Isaiah 38-39
Amen. Turn to Isaiah 38 and 39. Last week, we looked at 36, 37.
There’s a four chapter break, if you will, between two major
sections of the scripture of the book of Isaiah. But also
we looked at the Israelites, the people of Judah surrounded
by Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, Hezekiah’s prayer. And then tonight
we look at Hezekiah’s sickness, but also his pride. And so let’s
hear God’s word together. 38 and 39. 39 is a short little chapter
and a sad one as well. Hezekiah’s sickness and recovery. Verse one of chapter 38. 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. Then Hezekiah
turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord and said,
please, oh 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. And the word of the Lord came
to Isaiah, 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 15 years to
your life. I will deliver you and the city
out of the hand of King Assyria. and will defend this city. This
shall be the sign to you from the Lord that the Lord will do
this thing that he has promised. Behold, I will make the shadow
cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back 10
steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the 10 steps by which
it had declined. A writing of Hezekiah, king of
Judah, after he had been sick and recovered from his sickness.
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. 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. 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. I calmed myself until morning.
Like a lion, he breaks all my bones. From day to night, you
bring me to an end. Like a swallow or a crane, I
chirp. I moan like a dove. My eyes are
weary with looking upward. Oh, Lord, I am oppressed. Be
my pledge of safety. 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. Oh Lord, by these things
men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit. Oh,
restore me to health and make me live. Behold, it was for my
welfare that I had great bitterness, but in love you have delivered
my life from the pit of destruction. You have cast all my sins behind
your back. For Sheol does not thank you.
Death does not praise you. Those who go down to the pit
do not hope for your faithfulness. The living, the living, he thanks
you as I do this day. The Father makes known to the
children your faithfulness. The Lord will save me and we
will play my music on string instruments all the days of our
lives at the house of the Lord. Now Isaiah had said, let them
take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil that he may recover. Hezekiah had said, what is the
sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord? At that time,
Merodach, Baladon, the son of Baladon, king of Babylon, sent
envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah for he heard that
he had been sick and had recovered. And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly.
And he showed them his treasure, the silver, the gold, the spices,
the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in the storehouses.
There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah
did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet came
to King Hezekiah and said to him, what did these men say?
And from where did they come from? Hezekiah said, they’ve
come to me from a far country, from Babylon. 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. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah,
hear the word of the Lord of hosts. 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. And some of your own sons who will come up from you whom
you will father shall be taken away and they shall be eunuchs
in the palace of the king of Babylon. 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. Amen. This is a passage of scripture
that ought to trouble us and make us think a good bit. If
this were a TV show, and I was the producer, I would begin it
this way. There’d be a caption on the screen that says, you
know, 20 years in the future. That’s how I would begin. 20
years in the future. And I would look at what we just
read, the portion of the scripture where Hezekiah, in his pride,
shows all his wealth to the Babylonian king. But I would back up a bit
before that. I would go all the way back to
the Garden of Eden, where Eve, after her and Adam’s fall into
sin, was promised an offspring and that offspring that was promised
to her would be the one who would fight seed versus seed, Satan’s
offspring versus the offspring of Eve, Jesus versus the devil. And all this hope that would
come to Eve would be met over the years with bright spots like
the birth of Isaac and the laughter. But it would also be met with
murder, Cain killing Abel, It would be met with barrenness,
a barren land that produced no food, but also barren wives,
wives of the patriarchs that seemed to produce no children,
no offspring of the line of Eve and of the line of Messiah. There
would be times where the people of God would be out of the promised
land. They would be exiled. They would be away from the place
of promise. And sometimes you’re reading
through your Bible and you say in your head, can the promises
of God come to pass? If Abraham really does kill Isaac. Can the promises of God really
come to pass if Boaz does not make himself a kinsman redeemer? Can the promises of God come
to pass if Herod kills all the babies around Bethlehem and in
fact does kill baby Jesus? Can God’s promises come to pass?
