Commentary - 2 Chronicles 32:27-31

Bird's-eye view

This short passage serves as a crucial hinge in the story of Hezekiah, a good king whose life stands as a permanent lesson for the people of God. Having just experienced a miraculous deliverance from the Assyrians and a supernatural extension of his own life, Hezekiah is now showered with immense wealth and honor. The text makes it clear that this is a direct blessing from God. However, immediately following this description of God's lavish kindness, we are told of a test involving envoys from Babylon. In this test, God withdraws His hand of obvious support in order to reveal what was truly in Hezekiah's heart. The juxtaposition is stark and intentional. The narrative sets up a profound theological principle: God's blessings, particularly material ones, are not the ultimate goal but are rather the platform upon which the true condition of a man's heart is revealed. It is a story about the perilous proximity of great blessing and great temptation, and it demonstrates that the most dangerous place for a man to be, apart from active grace, is on the pinnacle of success.

The Chronicler is teaching us that God gives good gifts, but the old man, the unmortified sin within, is always eager to take credit for them. Hezekiah's success was God-given, his engineering feats were remarkable, and his wealth was staggering. But the arrival of the Babylonians provided the occasion for his heart to swell with pride. God "left him" not in a final sense of damnation, but in the sense of letting the king walk on his own for a few steps to show him how unsteady his legs really were. This episode, therefore, is not just about Hezekiah; it is about the nature of the human heart in the presence of success and the constant need for a dependent humility that clings to the Giver and not the gifts.

Outline

Context In 2 Chronicles

This passage comes at the apex of Hezekiah's reign. In the preceding narrative, he has been presented as one of Judah's great reformers. He cleansed and reconsecrated the Temple (2 Chron 29), reinstituted the Passover on a grand scale (2 Chron 30), and purged the land of idolatry (2 Chron 31). Following this, he faced the existential threat of Sennacherib's invasion, where he trusted God and saw the Assyrian army miraculously destroyed (2 Chron 32:1-23). He then fell gravely ill and, in response to his prayer, was granted fifteen more years of life, with the sign of the sun's shadow moving backward (2 Kings 20). The events of our text, his immense prosperity and the subsequent test, flow directly from these mighty acts of God on his behalf. The Chronicler, writing after the exile, is using Hezekiah's life to instruct the returned remnant. He is showing them the pattern of blessing for obedience, the necessity of radical trust in God, and, crucially, the subtle and persistent danger of pride that can follow even the most spectacular deliverances.

Key Issues

The High Peril of the High Place

There is a principle woven throughout Scripture that we would do well to nail down in our minds. Faithfulness begets prosperity, and the daughter devours the mother. This is not a cynical observation, but a diagnostic one. God is not stingy. He loves to bless His people, and sometimes those blessings are tangible, heavy, and golden. Hezekiah was a faithful king, and God made him a wealthy king. The problem is never with the gifts themselves; wealth is a gift from God. The problem is with our hearts, which are idol factories running twenty-four hours a day. Pride is bequeathed to us from the devil. When God gives us wealth, the devil sees a grand opportunity to whisper that we earned it, that we deserve it, that our cleverness and piety produced it.

God set Hezekiah on a high place of honor, wealth, and international renown. And then, for a moment, He let go. Why? To test him, that He might know what was in his heart. Of course, God, being omniscient, already knew. The test was not for God's information, but for Hezekiah's. A man never knows how much pride he has until his blessings are inventoried by a foreign dignitary. God wanted to show Hezekiah, and all of us, that the same heart that can trust God heroically in a crisis can fail spectacularly in a time of comfort. The test reveals the lingering disease, so that the patient will turn again to the Great Physician.

Verse by Verse Commentary

27 Now Hezekiah had abundant riches and honor; and he made for himself treasuries for silver, gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and all kinds of desirable articles,

The Chronicler begins with a plain statement of fact. Hezekiah's wealth was not moderate; it was abundant. The pairing of riches and honor is significant. In the biblical mindset, true honor is the public recognition of a man's worth and standing, and it frequently accompanied wealth as a sign of God's favor. But notice the next clause: "he made for himself treasuries." This is not necessarily sinful; a king must be a wise administrator. Hezekiah was a steward, and he was organizing the blessing. He built vaults and storehouses for all the markers of ancient wealth. This list is designed to impress upon us the sheer scale of the prosperity. This was not just a king with a healthy treasury; this was a monarch of immense, Solomon-like stature.

28 storehouses also for the produce of grain, wine, and oil, stalls for all kinds of cattle, and sheepfolds for the flocks.

