Hezekiah’s Illness and Error
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Isaiah
36. An expository study of Isaiah, chapters 38 and 39
Chapter 38
Please open your Bible to Isaiah 38, so that you can
follow the text, as I try to comment on it. We run into a difficulty in this
chapter, but it only serves to teach us the ways of God. It is our purpose in
the study of Scriptures, not to look for support for pet doctrines, but to open
our hearts to learn the character of God and His dealings with mankind.
When we contemplate the sovereignty of God, we must
take the relationship between God and man into account. Abraham was His friend
and He spoke and communed with him. This
is a most wonderful thing in God’s personality: “The Lord said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do’” (Ge.18:17).
God was also very intimate with Moses and spoke with him, “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Ex.33:11). I have
always been amazed at the following passage, when God intended to destroy the
Israelites, after they made a golden calf to worship. He exclaimed to Moses, “Let
me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against your people” (Ex.32:10).
Moses actually detained the hand of the Almighty.
There are multiple times in the Bible, when we see the
Lord withholding judgment, which He had declared upon people. The case of Jonah,
prophesying destruction to the people of Nineveh, is a classic example, when the
grace and mercy of God entered into the picture. Here is another interesting
prophecy from the life of Paul, in which the disciples in Tyre prophesied: “Through the Spirit they were telling Paul
not to go on to Jerusalem” (Ac.21:4). Agabus also prophesied concerning
this in Caesaria, and all the Christians tried to persuade him not to go on,
but finally resigned to “let the will of
the Lord be done” (21:14). We must conclude that, in the end in every case,
the sovereign, unchangeable will of God is done.
These, however, are prophecies, which are not
absolute, but conditional, predictions and are dependent on the reaction of the
subjects, to which they are addressed. We might say that there is an unspoken dependent
clause attached to them. The people, who knew God, including King Hezekiah, were
aware of this divine principle.
The chapter begins with the words, “In those days…”, that is, in the days
of the Assyrian attempt against Jerusalem. It occurred in the 14th year
of the reign of Hezekiah (Is.36:1). He received 15 more years of life and he
reigned a total of 29 years. He was 25 years old when he began to reign (2
Kgs.18:2), so he was 39 years old at the time of his sickness. Isaiah
prophesied, “Thus says the Lord: Set
your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover” (v.1).
There is an important matter to consider in this whole
affair, as to the sovereign will of God. Apparently there is no heir to the
throne, when Hezekiah takes sick. Manasseh was not yet born; his birth took
place three years later, because he was twelve years old, when he began to
reign. Please notice that Isaiah, in verse 5, refers to “the God of David your father” and in the account in 2 Kings 20:6,
God said that He would heal Hezekiah and save Jerusalem “for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake”. When Solomon
dedicated the temple he reminded the Lord of His promise to David, “You shall not lack a man to sit before me
on the throne of Israel” (1 Kgs.8:25). This promise did not fail throughout
the generations of the kings of Judah and the lineage continued until the time
of the Messiah’s birth. Therefore, in the sovereign will of God and because of
Christ, Hezekiah could not die without an heir.
We turn to the details of the account. The Lord
instructs the king to put his house in order, to prepare himself, his family
and, in general, all his affairs for his upcoming death. We must assume that we
are to apply this command, as much as we are able, to our lives, as well. We
have just mentioned a large hole in Hezekiah’s case, a most important issue
left undone, that is, the fact that he has no son to set on the throne.
At 39 years of age, this would be a hard blow for
anyone and the king is no exception. He simply rolled over in his bed and faced
the wall (v.2). He went to the only One that can intervene, where man can offer
no cure. It is the God, who has showered His blessing and love upon this man
from his earliest days, and his prayer carried as much weight, as that which
was sent from two sisters many centuries later: “Lord, he whom you love is ill” (Jn.11:3). Not always is the
petition granted, but it is always heard and treated with the greatest
affection and care.
.
“‘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” (v.3). It was a tender-hearted, simple prayer of a
child, reaching out to a concerned father, uttered with tears from a wounded
heart. Immediately, there was a response (v.4).
God comforted the king through the powerfully gifted
prophet: “Thus says the Lord, the God of
David your father.” He was reminded of his place in the center of God’s
eternal purposes in the line of Christ. No son or daughter of God today is in
any less of a position than his, each one having been individually chosen,
called and conceived to be conformed to the image of His Son. “I have heard
your prayer; I have seen your tears.”
It is wonderful to be able to approach God’s throne and be heard. It is
much to our advantage to pray with an intensity that moves our emotions,
because He not only hears prayer, but sees tears. The Lord granted the request,
adding 15 years to the king’s life (v.5).
The greatest problem in the king’s administration was
also resolved as the Lord, according to His nature, does “far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Eph.3:20), and
no Assyrian, then or ever after, set foot in Jerusalem (v.6). In addition, as a
believer, Hezekiah received a sign. Ahaz, his father, refused to ask for a sign
to help him learn to trust God. Hezekiah gladly seizes the opportunity and asks
for the more difficult of two signs. In the case of an unbeliever, a sign might
be given to bring him to faith; in that of a believer, signs follow faith, and
a unique sign was given in confirmation of Hezekiah’s faith. He witnessed the
only time in the history of planet earth that the sun, not only stopped, but
retreated towards the east! (v.7-8)
Afterwards, the king wrote his testimony, humbly confessing
his thoughts during the time of crisis and giving glory to the Lord for His
miraculous intervention. He had lamented his early departure from the earth,
spending part of what would be a normal life span in the grave. His earthly
walk with the Lord and the fellowship of earthly friends would be cut short. He
saw the temporal nature of life on earth like that of a shepherd’s tent, picked
up easily and moved. For this reason, the Psalmist also gave us an example to
measure our days (Ps.39:4).
