Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There's a precious lesson in the story of good King Hezekiah that the church of today is hungering to understand--the truth of unconscious sin. He was a good "Laodicean," right at home among us, blissfully unaware of the true condition of his heart. Jesus says of Laodicea, You don't know your true condition of heart (Rev. 3:17). Neither did Hezekiah know.
When praying to be healed Hezekiah felt sure that "I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart" (Isa. 38:3), giving himself an A+. He was sincere! But he did not realize that buried deep inside his heart was sin waiting only an opportunity to manifest itself. "Regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, God withdrew from him, in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart" (2 Chron. 32:31).
During those renewed 15 years, Hezekiah un-did the good done previously. Unconscious sin does not incur guilt, for we don't know how to "confess" it. We don't know it exists. But nonetheless, unconscious sin is lethal. It can crucify Christ afresh. (Jesus prayed for His crucifiers, "They do not know what they do!").
Hezekiah's sincerely unknown sin burst into the open when his pride took over with the Babylonian messengers sent "to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land," to hear the gospel. Instead, he deprived them of what they were hungry for, and regaled them with a display of his riches (denominational pride?). Result: (1) He opened the gate for Babylon's eventual return, leading to ultimate national ruin. (2) During these extra years he sired Manasseh, the most wicked of all kings (who caused rivers of blood to flow in Jerusalem's streets). The eventual national disaster was due to "Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah" (Jer. 15:4).
In this Day of Atonement, all buried, unknown sin must be brought out in the open, recognized, confessed, forsaken, and repented of, through the Holy Spirit's "conviction." That's what is happening today in the "cleansing of the sanctuary." One wise writer says, "Don't resist our Lord in His office work."
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 26, 2001.
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