January 12, 2011
Isaiah 36:1-39:8
“Crisis in Jerusalem”
I. Assyria Asserts Authority 36:1-22
II. Hezekiah’s Righteousness is Rewarded 37:1-38
III. Talking to God 38:1-22
IV. Focus Failure 39:1-8
Sheri Rose Shepherd is a former Mrs. United States, and she tells the story, in
her book, Life Is Not Dress Rehearsal, of how she came to understand just how
dramatically important prayer is, in the life of every believer.
She was on a plane, en route, to a speaking engagement. It was a long flight, and
she says that she shifted around for awhile, until she could find a comfortable
position to try and get some sleep in. As she tells it---- no sooner had she closed
her eyes, than the Lord started speaking to her. He wouldn’t let her go to sleep.
He kept prompting her to talk to the man in the seat beside her. She felt like
He was telling her that the man had a daughter who was in trouble and that
she needed to talk to him about it. But, Sheri wouldn’t, she refused to open her
eyes and she just kept trying to push the thoughts away, convincing herself that
she was making it up-------because she had never had the Lord speak to her in
that way, before. But just like God kept speaking to little Samuel, until he finally
acknowledged Him, God kept speaking to Sheri, until finally she surrendered
and told Him, “Ok, if this is really you nudging me, God, then I am going to take
a chance, on completely humiliating myself and ask this perfect stranger about
his daughter. (Hezekiah took the same kind of chance, when, in the early days of
his reign, he gathered the priests and Levites together to clear all the idols out
of the temple and to cleanse it from all the impurity that had been allowed to
infiltrate its walls and to consecrate it to the Lord, along with all its furnishings
and to reinstitute the atonement and thanksgiving sacrifices to the one true God-
------and He took the same kind of chance when he sent out the invitation to all
the people in Judah and in Israel to join him in a collective Passover Celebration in
Assyria Asserts Authority 36:1-22
Hezekiah’s Righteousness is Rewarded 37:1-38
Talking to God 38:1-22
Focus Failure 39:1-8
Jerusalem. Any one of those things would have required an enormous amount of
courage.
So, Sheri looked at the man and blurted out, “Excuse me, is your daughter
in trouble? He looked at her like she had 2 heads and then he began to sob.
Eventually, he got control of himself and asked, “How could you possibly know
that?” and then he proceeded to tell her about his daughter who was away at
college and was in trouble. Apparently, she was an innocent young girl, who had
been raped by one of her employers and was pregnant. Sheri listened to him and
then she offered him the truest comfort that she could---- she said to him, “The
best thing that I know to do sir, is to pray. I don’t know what I can say to lighten
your burden, but I do know that when I don’t have the words, God does.” So the 2
of them prayed for the daughter, for the baby, for the employer and for the man
and the rest of his family. As soon as they left the plane, the man called home and
told his wife that that the first thing that they needed to do, was to commit their
lives to the Lord; then they needed to pray together for their daughter; and last,
they needed to go back to church.
6 months later, the man contacted Sheri and rejoiced with her over how prayer
had changed his daughter’s life, as well as his and the lives of everyone in his
family. The daughter didn’t have an abortion; she decided to give the baby up for
adoption. The whole family had given their lives to the Lord and were attending
church faithfully. Prayer had turned one of life’s darkest moments into an open
pathway to God….
(I am sure a lot of you have seen Ted Williams, on the news the last few week. He
was the homeless man, in Columbus, Ohio, with the absolutely beautiful voice,
who was 1st introduced to us on U-Tube and then he was featured on all the news
networks. The 1st time that I saw him, he was on Good Morning America and Matt
Lauer and Meredith Havera were interviewing him. They asked him what made
him think that he could stay on the straight and narrow this time, since he had
been given other opportunities before. His answer was precious---------he told
them that he had prayed for a 2nd chance and that the difference between him
now and him at any other time, was quite simply, the Lord--------that this time he
was acknowledging the Lord, in all his ways-----in every aspect of his life ---- and
that he was going to give God all the glory for his new and changed heart and for
his renewed purpose for living ---and that he knew that that is what would make
the difference between a life of victory and one of defeat.)
Hezekiah found this to be true too, in his nation’s darkest moment and in his own
personal confrontation with death. And we also, can find that God has something
to say and do for us, no matter how bleak, the moment, or the situation appears.