Isaiah’s ministry, 740 BC to 700 BC, is a ministry that tells
us, yes, there are hard times, dark times, and it may seem as
if the promises of God to Eve will not come to pass. He ministers
during Judah’s significant decline, their captivity a hundred years
away by Babylon, but for the time surrounded by Assyria, Assyria
who had captured much of the ancient Middle East, Assyria
who had captured the northern tribes and hauled them away.
So Isaiah’s ministry is to give them light and hope in darkness
that yes, Messiah will come. And he’ll come in a way that
you won’t think. He’ll come as a baby. He’ll come as a suffering
servant. He’ll come as one that people will despise and harass
and not look upon with favor. So the future, the righteous
Messiah, the suffering servant, and even the new heavens and
the new earth are all in the picture of the book of Isaiah.
They’re all in the picture of the whole the Bible. And this
is something we should keep in mind as we look at a little sketch
of maybe 15 years or so, 20 years of Hezekiah’s life. Remember
Hezekiah is one of the good ones. Maybe in January, you’ll pick
back up with a new year, read through the whole Bible. You’ll
get through Kings and Chronicles and Samuel. And you’ll read about
the good ones and the bad ones. Most of them bad. Most of them
did what was evil in God’s sight. They turned to the right. They
turned to the left. They did not follow their fathers.
They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths and all the rest.
Not Hezekiah. He was one of the good ones. He’s one of the good
ones. And it’s interesting in this
passage, the seed, his offspring, the offspring of David, Messiah
is thrown into question here. He sins against God. He’s a prideful
man. And it may jolt us and say, what
will happen here? But it’s not the first time.
Remember Solomon, he was a good man, David, a man after God’s
own heart, but they did wicked things with disastrous consequences
as well. So if this were a TV show, this
would be 20 years from now. And we would hear a ring of the
doorbell of the palace at Jerusalem and Hezekiah answers the door
himself. And he goes and there are people
bearing gifts and his pride swells within him. I’ve just gotten
better. I was sick. I was on my deathbed and look
at these people. They brought me get well presents.
They brought me flowers. They brought me letters. They’re
an envoy from a foreign nation. You know, perhaps Hezekiah had
not been seen in a little while and it was getting around in
their little geopolitical world. You know, something’s happened
to him. You know how it is, we’re watching the news and they say,
we haven’t seen Kim Jong-un in a little bit. That’d be a good
thing, probably. Hadn’t seen Putin, you know,
in a little while. Hadn’t seen, you know, Joe Biden. Well, that’s
kind of normal. But you know how we get a little
worried, you know, what’s happened? We didn’t see Princess Kate for
a little while. And we began to wonder, well, Hezekiah had
not been seen. He was on his deathbed and it
got around in the geopolitical circles of the ancient Near East. And so they send an envoy, Babylon. Now Babylon at this point in
time is pretty small. It’s not big Babylon that we’ll see later.
This is little Babylon and it’s got its own troubles. And what
does Hezekiah do? He gives a ticker tape parade.
He rolls out the red carpet. He says, come on in. What’s mine
is yours. And he gives them the grand tour
and he shows them everything. You know, the proverb, pride
goes before a fall. And Hezekiah thinks he’s something,
doesn’t he? He does not take heed lest he
falls. And so he goes for He goes for the gifts. He goes
for the letter. He’s swelling with pride. And
you can imagine this letter is full of whereas’s and therefore’s
and heretofore’s and all the rest and O King live forever’s
and all the special language. And it’s probably a letter that
says, you know, hey, we’re a small nation, us Babylon. You’re a
small nation, Israel. You know, ask not what you can
do. How does that go? Ask not what
you can do for your country, whatever. We can help each other
out. Babylon is not wanting to be
taken over by Assyria, and neither is Israel. And Hezekiah had already
settled it, hadn’t he? God is going to save us. God
is going to protect us. But here comes the letters. Here
comes the balloons. Here comes the envoy. Here comes
the gifts. And pride goes before a fall,
and that goes for Meredith. Baladan, the king of Babylon. In fact, he’s really not the
king. He’s sort of on the throne of a nation that barely exists.
