The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 382

Vers. 24-26, 31.-Tlie shadow which Hezelct"ah casts on his own life's history. The great·commendation of Hezekiah, written in one word-hie" goodness "-in our thirty- i,~ond ~erse, but somewhat more expressly in the parallel (2 Kings xviii. 6), which raised him to the very first rank with David and Jehoshaphat, may well he accepted a.~ fully explained and sustained by the undeviating excellence of hie a.dministration 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 ollensive one, is to be le.id to his charge, and which seems to have consisted in e. boast- ful ostentatiousness, on an occasion which presumably pre-eminently condemned it for untimeliness and inexpedience. The faithfulness, a.nd yet the tenderness, of allu- sion to it, a.s ma.de by our present writer (ver. 31), we cannot but notice, understand, and a.dmire. But for the fuller suggestions that lie within it, they a.re to be sought a.nd found in the parallel (2 Kings xx. 12-19), a.nd in the writing of the Prophet Isa.ia.h (xxxix., wondel'fully prefaced by xxxviii.). From this pa.rt of the history of Hezekiah we may notice something to be learned as to- . I. THE SEED OF ocoASION. There a.re seeds-ma.ny, indeed-of occasion, besides those which, perhaps, we thiak more justly ea.lied seeds, viz. those of ea.use, They are to be thought on a.nd fee.red, for they are the lighter a.nd less visible; more approaching to a certain omnipresence, and wafted hither and thither on the gentlest of breezes, as well as the stiffest, they a.light so softly, e.t 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 mani- festations 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." 'l'he 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 a.II-seeing Eye saw this-that there was already sign of Hezekiah being exalted above measure (ver. 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 kind- ness still follow and pursue him (Isa. mix. I)-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" I 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 wi1,l carve its own occasion right through all occasion! lL THE SIS' ITSELF NOW IN 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 unexpectE:dly, and must be supposed to come out of one of those most sunken and a.side depths that give facility for sin to harbour, and for Satan to work his devices in the more difficult cases for him. The lesson iY that with Batau, 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 circUIDste.oces, 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 kaew better, and ha.d so well known and done better, that they could only be viewed e.s some very ret,rograde condition of heart, and, unless sternly che~ked, liable to lead to worse developments in practice. Civil words to Babylon, and civil deeds to the ambassa.dors 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- trJmptations to our tempter and would-be betrayer and destroyer-was a grand mis- on. xxxu. 1-83.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 387