He wants us to trust Him, and talk to Him honestly and openly, about our
darkness. Our prayer life reveals what our relationship with God really is. When
troubled times come, the person of faith will take his personal and emotional
thoughts and feelings to God. Faith begs God to show us what is happening and
why-------- but, faith also acknowledges, that God doesn’t always show us why,
and it helps us to understand that we can still trust, that anything that happens,
no matter what it is, has a perfect fit in God’s plan.
Way too often, we pray only in moments of convenience, when we are scared or
worried—we treat God like He’s a convenience store, we just run in when we’re
really desperate for something. We need the Lord to teach us to pray without
ceasing-----all the time. We need to be in a continual attitude of prayer—talking
to the Lord all day long-------He should be our constant focus-----when He is,
nothing can trip us up; nothing can surprise us. Taking it to the Lord in prayer
should be as natural to us, as breathing.
***************************************
The Book of Isaiah is divided into 2 major divisions----------the 1st section (that
we have already studied) deals with the justice and judgment of God and the 2nd
section (which we’re about to study) deals with His grace and salvation. Chapters
36, 37, 38 and 39, act as a bridge of history, which links the 2 halves together.
There are 4 significant and interesting reasons why theologians believe that these
chapters are important for us to study. 1.)These chapters show how secular and
sacred history, are one and the same and they reveal to anyone, who has eyes
of faith, deep spiritual truths, which average historians would consider trite
and incidental. 2.) For something to be considered a historical fact it has to be
corroborated by 3 sources--------the particular events that we have studied this
week are recorded 3 times, almost identically, in scripture-------- 2nd Kings—18,
19 and 20; 2nd Chronicles 29, 30, 31 and 32 and in these chapters in Isaiah. This
is comforting, I think-------it authenticates the inerrancy of the scripture, to me,
and makes it clear that there is one author of scripture and that author is God,
Himself, even though, He used mere men to hold the pen.
3.) There are 3 incredible miracles recorded in these chapters,
a. The angel of the Lord slayed 185,000 Assyrians in a single night,
b. The sun retreated 10 degrees on the sundial of Ahaz and
c. God healed Hezekiah and extended his life for 15 years.
4.) Hezekiah received 2 important letters-----One he took straight to the Lord
in prayer and the other one he didn’t------going to the Lord in prayer, resulted
in the salvation of his people and not going to Him, resulted in their ultimate
destruction. (this is a valuable lesson for all of us to learn----we need to take it to
the Lord in prayer.)
I.)
It was the 14th year of Hezekiah’s reign and Sennacherib was ready to overthrow
the city of Jerusalem. A serious and critical confrontation was about to occur.
On one side, was the proud and totally ruthless Assyria, who had every military
advantage----they had already annihilated the kingdom of Israel, 10 years earlier-
---- and on their march to conquer Egypt, they had leveled 46 Judean cities---
-Sennacherib expected Jerusalem to be just one more notch on Assyria’s belt.
From a worldly perspective------Hezekiah and Judah seemed to be defenseless;
they were out of all human resources----it was the perfect setting for God to
demonstrate that He was the Sovereign Lord of the world, with total control over
kings and kingdoms; with the power to allow countries to either practice war or to
dwell together in peace.
Assyria Asserts Authority
But Hezekiah was a man of God---2nd Kings 18:5 says that, “there was no one
like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.” Hezekiah
worked hard to lead the people into a great reformation, which enabled Judah
and some people, from the kingdom of Israel, to come back to a real worship
of the one true God. They had put away their idols and restored the temple
services and had sought after God’s blessings. But this didn’t make them exempt
from trouble. Perfect peace and prosperity, were not a guaranteed result of
their wonderful reconciliation with God, and with each other. Christians aren’t
promised that life will be always sunshine and laughter, but we are promised, that
the Lord will walk with us through our trouble. God’s great purpose, in our lives,
is to build godly character. And the main ingredient for this is to trust God, no
matter what.
Former Us Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger, once told the New York
Times, “There can’t be a crisis next week, my schedule is already full.”
