“Thankful for This Life”
[Isaiah 38:1-22]
YouTube February 24, 2020
Have you ever been sick? I suspect that few of us would answer that
question with a “no.” We all get sick;
it is part of the result of the fall of our first parents – the consequence of
their sin. So, we do get sick.
Have you ever been so sick that you
didn’t think you would live? Have you
ever had some illness that hospitalized you and caused the doctors to do test
after test or recommend treatment after treatment, but you don’t see much change?
Surely, many of us have know someone
who got sick and eventually died of that sickness.
This morning’s text is a transition
to the final section of the book of Isaiah, and the commentators are not sure
quite when this event took place in the life of Hezekiah, though God promises
that Jerusalem will be saved from Assyria in our text. That leads our commentators to believe this
text takes place during the time that the Assyrians were threatening Jerusalem,
but before the defeat of Sennacherib that we looked at last week. (In the next chapter, Isaiah records what
happens when the Babylonians come. The
Babylonians conquered the Assyrians.)
This sickness may have occurred
during the period that the Rabshakeh was threatening Jerusalem. We remember that Hezekiah did not go out to
meet the envoy but sent three of his staff out to him.
So, we are taking a small step back
in history. The Assyrians are at the
door of Jerusalem. The Rabshakeh is
delivering the threats of Sennacherib.
And King Hezekiah is fatally sick.
And we see, first, God hears the
prayers of His people.
Hezekiah becomes ill, and he is near
the point of death. His doctors have not
been able to help him. And Isaiah, the
prophet, comes to the king and says, “This is the Word of the Lord: get your affairs in order, you will die, and
you will not recover.”
This is no longer the sorrow of
Hezekiah or the conclusions of the doctors, but God has announced that
Hezekiah’s life is over – he will die soon.
What would you do if you knew with
an absolute certainty that you were going to die of some sickness within the
week? Would you max out your credit
cards? Would you seek out all the
pleasure you have ever desired? Would
you hide away and sulk – or become angry with God?
Upon the news from Isaiah, Hezekiah
immediately turns his face to the wall, and he prays to God for deliverance –
for healing – for more days to come.
Would such impending death cause you
to turn to God in prayer? It
should. If we believe that our God is
the Almighty God, the Creator and Sustainer of Life. If we believe that God is Who the Bible tells
us He is, we ought to be assured that God will hear our prayer – and that He is
able to heal.
Now, would we give reasons why God
should spare our lives? Hezekiah
did. Did you hear them?
“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.”
“Please,
O Lord, remember that I have been faithful – whole-heartedly faithful, and I
have done good works. Lord, look at all
that I have done and the spirit with which I have done them, and see if they
don’t merit a stay of execution.”
Hezekiah
asks God if he hasn’t merited salvation.
And
the answer is “no.” No matter what you
or I do that is good and pleasing in the sight of God – it is only what is
expected of us – and we do not do everything that is good and pleasing in the
sight of God – we do not perfectly obey God.
We sin. Hezekiah had sinned. So,
for him to ask based on his good works was as foolish as when we do it.
And
we take it a step further, “O Lord, if You do this and that for me, from now
on, I will be faithful and obedient to You in all things.”
Paul
writes, “yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but
through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in
order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because
by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16, ESV).
And
Hezekiah weeps and waits on the response of the Lord.
And
God responds to Hezekiah’s prayer. God
tells Isaiah to tell Hezekiah that God has heard his prayer and will heal him
in three days (as II Kings 20 tells us), grant him fifteen more years of life,
deliver Jerusalem from the Assyrians, and defend the city.
Why?
Did Hezekiah win God over with all his good works? Is that why God chose to extend his life and
save the city?
No.
The author of Kings tells us that
God says to Isaiah, “’Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people,
Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I
have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up
to the house of the LORD, and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will
deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will
defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.’ And Isaiah
said, ‘Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he
may recover’” (II Kings 20:5-7, ESV).
God extends Hezekiah’s life and
saves Jerusalem for His Own Sake and for David’s sake.
God hears Hezekiah’s prayer and
chooses to heal Hezekiah and deliver Jerusalem because He wants to show the
Assyrians and Israel Who God is – He wants to portray Himself before them in
power – and for David’s sake.
We consider this last week – for
David’s sake? David has been dead for
centuries. What?
No, God promises David that there
will always be a descendant of David on the throne in Jerusalem, and God is
faithful and will not go back on that promise.
So, Hezekiah is saved, and Jerusalem is saved for the sake of Who God is
and the promises He has made.
If we ever read the Bible, we will find
descriptions of Who God is and what He is like, and we will see promises that
He has made that are eternal promises that He will never break. And in good times and bad – when we are face
against the wall crying with tears of bitterness for one reason of another, we
need to remember that God hears the prayers of His people – and we also need to
remember Who God is and what He has promised to do.
