At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors and doorposts of the temple of the LORD, and gave it to the king of Assyria. – 2 Kings 18:16

Today's Scripture Reading (April 22, 2023): 2 Kings 18

Paying tribute as an act of submission was an essential aspect of the political system of the ancient world. Powerful nations would demand that weaker nations would pay them for the privilege of letting them exist, usually with some sort of submissive act and a promise that they lived to serve the powerful. Often, that was all that was required. A payment, whenever it might be demanded, along with a symbol of subservience, would keep the relationship moving forward for both nations. But non-payment, or even payment that was not delivered in a submissive manner, would often mean dire consequences for the less powerful country. It was how the nation of Judah would end in the early years of the sixth century B.C.E. At that time, the Southern Kingdom would stop paying tribute to the Babylonians.

Isaiah had told Hezekiah that God would save them from the Assyrians. And he did. But that didn't mean that Hezekiah would trust God in the future. Instead, Hezekiah decides that he somehow dodged disaster with the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem. But what happens next probably caused Isaiah to stare in disbelief. The King decided that rather than risk the return of the Assyrian army, he would enter into a subservient tribute-paying relationship with the Assyrian Empire. Maybe paying tribute made Hezekiah feel safer than depending on God for the nation's defense. However, it also impoverished both Judah and the Temple to the point that even the gold covering the doors and the doorposts had to be removed to pay the tribute.

Did it work? Maybe, Assyria never did come back to threaten Judah again. They eventually had other problems and internal conflicts that weakened the nation's ability to sustain the Empire. Ultimately, the Assyrian Empire would succumb to the upstart Babylonian or Chaldean Empire.

But maybe that also isn't really the point. Hezekiah's decision to pay tribute meant that the nation would be set up to live in poverty. The sad part of the story is that it could have been different if only Hezekiah and Judah could have continued to trust in the God who had already promised to be their defense.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 32