The truth is, a crisis will come whether our schedule permits it or not. How do
we handle crises? Warren Wiersbe says, “that what life does to us depends
upon what life finds in us. That a crisis doesn’t make a person; it shows what a
person is made of.” A crisis often comes when we least expect it. A lot of times, it
comes after great success or spiritual blessing. (there is an adage that says, ‘after
the blessing comes the testing’------------this is so true and we need to learn to
expect it, so that we can’t be surprised by it---------and so that we can learn to
trust the Lord through the testing). Hezekiah’s illness, to the point of death, and
Judah’s showdown with Assyria and the unveiling of all the Judean riches to the
ambassadors from Babylon, teach us how to respond to a crisis and how not to
respond to one.
(History tells us of a small crisis that President Calvin Coolidge experienced.
He woke up in his hotel room one night to find a cat burglar going through his
things. Instead of staying quiet or risking even greater danger, by calling security,
he began to quietly talk to the thief. Coolidge asked him not to take his watch
because it had special meaning for him. This made the young man curious
and interested in the president’s lack of fear. As Coolidge continued his calm
conversation, he discovered that the thief was a college student with no money.
As the young thief listened to the president, he began to put everything that he
had stolen, back where he had found it. Coolidge wound up giving him $32 as a
loan, to get back to campus and he made the boy leave the same way that he had
come, so that he could elude the Secret Service. The young man eventually, paid
every dime, of the loan back.) The way that President Coolidge handled himself
in the crisis and the mercy that he extended toward the wrongdoer turned a bad
situation into a good one. The bottom line of dealing with any crisis, is for us to
behave the way that Jesus would behave and the only way that we can really do
that is to take it to Him, in prayer.
The Assyrians were at Lachish, which was about 30 miles southwest of Jerusalem,
when, according to 2 Kings 18:17, Sennacharib sent 3 of his most important
officers to arrange for Hezekiah to surrender Jerusalem, to him. This committee
of 3 was led by the Rabshakeh, which is a military title, not a personal name. In
return, Hezekiah sent out 3 of his leading officials, to meet with them. The place
of their meeting is significant, because it is the exact same location, where Isaiah
had confronted King Ahaz, Hezekiah’s father about 30 years before. Ahaz had
refused to trust the Lord and had made a treaty with Assyria. Isaiah had warned
him that Assyria would not keep its promises and that eventually it would turn on
Judah------ and now his words were being fulfilled.
The Rabshakeh delivered the most arrogant and blasphemous speech, that has
ever been recorded in scripture, because of its blatant ridicule of almighty God.
He also demonstrated his great contempt for the Jewish people and their faith
in their God, because he stood in a prominent place, just outside the walls of
Jerusalem, so that his voice could easily be heard by the defenders on the wall
and the people hiding on the inside—he wanted to scare them so that they would
defy and rise up against Hezekiah, and force him to surrender.
His speech was a masterful piece of psychological warfare, which he used to
discredit and undermine everything that the Jews valued. According to the
Rabshakeh, there was nothing or no one that the Jews could trust, except
Sennacharib and Assyria-----*not their military strategy (they couldn’t trust Egypt
to help them---- Assyria’s army was so big, it could wipe out Egypt in a single
battle; *not their military resources (even though Hezekiah had fortified the city’s
walls, the Jews didn’t have the men, nor the horses nor the chariots to attack the
Assyrians. The field commander, laughingly said, that even if Assyria, itself,
supplied them with equipment, the Jews would be too weak to use it, a He was a
jerk!); *not their king (The Rabshakeh said that Sennacharib was a “great king” but
that Hezekiah was a “nobody”, who was just deceiving his people. The Rabshakeh
tried to entice the Jews away, from trusting Hezekiah’s promise of help from the
Lord, by offering them a comfortable home in Assyria. He knew that the Jews
knew that their farms and their orchards and their vineyards had been ruined by
the Assyrian army and that they was facing a bleak future, even if the Assyrian
army withdrew its troops that very minute. He reminded them that if they stayed
in Jerusalem, they might starve to death. He offered them an opportunity to save
their families, if they would just surrender. But he failed to mention that they
would essentially be slaves in a foreign country; *and he tried to make them
believe that they couldn’t trust their God (he said that trusting God was sure to
fail, because God was already displeased with Hezekiah because he had removed
the altars in the high places and insisted that everyone must worship in Jerusalem.
The Assyrian had no idea that those destroyed altars were pagan shrines! He had
no clue about what it means to worship the one true God. And he intimated that
their God wanted them to surrender to him, unconditionally, by reminding them
that the gods of the other nations that Assyria had conquered had not been able
to protect or deliver those nations-----and that even Samaria had been defeated
and they worshiped the same God as Judah.) This shows us just how foolish and
ignorant the Assyrian commander was----he though Jehovah God was just another
god who could be easily manipulated—one who could be rendered powerless
against the mighty Assyrian machine!
