I. HEZEKIAH'S SIN.

1. Its character.

(1) Ingratitude. "He rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him." That benefit had been great - deliverance from a more powerful assailant than the King of Assyria, even from the king of terrors (Job 18:14) - and ought to have awakened undying thankfulness in Hezekiah's besom, as, indeed, he promised it would (Isaiah 38:20). But it did not. Ingratitude, a sin of which Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:16) and Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 12:1) before him bad been guilty, with which men in general are often chargeable (Luke 17:17; Romans 1:21; 2 Timothy 3:2), and into which the best of men occasionally fall (2 Samuel 12:7, 8, 9).

(2) Pride. "His heart was lifted up." Like other good men before and since, his vows upon his sick-bed were better than his performances when health was restored. He had engaged "to go softly all his years, because of the bitterness of his soul" (Isaiah 38:15); but instead, his heart was lifted up, not as Jehoshaphat's had been, "in the ways of the Lord" (2 Chronicles 17:6), but as Uzziah's (2 Chronicles 26:16) and Amaziah's (2 Chronicles 25:19) had been, in self-sufficiency - the allusion being to his behaviour in connection with the Babylonian envoys, who shortly after his recovery visited Jerusalem, and endeavoured to enlist him in a league against Assyria (see homily on ver. 31).

2. Its punishment. The wrath of Jehovah was threatened

(1) upon himself, the immediate offender, which was righteous (2 Chronicles 19:2; 2 Chronicles 24:18; cf. Romans 1:18); and

(2) upon Judah and Jerusalem, by the law of imputation, and in accordance with the solidarity of nations. The punishment of sin often falls on the innocent, because of their connection with the guilty. Children suffer for the evil-doing of their parents, and subjects for that of their rulers. "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge" (Jeremiah 31:29; Ezekiel 18:2).

II. HEZEKIAH'S REPENTANCE.

1. The self-abasement of the king. "He humbled himself for the pride of his heart." The wrath of Jehovah, pronounced against him and his people by Isaiah, was the Babylonish captivity. When Hezekiah heard the prophet's threatening, he realized that he had sinned, and humbled himself before Jehovah, saying, "Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken" (2 Kings 20:14-19; Isaiah 38:3-8).

2. The concurrence of the people. "He and the inhabitants of Jerusalem." Probably they had not been unfavourable to a Babylonian alliance against Assyria, and were really "art and part" co-criminals with Hezekiah; if they had no share in Hezekiah's action, they had still cause to humble themselves before God on account of Hezekiah their king.

3. The clemency of Jehovah. The judgment was to fall on Hezekiah's sons rather than on himself, which Hezekiah recognized as a mercy, and acknowledged by adding, "Is it not so [i.e. good] if peace and truth shall be in my days?"

LESSONS.

1. The possibility of spiritual declension.

2. The duty of repentance,

3. The obligation of gratitude.

4. The sin of pride. - W.

1. He sought his own glory. He wished to show what a great man he was, in order that his alliance might be courted and his power feared.

2. He sought his own glory in preference to God's honour. He had now a happy opportunity of magnifying the God of Israel. He might have

(1)recounted God's past dealings with His people;

(2)commended Jehovah as an answerer of prayer.

3. He sought his own glory before the good of his friends. He should have recompensed the great kindness of the ambassadors by instructing them in the knowledge of the God of Israel.

II. ENQUIRE WHETHER WE ALSO HAVE NOT SIMILAR GROUNDS FOR HUMILIATION.

1. Pride is deeply rooted in the heart of fallen man. We are vain

(1)of any natural endowments of body or mind.

(2)Of any acquired distinctions.

(3)Even the gifts of grace become occasions of pride.

2. We indulge this disposition to the neglect of God's honour and of the eternal welfare of those around us.

(1)We have many opportunities of speaking for God.

(2)But how rarely is our intercourse with each other made subservient to His glory.

III. INFERENCES.

1. What dreadful evils arise from small beginnings. Hezekiah at first probably intended only to show civility to his friends.

2. How great is the efficacy of fervent prayer and intercession. God deferred the evil threatened till the next generation.

(Skeletons of Sermon.)