Hezekiah illustrates his life, as being cut from a
weaver’s loom quickly after he weaves a piece of material. Twice he writes of
the shortness of life, comparing it to the span of a fraction of a day, the
time in which a weaver might start and finish a piece of material. The night
hours complicate spiritual oppression, and the sufferer, crushed body and soul,
as if attacked by a lion, anxiously awaits daylight. He moans pitifully as a
dove and weakly chirps as a bird, looking upward towards heaven for help, until
his eyes grow weary. In this way, he pleads for the Lord to undertake for him
(v.9-14).
Suddenly, the Lord speaks to him and works a
miraculous healing. He is left without words to describe the experience. He
determines however to walk much more softly and slowly, certainly more humbly,
in the future. These are the lessons learned through suffering. It is surely
for that purpose that God allowed the sickness, which Hezekiah calls the
bitterness of soul (v.15).
While the king waits for total restoration, he reflects
on the fact that God’s people live by His Word and His supernatural work
in their lives (v.16). Earlier we contemplated God’s loving care for Hezekiah;
now read his enlightened statement about it: “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” (v.17). This statement is too rich for us to make just a brief comment and then go on. I bring in some commentators to help us
appreciate it.
Hezekiah shows three qualities that should be
expressed by the living: gratefulness, praise and hope in God’s faithfulness.
The dead, death and the grave are incapable of such action. Let’s join
ourselves, then, to those whom Christ has given life. Let us be overwhelmed by
thanksgiving, let us be filled with praise, and let us rejoice in the hope that
is secured by His faithfulness! (v.18)
Hezekiah is certainly basking in the sunshine of his
deliverance: “The living, the living, he
thanks you, as I do this day” and is he hinting to God his desire for an
heir, when he adds, “the father makes
known to the children your faithfulness”? (v.19). All the good things that
happen to us must transform into praise and song “all the days of our lives, at the house of the Lord” (v.20).
Isaiah prescribes the anointed remedy, straight from
the heavenly apothecary, a cake of figs to be applied to the king’s boil, and
three days later, in light of the miraculous sign of the sun’s reverse motion,
Hezekiah goes in faith to the house of the Lord (see 2 Kgs.20:5 along with
v.21-22).
Isaiah 39
Unfortunately, there is another matter to report, which
also happened “at that time”. Hezekiah
was taken up with the present Assyrian threat. He had watched the advances of
their army on all sides and had withstood, with God’s intervention, a direct
confrontation with high Assyrian officials and their army outside Jerusalem. He
could not see a greater threat on the way, one that would topple Jerusalem and
carry its dignitaries and many of its prominent citizens into captivity.
 |
| An ancient depiction |
Merodach-baladan of Babylon was named after the god of
war, Merodach. He had some affinity with the king of Judah, because, as
Hezekiah, he had held off the Assyrians and maintained independence for about
10 years. Upon hearing of Hezekiah’s illness, the king of Babylon “sent envoys with letters and a present” (v.1).
Hezekiah welcomed them as belonging to a potential political ally and, willing
to show his friendship and trust, he gave them a tour of his house and his
kingdom, but especially of his treasuries of silver, gold, precious oil, and armory
(v.2). Probably, this demonstration was never forgotten in Babylon.
As one of the best kings of Judah, Hezekiah had achieved
many reforms and had been highly successful in advancing his kingdom. It seems
that no human being can handle success and power and this king became proud for
a time. Regarding the visit from Babylon, in 2 Chronicles 32:31 it states very
suggestively, “God left him to himself,
in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart.” (Read from 2
Chron.32:24-33 for a summary). The king was left to the limitations of human
knowledge and devoid of the godly discernment, which is essential in leading
His people. He saw only the political situation in his time and was not aware
of what would take place about 100 years later.
This prompted the prophet Isaiah to come to the king
and he had several questions regarding the Babylonian visit. Hezekiah assured
Isaiah that they came from Babylon, a distant country, and therefore, he
thought, were no danger to Judah. He told him that he had hid nothing from them
(v.3-4). Ah, but the man of God had looked to heaven and could see a century
into the future!
Isaiah knew the answers to his questions, before he
asked them. His was the voice of God (v.5) He saw the rise of the “head of gold”
(Dn.ch.2), the Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar, and the conquest of the
Assyrians. He saw them becoming a force to be reckoned with on the world scene
and an important part of world history. He saw their siege of Jerusalem and its
fall, the Babylonians achieving, what God did not allow the Assyrians to
attain. He saw them ransacking the sacred treasures, some of them stored for
generations: “Nothing shall be left” (v.6),
he said. He saw the birth of Manasseh and that his descendants in generations
to follow would “be eunuchs in the
palace of the king of Babylon” (v.7). Hezekiah had entertained and
befriended the greater enemy.
The word of God reveals what Hezekiah said and also what
he thought. To God, the thoughts and the meditations in men’s heart are as
clearly read, as are his words and deeds, and He will judge them accordingly. “Then said Hezekiah 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’” (v.8). The passage in 2 Chronicles, mentioned
earlier, states that, not only did Hezekiah become proud, but he humbled
himself (2 Chron.32:25-26). Hezekiah recognizes that the sentence, caused by
his sin, is good and also merciful. A truly humbled and repentant person will
always recognize that his punishment is less than he deserves.
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