If God is really Who He says He is,
then He is able and will unfailingly truly show Himself to the world and keep
His promises. We never have any reason
to doubt the God of the Bible.
God wants His people to pray to Him
– Jesus gives His disciples a pattern to model their prayers after. God hears the prayers of His people. And God answers our prayers in accordance
with His Will.
Then, Hezekiah askes for a sign so
he will know that Isaiah’s message is truly from the Lord.
Don’t
ask for a sign. God is patient and
merciful, and perhaps this can be put under the idea of testing the prophets to
see if they are true or false. But,
don’t ask for a sign.
We
have the whole story in II Kings:
“And
Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me,
and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?’ And Isaiah
said, ‘This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the
thing that he has promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back
ten steps?’ And Hezekiah answered, ‘It is an easy thing for the shadow to
lengthen ten steps. Rather let the shadow go back ten steps.’ And Isaiah the
prophet called to the LORD, and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which
it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz” (II Kings 20:8-11, ESV).
Commentators
are not entirely sure what this refers to except to say that – whatever time
device was being used – Hezekiah wants to see the sun rise and the shadow that
the time device produces get smaller – rather than get larger – which would be normal.
Hezekiah
receives the sign; he believes the word of Isaiah, and he writes a song, in
which we see:
Second,
we ought to be thankful for this life.
In
the first half of the song, Hezekiah explains how things were before God
answers his prayer and saves him and Jerusalem.
In
verses ten through fourteen, Hezekiah sings that he is going to die in the
middle of life. (We know Hezekiah died
at age fifty-two, so he was thirty-seven when his fatal illness came upon him.)
Hezekiah
continues singing that he is consigned to the grave for the rest of his years,
he will not see the Lord, nor any human being in the land of the living again.
Then
he describes his death with three metaphors – it is like a tent being torn
down, it is like cloth being cut from a loom, and it is like a lion attacking
and crushing all his bones.
He
chirps like a swallow or a crane, he moans like a dove. He’s tired of lifting his eyes up in prayer:
“Oh. God – don’t You see I am oppressed?
Save me!”
In
the second half of the song, we have the resolution of his condition and cry –
in verses fifteen through twenty:
“What
can I say – God did it! I walked with a bitter soul and that was my own
fault. This is the way humans live. Lord, make me healthy!”
“God,
You gave me bitterness for my good” – everything works together for the good of
those who love Him.
“In
love, You saved me from the pit of destruction and delivered me from all my
sins” – God did not merely heal Hezekiah’s body, He saves him from the Wrath of
God for sin.
“The
grave doesn’t praise You for this, death doesn’t praise You for this, the dead
don’t praise You for this. No, the
living, the living are thankful for this life, and the father tells his
children how thankful he is and how thankful they ought to be for this life –
for this day – for God’s Mercy and work in each believer’s life.”
Does
your family know that you are thankful for this life – no matter how awful it
may be at any given moment? Could you be
on your deathbed and God say “no” to your healing, yet be thankful for all that
God has given you?
It’s
not easy, is it? I can tell you, there
are days it is not easy to thank God for the way things are right now. There are days when it doesn’t seem like life
is worth living if nothing is guaranteed to get better. But remember Who God is. Remember that each human bears the Image of
God. Remember that God will keep His
promises. Remember this is a sin-filled
and broken world and we are never promised that everything will always be to
our liking.
But
hear how the song ends: “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.”
Hezekiah
has the promise of physical healing and fifteen more years of life at this
point. We do not have such a promise of
physical healing. And yet, we can
respond in the same way Hezekiah did – being thankful for this life – by going
to the house of the Lord – by going to worship – and singing songs of praise to
God.
And
Hezekiah says that he will go to the house of the Lord to worship and sing
songs – to sing songs that he writes – today and tomorrow and the day after
that and every day from now on until he dies. Do you feel that way?
When
Hezekiah realizes there is no hope for him in the medical field – that he is
about to die – he cries out to God to be healed, and God hears him. God hears the prayers of each one of us who
prays, believing in Jesus. Lift up joy and
pain and sorrow and confusion to God – He will hear you – and He will answer
you according to His Will.
And
be thankful for this life. You don’t
have to be a hypocrite. You don’t have
to deny the pain and sorrow and suffering you have endured. But consider Who God is. Consider that you bear His Image. Remember that You have been eternally saved
through the life and death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Alone. Even if we have a bitter heart and the doctor
has said we are about to die, we have good reason – in Christ Alone! – to be
thankful for this life. And for the life
that is to come.
Let
us pray:
Almighty
God, we thank You for the life of Hezekiah.
We thank You for allowing him to become fatally sick that we could learn
about You from this history. Thank You
for Who You are and all You have promised, for giving all we Who believe
salvation through Your Son. And thank
You for this day. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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