So he’s a sort of king of a sort of nation. And his pride and
Hezekiah’s pride will be their downfall. They’re going to go
up against Assyria, that big, bad nation. Not smart. It’s one
thing for Merodach to do this. He’s a pagan. Who cares what
he does? But it’s another thing for Hezekiah not to trust in
Yahweh. And so Hezekiah, he’s feeling
pretty good. He’s gotten out of the crutches.
He’s gotten out of the bed. He’s no longer in a bathrobe. He’s clothed in his right mind.
He’s back to whatever his daily dress is. The grand tour is complete. And you can imagine he goes back
to his throne and eases into his throne and is feeling rather
smug, rather happy. Well, this was a good visit.
I’m a great political mastermind, he says. Well, then Isaiah comes
in and every party has a pooper, right? And so Isaiah comes in
and you’re having fun, Hezekiah.
Who are these people? Where are they from? Who is this
you showed your checkbook to? I mean, who shows you their checkbook,
right? I know a few people that have.
Who breaks out their brokerage account and says, this is my
net worth. Who calls up Zillow and says, look at my house’s
value. That’s sort of the thing that Hezekiah has done. And Isaiah
says, there’s a price tag to what you’ve done. You want to
trust in Babylon, then Babylon you will get. And he predicts
that in a hundred years, the sons of Hezekiah will be carried
off to Babylon. And every bit of the treasures
in the treasury that you have just bragged about and showed
off about will be hauled away too. And we know that to be the
case when Babylon hauls Judah off a hundred years later, they
carry off all the vessels of the temple. They carry off all
the gold. They carry off all the silver. They carry off all
the riches of Israel. Remember that had once come from
Egypt. And remember how the wealth of nations had built the temple
and built the grand city of Zion. And so the price tag you trust
in Babylon, you will get Babylon. And you have in verses six and
seven, this prophecy, the days are coming when all that is in
your house, all that your fathers have stored up, you know, a couple
hundred years of the kingdom, it’ll be carried off to Babylon.
Nothing shall be left says the Lord and some of your own sons
who will become come from you, whom you will father shall be
taken away and shall be eunuchs in the palace of Babylon. Think
David or Daniel. Remember Shadrach and Meshach
and Abednego and all the rest. They will serve in foreign nations. And look at the response. This
is an interesting response in verse eight. Hezekiah says to
Isaiah, the word of the Lord you have spoken is good. Boy,
how pious. If you stop there, he’d be doing
all right. God has spoken. I’ll submit to it. I’ll rest
in it. But he thought there will be peace and security in my days.
You know what he said? It’s not my problem. Good enough
for government work, right? Can’t see it from my porch. Right? Doesn’t matter the quality. Doesn’t
matter what’s going to happen. He’ll be dead and gone. It’ll
be someone else’s problem. Boy, what a, what a smug, uh,
smug thought. And what do we know? God knows
the thoughts and the inclinations of our hearts. You know, we may
be outwardly pious. You know, we, we come, you know,
we come all dressed up. We sit in our pew. We put our
check in. We, you know, we have our leather bound Bibles. It
looks good in our laps. We amen. And we, you know, we
behave in a Presbyterian way and, That’s the outside, isn’t
it? But God knows the thoughts of
our hearts. It’s going to be pretty good. We’ll go 20 years
back. That was all 20 years in the
future. Go back 20 years or so, 15 years. Hezekiah is sick and
he’s on his deathbed. As a minister, I’ve been to a
lot of deathbeds and it’s a really sobering, sobering thing to be
with someone who is near death and what is God say to Hezekiah,
get your house in order, manage your affairs, make up your will,
your last Testament, get the son who will be the next king
like David did and have a little talk with him. Oh, there’s a
problem though. There’s not a son. He hasn’t had a child yet. He
hasn’t had an heir yet. And what does God say to him?