The description of his wealth continues, moving from luxury goods to the foundational agricultural economy. His prosperity was not just in portable treasures but in the means of production. He had surpluses of grain, wine, and oil, the three staples of the land's fruitfulness. He also had vast herds of livestock. This demonstrates a well-ordered, thriving kingdom from the ground up. Hezekiah was not just hoarding gold; he was presiding over a nation that was productive and flourishing. This was the blessing of Deuteronomy in action: obedience was leading to national health and prosperity. He was a good king, and the land was reflecting the blessing of God under his rule.

29 He also made cities for himself and acquired flocks and herds in abundance, for God had given him exceedingly abundant wealth.

Hezekiah's activity extended to civil engineering and urban development; he was a builder of cities. And again, the text emphasizes the sheer quantity of his livestock. But the Chronicler does not let us linger on the king's accomplishments without pointing to their ultimate source. The verse concludes with the theological bedrock for all that has been described: for God had given him exceedingly abundant wealth. This is the key. It was not Hezekiah's cleverness. It was not his piety earning him a wage. It was a gift. The word is given. The Chronicler is setting the stage. He wants us to see the breathtaking generosity of God, so that when the test comes, we understand what is at stake. The temptation will be for Hezekiah to look at all this and think, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth" (Deut. 8:17).

30 And it was Hezekiah who stopped the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah succeeded in all that he did.

Here, a specific and famous accomplishment is highlighted: the construction of Hezekiah's Tunnel. This was a masterful feat of engineering, redirecting the Gihon Spring's water into Jerusalem to provide a secure water source during a siege. It was a demonstration of wisdom, foresight, and technical skill. The Chronicler then summarizes the entire era with a sweeping statement: Hezekiah succeeded in all that he did. This is the pinnacle. From religious reform to military defense to civil projects, everything he put his hand to prospered. He was the model of a successful king. And it is right here, at the summit of his success, that the narrative pivots to the great test of his life.

31 Even in the matter of the envoys of the rulers of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the miraculous sign that had happened in the land, God left him alone only to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.

Now comes the "but." The occasion is the arrival of diplomats from Babylon. Their stated purpose was to inquire about the "miraculous sign," which was the sun's shadow moving backward as a confirmation of God's promise to heal Hezekiah. This was a prime opportunity for evangelism. Hezekiah could have given all the glory to the God of Israel who can alter the course of the heavens. But the text tells us something else was afoot. In this specific encounter, God left him. This does not mean God abandoned him to damnation. It was a temporary, purposeful withdrawal of manifest grace and guidance. It was like a father letting go of his toddler's hands for a moment to see if he can stand. The purpose was explicit: to test him. And the goal of the test was revelation: that He might know all that was in his heart. As noted before, God's knowing is for our benefit. God wanted to bring to the surface the pride that was festering in Hezekiah's heart. The king who had been so dependent on God in his affliction had to learn that he needed to be just as dependent in his prosperity. The parallel account in Isaiah 39 tells us what happened: Hezekiah foolishly showed the Babylonians all his treasures. He showed them the gifts, but he forgot to boast in the Giver. His heart was lifted up, and the test revealed it.

Application

The story of Hezekiah's wealth and his subsequent stumble is our story. We are wired to handle adversity better than we handle prosperity. When we are in trouble, we know we need God. We cry out, we pray, we cling to His promises. But when the bank account is full, when the children are successful, when the ministry is flourishing, the siren song of pride begins to play. We start to take credit. We subtly shift from gratitude to entitlement. We begin to manage our blessings instead of worshiping the Blesser.

This passage calls us to a radical, moment-by-moment dependence on God, especially when things are going well. We must pray that God would not "leave us" to ourselves, because we know what is in our hearts. Left to ourselves, we are all proud fools, eager to show off our treasuries to the Babylonians. The application is to cultivate a heart of relentless gratitude. Every good gift is from above. When someone praises your success, be quick to deflect the glory to God. When you survey your accomplishments, confess that it was the Lord who did it.

And when we fail the test, as Hezekiah did and as we all do, the application is to repent. The good news is that 2 Chronicles 32:26 tells us that "Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart." He failed the test, but he passed the make-up exam. God's tests are not designed to destroy us, but to expose our sin so that we might confess it and be restored. Our ultimate hope is not in our own faithfulness, but in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, the King who possessed all the riches of heaven and yet humbled Himself, not for a moment, but all the way to the cross. He is the true treasure, and when our hearts are fixed on Him, the treasures of this world find their proper, subordinate place.