and this truth," i.e. truthfulness of conduct on the part of Hezekiah, the strict rendering being, "After the things and the truth this." Sennacherib … came … entered into Judah … encamped against the fenced cities … thought to win. This verse and these items of it may without any inconvenient strain be made conterminous with just one verse in Kings, the thirteenth of 2 Kings 18:1-37. The king personally seems to have devoted himself especially to the siege of Lachish, an Amoritish city indeed originally, and a place of great strength of petition, but conquered by Judah (Joshua 10:26, Joshua 10:31-35; 2 Chronicles 11:9; 2 Chronicles 25:27; and infra here and in parallel). This invasion of Sennacherib (Herod; 2.141), son of Sargon, may be with moderate certainty affixed to the date B.C. 701. Thought to win. A weak rendering for the preferable purposed or boasted to break them (Genesis 7:11).

2 Chronicles 32:2

When Hezekiah saw … and that he purposed … Jerusalem. Whether the three verses of ill omen already alluded to (2 Kings 18:14-16) may be road precedent to this verse, and purport that the bribes had been paid, and yet had failed of their object, so that Hezekiah was now compelled to brace himself to the occasion, and "took counsel," etc. (next verse); or whether this verse dates (as some think)the quailing heart of Hezekiah, and an offer or part payment of treasure by Hezekiah to Sennacherib, which only increased his insolence, as immediately now related, is uncertain, perhaps. In the face of the emphatic language of the three verses of the parallel, and in consideration of the possible motives as suggested above for our compiler omitting the matter altogether, we incline to the former opinion. That would have the effect of making this verse say that when Hezekiah had his eyes opened to the failure of his bribe—a waste payment, for that Sennacherib still "purposed to fight against Jerusalem"—he finally proceeded to take the right steps. However, the witness and indications of Isaiah 22:13-19; Isaiah 29:2-4, may go some way to shield Hezekiah from the entire blame. The silence of our compiler on the whole matter is the one residuum of fact, and unfortunate in its suggestion.

2 Chronicles 32:3

To stop the waters of the fountains … without the city. These fountains or springs were probably those represented by En Rogel, on the Ophel spur or very large mound, or fortified hill (mistranslated possibly from that circumstance "tower," in 2 Kings 5:24; Isaiah 32:14), on the southeast of the temple. The object of Hezekiah is obvious enough. The word ( סָתַּם) for "stopping" occurs in all thirteen times—twice in piel in Genesis, once in niph. in Nehemiah, and ten times in kal in Kings, Chronicles, Daniel, Ezekiel, and Psalms. It is for all material purposes very uniformly rendered in all these places by the word "stop" eight times, and otherwise "shut" or "closed," or to carry a derived meaning, "hidden" or "secret." If the word "shut" or "shut off" were employed, it would fit every occasion. So we are not told here how he stopped the fountain or fountains, but that he shut the waters off from one direction and guided them into another, vie. by a conduit running westward from the springs and the Gihon (i.e. the brook) flowing naturally down the Tyropoean valley to a pool prepared for it in the city. This pool was very probably none other than the pool of Siloam.

2 Chronicles 32:4

The brook that ran through the midst of the land. Compare the Septuagint, which has it, "through the midst of the city;" and compare foregoing verse and note; and see again above reference to Courier's 'Handbook' at length.

2 Chronicles 32:5

He strengthened himself; i.e; as in our several previous instances of the occurrence of the phrase (1 Chronicles 11:10; 2 Chronicles 12:1; 2 Chronicles 25:11; 2 Chronicles 26:8), he took all possible means to make himself and people and city strong to withstand the invader. All the wall that was broken (see Isaiah 22:9). Although we read that the devastation wrought by Joash (2 Chronicles 25:23) was very largely repaired by Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:9) and by Jotham (2 Chronicles 27:3), it is not explicitly said that the broken four hundred cubits of wall, from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, were made absolutely good again, although in the matter of towers and fortifications much was evidently done. Note also the word "all" here, side by side with the "much" of 2 Chronicles 27:3. And raised (it) up to the towers. Discard this Authorized Version rendering. The meaning cannot be certainly pronounced upon, hut perhaps it may be intended to say that he heightened the towers. The objection is that the same verb is wanted for the next clause, and that its rendering would need to be there slightly reduced again to a mere statement of raising from the ground (i.e. building) another wall without. Repaired Millo (see note, 1 Chronicles 11:8).

