25But Hezekiah’s heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the LORD’s wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem.
King Hezekiah was proud. We might say that he was self-sufficient, that he felt like he didn’t need anyone or anything, including the LORD. Not a good place to be. Everyone needs someone. We are made for relationship and interdependence. The only person who doesn’t need anyone is the LORD Himself. Only God is self-sufficient. That is one of the characteristics of being God. Do you make your own air? Then you need another to make it. That other is the LORD. We need the simplest things to survive, and we don’t have the ability to provide them for ourselves, separate from the provision of God. Our ability to work, to communicate, to interact are all programmed into the very fiber of our being, our DNA. We might be able to slice it, but we don’t know how to build it from scratch. We don’t know its complexities and subtleties. We can do brute reshaping of the DNA, but we can’t program a living thing without copying what God has already made. Hezekiah did many things right during his reign, but he thought he was responsible for the positive things that happened. He took credit, at least to himself, for the good that happened. He should have been credit to the LORD. What things are you taking credit for that the LORD has done? In what ways are you not being humble?
The Arnold Journey 