Damariscotta Baptist Church

 

In the last chapter, Hezekiah was on the top of the world. He had put his trust in God and a miracle happened. Judah was delivered from the Assyrian king Sennacherib. One hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian men were found dead and King Sennacherib picked up his troops and went home. People were beginning to think Hezekiah was the promised Messiah. However, chapters 38-39 will reveal just how fallible Hezekiah really was and they will also prepare us for the answer of who the real Messiah will be.

Chapter 38 begins with another prayer by Hezekiah. The prophet Isaiah has presented Hezekiah with an indisputable word from God. Hezekiah was ill and he was going to die. This does not come as a word of judgement but rather as a simple fact.

Granted, it is a fact that we are all going to die, but Hezekiah had some reservations regarding this message. First off, he was only 39 years old at the time. Granted he was ill, but why was God allowing him to die so young? He certainly did not see himself as wicked. Actually, Hezekiah had learned a thing or two about the heart of God, namely that He does hear and He does listen to the cries of His people, even when it looks like all markers point to a fixed outcome. Again, Hezekiah’s response to this information was to talk with God. Now, Hezekiah does not come right out and literally ask for lengthened life. Rather, he reminds God of how he has been trying to conduct his life, verse 3,

Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

 

Hezekiah knew Psalms 34:11-14 and tried to live by it;

Whoever of you loves life

   and desires to see many good days,

keep your tongue from evil

   and your lips from telling lies.

Turn from evil and do good;

   seek peace and pursue it.

Hezekiah was reminding God that he had met His requirements for a long life and was wondering how fair it was to cut his life short, as though he were a wicked man, like the one in Psalm 37:35-36

I have seen a wicked and ruthless man

   flourishing like a luxuriant native tree,

but he soon passed away and was no more;

   though I looked for him, he could not be found.

Check out God’s response!

He sends a new message back through Isaiah offering Hezekiah another fifteen years! He would deliver Hezekiah and the city from the hand of the Assyrian king and defend the city. God also offers a sign to show that He was capable of doing what He said and He makes the sunlight go back then steps. Demonstrating that God was able to move time backwards, and He could also allow time to go forward.

Hezekiah recovers and then he afterwards, he writes, a lament, or a meditation on mortality. Hezekiah begins with the untimeliness of the announcement of his death. Why it was in the “prime of his life,” and he was being “robbed of the rest of his years.”

Can’t you relate? When you are 39 years old, and you have a family and friends, and you are faced with death, it makes sense that you would lament not being able to spend more time with them.

Yet, Hezekiah realizes that life is, at best, a transient state. Note his reference to the “shepherd’s tent” and the “cloth on the loom.” Then in verses 12 and 13 Hezekiah repeats the phrase, “day and night you made an end of me.” Emphasizing that our lives are always in the hands of God, as well as the inevitability of death at God’s hands. Light or dark, life or death, there is no place to get away from God.

We then arrive at the question in verse 15, “But what can I say?” Hezekiah has resolved himself to realize that both the disease and its removal, was from God, not Hezekiah. Pride and arrogance were not appropriate. He had just come through a season of “anguish of the soul,” and had been delivered. The correct thing to do would be to live with that awareness, both in gratitude and with a sense of responsibility.

 

By the time we get to verse 17, we read that Hezekiah believes that the “anguish” he went through has been beneficial. He now has a new realization of God’s love and mercy. For he goes on to admit that out of God’s love, God had kept him out of the pit of destruction. Because of this, as long as he was alive, songs of joy will be sung to the saving God, in His temple.

Hezekiah refers to God having put all of Hezekiah’s sins behind his back, verse 17. This is a familiar issue even today when it comes to illness. Frequently, when ever we, or someone we know and love becomes ill, we wonder what was done to deserve it. Take Jasper, for instance, what could he, just a child, have done, to deserve cancer? The confusion continues when we turn to the Bible because we have examples of those who have received illness because of their sin, Take Elisha’s servant, Gehazi. Elisha refused lavish gifts from the Syrian general Naaman and Gehazi figured he could get them for himself, so he followed Naaman, and when he caught up, he told them that his master had changed his mind. Instead of getting the lavish gifts, he got leprosy. The same disease struck King Uzziah when he insisted on burning incense in the temple.

And we also see the story of Job, who suffered for the sake of suffering, without any sin of his own. Jesus himself was asked the question as to who was it that sinned, the blind man or his parents. To which Jesus replied there was no sin involved. The man was blind only so that God could be glorified.

Suffice it to say that illness and suffering are often enigmas. Confusing to comprehend and difficult to live through. We live in a fallen world, that isn’t fair. However, when illness and suffering come our way, we should use it as a stimulus to self-examination, and if we cannot find disobedience, then it should be used as an opportunity for us to deepen our trust in God and our dependence on Him for the resources to get us through.

What strikes me as fascinating in today’s Scripture is that God does change His mind. Many assert that it is impossible. Why look at 1 Samuel 15:29

He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.

I think it is important to make a distinction here. God does not change his mind when it comes to the basic nature of things. For instance, He does not condemn adultery one day, and commend it the next. Take David, God’s favorite. He messed up and committed adultery. He too had to pay the consequences. The Bible is crystal clear that God is sovereign and that humans have the capacity to make real choices.

The lesson we gain from Hezekiah is that we should bring our petitions to God with intensity and conviction, confident that He will be consistent with His own nature and that His own nature will always work for our best.

So how do we put this into practice!

God wants an internal obedience that expresses itself in external behavior, which is only possible through God’s grace. This means that on a conscious, intentional level we keep God’s promises. This is what is meant by “walking in the truth.” Take Hezekiah for an example. He did not willingly deceive God or others. He was careful about what he promised and found the grace in God to keep his promises.

How is this possible?

It was because his heart belonged totally to God. From a Hebrew perspective, concept of the “heart” is like the “control panel” of life. This is where thought, affection, and will all come together. For the Hebrew, it was all part of one thing, and for Hezekiah, he was claiming that his “heart” had been focused on one thing only: serving, pleasing and obeying God.

If Hezekiah could get it right in the Old Testament, now that we have the Holy Spirit to assist us, we too can get it right. Walking in the Truth, doesn’t mean that we will always do everything right and that we will never have to ask for forgiveness.

Our society is increasingly fractured and corrupt, which means it is not easy to be faithful and to have undivided hearts. But given the power of the Holy Spirit, do we dare live below the standard of Hezekiah?

What if Hezekiah had listened to Isaiah’s words and thought, “Oh dear, God said it, so I believe it. Whoa is me.”? Today’s Scripture gives us the assurance that when we are ill or someone we care for is dying, the circumstances can change, prayer makes a difference. Hezekiah reminds us about the heart of God,

that He does hear and He does listen to the cries of His people, even when it looks like all markers point to a fixed outcome.

God does change His mind. When we pray for things that are within God’s will, we can expect our prayers to be answered. Change is not a given, but we won’t know unless we pray.

Let’s pray together now.