2 Chronicles 32:6

The street of the gate; translate, the wide area at the gate, etc.; what gate is not specified, but presumably either "the gate of Ephraim," which would be the one opposed to the camp of the besiegers, or possibly "the comer gate".

2 Chronicles 32:7

Several of the descriptive dramatic touches of Isaiah 22:4-14 are forcible and apt commentary to this verse.

2 Chronicles 32:8

(See 2 Kings 6:16; Jeremiah 17:5.) The admirable language of Hezekiah here quickens our desire to feel sure that this was after (and after genuine repentance for) his faithlessness (2 Kings 18:14-16).

2 Chronicles 32:9

The passage beginning with this verse and ending with 2 Chronicles 32:21 represents the much fuller parallel (2Ki 18:17-19:37), fifty-eight verses in all This much greater fulness is owing to the greater length at which the language of defiance on the part of Sennacherib and his appointed officers is narrated, and the matter of his subsequent letter; also the prayer of Hezekiah; and his application to Isaiah, with the reply of the latter to it. On the other side, there is very little additional in our narrative, a few words heightening the effect in our verses 18, 20, 21, constituting the whole of such additional matter. The vague mark of time, after this, with which our present verse opens, merely says that in due course of Sennacherib's invasion of Judah, and attack of the fenced cities (verse 1), he proceeds to send his servants and his insolent defiances to the metropolis, Jerusalem itself. The three words in italics, "himself laid "siege," should evidently give place to the single word "remained" or "was;" i.e. he and all his host with him remained at, or opposite to, Lachish, while his servants went to defy Jerusalem in his name.

2 Chronicles 32:10

In the siege. This Authorized Version rendering is manifestly incorrect, though, if we simply omit the article, and tender in siege, we shall probably have Sennacherib's exact idea. He spoke not of the literal technical thing siege, but of the distress and confinement that the apprehension of the siege did not fail to bring. This so to say moral tone to the rendering of the word ( בְּמָצוֹר) is much to be preferred to that of the margin, "in the fortress or stronghold."

2 Chronicles 32:11

The policy of Sennacherib, in the direct attempt to undermine Hezekiah by appealing straight to his people, instead of to himself or his ministers of state, is yet more pronounced in expression, as seen in 2 Kings 18:26, 2 Kings 18:27.

2 Chronicles 32:12

This misrepresenting of Hezekiah's pious actions is thought by some to have been innocent ignorance on the part of Sennacherib. Yet it is scarcely credible.

2 Chronicles 32:13

Some of these deeds of Sennacherib and his fathers, i.e. predecessors in the kingdom of Assyria, are mentioned in detail in 2 Kings 17:1-41, passim.

2 Chronicles 32:15

The urgency of Sennacherib's appeal to the people was of course his way of trying to save work of actual siege, fighting, etc; to himself and his army. The how much less of the message of Sennacherib probably meant that his estimate of the your God i.e. the God of Israel, was measured partly by the comparative smallness and unwarlike character of the nation of Judah, when set side by side with the great heathen nations, and partly by the spiritual and invisible character and being of God, little intelligible to such a one as Sennacherib.

2 Chronicles 32:16

And his servants spoke yet more. A glimpse of the fact that the compiler of our book very designedly excerpted only what he thought needful from very much more abundant resources.

2 Chronicles 32:17

Letters to rail on the Lord God of Israel (so 2 Kings 19:8-14). The rumour of the approach of "Tirhakah King of Ethiopia" (2 Chronicles 32:9) quickened Sennacherib's anxiety to make short work with the conflict at Jerusalem, by intimidating the people to an early collapse of their resistance,.

2 Chronicles 32:18

In the Jews' speech (see again 2 Kings 18:26, 2 Kings 18:27). The last three clauses of this verse are additional matter to that contained in the parallel.

2 Chronicles 32:19

As against the gods of the people of the earth, the work of the hands of men. Our compiler, at all events, signalizes the difference, which Sennacherib worse than minimizes, between the God of Israel and the so-called gods of the surrounding heathen nations.

