I hope to cover chapters 38 to 40:8. God continues to show that history as His-story and these events are important because God says they are important and God stresses the portions that are key to His story.
In those days Hezekiah becamesick and was at the point of death. AndIsaiah 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, O Lord, remember howI have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Isaiah 38:1-3
Isaiah has some pretty heavy messages for people and this one was pretty tough for Hezekiah. He had tried most of the time to be a good king. His father was not a good king or servant of God. Hezekiah must have had some good mentors somewhere along the line and God's Grace moved in his life to make him more of a blessing than many in Jerusalem deserved. However, he was obviously not ready to die and pleaded with God.
Then 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 addfifteen years to your life.I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of 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 ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.
Isaiah 38:4-8
Remembering Ahaz's stubborn refusal to ask for a sign here is another sign for Hezekiah. We see Hezekiah thinking it would be harder to bring the shadow back ten steps than forward 10 steps so he asked for what he thought would be hard. The stairs worked as a sundial either by design or accident. You can ask how God turned a clock back and many stumble on verses such as these by assuming that God is not sovereign over the physical laws of creation but is rather subject to them. However, if God is who He says He is, and who He must be to be God, then how could this even be difficult for Him? God gives us laws or rules in creation not by compulsion but graciously so that we can live our lives. My coffee pot works every morning because water continues to have the same properties but God is not subject to the properties of water and if He commands an axehead to float then it will float and time will bend to His will and your sundial may run backwards.
One of the ironies of this verse is that so many stumble here on God's transcendence versus his immanence. I'll explain why I find it ironic in a minute. People have seen these verses and decided that God changed His mind in the way that a man would change his mind with regards to the fate of Hezekiah. I like to say that when you seek God for something like Hezekiah did then, through prayer, things may be different than they otherwise would be. However, God knows all contingencies but He knows nothing contingently. So God in His transcendence knew from the beginning of time that Hezekiah would petition Him in prayer when Isaiah told him he was going to die. God in His gracious immanence sent Isaiah to tell Hezekiah that his time was up so that the king would cry out for mercy, God could show mercy, the king could live another 15 years, and a further promise against the Assyrians could be given.
I pray that we could see how vital it is for our peace of mind that God is both transcendent and immanent. How could we trust His promises if He were not transcendent? He would be guessing and working on a solution but never a solid foundation on which to stand. How could we have a Father to love and live with if He were not immanent? How do you love and receive love from a God who couldn't even communicate to you in the moment of your trial or blessing? The Most High is both and has declared it in verse after verse and in His Son our Saviour.
So why to I say these verses show irony? Irony is a situation in which there is an incongruity, discordance, or unintended connection that goes beyond the most evident meaning. Many who are in error with Process Theology would say that these verses show that God is not transcendent and will write a book on Isaiah 38:1-6 teaching that God is not above time and doesn't see the end from the beginning. However, God shows in verses 7 and 8 that He is the God of time by making it run backwards. Whether all of creation ran backwards except Hezekiah's garden, only the our solar system, or only our planet or a portion of it is irrelevant. He wouldn't even find one more difficult than the other. The only job Christ ever hard was bearing the weight of your sin.
So I find it ironic that those who seek to teach that God is not transcendent with verses 1 through 6 don't notice that God declares His transcendence in verses 7 and 8. We should all pray that God has mercy so that our eyes are open when we read Scripture.
Hezekiah cried out and God gave him a 15 year “do over” and then the Lord of Heaven and Earth confirmed it by moving the shadow backwards up the stairs.
Here are some of Hezekiah's thoughts after being made well. It is written as a poem in which Hezekiah reviews all the events of his illness and prayer.
A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had 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 Lordin 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 weaverI have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom;
from day to night you bring me to an end;
I calmed myselfuntil morning; like a lionhe breaks all my bones;
from day to night you bring me to an end. Likea 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!
Isaiah 38:9-14
Hezekiah seems most upset by how sudden death seems to have come upon him. He was a king who often sought God but he would get off track when things were hectic. He was focused on self and you can often see that in prayers and actions. We all are self centered but in a king it is more public. In his mind, he is in the middle of his years and the news of his impending death is compared to a tent that was there and then gone and a loom as you finish a project and cut it loose. In his case he pictures himself as the weaver who weaves in time but someone else (God) cutting the project off the loom to end it without warning. But Hezekiah does look to God. Often selfishly, like us, but at least he is calling out to God.
Hezekiah seems to also be aware that his sins and failures are evident to God. He indicates that some of what he is going through, at least in his mind, is just punishment for his sins. But Hezekiah has the wisdom to ask for God to have mercy (be his 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.
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!
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.
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 stringed 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 also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”
Isaiah 38:15-22
The poem moves from mourning to praise. He will walk carefully or slowly all of his years because of this bitter time. The events that Hezekiah experienced should be events that people think about as they live and they give life to Hezekiah's spirit as he meditates on his life. He knows that it was for his welfare that he went through the illness and that God's love delivered him. So Hezekiah moves in the poem from the gates of Sheol to the house of the Lord. God moved him by Grace from the gates of Sheol to the house of the Lord. We'll be seeing more and more of God's salvation, especially through His “Servant”, as we progress through the next chapters.
Isaiah gave the figs as physical sign of God's promise. Then Hezekiah asked for a sign. His father Ahaz refused to ask for a sign and did not follow God. Hezekiah asked for a sign but then stumbled in following God. This historical record of the request for a sign is strategically placed just prior to Hezekiah's stumbling in the text of Isaiah.
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. 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. 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.” 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.”
Isaiah 39:1-4
Hezekiah made a selfish mistake and decided to show off to representatives of “a far country” who made him feel important and yet he knew better. He was likely excited to see them because it meant a rebellion against the Assyrians. The Babylonians were on the rebound and gaining power. So he was placing faith in the Babylonians, showing them all he had to offer, and had already stopped placing his faith in God. How could he do that? He was like us.
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 from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 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.”
Isaiah 39:5-8
Selfishness raises it's head again since Hezekiah is satisfied with “peace and security” in his days. Isaiah reveals the just prize for loving and seeking to please Babylon; all they have, sons included, will be carried away to Babylon. We must be vigilant in our lives and not sell the eternity for the moment. It is a temptation we face daily. We are tempted to sin and to spend our resources on things that don't last. We are tempted to be the best entertained and the least substantive generation in history. And when I speak of substance and substantive I mean things that you can take with you into eternity.
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