39:1 At that time Merodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and gifts to Hezekiah, for he had heard of his illness and recovery. That's particularly significant when it happens to a king, because so much depends on that. When a king dies it says something about the entire nation. And when he recovers from a deathly illness, it's really a wonderful portent for that whole nation. It harks back to the arrested sacrifice of the king, and that kind of idea that's prevalent in the ancient Near-east where they use to symbolically sacrifice a king, and then they arrested his sacrifice, or they didn't go through with it-- kind of like Abraham offering his son Isaac and not having to totally go through with it even though the intent was there. And sometimes the king would have a substitute and they'd kill him instead of the king. So here the king was deathly ill and he recovered, so it was a good omen. Even throughout the ancient Near-east it was a good omen to know that the king's God had healed him. And so they thought this must be someone special. And he was, of course. So they sent letters and gifts to Hezekiah. Now another thing that was going on here was that Babylon, which was not then a world power, was an ascending power, which took over after Assyria as "the" major world power. But at that time Assyria was the dominating world power, a world conqueror. But there were a number of nations that were in alliance with Babylon, against the Assyrians, at that time. Behind the scenes there were machinations to overthrow the Assyrian power, and Babylon seemed to be at the center of those, historically. And of course they wanted whoever they could get to join this movement to overthrow the Assyrians. They had also heard of the Assyrian army being wiped out in Jerusalem; that, again, was a very great portent. 39:2 And Hezekiah was glad of them and showed the envoys his treasury—the silver and gold, the spices and fragrant oils, and his entire armory and all that was in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. Well, he still had a few things to learn, didn't he? Because he, basically, made them privy to all his secrets. He was an ally of theirs, though he was not directly allied in a military alliance, but he was a friend. They were at peace with Babylon at that time. So, what was the problem with what he had done? He did it kind of a little naively. Maybe he was a little prideful. He was a young king and maybe he hadn't yet learned complete restraint in some of his actions. But there was something that was basically wrong with what he did, and that's what we see in the next few verses. 39:3 Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and said, What did those men say to you, and where did they come from? And Hezekiah replied, They came from a distant land; they came to me from Babylon. Now, immediately, you know he's going to chastise the king, because he said, "those" men. Whenever Isaiah talks about "these" people, or doesn't use proper names or first names, then you know it's derogatory. "What did those men say to you, and where did they come from?" Of course he knows where they came from. "And Hezekiah replied, They came from a distant land; they came to me from Babylon. 39:4 And Isaiah asked, What did they see in your palace? And Hezekiah said, They saw everything there is in my palace. There is nothing in my treasuries that I did not show them. 39:5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord of Hosts: 6 The time shall come when everything in your palace, and all that your forefathers have treasured up until now, shall be carried away to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. 7 And from among your own sons, your future offspring and descendants, they shall take some to serve as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. You may wonder what's the connection to this with what Hezekiah has done. This seemed such an innocent thing to do, with an ally, just to show them around his country, and this be told this horrendous destiny, this future fate to be carried captive to Babylon, just like the Ten Tribes were taken captive to Assyria, and his sons to be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon? To be subservient to a foreign power? What do you think the connection was? Was it because of what Hezekiah had done? No. Hezekiah hadn't done anything really bad. His life had been righteous. His people were righteous. Why then, this pronouncement? 39:8 But Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of the Lord you have spoken is good. For he thought, Then there shall be peace and loyalty during my reign. Even though he had found out that at some future date there would be a destruction and exile of Judea, as there was of the Ten Tribe kingdom in the north, by Assyria, he said, at least it's not going to happen when I'm king-- which means that I and my people are loyal to the Lord; we have passed the test. He's not going to do this nor are they, thank God. He said this because he just didn't want to deal with that. He'd just been through a whole ordeal, and now he didn't want something further, like that, to happen. So he said, "The word of the Lord you have spoken is good." Meaning it's a covenant blessing. It implies covenant loyalty and covenant blessing. Why then does that announcement appear? It's a transitional chapter, chapter thirty-nine, between the first part of the book of Isaiah and the second part. The second part of Isaiah really begins with chapter forty, which talks about Israel being out in exile. Where it begins to talk about Israel, parts of it imply that Israel is still in the land. From Chapter forty-one and on, it's clear that Israel is out in exile, and one of the places they're in is in Babylon. So this is a transitional chapter, to kind of introduce that idea of future exile of the whole nation not just the Ten Tribes, also the southern kingdom of the Jews, or the Judeans. So what's the connection between the king showing the people around and making them privy to his inner sanctum, and this result? And the answer is, that anciently, a man could lay claim to something that he bought, by going and viewing it. Remember, in the parable of the marriage feast, where Jesus talks about it in the New Testament, where many people are invited to the marriage feast and they give various excuses for not coming. And one of them says, "I have purchased some land and I must go and view it." And the viewing of it was a formal act that laid claim to it. And so these guys coming here and viewing Hezekiah's kingdom, even the inner sanctum, his sons, his treasury, everything that he had there was an act of unwittingly giving them claim over all that. This was an historical incident that gives transition here, from being in the land where everything is well, and they've passed the test-- they're identified with Zion and Jerusalem, instead of Israel and Jacob—to a future time when things are going to go bad. So Hezekiah's implying, by saying, "Well, we've passed the test. It's not going to happen in our day. The Lord is protecting us {word unclear] now, but in some future day people will have to answer for themselves. They'll have to pass tests of loyalty, or fail them. They'll have to answer for their actions.