2 Chronicles 32:20

For the prayer of Hezekiah, see 2 Kings 19:14-19; and for the place of the prayer or prayers of Isaiah, and the indications of their having been offered, see alike 2 Chronicles 19:4-7, and the verses of the grand passage, verses 20-34.

2 Chronicles 32:21

The exact matter corresponding with this one verse is embraced by verses 35-37 in the parallel (2 Kings 19:1-37.). It gives the number of slain as a hundred and eighty-five thousand. It does not speak of the heavy proportion of leaders and captains lost. It leads us to suppose that for all survivers it was a surprise in the morning—that silent vision of the dead in such vast array. Stating, on the other hand, in mere historic dry detail, the return of Sennacherib to his own land, his dwelling at Nineveh, and assassination, in the house of Nisroch "his god," at the hands of his own two sons, mentioned by name Adrammelech and Sharezer, who had to fly for it to Armenia (Ararat), it does not show the obviously designed moral touch of our compiler, so he returned with shame of face to his own land, nor the similarly complexioned description of the time, place, and agents of his assassination. Lastly, it gives Esarhaddon as the name of his successor on the throne.

2 Chronicles 32:22

This verse, with the notification of Hezekiah's great deliverance from the hand of the King of Assyria, summarizes also his various other deliverances, with tacit reference to such suggestion of other conflicts as we have in 2 Kings 18:7, 2 Kings 18:8. Guided them on every side. The Septuagint reads, gave them rest. This suits the connection as regards meaning best, and also as regards the immediately following adverb, "on every side." It has also in our present book the correspondences of 2 Kings 14:6; 2 Kings 15:15; and especially 2 Chronicles 20:30, with the Hebrew words of which, an easily supposed rectification brings it into exact agreement.

2 Chronicles 32:23

Presents to Hezekiah. The "precious things" ( מִגְדָּנוֹת) of 2 Chronicles 21:3.

2 Chronicles 32:24

The extreme brevity again of our compiler, in the account of Hezekiah's illness, and his passing so lightly over whatever in it cast shades upon his character and career, cannot escape our notice. Much fuller is the narrative of 2 Kings 20:1-21. Gave him a sign (see 2 Kings 20:8-11, and our verse 31, middle clause. See also at length of the sickness of Hezekiah, Isaiah 38:1-22.).

2 Chronicles 32:25

The parallel, 2 Kings 20:12-19 and Isaiah 39:1-8; fully explain the circumstances here referred to, and we may conclude that Hezekiah's sin consisted in the spirit in which he acted, displaying his treasures, so that it was in the fullest sense a sin of" the heart."

2 Chronicles 32:26

Hezekiah humbled himself. Possibly the language of the nineteenth verse in the parallel is the one surviving historic trace of this. The language found in Jeremiah 26:19 may be also a note of the same, though its dependence (see Jeremiah 26:17, Jeremiah 26:18) on Micah 3:12 seems to make it less likely.

2 Chronicles 32:27

If Hezekiah not only began to negotiate, but actually paid the precious metals, etc; with which he offered to buy off the invasion of Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:14-16), he may have become considerably recouped by the presents and gifts subsequently, liberally it would appear, brought to him (see our 2 Chronicles 32:23), and it is possible that this may give us some further clue to where it was that his heart strayed, while displaying his wealth and treasures to the messengers of Berodach-Baladan King of Babylon.

2 Chronicles 32:28

Cotes for flocks should be tendered, conversely, flocks to the stalls, i.e. stalls full of flocks.

2 Chronicles 32:30

Stopped the upper watercourse, etc. (see our 2 Chronicles 32:3, 2 Chronicles 32:4). What Hezekiah "stopped" was the spring, or more strictly access to it, and guided its prized waters down, probably by an underground channel, to Siloam, or else to the pool in the city which he had constructed and enclosed by that "another wall without" (2 Chronicles 32:5), west of the "city of David."

2 Chronicles 32:31

Howbeit; literally, and thus. The italic type dispensed with, the verse may be rendered, And thus with or among the ambassadors of the princes … God left him to, etc. The princes. This plural may be the pluralis excellentiae, and designate the king himself, who doubtless issued the official command to the messengers to visit Hezekiah with gifts, etc; but not necessarily so. The word may betray the inquiries and curiosity of the princes of Babylon, under the king, the expression of which led to the embassy, so to call it.

