Proud Possessions Can Quickly Disappear
“Everything your fathers have stored up to this day will be taken to Babylon”
2 Kings 20:16
He was one of the two greatest kings ever in the southern Kingdom of Judah. His confidence in the true God of Israel was unsurpassed. Badly outmanned and outgunned, he had faced down a mighty and heretofore undefeated emperor. 185,000 enemy soldiers had fallen to him – actually to an angel acting on his behalf – without an arrow being shot. He was battling and finally beat a fatal illness at the same time.
Apparently though, King Hezekiah had gotten a bit too satisfied, specifically regarding his treasuries. He proudly showed everything he owned to some foreign allies, emissaries from Babylon. So, the greatest Evangelist of the Old Testament had to bring his friend Hezekiah bad news. Isaiah asserted: “The days are coming when whatever is in your palace, everything which your fathers have stored up to this day, will be taken to Babylon.” Even Hezekiah’s own royal descendants would be exiled and pressed into slavery there. The Biblical record assures us this was fulfilled only a century later.
Nowadays: delight in God’s graciousness, demonstrated to us also via our possessions—this is godly. But as you know, our possessions can also snare us in sin. It’s another good reason to give generous offerings. A giving soul is not one taking sinful pride in its possessions. A giving soul recognizes that the dear Lord can make those resources disappear really quickly, if he’d like. The consequent generosity of such an individual acts as a guard against transgression and great loss.
Even our Savior did not consider his very nature as God as a possession to be held on to for dear life. No, for us he humbled himself, for us he emptied himself, for us he died. And we are filled forever!