[1] Amongst other idolatrous forms of worship which he
destroyed, he broke in pieces the brazen serpent which
Moses had made in the wilderness (2 Kings xviii. 4). Many
men would have been ready to destroy all the heathen forms
of idolatry; they would have made no peace with Baal, or
Dagon, or any other gods of the nations, but they would
have hesitated to destroy a relic of the life of Israel in
the wilderness; they would have thought it sacrilegious to
break up an image which Moses himself had made, and they
would have reasoned that the religious feelings of the
people were so entwined about this memorial of their early
days, that it would do more harm than good to violate their
feelings, and take away that which excited in their minds
religious thoughts. If a king of Judah had so argued, it
would not have seemed right to confound him with the mere
rabble of idolaters. If Hezekiah had destroyed all other
forms of idolatry and left this remaining, we could easily
have found an excuse for his conduct; but forasmuch as he
took a higher view of his duty, we are bound to give him
credit for that higher view, and to remark his spiritual
discernment. Hezekiah was not deceived by any flimsy
arguments about the sacred nature of the relic which the
people adored; it was a cause of idolatry, that was enough.
It had been sacred once. In the wilderness, when it was
held up as an object upon which the people might gaze, it
would have been a sacrilege to mutilate it; but now it was
but "a piece of brass," and if that piece of brass be the
centre of a system of idolatry, there is but one safe
course, and that is to destroy it.--_Goodwin._
[2] If his purpose was to impress upon the Babylonians the
greatness of his strength, the story of the destruction of
Sennacherib would have answered his purpose much better. If
Hezekiah had taken the ambassadors to the Temple, and told
them how he had spread Sennacherib's letter before the
invisible presence of his God in that holy house, and how
he had prayed that the designs of his enemy might be
brought to nought, and how that eventually the Assyrians
had all either perished or fled, the men of Babylon would
have been far more impressed with the power of Hezekiah,
believing as they would that he was under the protection of
an unseen Hand, than they possibly could be by the mere
vulgar display of treasures and armour, which their own
country would show in abundance, and which was the very
thing calculated to excite their desire of
plunder.--_Goodwin._