2 Chronicles 32:32

In the vision of Isaiah (so Isaiah 1:1).

2 Chronicles 32:33

In the chiefest of the sepulchres; literally, in the ascent of the sepulchres; i.e. in new burial-places, either on the ascent to the old ones, probably now full, or else above, them.

HOMILETICS

2 Chronicles 32:1-23

The weakness that bodes strength; the defiant strength that bodes shame efface.

One of the most fruitful sources of strength in the individual character is according to the trustfulness that may be in it-the absence, or all but entire absence, of it on the one hand, and the larger or lesser bulk of it on the other. Trustfulness is a sure turning-point—a determining feature in the original shaping and in the growing formation of any character. The direction in which that trustfulness goes out to exercise itself, or goes in quest of an object on which, in its lovingness, to lean, is watched often enough with trembling solicitude, and is a matter of intrinsic importance. It is undeniable that the trustful disposition often means that which is prone to trust too soon, too easily, and to its own hurt therefore. It often, also, goes with too little self-reliance. These are, however, the weaknesses incident to what is really a strong feature. Where a person is strongest, there, by many an analogy, may lurk some form of weakness, some snare. Once more, there is an opposite of trustfulness, that consists in suspiciousness, and not simply in too little trust. Of such an opposite nothing good can be said. But, even by the side of too little trust, the trustfulness that errs by excess must be considered to show to advantage, and really to gain advantage, unless the excess be to a manifestly foolish extent, and a thing of perpetual recurrence. The practical outcome of all is that, as between man and man, we distinguish the two expressions—trustfulness, and exercising trust—and we discriminate the two qualities which those expressions purport to describe. Such a distinction and such discrimination are more than necessary as between man and God. Implicit trust, constant trust, and all the loving trust of trustfulness, can never be misspent, never misdirected towards God. The example outlined before us in the first eight verses of this chapter is an instance of a notable effort and enterprise of trust, as compared with perhaps that afforded us by the life of Abraham and many others, which illustrated an habitual trustfulness. Let us learn—

I. THAT THE ULTIMATE GREATEST MATERIAL OF STRENGTH IS TRUST IN THE UNSEEN. Such trust is not only a last resource, an ungrateful last resort; it is the matter of strength, its material. "This is the victory that [even] overcometh the world … faith." This dictum of the apostle, who loved love so well, and was something less known for faith, may be held to carry the whole question. What a fine field of survey, what a wide horizon opens before us, when once we begin to try to count the achievements of faith! This faith in the Unseen, and in the UNSEEN ONE, is no mere matter of high contemplation; it works with trust.

1. The trust, that characterizes an honest consciousness of duty done to the best and utmost of human ability, becomes at once a strong incentive of faith.

2. So also that trust which comes of a clear discernment of the incompetency of self when alone and unaided.

3. The very craving of trust helps the grand quality of faith. And, on the other hand, the reacting of the intelligent conviction of the existence and presence and favour of the great Master of all circumstance and all events is the very suggestion and nourishing of trust. These also have a very spreading nature (2 Chronicles 32:8). There are very many who learn trust and faith at second hand, if it may be so expressed, who have not force enough apparently in and of themselves, and without the inducement and encouragement of many examples, or, perhaps otherwise, of some very leading and remarkable example. And then, at the crisis—some crisis of great extremity—the sudden cry of prayer makes the whole scene burst into life; faith and trust are exchanged for fruition (2 Chronicles 32:20, 2 Chronicles 32:21). It was so now with Hezekiah and his people; it was often so in the history of other kings and people; and it is often so—how much oftener might it be?—in our individual life.

II. THAT THE EXTREMITY OF WEAKNESS IS DEFIANT TRUST IN SELF. Self-trust is, indeed, except under certain circumstances, nothing short of utter weakness; but the daring, defiant form of it presented by the narrative before us exceedingly, and actively aggravates the mischief, E.g.:

1. The defiance that comes of overweening conceit of self is certain to underrate the strength of others (2 Chronicles 32:9-19).