Get your house in order. You will die. I don’t know if
y’all think about death much. We should. In fact, if you want
a really good exercise in considering last things, listen to this past
week’s Things Unseen by Sinclair Ferguson. He talked about death,
judgment, heaven and hell. Really, really wonderful lessons.
Those were the four weeks of Advent he reports in his little
talk. over the last couple days on
that wonderful little podcast. Imagine that at Christmas, we’re
going to talk about death, heaven, hell, and judgment. That’ll fill
the pews up, won’t it? But that’s something we ought
to reflect on. Do you think about death? We live in an era where
we don’t talk about death. Death is something that we are
trying to put at bay. But we remember the scriptures,
it is appointed once and for all for man to die and after
that to face judgment. The wages of sin is death. We don’t know of anyone who has
beat it. Well, except for Elijah and Enoch,
but that took a mighty act of God. And you know, my little
saying, drive down church street to defy death. You go to the
dentist and keep your mouth from rotting. You can go somewhere
and get your hair put back. You can go somewhere and get
your gray hairs dyed. There’s another place you can
get your teeth whitened, your teeth straightened, your broken bones
fixed. You can go up and down Church Street and down Huffman
Mill Road and you can spend all kinds of money getting all kinds
of things done to defer the inevitable. I know this sounds a little morbid
and maybe some of you read the same report, but somewhere in
the last month or so, And this is kind of sad and depressing,
so don’t take it too much to heart. If you’re over 60, you’re
living by the miracle of medicine. That’s the report. Life expectancy is, maybe it’s
dropped about a year or two, and they say it probably will
taper back down a little. But if you’re over 60 years old,
and you know this from previous generations, you just didn’t
used to live that long. We live in a wonderful age of medical
advancements. God has told man to be fruitful,
multiply, fill the earth, subdue the earth. And it’s wonderful,
I think, when men and women made in God’s image can study the
body, study medicine, and they can help us make life better.
It makes for not having achy joints or bent over bodies and
all the rest. But most of the money that we
spend after about age 60 is on medicine. It’s on prolonging
life. And so we don’t like to think
about death. But we also don’t like to think
about those doctor bills. or Medicare or the premiums and
whatever. But wouldn’t it be good for us
to contemplate death? Wouldn’t it be good for us to
get in the seat of Job or get in the seat of Hezekiah? God says to him, very sobering
words, you will die. You will not recover. I think
Hezekiah had read Dylan Thomas’s poem, though. You had to hear
it in grade school. Do not go gentle into that good
night. Right? And so he pleads his case. He’s
going to fight this thing. He pleads his case. Surely Yahweh
will hear and answer me. And so he says, you know, compare
me to some of the other Kings. They’ve been some pretty bad
ones. I’ve been a pretty good one. Look at my record. I’m more used to you
alive than dead. If I go to Sheol, I can’t praise
you. The dead do not give you thanks and praise, God. We’ve
heard that before, haven’t we? From the mouth of King David.
And it’s very true. And, you know, you might hear
these words from Hezekiah in chapter 38 and say, what is this
man trying to do? Justify himself before God? God,
surely out of all the people on the face of the earth, I’m
worth keeping around. And yes, in Christ, we are justified. God sees us as if we’ve never
sinned. He sees us as if we’ve always obeyed. And yes, God is
in the process of sanctifying us. Where we died a sin, we lived
a righteousness. We sinned because we got the
flesh in us. We sinned because of the world and the devil. And
yes, we have God’s gifts and graces. It’s an up and down messy
life until we are glorified and made perfect. But any good we
have is of God. Even the gift of faith. is of
God. The justification is of God.
The sanctification is of God, the Holy Spirit. And so we perhaps
should have a more humble view of ourselves. I am but a worm. Perhaps by God’s grace, we accomplish
some things. But what is Hezekiah saying? Is it legitimate? He basically
says, look how I have walked. Look how I have walked before
you. He says, I’ve walked in your ways. I’ve walked before you in faithfulness.