The leaders of the city were deeply concerned about the morale of the defenders
and the common people, who were hearing the Rabshakeh’s propaganda
rhetoric, so they asked him to speak in the common diplomatic language, which
at the time, was Aramaic-------but that just made the pompous little man,
shout even louder, in Hebrew. Remarkably, despite the horrible, blasphemous
demands and taunts---- the people, every single one, remained silent and didn’t
respond. They didn’t utter a word because King Hezekiah had asked them not
to. Jerusalem’s deliverance didn’t depend on her negotiating with the enemy;
it depended on her trusting the Lord. And the people’s silence showed that they
did trust Him. This is valuable advice for us----we need to remember that the only
way that we can really diffuse insolence and ridicule and disrespect, is to remain
silent----when we engage in argument or defense, we only escalate the problem.
(this applies to interaction with children, husbands, parents, friends, enemies,
neighbors, and employers, in church and out of church). We need to understand,
that if we will just turn to the Lord and learn to obey Him, then we’ll find, that we
can trust Him, with every situation that we ever face.
The main truth that Sennacharib and his men underestimated was that God, not
Assyria, was in control. The situation appeared ominous to Hezekiah’s officials.
They were grief- stricken, because of the failed negotiations--------they tore their
clothes, as a sign of their grief, as they made their way back to give their report to
Hezekiah.
II. Hezekiah’s Righteousness is Rewarded
When Hezekiah heard their report--------he also tore his clothes and put on
sackcloth. But he knew what to do about His grief. Being the man of God that
he was, he went to the temple and poured his heart out, on the altar, before
the Lord. He also felt the need for counsel and for another praying voice, so he
sent some of his men to Isaiah and asked him to pray for the “remnant that still
survives” (the people in Jerusalem was just about all that was left of Judah. )
(Isaiah had prophesied in the days of Ahaz, that Assyria would conquer all of Israel
and Judah----- and that Jerusalem would be in hot water, up to her neck, but that
God would deliver her. Hezekiah’s illness had actually occurred, sometime before
the Assyrian assault on Jerusalem and Isaiah had promised then, that Jerusalem
would be delivered)------well, the time had come---and Hezekiah wanted Isaiah to
come alongside him in prayer--------it reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew
28:20, “For where 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name, there will I be also”.
Hezekiah also wanted to hear from Isaiah, a word from the Lord-------(this is
another lesson to us-------in building up our faith and teaching us to trust Him
and giving us comfort and courage and assurance of His constant abiding with us,
God’s Word and prayer always go hand in hand.) The Lord speaks to us through
scripture--------that is why it is so important for us to spend time, every day,
reading the Lord’s word and talking to Him about it.
Although this must have been a time when his faith was severely tested-----
Hezekiah didn’t lean on his own strength and God didn’t forsake him. God will
never forsake us, when we commit everything to Him, even in our darkest hours-
----His promise in Psalm 91:5 says, “He will call upon me, and I will answer him:
I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”God was gracious
to Hezekiah------Isaiah immediately sent a message of hope and assurance,
from the Lord, back to him. His word of encouragement was actually 3 different
assurances, 1.) don’t be afraid, 2.) the Assyrians will depart, 3.) and Sennecharib
will die in Assyria.
When Rabshakeh and the other officials went back to their camp they heard
that the Egyptian army was on its way to help defend Hezekiah (which was just
a rumor, that God had allowed Sennacharib to hear and to believe----it was all a
part of God’s plan to save Jerusalem and to defeat Assyria) Sennacharib didn’t
want to divide his army, to fight on two fronts, so he tried to put more pressure
on Jerusalem to surrender immediately, by sending more blasphemous threats to
Hezekiah, in a letter.
Messengers brought the letter from the enemy camp and Hezekiah read it. Rather
than attempting to answer it Himself, he did exactly what he should have done--
--he took it to the Lord in prayer. Bowing in the Lord’s presence, he affirmed his
faith in the One True God and he worshipped Him and he pleaded with Him to
intervene and save His people. He frankly acknowledged that the fake gods of the
other nations had no ability to save anyone and he professed his confidence in
the living God, who would be the salvation of anyone, who would put their trust
in Him. The conclusion of his prayer is very beautiful and very heart-moving, he
says this, “Now, therefore, O Lord, our God, save us from his hand, that all the
kingdoms of the earth may know that You, alone, O Lord, are God.” God rewarded
Hezekiah’s humble faith and confidence and humility with another 3-fold message
of assurance: 1.) Jerusalem would not be taken, 2.) the Assyrians would depart,
3.) and the Jews would not starve.