2. The defiance that comes of an overbearing temper is certain to betray the owner of it into what must involve such moral fault as adds weakness to weakness. For instance, it does not fall short of mocking fellow-men, nor hesitate at all to do so!

3. The defiance that comes of impious disbelief of the one God, and infatuated reliance on no other but the god self, is merely another way of saying that the man guilty of it is already shut up within the smallest circle of resource. And with all this corresponds, again, the howl of the servants and soldiers of Sennacherib (2 Chronicles 32:18) against the besieged "people of Jerusalem that were on the wall, to affright them, and to trouble them," in some mocking imitation of their venerated language; in place of the "prayer and cry to heaven" of Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet (verse 20). That howl came of sense alone, and appealed to sense alone. So rude an attempt at intimidation of an enemy a very poor substitute for "prayer" to God for strength to prevail, and "cry" for his protecting and delivering mercy!

2 Chronicles 32:24-26, 2 Chronicles 32:31

The shadow which Hezekiah casts on his own life's history.

The great commendation of Hezekiah, written in one word—his "goodness"—in our thirty-second verse, but somewhat more expressly in the parallel (2 Kings 18:5), which raised him to the very first rank with David and Jehoshaphat, may well be accepted as fully explained and sustained by the undeviating excellence of his administration of the kingdom. His reign is, at any rate, unsullied by any sins like those of David. Yet one error, one sin, and from its denunciation and punishment manifestly a grievously offensive one, is to be laid to his charge, and which seems to have consisted in a boastful ostentatiousness, on an occasion which presumably pre-eminently condemned it for untimeliness and inexpedience. The faithfulness, and yet the tenderness, of allusion to it, as made by our present writer (2 Chronicles 32:31), we cannot but notice, understand, and admire. But for the fuller suggestions that lie within it, they are to be sought and found in the parallel (2 Kings 20:12-19), and in the writing of the Prophet Isaiah (39, wonderfully prefaced by 38.). From this part of the history of Hezekiah we may notice something to be learned as to—

I. THE SEED OF OCCASION. There are seeds—many, indeed—of occasion, besides those which, perhaps, we think more justly called seeds, viz. those of cause. They are to be thought on and feared, for they are the lighter and less visible; more approaching to a certain omnipresence, and wafted hither and thither on the gentlest of breezes, as well as the stiffest, they alight so softly, at most unsuspected times, and on spots most unsuspected. These occasion-seeds are, doubtless, often part of the very scheme and works of Providence. Designed to good, they are, like many of the completer manifestations of Providence, warped and wrested to evil. The exact origin of the severe "sickness unto death" of Hezekiah is nowhere told us. It looks uncommonly like an earlier "thorn in the flesh." The thorn in the flesh, out of which St. Paul made for himself such good history, turns to all the reverse with Hezekiah! His "thorn in the flesh" was sent because the all-seeing Eye saw this—that there was already sign of Hezekiah being exalted above measure (verse 25) through the long run of mercy and prosperity vouchsafed to him, even though vouchsafed in harmony with his own "goodness." Yet mercy strews "his path and his bed." Promise of recovery, sign and marvel—sign of recovery, and recovery itself—are all in early sequel. Mercies of kindness still follow and pursue him (Isaiah 39:1)—letters, presents, congratulations, flattering inquiries of the wonderful sign granted to Hezekiah, in a double sense, of Heaven itself—and the issue already declares itself! The net is not "spread in vain in the sight of this bird"! Sickness, warning, special kindness, special suggestions of dependence, and therefore of the appropriate humility; of dependence most graciously remembered of Heaven, and therefore of gratitude, that should have been responsive;—"all this array one cunning bosom-sin blows quite away." The occasion of sin came through, the very warning against sin, and shows how sin will carve its own occasion right through all occasion!

