Article March 8, 1930 Issue

"A nail in a sure place"

GEORGINA C. TALBOT

Referring to the installation of Eliakim as treasurer to the court of King Hezekiah, the prophet Isaiah represents God as saying, "I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place." A nail is a very simple thing, yet the prophet used it to teach a great truth. Eliakim's predecessor was Shebna, who is supposed to have been a foreigner at the court of Hezekiah. We read that Hezekiah "did that which was right in the sight of the Lord;" and we know the valiant stand he made for the things of God. On two occasions, however, while he had the attractive but foreign element in his household, he temporarily lost sight of his high ideals.

Sennacherib, king of Assyria, after the conquest of Samaria, attacked Judah. Fear crept into the thought of Hezekiah, and he tried, with silver and even with gold from the temple of the Lord, to induce the enemy to leave him in peace. How often, when we are cherishing in our mental household some undesirable thought, foreign to good, we think to ward off evil's attacks by some concessions to its demands. But, as Hezekiah found, such methods are fruitless, for error still asserts itself and knocks at the gate of our thinking. When Hezekiah turned to God for help, and sent to the prophet for guidance, he experienced a wonderful deliverance.

Was Hezekiah so elated by success that he failed to guard his mental household against the encroachments of the corporeal senses? We read, "Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up." When the king of Babylon sent an embassy with presents to him, ostentation and pride caused him to display to the visitors all the treasures of his house. Isaiah saw there was only one remedy for the belief in evil: the wrong thought must be cast out. So, however attractive error may seem to be, from our mental household must be ejected all that is alien to God.

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