Chapter 39

Visitors come from Babylon.  Merodach-baladan, son of Baladan, King of Babylon, is the one who sends them.  Strange that it is the son of the King of Babylon, and not the King himself, who sends emissaries and gifts.  Hezekiah unwisely shows off all his treasuries and his armory to emissaries from Merodach-baladan.  God is angry, and says that because of this, Babylon will steal all that stuff and take it back to Babylon.  Further, some of Hezekiah's sons will be eunuchs in the palace of the Babylonian King.  Hezekiah is glad that this will not happen while he is King.  Seems so wrong...

2021 - God had already decided, I think, that Jerusalem would fall to Babylon.  I think we've been told that through some of these prophecies.  So why was God angry and why did he make it seem as though Hezekiah's showing off was the reason for what was coming?  God had just added 15 years to Hezekiah's life.  So there was that.  Maybe the problem was that these emissaries weren't even from the King of Babylon?  Hezekiah maybe shouldn't even have met with them, because they were "below him" in status?  Yet he not only met with them, but tried to raise his status with them by showing them his riches.  He showed them his worldly status, when he had just recently been given something far more valuable.  15 years of life, and this from the one God of Israel.  Why didn't he tell them about that instead of showing off his gold and silver?

I still don't get that last verse though.  At least it will be peaceful for my 15 years, too bad for the boys though.  Too bad for Judah.  Too bad for Jerusalem.  Had Hezekiah snapped? 

2024 - It may be that Hezekiah did not see this as having anything to do with him.  As noted earlier, God had made it clear through Isaiah that Jerusalem would someday fall to Babylon.  Hezekiah's reign ended in about 686 BC, 100 years before Jerusalem falls.  So it is possible that Hezekiah would never have met his descendants that end up being eunuchs in the service of Babylon.  He may have been dead before any of them were even born.  Maybe Isaiah had made this clear to him, or had previously told him that Babylon was coming some day, and all this message was about was that it was coming pretty soon.

2024 - In vs 6 we get the phrase "the days are coming".  I don't think we've seen that one before.  Ah...but it was.  In 1Sam 2, it was used to tell Eli that the high priesthood would move over to Samuel instead of him.  In 2Kgs 20 it is spoken to Hezekiah in that book's account of what we have just seen in Isaiah.  This Chapter 39 is the only place in Isaiah that it shows up, and it shows up in Jeremiah 6 times.  Can we say that this phrase is only used of things that will happen within a few generations, and "in those days" is always about the far future?  Another good idea for a study.