Hezekiah Shows His Treasures to the Babylonian Envoysby emmanuel_higgins

2 Kings 20:13

And Hezekiah hearkened unto them, and shewed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.

Hezekiah listened to the Babylonian visitors and held back nothing, showing them all the house of his precious things — the silver and the gold, the spices and the precious ointment, all the house of his armour and all found in his treasures, including the treasures in the house of God, with nothing in his house nor in all his dominion left unshown. The display came after God had healed him and lengthened his life, and what he put on view were goods and resources entrusted to him. He acted from pride and self-exaltation, and the act revealed what was in his heart when God left him to test him. In that testing wisdom was withdrawn from him, so that he acted strangely.

He showed his treasures and advantages because he thought doing so would win him influence with the ambassadors. Instead of gaining influence, his display tempted Babylon to come and plunder what had been shown, and the visitors went away and began planning how to take those advantages for themselves. Exposing precious and sacred prosperity to enemies in this way was a heinous and great sin that brought a heavy curse. Giving the enemy such access to the prosperity or perplexity of God's people belongs to that sin.

The account warns against displaying the riches of the Lord's work to strangers and outsiders, such as showing institutional wealth or opening books and operations to inspection. Exposing what should not have been disclosed gives outsiders an unwarranted opportunity to inspect and know those resources, and the resulting harm outweighs any money gained by it. It likewise warns against using resources in ways that exalt human achievement rather than advance God's cause. It warns against betraying sacred trusts by joining with unbelievers and relying on them instead of trusting God, a course that brings loss of God's favor and harms the example set for others. It specifically warns against making the church's troubles and weaknesses known to the wicked.