I’ve walked before you with a whole heart. I’ve done what is good
in your sight. Now, not a one of us can say that, except Jesus. But what is Hezekiah saying?
He’s pleading the righteousness of Jesus. He’s pleading the righteousness
of God. He’s pleading maybe the words
of Hebrew 11, by faith. You know, by faith we live for
God. By faith we see the unseen and we live for that. By faith
God commends those who live by faith as his righteous ones,
as his holy ones. And so there is something in
this. We ought to be careful, you know,
don’t want to say, Too much to God. He knows our hearts. He
knows the inclinations of our hearts. Well, God answers Hezekiah’s
prayer. I’m going to give you 15 more
years. Pretty good. 15 more years. I’d be 63, 64,
something like that. Some of you, you do the math
and say, I don’t know if I want to be You know, whatever it is,
I won’t get myself in trouble here, but 15 more years, that’s
a pretty good run, right? I mean, that’s 15 more Christmases. That’s 15 more Thanksgivings.
That’s maybe another grandkid or great grandkid that you get
to see. And he gives them another answer. He says, also Assyria
is going to leave you alone. Assyria is just going to, they’re
just going to walk away. They’re not going to be a problem.
I’m not going to let them enter the city. Could you imagine this
kind of reprieve? I mean this is vocational reprieve
and this is health reprieve. I know every one of us has had
or maybe perhaps now are carrying some kind of burden. It could
be relational burden, it could be vocational burden, it could
be financial burden, it could be desire for people to come
to faith before you pass on, it could be Who knows what health,
some thing has landed in your life at some point in time. It
may be in your life now. And then God hears your prayer,
answers it, and gives you a reprieve. Oh my goodness, you would say.
I’m going to step up my game. I’m going to be in church. I’m
going to be worshiping God. I’m going to be giving thanks. I’m
going to be devoted to God. I’m going to be living on purpose. But you know, it wears off, doesn’t
it? Remember 9-11? terrible things in New York and
Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon and really the whole world. And
for a couple of weeks, everybody was, you know, we should really
seek God’s face. He means business here. And that lasted, didn’t it? A
week or two, maybe a month, and then it wore off. And we understand,
we can say it’s a pretty non-Christian world. We should expect that.
But what about people of faith? How fast do we walk away from
Sunday where we’ve met with God, been forgiven by God, received
the Word of God, even had the sacrament, and we get not too
far out the door and we flip on the NFL and we forget. We flip on the news and we forget. We go on about our week and we
forget. We’re like, what is it, James says, the man. who looks
in the mirror, sees himself, but walks away and forgets. That’s
a real warning in this passage, isn’t it? I think it’s a mercy for Hezekiah to have a near-death
experience. I believe it’s a mercy for us to go through challenges
and hardships and to face our ultimate reality, face what may
be coming upon us. Well, what does Hezekiah say
about this? business that he goes through
with God. Verse nine says, a writing of Hezekiah. Gets out his journal,
doesn’t he? Probably puts it on Instagram.
Look at me. I’m reading my Bible and journaling, right? That’s
a joke. Probably a young people joke.
He says, I said in the middle of my days. So what does he think
about his life? I’m not done yet. I said in the middle of
my days, I must depart. He’s going to say, he’s going
to say dying a thousand ways here. I am consigned to the gates
of Sheol, another word for death, for the rest of my years. I shall
not see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living. He can’t
go to the temple if he’s dead. He can’t go into the presence
of God if he’s not living. I shall look on man no more.
