[S] 2 Kings 20:13, Isaiah 39:2 --
13Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and the house of his armor and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
2Hezekiah was pleased, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and his whole armory and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
[O] These two verses record the same incident where Hezekiah's heart is revealed by the two words I boldfaced: listened, and pleased. When King of Babylon paid a visit to comfort Hezekiah who was ill, his heart was pleased and pretty much gave his heart to King of Babylon. He needed to apply some discernment here because instead of listening to God's voice he was more inclined to listen to King of Babylon's voice and went over board to show him everything he had without understanding what motives the Babylonian King had.
[A] Who am I listening to with pleasure these days? Is it some other people who seem to be good to me? Although it is good to trust other co-laborers in Christ to carry out His ministry together with one heart, in the end I must listen to the voice of God and be pleased from that alone. Even though King Hezekiah did many good things in the eyes of God, he was not immune to making mistakes so the only way for him to avoid that was to listen for God's voice each and every day; and I must not neglect to do that.
[P] Dear God, I desire to be pleased by listening for Your voice only to guide my life. May I not be distracted by many other voices, some of them sounding very friendly. I want to be discerning in which voices to listen to as there are so many coming my way. Please continue to train my ears to recognize Your voice through the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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