II. THE SIN ITSELF NOW IS QUESTION. The careful study of this for our own warning is the more desirable, inasmuch as it is the one only recorded defection of Hezekiah. It comes on the page of his history unexpectedly, and must be supposed to come out of one of those most sunken and aside depths that give facility for sin to harbour, and for Satan to work his devices in the more difficult cases for him. The lesson is that with Satan, the expert in the offensive, it needs ever that with much prayer we strive to be experts in the defensive. The pomp of display and the vanity of ostentation by which and into which Hezekiah was now entrapped, were probably attended by aggravating circumstances, which, though not stated, may be surmised with no little probability; but, at any rate, they were penetrated by this aggravation—that they came from one who knew better, and had so well known and done better, that they could only be viewed as some very retrograde condition of heart, and, unless sternly checked, liable to lead to worse developments in practice. Civil words to Babylon, and civil deeds to the ambassadors of her king, happened to be just the wrong thing, and not the right A vain-glorious display of the treasures, that already excite the cupidity of plunder—temptations to our tempter and would-be betrayer and destroyer—was a grand mistake indeed. So are civil words to our souls' tempters, and civil deeds to our great enemy Satan! If Hezekiah had known that "these men," and "the country whence they came" (2 Kings 20:14), were going to be the capturers and the enforced home respectively of God's people, whom he had been set jealously to guard and watch over as the under-shepherd; if he had known that all his "precious things, silver and gold, spices and ointment, armour and all treasures," were to be the sacrilegious plunder of Babylon and the King of Babylon;—would he then have done as he did? These things, it may truly be said, he did not know now. But what did he know? And did he not know such things as these—that pride and vanity, vain-glory and ostentation, were not for him, who was the dependent servant of God, and the trustee of treasures, sacred treasures, also, that belonged to him to whom the earth and the fulness thereof and all its precious things, but especially Israel, belonged? How often do we excuse ourselves, both for mere faults and also for sins, on the plea that we did not know certain exact facts, forgetful of these two things—first, that we nevertheless did know, and do know, certain great general principles and rules which, had we observed them, would have covered and governed all individual cases; and, secondly, that though we may often say, "We did not know," there remains to be answered the question whether our ignorance was not nevertheless of our own making, or at least within the reach of our own removing!

III. THE ATTITUDE OF HEZEKIAH TO HIS FAITHFUL PROPHET, It certainly would appear (2 Kings 20:14, 2 Kings 20:15; Isaiah 39:3, Isaiah 39:4) that he was conscious of wrong in the presence of Isaiah, that he feared his interrogatories, that he equivocated in his reply, or, at any rate, concealed, or tried to conceal, some part of what had transpired in his interview with the ambassadors of Babylon, laying emphasis enough on the rest. So far as the narrative goes, he does not directly reply to what "these men' said. He was probably flattered by "great Babylon" coming at all, by the congratulations brought, by the inquiry respecting "the wonder that was done in the land," and—infatuation though it were, if so—by the presumable overtures on the part of the King of great Babylon to enter into some alliance with him. This all was emphasized greatly by the fact that the present visit was the first converse of the two kingdoms. Israel had heard of Babylon, of her "wealth," her "glory," her "beauty," and of her "sins" (Isaiah 13:1-22; Isaiah 14:1-32; Isaiah 21:1-17.) also, but up to this time had held no sort of communion with her. In an evil hour the "uplifted" (verse 25) heart of Hezekiah answered to all the blandishments of the occasion, and the new and grand acquaintance which he has made is prophetically and positively set before him by Isaiah in a light which quickly disenchants him, as the conqueror and taker-captive of Israel, and the very master of his sons and humbled posterity. An hour ago it was his ambition to show all his "wealth" and all his "dominion," and watch whether they vied with those of the great master of the "ambassadors." A moment's vision of the truth dashes all else to the ground; and Hezekiah becomes either the genuine resigned penitent—God having "tried him," left him "to himself, that he might learn all that was in his heart" (verse 31)—or the alike obsequious and selfish receiver of the tidings of doom for his people, delayed till after his own death. If this latter be the position, the even grateful resignation to the Divine will, uttered by Hezekiah's lip, contrasts ill with the nobility we would wish to put to the credit of such a king, and the king of such a people.

2 Chronicles 32:1-8

In face of the enemy.