Sennacherib was full of pride; pride is the perfect blasphemy, because it denies
the perfect God. Assyria was too blinded by pride to realize that the string of
victories that they had enjoyed, was all a part of God’s plan----that those victories
had been designed to punish and discipline unfaithful people.
The purpose of God is what explains the twists and turns of history. Human
responsibility and divine sovereignty are real and compatible. Hezekiah’s prayer
changed him; it didn’t change God. God’s sovereignty is intertwined with human
responsibility. God used the analogy of a man riding a horse to explain this---- God
told Sennacherib, “I will put my bit in your mouth.” The Lord rides the horse of
history, (which surely is a mare with all it restless energy, according to Lizzie) and
the whole time He is fully in control. Human pride can’t throw Him off.
Hezekiah turned to God in absolute trust and God didn’t let his faith go unmet.
God didn’t handle Assyria by meeting force with force. He was subtle---He flew
in under the Assyrian radar and with a whisper of a rumor, he sent Sennacherib
hightailing it back home, where he eventually (20 years later) was killed by his
own sons, in his place of sanctuary, which was dedicated to his foreign gods.
Then, in that 1 night, the angel of the Lord, moved through the Assyrian camp,
in sight of the walls of Jerusalem, and killed 185,000 Assyrian troops without a
sound. This was recorded almost as an afterthought, because the real truth that
God wants us to see here, is the relationship that He and Hezekiah shared, and
their ability to do serious business together. If we trust the Lord with absolute
faith-------then our relationship with Him can be as secure and as radiant as God’s
glory is.
Do we take full advantage of prayer like Hezekiah did? (Kent R. Hughes says that
a Christian life can be summed up in just 6 words-----“Not knowing where, but
knowing whom.” If we always have to know where and what and when and how,
in advance, then we aren’t living by faith, in God. Living by faith in God accepts
uncertainty without getting nervous, because we know that God is in control. Not
knowing where, but knowing whom----that’s faith.)
The Assyrians continually taunted the Judeans with the question, “In whom do
you now trust?” We always live on the cutting edge of faith, either faith in God, or
faith in something else. And, yesterday’s faith in God belongs to yesterday. Even
though past faith is important to our spiritual foundation, it is more important
that we know who we trust right now! In the struggles that we face right now,
who do we trust? We all come, inevitably, to those moments in life, when nothing
will suffice but what is directly and immediately from God. After we’ve done all
we can and all we should and life still continues to demand more of us---nothing
but God, will answer our need. Whatever the challenge is right now, God is with
us in it. Trust Him; look for Him; He will never fail us.
We need to keep our focus on the Lord, because there are other forces which
cloud our vision of God and complicate our thinking and pressure us not to take
Him at His word. There is always some voice (sometimes it is our own or someone
who loves us) whispering to us, that God is not our resource, but that He’s the
actual problem. That is when the question, before us, becomes both profound
and urgent---- Whose voice will we believe? Whose wisdom will we follow?
Whose hope will we cherish and live for? In whom do we trust?
Right now, 2 worlds exist simultaneously----the world dominated by man and
the higher, eternal world of the creator. The 2 worlds are in conflict. Everyone is
caught up in the spiritual tension between them, whether they know it or not.
The world we live in, tells us, that this life is our only chance for happiness; that
human power is the only reality that counts-that we can only bank on what we
can see right in front of us. That kind of thinking is blasphemous, though. It kills
our sense of who we are as God’s children, put in this world for a higher purpose.
It quenches the Holy Spirit. It reduces us to mediocrity. It has the appearance of
wisdom, but it is a lie. Believers need to understand that there is another way to
live, drawing strength from that higher world. Hezekiah understood it. It is called
living by faith.
What does that mean? It means living as if God really exists and really blesses
anyone who seeks Him. It means living by God’s promises, as the bedrock under
our feet, as everything else seems to be shifting around us. We can’t just say that
we believe, we have to live like we believe. We have to put feet to our faith.
