Are You Confused? I Am

For those that don't know, both Dr. Pratt and I participate in Bible Study Fellowship, as do/have several members of our class. This past year, we studied Isaiah, and I won't speak for others, but I sure shook my head a bit over 2 Kings 20:16-19:

¹⁶ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD: ¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, that will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

 ¹⁹ “The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?” 

Verses 16-18 clearly predict the Babylonian captivity more than 100 years in the future, and NIV Study Bible notes suggest this is all the more remarkable because at that time, Assyria was a much greater power than Babylon. My confusion lies in Hezekiah's response. Of course, I could be completely misinterpreting his response, since in addition to my view (i.e., "Whew, dodged a bullet there"), there are other possibilities:

1. The NIV Study Bible suggests that Hezekiah's response is "a humble acceptance of the Lord's judgment and as gratefulness for the intervening time of peace that the Lord in his mercy was granting to his people." In other words, Hezekiah could be saying "Amen. So be it."

2. As alluded to in the prior, perhaps Hezekiah is taking the good (over 100 years of future peace) and not just focusing on the bad. He's just been cured of his illness and granted 15 more years of life, and so he's accentuating the positive.

No matter what, it still has meaning for us today. In our own way, we're all in exile, as I've alluded to earlier this week. We've all in captivity to sin and won't be freed until we meet the Lord individually or on the Last Day. We can walk around in sack cloth and cover ourselves in ashes if we wish, but as Solomon stated repeatedly in Ecclesiastes, what's the point? Hezekiah seems to be taking Solomon's words to heart--enjoy and be thankful for what the Lord gives us in this life--family, friends and every other relationship we value and keep his commandments. Like the people of Judah, someday our exile will end also.

Scott