I shall look among the inhabitants of the world no more. My dwelling
is plucked up and removed from me. How many of y’all, you know,
you get sick and get your family around, you know, this is, this
is it. And you say, I’m going the way of the earth. You know,
you say something poetic. We just don’t talk about it,
do we? We deny it. He goes on, he says, my dwelling
is plucked up and removed like a shepherd’s tent, like a weaver. I have rolled up my life. He’s
cut me off from the loom. That’s some vivid. imagery. Remember when as kids we’d all
get those little looms and make a little, you know, everybody
got for Christmas, you know, a hot pad. You know, I’ve got
one in my office that Martha made for me. Use it as a cup
coaster. But taking off the loom, you’re
not going to get woven anymore. I was going to say weaved. I’m
going to get woven anymore. He cuts me off from the loom
from day to night. You bring me to an end. And verse
13 says something interesting. I calmed myself. I calmed myself
until morning. Like a lion, he breaks off all
my bones. From day to night, you bring
me to an end. He gets a little joby, doesn’t he? A little jobish. Like a swallow or a crane, I
chirp. I moan like a dove. My eyes are
weary with looking upward. Oh, Lord, I am oppressed. Be
my pledge of safety. And then he says in verse 15,
what shall I say? For he has spoken. He himself
has done it. I walk slowly all my years because
of the bitterness of my soul, O Lord, by these things men live.
And in all these is the life of my spirit. Oh, restore me
to health. Make me live. Behold, it was for my welfare
that I had a great bitterness. But in love you have delivered
my life from the pit of destruction. You’ve cast all my sins behind
your back for Sheol does not thank you. Death does not praise
you. Those who go down to the pit do not hope. for your faithfulness,
the living, the living. He gives thanks to you as I do
this day. And the father makes known to
the children, your faithfulness. The Lord will save me and we
will play music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives at
the house of the Lord. This is a reflection. Interesting,
isn’t it? He goes through all the euphemisms of death, all
the sayings of the end of days. And he says, the Lord has spoken.
I resigned myself to it. I calmed myself in the night.
And then I said, oh, Lord saved me. And he does. And so what’s
he going to do? He’s going to tell his sons how
good God is. He’s going to tell the congregation
how good God is. He’s going to make music and
play instruments and sing the songs. And he’s going to be faithful. He says, I’m going to walk more
slowly. with a little perspective, sometimes
get more cautious about life, don’t you? You get a little wiser
about life. You begin to number your days
and count them. And you think, this is great.
Look at Hezekiah. He is such a man of God. Now
we’ve already jumped ahead and read, you know, 20 years into
the future and how his pride got the best of him. But here’s
the thing I want us to think about as we have a week of Thanksgiving
is this. We should really think less about
dying. It’s going to happen, right?
It’s just going to happen, and it’s going to come the way God
designs it. The chariot will swing low at
His appointed time and in His appointed way. But here’s the
thing that we can control, with God’s help and with God’s blessing,
that we maintain our testimony. That’s something Hezekiah did
not do. He did not maintain his testimony. He did not keep his
word. And in the end, the end of his life really fell apart.
The wheels came unbolted and rattled off as his days came
to an end. You know, we say sometimes, oh,
Lord, so-and-so is sick and they’re dying. Why wouldn’t you heal
them? Okay, that’s not a terrible prayer, especially if you’re
the person. But maybe we should be praying, Lord, let so-and-so
keep a testimony. of faithfulness to the living
God in their last days so that those who gather around them
might hear and believe and see the goodness of God. We don’t
want to go the way of Hezekiah, but we want to be faithful, as
the writer of Revelation says, faithful unto death. And we’ll
enjoy the blessing and the presence and the reward of almighty God,
if that is so. Let’s look to him now in prayer.
Lord, it’s good to read something kind of sad and depressing in
the scripture and maybe feel the weight of life and the brevity
of it, the shortness of it, the briefness of it. We are like
a breath passing through this world and we breathe because
you breathe into us and we stop breathing because you take the
breath out of a man. Lord, we want to live well, so keep our
testimony. Keep it right and true and holy
for your glory and for the good of others. Lord, not by our strength,
but by the power of Jesus Christ, we ask this in his name, we pray,
amen.