One day a mother was out shopping with her son. Every time she took him shopping with her she couldn’t keep him by her side. As soon as she would turn her back, the boy would wander off somewhere, though keeping his mother in sight the entire time. She would then have to go and retrieve him. Her son had a pride problem. He was disobedient and thought he had his mother wrapped around his little finger. He was also overly confident in his own ability to venture out, and to know where his mother was at all times.
Well, again the boy departed from his mother and just assumed that she would be there. His mother then decided that she would get sneaky, and when he wasn’t looking she hid from him behind a clothes rack. When the child realized that his mother was missing, he frantically began searching for her. His mother then decided that he had had enough, and she came out from her hiding place. When the boy saw her, he dashed to her and clung to her; and from that time forward, he stayed right by his mother’s side, and never let her out of his sight again.
Sometimes we too can become prideful and overconfident in our own abilities, which is sin; and similar to this illustration of the mother and her son, God will have to hide from us. Isaiah 59:2 says, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” The Lord will hide from us in order to gain our attention and cause us to cling to Him.
Our sermon this evening is entitled, “Why the Lord Withdraws,” and we’ll be viewing a biblical example that ties in with the illustration I just shared. The parental figure in our account is “God,” and the son is “King Hezekiah.” I also wish to point out that I’m going to be heavily referencing a parallel telling of the account found in 2 Kings chapter 20.
The Lord Made Hezekiah Prosperous (vv. 27-30)
27 Hezekiah had very great riches and honor. And he made himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of desirable items; 28 storehouses for the harvest of grain, wine, and oil; and stalls for all kinds of livestock, and folds for flocks. 29 Moreover he provided cities for himself, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance; for God had given him very much property. 30 This same Hezekiah also stopped the water outlet of Upper Gihon, and brought the water by tunnel to the west side of the City of David. Hezekiah prospered in all his works.
Hezekiah had some amazing accomplishments in his kingdom, proving the power and success of Judah. However, before he ever began to focus on building the infrastructure and accumulating wealth for himself, he accomplished great things for the Lord. For instance, he reopened and repaired the temple (2 Chronicles 29:3-19); he restored worship (29:20-36); he reinstated the observance of Passover (2 Chronicles 30); he enacted reforms to include tearing down the high places and the altars of idol worship (31:1); and he reinstated giving offerings (31:2-10), and tithes (31:11-12).
In verse 30, we read of how Hezekiah had stopped the water of the Gihon, and diverted it to the west side of Jerusalem. This was another one of his great feats, and 2 Kings 20:20 speaks about it by declaring, “He made a pool and a tunnel and brought water into the city.” Michael Rosenbloom comments, “Recognizing the vulnerability of Jerusalem, King Hezekiah . . . had a [1,740 foot] tunnel dug . . . to divert the waters of the Gihon Spring into the city. He also sealed the cave from which the waters of the Gihon sprung forth. King Hezekiah correctly realized that without a secure water source, Jerusalem couldn’t withstand a long siege. Conversely, it would be difficult for a conquering army to mount a successful siege on Jerusalem if the main local water source was cut off from the conquering force.”(1)
I want to once again emphasize that Hezekiah did some pretty amazing things “for the Lord” and “for Judah.” However, when we see Hezekiah in these verses – for the most part – we see him doing things only for “himself.” Twice the text emphasizes that he “made” or “provided for himself” (vv. 27, 29); and there are six things mentioned here that King Hezekiah made or accumulated for himself: treasuries, storehouses, stalls, cities, flocks, and herds – things publicly demonstrating his success, and places in which to store all of his trophies. Formerly, Hezekiah had sought to do things for God and Judah, but now we read of how he did things for himself.
Perhaps Hezekiah felt that he deserved it after all the hard work that went into reestablishing reverence for God. Hopefully, he didn’t obsess over and put more energy into his own plans than he did the Lord’s. Solomon did this, for we read that he spent seven years building God’s house (1 Kings 6:38), and thirteen years building his own house (1 Kings 7:1). We have to be careful about the plans we make, and be certain they honor God. Hudson Taylor said, “We can make our best plans and try to carry them out in our own strength. Or we can make careful plans and ask God to bless them. Yet another way of working is to begin with God; to ask His plans, and to offer ourselves to Him to carry out His purposes.”(2)
We don’t know how much time Hezekiah spent on his own plans, but what we can see here is that he did many of these things for himself. According to verse 30, he prospered greatly; but what I wish to point out is that the one who was really behind it all was God himself, for verse 29 states, “For God had given him very much property.” It is important to note that God was behind his success, so we can understand the Lord’s response to Hezekiah in the following verse.
God Withdrew to Test Hezekiah’s Heart (v. 31)
31 However, regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, God withdrew from him, in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.
We read here about some ambassadors from Babylon who came to see the scale of Hezekiah’s accomplishments. So who were these ambassadors? Well, 2 Kings 20:12-13 shares a little more detail, for we read, “At that time Berodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah was attentive to them, and showed them all the house of his treasures – the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory – all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.”
2 Kings 20:12-13 tells us that Hezekiah showed off all that was in his kingdom. He may have done this for one of three reasons: 1.) He may have felt obligated to give them a tour because they had given him a gift; 2.) since he was sick, it could have cheered him up to get out of bed and give them a tour; or 3.) perhaps he did it out of pride. This latter possibility of “pride” is the very reason why “God withdrew from him, in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart” (v. 31). Hezekiah had a lot of accomplishments in which he could have boasted and taken all the credit.
