Isaiah_38-39

Isaiah 38:1-8 (ESV)   Hezekiah sickness, healing and god’s sign of confirmation
¹  In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.”
²  Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,
³  and said, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
⁴  Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:
⁵  “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.
⁶  I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.
⁷  “This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has promised:
⁸  Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.
704BC – The siege of Jerusalem and this sickness occurred in the 14th year of his reign.
703BC –  Merodach-baladan’s visit
701BC – Sennacherib attack and then his defeat

Hezekiah prays because he is ill                     38:1-8
Hezekiah’s thanksgiving after his illness        38:9-20
Concluding comments                                    38:21-22

An account when God graciously intervenes on behalf of the king Hezekiah.   Stated as a boil (sehin – H7822)), but as a skin condition of cancer or leprosy.  (It has been said by some Bible scholars as the first sign of the “bubonic” plague.) Whatever, it was a terminal sickness and Isaiah told him to get his house in order as he was dying.   The sickness is NOT stated in verse 1, but in verse 21 where the figs are to be placed on the boil.  V.21:

Strongs: 7822.  שְׁחִין sh^echîyn, shekh-een´; from an unused root prob. mean. to burn; inflammation, i.e. an ulcer:—boil, botch.

To put one’s house in order would indicate that one should start with the spiritual things of their life.  He was 39 years old and without an heir.

V.2-3  Note the rationale of Hezekiah for why he should be spared.

Declaration of innocence as found in various prayers with Psalms 26:1-3 being one.

Psalm 26:1-3 (ESV)
¹  Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.
²  Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind.
³  For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.

V.4-6 – God does hear prayers and He responds with words of hope.  Key would be the status of the practitioners’ heart.  God acts graciously at time in totally undeserving and quite surprising ways that often do not have anything seemingly involving their past deeds.

God gives the promise of protection to the city from the Assyrian king and will extend his life some 15 years.   A lesson was needed here for Hezekiah to fully trust God.  Hezekiah isn’t at the position God takes him until 701bc and Sennacherib’s army if at his gates.

V.7&8 – the sign….  Something unusual happens – the sun declines for 10 steps on the sundial’s hour markings.

Isaiah 38:9-20 – Hezekiah’s Thanksgiving for Healing    AND   V. 21-22 are concluding comments

⁹  A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:
¹⁰  I said, In the middle of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.
¹¹  I said, I shall not see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the living; I shall look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.
¹²  My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent; like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom; from day to night you bring me to an end;
¹³  I calmed myself until morning; like a lion he breaks all my bones; from day to night you bring me to an end.
¹⁴  Like a swallow or a crane I chirp; I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!
¹⁵  What shall I say? For he has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.
¹⁶  O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. Oh restore me to health and make me live!
¹⁷  Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
¹⁸  For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness.
¹⁹  The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness.
²⁰  The LORD will save me, and we will play my music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives, at the house of the LORD.
²¹  Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.”
²²  Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”

Three Laments over approaching death                    V.10, 11, 12-13
Petition to God                                                            V.14
Benefits of suffering and restoration                         V.15-17a
Thanksgiving for God’s salvation                                V.17b-20

2 Kings 18:5 (ESV)   Speaks of Hezekiah  –  V.20 – Hezekiah’s expression of confirmation on what God will do.
⁵  He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him.

In chapter 39 we find that Hezekiah played the fool after his experience in healing. 

His son, Manasseh, was born after Hezekiah’s sickness.  When he became king he was considered to be a worse King than Ahab and Jezebel put together.  He was very much like Antichrist, the Man of Sin who is yet to come.

THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS. Hezekiah came to understand in a startling way that God numbers everyone’s days (Job 14:5; 21:21) and sovereignly decides when every person will be born and when they will die. …  It is evident that Hezekiah’s prayer was not answered positively because the king was such a pious individual (38:3); this was a totally undeserved divine act of grace and one that God grants rarely.  …        In most cases people never know why God answers some prayers positively and others negatively, but the  answer always depends on the plan and purposes of God. Believers need not fear death, but should look forward to being with the Lord after death. The positive approach is one that is thankful for each year that God provides here on earth and thankful for the opportunity to spend the afterlife in the presence of the Lord.

