Allegiance with Babylon

“There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.” 2 Kings 20:13b

Just when I think we are going to find a king who ‘ends well’ the crown slipped, the robe fell, and God’s glory was snatched away by King Hezekiah. God answered the king’s dying plea with an additional 15 years after he had fallen ill to the point of death. He preserved the king’s life and continued his reign despite Hezekiah’s drifting away from God. At some point, Hezekiah took credit for all the treasures that had been taken into the Lord’s treasury. When he received a gift from the king of Babylon after he had recovered, Hezekiah reciprocated and went on a ‘look at me’ tour, showing the king of Babylon everything of value he had. He exposed not only the value and worth of the treasury, but he continuously touted the treasury as his. Isaiah’s prophesy from God came with the swift response that they would be attacked by Babylon and everything accumulated would be carried off by them to Babylon.

Where did the king go wrong? How did the gratitude for an extended life dissipate? The answers are the same answers that we can give for our own drifting away from God. A crisis occurs and we drop to our knees with promises and negotiations with God. We crown Him with our undying allegiance and watch His movement in our circumstances with attentiveness we haven’t had in quite some time. Finally, God moves in a way that only He can move, and we are so grateful. And for a while we have this unparalleled devotion to Him. The days get calmer and seem to make more sense and we settle into the rhythm of life again. Our prayers get shorter and our Bibles get dusty and gradually we forget the value of what God accomplished on our behalf. We get a little bored and we look to the world for satisfaction. We begin building our treasury through pride, material objects, and service to self instead of others. We make an allegiance to ourselves and with the world. We purchase things to make us feel better and we tout the accomplishments that God has done on our behalf. We build our up our own palaces forgetting that God gave us our kingdoms. I learned a new phrase today called ‘counter steering.’ It is used when talking about maintaining balance on a bike or motorcycle. It is the practice of leaning in the opposite direction when making a turn to maintain the balance of the ride. ‘When we start to drift away from trusting God, we can counterbalance our turn by intentionally leaning back toward God. Think of how differently we might read the end of Hezekiah’s story if, instead of using the kingdom’s treasure to elevate himself, he elevated the presence and provision of God. There is power in leaning into the presence and provision of God.’ Trustworthy, Lysa TerKeurst, p. 153. When we counterbalance God against the world we view God as our greatest treasure in life and will protect our relationship with Him above all things.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights

…” James 1:17