What Have They Seen in Your House?
There are some situations in life where we immediately know we need God. When something threatens us or when hardship hits us, when things begin to fall apart, or when we simply do not know what to do, we immediately run towards God and pray asking for his help. In fact this comes so naturally, but I have been wondering whether I seek God with the same urgency when something good comes knocking at my door. Do you run to him and seek him to understand what is going on?
Hezekiah faced both.
In Isaiah 36, Assyria stood outside Jerusalem threatening to destroy the city. They mocked Hezekiah and even questioned whether God could save him. When Hezekiah received the threatening letter from Sennacherib, he took it into the house of the LORD, spread it before God, and prayed.
God delivered Jerusalem.
Then something very different happened.
In Isaiah 39, Babylon did not come with an army but they came with letters and a gift. They had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and recovered, and their king sent representatives to congratulate him. There was no threat this time, no one was mocking God, no one was demanding Jerusalem’s surrender and perhaps that was why Hezekiah did not sense any danger.
Isaiah tells us that “Hezekiah was pleased with them.” He welcomed the visitors and showed them everything. The silver, the gold, the spices, the precious ointment, the armory and all his treasures. He showed them everything that there was nothing in his house or kingdom that he did not show them.
Then Isaiah came and asked him a simple question:
“What have they seen in your house?”
— Isaiah 39:4
That question stopped me.
Only a few chapters earlier, Hezekiah had received a letter from Assyria and immediately taken it before God. Now another letter had arrived, this time accompanied by a gift, and we don’t read of Hezekiah taking this one before God.
One letter threatened him. The other flattered him. He discerned the danger in the first, but not in the second. The people Hezekiah welcomed and proudly showed his treasures to belonged to the very nation that would one day carry those treasures and some of his descendants away to Babylon.
It made me think about how much easier it is for me to seek God when something looks dangerous. When the door in front of me looks frightening, I pray, Lord, should I walk through this? However when the door looks like an opportunity, when someone appreciates me, when an offer looks attractive, or when something appeals to my pride and ego, do I stop and ask God with that same urgency?
Perhaps that is why discernment is so important. Not everything that threatens me is my greatest danger, and not everything that pleases me is necessarily good for me.
Hezekiah knew what to do with a threatening letter. Isaiah 39 leaves me wondering whether he knew what to do with a flattering one. That is the question I need to ask myself too:
Do I seek God only when the door looks dangerous, or also when it looks too good to refuse?
If this reflection blessed you, walk with me.
Every prayer and every share is deeply appreciated.