Some people react to their approaching death with resignation, while others express despair or bitterness. In light of the common biblical pattern of weeping at the time of death, one can assume that Hezekiah was not in error to weep (38:3) and that it was not wrong for him to want more years of life. Hezekiah’s lamenting prayer expresses common emotional feelings as he faced his fast-approaching death. He lamented that he was going to die so young, that he would not be able to worship God any longer in the temple, and that his life was being cut off, but he never blames God of wrong. All he could do was to humbly admit that he was helpless and in need of God’s assistance (38:14). Once God surprisingly promised life and recovery, he was reminded of several important principles that most take for granted: (a) God is the source of life; (b) God’s promises are true; and (c) God forgives sins (38:17). The only reasonable response to these truths is for people to praise God for his salvation and to share with others how we have experienced his grace (38:19–20). Yes, God does miracles; he heals the sick and controls the solar system. He is the one that deserves all praise—when people are well, when they are sick, and when they die. He has a plan and all of his servants need to accept and follow his plan.^[1]

Isaiah 39:1-8 (ESV)  – Trusting Babylon Rather Than God
¹  At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered.
²  And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.
³  Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.”
⁴  He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”
⁵  Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts:
⁶  Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD.
⁷  And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
⁸  Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days.”

This chapter reveals the great blunder of Hezekiah’s life and also his human frailty and weakness.  It is after the hour of great spiritual triumph that our worst defeats come.

The wealth at that time:

2 Chronicles 32:27-28 (ESV)
²⁷  And Hezekiah had very great riches and honor, and he made for himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of costly vessels;
²⁸  storehouses also for the yield of grain, wine, and oil; and stalls for all kinds of cattle, and sheepfolds.

Hezekiah gives the visitors from Babylon a tour of the grounds of Jerusalem.  Solomon had cornered the market in gold and other things and they were stored in Jerusalem.  Hezekiah foolishly sowed this great wealth to them.

V.3 – Isaiah tells him of his big mistake and Isaiah recognized the danger in showing them this treasure.

Hezekiah let ‘pride’ lead his decision.

V.5-7  – God declares that Babylon will come and take all.

Fulfilled:  2 Kings 24-35 and Daniel 1.

V.8 – He is saying that it was glad that the prophecy would not take place in his day.

In the fifteen years that his life was extended he played the fool.  Three terrible things took place during those years.

THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS. The final Hezekiah narrative illustrates how easy it is for even the greatest of God’s people to momentarily slip in their thinking and do things that reveal an underlying trust in human attempts to control the world, rather than trusting in God’s sovereign plan to deal with threats and conflict. Numerous theological principles can be developed from these events. First, it is evident from Isaiah’s questions to Hezekiah that the king did not come to Isaiah first in order to seek God’s wisdom on this matter. Hezekiah’s first error in this context was not to ask: What does God want me to do? Second, Hezekiah had a great opportunity to tell the Babylonians about his sickness, his pious prayer, his letter about his experience, God’s miraculous sign, and God’s healing because his healing was one of the reasons why the Babylonians came. If the focus of attention had been on what God promised to Hezekiah (“I will defend this city” in 38:6), it would have been obvious that there was no need to depend on the Babylonians for help in dealing with the Assyrians. The opportunity for failure came because the king was not focusing on what God had promised and graciously done in the past. Third, there is never an innocent inconsequential compromise with the enemy that does not have some implication on a person’s faith relationship with God. The dealings may seem small and momentary, the relationship may seem harmless and unimportant, and the consequence may appear to be for the good of God’s people; nevertheless, faith means trusting God alone, so looking to any other source for hope is essentially a denial that one can depend on God. Fourth, it is good to accept God’s will (39:8), but it is never too late to cry out to God for mercy and grace. God hears prayers and he knows when people repent of their sins. Therefore it is every believer’s privilege and responsibility to intercede for others, especially those of our own family who will be punished for our failures.^[2]

^[1] Smith, G. V. (2007). Isaiah 1–39. (E. R. Clendenen, Ed.) (pp. 635–654). Nashville: B & H Publishing Group.

^[2] Smith, G. V. (2007). Isaiah 1–39. (E. R. Clendenen, Ed.) (pp. 654–660). Nashville: B & H Publishing Group.