Our lives are telling a story. We are acting out what we believe. And that story is
either pointing to Jesus or it is pointing away from Him. Will we stake our lives on
the truthfulness of God? It is His integrity that is on the line----it isn’t ours------we
don’t need to be intimidated by this world, which tries to make us think that the
spiritual struggle going on around us is about our personal fate. What should be
uppermost in our minds, is the reputation of God in the world. We should live as
His example-----people should see Jesus in us.
(The devotional magazine, “Our Daily bread” on March 9, 1977 gives an account
of a missionary doctor in Zaire. A mother died at the mission while giving birth
to a premature infant. The medical staff tried to save the baby by improvising an
incubator, but their supplies were limited. They needed a hot water bottle. The
children at the mission were asked to pray for the now-orphaned baby and her
sister. Typical of a child’s faith (which should be the faith of all believers), one
little girl prayed: “Dear God, please send a hot water bottle today. Tomorrow will
be too late because the baby will die. And Lord, please send a doll for her sister
so that she won’t be sad.” That afternoon a package arrived from England. As
the children watched, the missionary found a hot water bottle under some of
the donated clothing. The little prayer-warrior shouted, “If God sent that, I know
He sent a doll!” and she was right!) Our God is sufficient for all our needs. He is
never late. Even though all our prayers are not answered quite so dramatically, He
will always respond, in His time. Isaiah 65:24 says, “Before they call I will answer:
while they are still speaking, I will hear.”
III. Talking to God
It is believed by most biblical scholars that Hezekiah’s illness and the visit from
the Babylonian visitors had already happened before the Assyrian invasion.
Both situations seemed to have been learning experiences, which strengthened
Hezekiah’s faith in the Lord and enabled him to trust God, to provide a way, when
there seemed to be no way, in his country’s darkest moment.
Apparently Hezekiah was very ill-----------Isaiah told him to put his house in order
because he wasn’t going to recover. When Hezekiah heard the news he turned
his face to the wall and prayed and wept. Most commentators agree that this
wasn’t an act of anger. Most of us would have reacted in the exact same way.
The best thing about life is our closeness with God and with each other. We don’t
want to die, and God understands this. No matter when we receive the medical-
death verdict, it is always a shock. Hezekiah’s reaction was very normal.
Hezekiah was a relatively young man, only 39 years old-------he must have had
many unfinished plans, plus he had no heir--------he must have been deeply
concerned for the nation and who their next ruler was going to be. He would have
felt, keenly, the responsibility of leaving an heir, from the line of David, to rule
Judah.
He didn’t ask God to spare him because he had been such a faithful servant. He
asked God to spare him so that he could continue to serve God and to complete
the spiritual restoration of the nation. Sure he was concerned about his own life,
any of us would be, but he also had a burden for his people. (One interesting
thing that I discovered is that the OT saints didn’t understand, “that to be absent
from the body is to be present with the Lord”, so Hezekiah would have thought
that His death would have been the end of his relationship with the Lord and
that was frightening to him----he would have had no real concept of heaven-----
-we have the Holy Spirit and the scripture ,to teach us about heaven and we still
feel fear when we are faced with death for ourselves or for someone we love).
Hezekiah’s prayer during his illness was not much of a prayer, but it was all he was
capable of, at that moment. Thank God, that when we don’t know what to pray;
that when all we can do is groan----that’s when the Lord is able to shine the fullest
light of His glory to us and through us.
That is what He did for Hezekiah-------not only did God heal him, but He gave
him 15 (un-asked- for) extra years to live and He promised that Assyria would
be defeated. And, when Hezekiah asked for a sign of confirmation, for the
truth of Isaiah’s words of prophecy, to him, from the Lord, the sign was granted
immediately. The shadow of the sundial went back 10 degrees. No wonder
Hezekiah wrote a psalm of praise after his recovery and no wonder he prayed
with a more robust faith, when he had to face the Assyrian crisis. He had learned
a new humility and had gained a deeper love for God, and a new understanding
of His power and sovereignty. He realized that the Lord was in control of even
his illness and it became a cause for gratitude instead of one of frustration. The
illness gave him the opportunity to experience the saving power of God, not only
in his body, but also in his spirit.