We do not know how long "after these things, and the establishment thereof," occurred the events which are here narrated; but the connection of the two in the record of the Chronicler may suggest to us—

I. THAT TROUBLE MAY FOLLOW FAITHFULNESS AS IT DOES FOLLOW SIN. We never read of Israel's serious departure from their loyalty to Jehovah without reading of appropriate penalty coming in due course. Suffering always waits on sin—suffering in some form. But sometimes, as here, trouble comes to the right-hearted; to the nation which has Hezekiah for its king, and Isaiah for its prophet; to the man who is zealous in the cause of his Divine Lord. "Many are the afflictions [even] of the righteous, and sometimes great as well as many. They have a work to do within and beyond, the value of which will immeasurably outweigh the "grievousness of the present" (Hebrews 12:11).

II. THAT IT SHOULD BE MET WITH COURAGE, ENERGY, INTELLIGENCE, AND PIETY. These qualities Hezekiah was now showing. He had given way to trepidation, and he had resorted to means which were unworthy of his position and his piety (see 2 Kings 18:9-16). But now he was in a nobler mood. His courage rose to the occasion (verse 7); his energy was manifested in the effective measures (verses 4, 5) he took to distress and to disappoint the enemy; his intelligence was shown in his taking counsel with the strongest and wisest of his people, in the rapidity of the measures he adopted and in their sagacity, and also in his effort to inspire the people with confidence and security; his piety shone forth in his address to the people, calling on them to remember that they had not an "arm of flesh," but "the Lord their God," to lean upon. Let us meet any form of trouble—disappointment, loss, bereavement, sickness, or any affliction whatsoever—in this spirit and with these qualities, and it will not master us; we shall prevail over it. It will not leave desolation and ruin in its track; it will rather leave benefit and blessing behind it.

III. THAT WHEN WE ARE ATTACKED OUR AIM SHOULD BE TO DEFEAT THE ENEMY'S INTENTION. This is not altogether the truism it may seem. Too often men think that their duty and their wisdom under attack is to reply to the enemy in the same form in which he is assailing them. But that may be most unwise. Just as Hezekiah considered what Sennacherib was aiming at, and took prompt and able measures to defeat that purpose; so we should always consider, not the kind of warfare, but the "real objective," the ultimate purpose of our enemy, and should set to work to prevent its realization. He may only be wanting to provoke and disturb us, and we shall absolutely defeat his purpose by not allowing ourselves to be provoked or disturbed; he may be desirous of inducing us to take some compromising step, and we shall gain the victory by refusing to be drawn in that direction; he may want to bring himself into notoriety, and we shall defeat him by quietly letting him alone, etc. Consider his aim, and move so as to thwart that.

IV. THAT RECTITUDE IS THE STRENGTH OF ANY CAUSE OR KINGDOM. Sennacherib's multitude of soldiery was nothing whatever when he deliberately and ostentatiously arrayed them against the living God. Hezekiah's army was indifferent in size and (probably) in military equipment and training, but what mattered that so long as they had righteousness in their ranks and God for their Leader? We are not, indeed, to despise the means which we employ, but it is so much that we may say that it is everything to know and feel that our cause is just, that we ourselves are upright in our heart and character, and that, with perfect purity and simplicity of spirit, we can ask God's blessing on our efforts.—C.

2 Chronicles 32:8

Resting upon words.

"And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah." How far are we right and wise in building upon words, upon the words of another?

I. THE FOLLY OF RESTING ON THE USE OF FORMULAE. There are some sacred forms or phrases, theological or scriptural, which have been much urged upon men, as if they had some very special potency in them; as if we could be perfectly at rest, in regard to human souls, if they did but pronounce those particular phrases with their lips. Such superstition as this is pitiable and perilous. It is utterly without warrant, and it is likely to withdraw the soul from that true trust in which life is to be found. To believe in Jesus Christ can never be resolved into the use of any form of words, how~ ever excellent or scriptural such form may be.

II. THE CONFIDENCE WHICH IS FATAL, viz. to rest upon the words of those who are unworthy of our trust. How many of the children of men have lost everything that is most precious because they have made this fatal mistake! Of those whose words should never be built upon are:

1. The ignorant, whose range of knowledge is very small, and who have not had the opportunity of learning the ascertainable truth and wisdom of God.

2. The prejudiced and obdurate, who will not learn, and therefore do not know and cannot counsel.

3. The superficial, who are contented with a knowledge which does not reach "the deep heart of truth."

4. The false, who only say what they think is palatable and profitable.