This presents us with our main question to consider: “Do we boast in God, or in ourselves, for our successes?” In Galatians 6:14 the apostle Paul stated, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Michael English sang, “In Christ alone will I glory; though I could pride myself in battles won. For I’ve been blessed beyond measure, and by His strength alone I’ll overcome. Oh, I could stop and count successes like diamonds in my hands; but those trophies could not equal to the grace by which I stand! In Christ alone I place my trust, and find my glory in the power of the cross. In every victory, let it be said of me: My source of strength; my source of hope – is Christ alone.”(3)
The Lord wants to know whom we will credit for our successes; so, what He will do sometimes, when we have gained a lot of success or become prosperous, is to withdraw from us for a while. He may even choose to withdraw from us when we have become “spiritually” successful and prosperous; meaning, when we have actually grown in our relationship with the Lord. That’s what the Lord did with Job. Job was said to be “blameless and upright” (Job 1:1), and yet God withdrew and allowed the devil to test him; and Job gave all the glory to God in the end. He declared, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21) and the Scripture continues to say, “In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong” (v. 22).
The Bible says that the Lord “withdrew from him [or Hezekiah] . . . that He might know all that was in his heart” (v. 31). What exactly does it mean that God withdraws to know a person’s heart? Doesn’t God already know what’s in our heart? Yes, to some extent He does, because of the precious Holy Spirit living inside us. He knows when our heart’s desire is to serve Him; but He also knows that we don’t always act according to godly desires, for we often succumb to temptations and evil desires.
The Lord knows our heart based on our actions. In Luke 16:14-15, we read where Jesus stated how the Lord knew the Pharisees’ hearts, but He knew their hearts based on the fact that they were lovers of money and they justified themselves before men. God knew their hearts by the way they behaved. In Matthew 7:20, we learn that an individual’s heart is known by his or her fruit.
The Lord is the only one who can rightly discern our actions and pass judgment, for He is a holy and just God. Whenever we look at a person’s fruit, we don’t know all that’s going on inside. If a believer should stumble and do something wrong; then the Lord, unlike a person, can see beyond the one-time mess-up and know when that person’s heart is loyal to Him. Think about David. He was a murderer and adulterer, but God called him “a man after My own heart, who will do all My will” (Acts 13:22). 1 John 3:20 says, “God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.”
God’s heart-search considers our responses and actions. The Lord judges our heart based on the way we behave, which is known as “character.” Character is defined as, “A person’s attributes, traits, or abilities” and “moral qualities, ethical standards,” and “principles” (American Heritage Dictionary, 2006); and it’s defined as “The inherent complex of attributes that determines a person’s moral and ethical actions and reactions” (WordNet 3.0, 2006). Sometimes we might say, “It doesn’t make sense to go through these trials! God already knows what’s in my heart!” The bottom line is that the Lord knows our heart based on the way we respond to certain life situations.
In our passage here the Lord was testing Hezekiah’s character. So, how did he rate? Did he pass his character test? If we look at the account found in 2 Kings Chapter 20, we can see two responses from King Hezekiah that demonstrate faithful character. The “first response” concerns his sickness. Here is the recorded response of King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20:2-3: “Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ‘Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly.” Hezekiah turned to God, which showed his dependence on the Lord, and he basically cried out, “Consider my overall character.”
We then read where the Lord told him, “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you” (2 Kings 20:5). 2 Chronicles 32:25 says, “But Hezekiah's heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the Lord’s wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem.” Hezekiah initially showed “dependence on God,” which is a good character trait, and one which we should all incorporate in our walk with the Lord; however, we see that Hezekiah still has some remaining pride that needed to be purged.
So, we come to the “second response,” concerning the Lord’s wrath. In 2 Kings 20:16-17, the prophet Isaiah revealed what God’s wrath would be, for we read this: “Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘Hear the word of the Lord: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord’.” In 2 Kings 20:19, Hezekiah responded by saying, “The word of the Lord you have spoken is good.” 2 Chronicles 32:26 records this response: “Then Hezekiah repented of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore the Lord’s wrath did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.” So, afterwards, Hezekiah showed “submission” and “humility” toward God, which are some more godly character traits.
Time of Reflection
The Lord “withdrew from [Hezekiah] . . . that He might know all that was in his heart.” God tested his character, and we see that he eventually passed his test by “relying wholly on the Lord in dependence,” and by “repenting of his pride” and “living in submission to God’s will.” Are you going through some trial right now, or a time of testing in your life? Do you feel as though the Lord has withdrawn from you? Perhaps He wants to see what’s in your heart. What character will God find in you? Will it be something good or something bad; will you be found faithful or faithless? If you demonstrate your faithfulness and dependence on God, then He will return to you in due time.
Remember that God knows our heart by our actions. For instance, if the Lord is speaking to your heart about receiving His Son, Jesus Christ, as your Savior; if you will respond to His call and receive Jesus, then God will know that you are obedient to His call, and that you have faith to trust and believe.
Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” With your heart you believe in Jesus Christ; that He died on the cross for your sins, and rose from the grave victorious over sin and death – “that’s your faith.” With the mouth confession is made unto salvation – the confession is “the action” that shows God your heart. Will you demonstrate your faith in Jesus Christ this evening by walking down the aisle, and then praying to receive Him into your heart?
NOTES
(1) Michael Rosenbloom, “Hezekiah’s Tunnel and the Gihon Spring,” taken from the Internet in December of 2007 at http://www.ohav.org/travel/hezekiahtunnel.html.
(2) Warren Wiersbe, Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching and Preachers, p. 243.
(3) Michael English, “In Christ Alone.”