Lessons like this are priceless to us, but often, it is only after we look back, that
we are able to see, that the only way that God could teach them to us, was by
allowing us to suffer. God didn’t spare Hezekiah for Hezekiah’s sake------------God
spared Hezekiah because He wasn’t finished with him yet. He still had a job for
him to do--------- and God used Hezekiah’s illness and recovery, to reveal Himself,
to the then known world, as the God above all Gods, and to us, as the One and
Only God. (There are some theologians who think that Hezekiah was wrong to
ask God to spare his life, because 3 years later his son Manasseh was born and
he reigned for 55 years and was the most wicked king in the whole dynasty. Their
premise is, had Hezekiah died without an heir, that wouldn’t have happened?
But, I believe, with all my heart, there is nothing that happens, that God doesn’t
allow, for a purpose. Plus, there is no guarantee that any other successor, would
have been any better----------------- and Manasseh’s grandson, was godly King
Josiah, who brought the nation back to the Lord, after the Babylonian exile.
And 2nd Chronicles tells us that Manasseh did repent, late in life, and ended his
years, serving the Lord. So,this tells me that it isn’t our place to 2nd guess God or
history.)
It is surprising, after the amazing nature of the sign, to read that the Hezekiah’s
recovery itself, was accomplished by something as mundane as a fig poultice.
But we shouldn’t be surprised------there is no distinction, in scripture, between
miraculous and natural healing. To God, it is all the same. He is as involved in one
as He is the other. He is as much the Lord of the soothing poultice as He is the
God of turning shadows back. Just because God uses medicine, doesn’t make
healing any less of a miracle. (Going back to Ted Williams----we know now, that
he has decided to commit himself to a substance-abuse treatment program----
I don’t think that this in any way, negates what he said earlier about the Lord-I
think that he is still acknowledging the Lord in all his ways and that he is trusting
that this is part of the Lord’s plan to heal him and give him a second chance.)
V.
Babylon coming to visit, was not strange at the time. Babylon was just a little
nation trying to break free from its own Assyrian domination and Hezekiah was
the leader, of the anti-Assyrian coalition, in southern Palestine. At the time,
it made sense for the two countries to ally themselves with each other. But it
happened too quickly and Hezekiah let his guard down, because his pride was
stroked by flattery and gifts. He didn’t consult the Lord at all. He didn’t take it
to the Lord in prayer. He lost his focus-----he forgot that God had just revealed
Himself, in a mighty way, to him through his illness and his recovery. It was
certainly a mistake for Hezekiah to give away too many secrets and to show his
visitors all of the nations’ wealth. But pride can make us do all kinds of things. And
also, sometimes after suffering, it just feels so good to feel good, that we forget to
watch and pray.
We know now, that what seemed to be a good-will mission to Hezekiah, was
actually, a fact-finding mission by a bunch of spies. Hezekiah must have been
shocked when Isaiah reprimanded him for his foolishness and prophesied that
Babylon would be the downfall of Judah in the long-run.
Hezekiah’s response of “the word of the Lord that you have spoken is good, there
will be peace and security in my lifetime,” can be interpreted 2 ways----1.) relief
that Babylon wouldn’t cause trouble in his lifetime or 2.)a humble acceptance of
God’s will. I personally think that it was his humble acceptance of God’s will-------
- because if you go to 2nd Chronicles 32:26 we can see that it says, “Then Hezekiah
repented of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore the
Focus Failure
Lord’s wrath did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.” Hezekiah
humbled himself before God and God forgave him. Even the greatest and most
godly of the Lord’s servants can become proud and disobey Him. We need to pray
for our Christian leaders so that they will stay humble before the Lord. Sometimes
we, ourselves, sin so badly that we are afraid that trusting God or Him trusting
us again, is impossible----------but when we repent and confess our sin, no matter
what it is, God will meet us right at the point of our failure and He will use it as an
opportunity to forgive us and to build our faith beyond our comprehension.
This should be our theme song every day of our lives:
What a friend we have in Jesus; all our sins and griefs to bear; what a privilege
to carry; everything to God in prayer. Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what
needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.
Have we trials and temptations; is there trouble anywhere? We should never be
discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer; can we find a friend so faithful? Who
will all our sorrows share; Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in
prayer.
Are we weak and heavy- laden; cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior,
still our refuge; take it to the Lord in prayer. Do they friends despise, forsake
thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer. In His arms, He’ll take and shield thee; thou
wilt find a solace there.
We should always take it to the Lord in prayer!
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