Why The Lord Withdraws

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.