Ingratitude to God - A Heinous Iniquity # 1

Ingratitude to God - A Heinous Iniquity # 1

"Hezekiah's heart was proud - and he did not respond appropriately to the kindness shown him; therefore the Lord's wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem" ( 2 Chron. 32:25).

Among the many vices that are at once universally decried, and universally practiced in the world - there is none more base or more common than INGRATITUDE; ingratitude towards the supreme Benefactor.Ingratitude is the sin of individuals, of families, or churches, or kingdoms, and even of all mankind. The guilt of ingratitude lies heavy upon the whole race of men, though. alas! but few of them feel and lament it. 

If the plague of an ungrateful heart must cleave to us while i this world of sin and imperfection, let us at least lament it; let us bear witness against it; let us condemn ourselves for it; and let us do all we can to suppress it in ourselves. I feel myself, exasperated, and full of indignation against it, and against myself, as guilty of it. And in the bitterness of my spirit, I shall endeavor to expose it to your view in its proper infernal colors - as an object of horror and indignation. None of us can flatter ourselves that we are in little or no danger of this sin, when even so good and great a man as Hezekiah did not escape the infection. "Hezekiah's heart was proud - and he did not respond appropriately to the kindness shown him; therefore the Lord's wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem."

Many had been the blessings and deliverances of this good man's life. The Assyrians had overrun a great part of the country, and intended to lay siege to Jerusalem. Their haughty monarch who had grown insolent with success, sent Hezekiah a blasphemous letter, to intimidate him and his people. He profanely bullies and defies Hezekiah and his God together; and Rabshakeh, his messenger, comments upon his master's letter in the same style of impiety and insolence. But here observe the signal efficacy of prayer! Hezekiah, Isaiah, and no doubt many other pious people among the Jews, made their prayer to the God of Israel; and, as it were, complained to him of the threatenings and profane blasphemy of the Assyrian monarch. Jehovah hears, and works a miraculous deliverance for them. "That night the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian troops" (2 Kings 19:35).

Sennacherib, with the thin remains of his army, fled home inglorious; and his two sons assassinated him at an idolatrous altar. Thus Jerusalem was freed from danger, and the country rescued from slavery and the ravages of war. Nay, we find from history, that this dreadful blow proved fatal in the outcome of the Assyrian monarchy, which had oppressed the world so long; for upon this the Medes, and afterwards other nations, threw off their submission;and the empire fell to pieces. Certainly so illustrious a deliverance as this, wrought immediately by the divine hand - was a sufficient reason for ardent gratitude!

Another deliverance followed this. Hezekiah was sick unto death; that is, his sickness was in its own nature mortal,  and would have been unto death - had it not been for the miraculous interposition of Providence. But, upon his prayer to God, he recovered, and fifteen years added to his life. This also was great cause of gratitude. And we find it had this effect upon him, while the sense of deliverance was fresh upon his mind; for in his thankful song upon his recovery, we find these grateful strains: "Only the living can praise you as I do today. Each generation can make known your faithfulness to the next. Think of it - the LORD has healed me! I will sing His praises with instruments every day of my life in the temple of the Lord!" (Isaiah 38:19-20).

But, alas! those grateful impressions wore off in some time; and pride, that uncreaturely temper, began to rise. He began to think himself the favorite of heaven, in some degree, on account of his own personal goodness. He indulged his vanity in ostentatiously exposing his treasures to the Babylonian messengers; which was the instance of selfish pride and ingratitude which here seems particularly referred to. This pride and ingratitude passed not without evidences of the divine indignation; for we are told, "Hezekiah's heart was proud - and he did not respond appropriately to the kindness shown him; therefore the Lord"s wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem."

As the crime was not peculiar to him - so neither is the punishment. Nations and individuals have suffered in this manner from age to age; and under the guilt of it we and our country are now languishing. In order to make you the more sensible of your ingratitude towards your divine Benefactor, I shall give you a brief view of his mercies towards you, and expose the aggravated baseness of ingratitude under the reception of so many mercies!

Mercy has poured in upon you upon all sides, and followed you from the first commencement of your existence; rich,various, free, repeated, uninterrupted mercy! The blessing of a body wonderfully and fearfully made, complete in all its parts. The blessings of a rational, immortal soul, preserved in the exercise of sound reason for so many years, amide all those accidents that have shattered it in others, and capable of the exalted pleasure of religion, and the everlasting enjoyment of the blessed God, the Supreme Good! The blessing of a large and spacious world, prepared and furnished for our accommodation; illuminated with an illustrious sun, and the many luminaries of the sky! The earth enriched and adorned with trees, vegetables, various sorts of grain, and animals, for our support or convenience! The sea, a medium of extensive trade, and an inexhaustible store of fish! The blessing of the early care of parents and friends, to provide for us in the helpless days of infancy, and direct or restrain us in the giddy, precipitant years of youth! The blessing of being born in the mature age of the world, when the improvements of civilization are carried to so high a degree of perfection!

The blessing of being born in a humanized, civilized country, the blessing of a good education, the blessing of good health for most, the blessing of clothing, of rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, of summer and winter, of seed time and harvest, the refreshing repose of sleep, and the activity and enjoyment of our waking hours! The blessing of a refined society! Blessings in every age of life; in infancy, in youth, in adult age, and in the decays of old age!

In short, blessings as numerous as our moments, as long continued as our lives. We must own we are not left destitute of blessings from God! Therefore, let God be acknowledged the supreme, the original Benefactor of the world, and the proper Author of all our blessings! Let God stand as the acknowledged Benefactor of the universe - to inflame the gratitude of all to Him. 

You children of God, his peculiar favorites, whose hearts are capable of, and do actually feel some generous sensations of gratitude; what do you think of your conduct towards such a Benefactor? I speak particularly to you, because you are most likely to feel what I say. Have you rendered back to your God, according to the divine benefits done to you? Oh! are you not mortified and shocked - to reflect upon your ingratitude, your sordid, monstrous ingratitude! Do you not abhor yourselves because you were capable of such base conduct? From you I expect such a generous response. But, as to others, they are dead in transgressions and sins, dead toward God - and therefore it is no wonder if they are dead to all penitential sincere relentings for their ingratitude.

~Samuel Davies~

(continued with # 2)