February 10, 2010 (Isaiah 35-39, Psalm 76)

This portion of Isaiah is an almost duplicate account of 2 Kings, where King Hezekiah is taunted by the Assyrian king, spouting lies, etc. But Hezekiah prayed and God wiped out 185,000 Assyrian troops.

Chapters 38 & 39 talk about King Hezekiah's illness. He became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah came to visit him and gave him this message:

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will not recover from this illness.’”

Here is the remaining sequence:

² When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ³“Remember, O Lord, how I have always been faithful to you and have served you single-mindedly, always doing what pleases you.” Then he broke down and wept bitterly.

⁴ Then this message came to Isaiah from the Lord: ⁵ “Go back to Hezekiah and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life, ⁶ and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. Yes, I will defend this city.

⁷ “‘And this is the sign from the Lord to prove that he will do as he promised: ⁸ I will cause the sun’s shadow to move ten steps backward on the sundial of Ahaz!’” So the shadow on the sundial moved backward ten steps.

The footnote of my Bible says that this exchange happened before the exchange of the Assyrian king taunting Hezekiah. So we see God answered his prayer, and then also answered his prayer to defeat the Assyrian army. Perhaps his healing gave him additional faith in God's power?

But, it seems like everyone, Hezekiah did something stupid. The king of Babylon had heard he was sick, and that he recovered. He came to visit him and Hezekiah welcomed the Babylonian envoys and showed them everything in his treasure houses and everything in his armory. There was nothing in his palace or kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

The footnote of my Bible says: "Hezekiah shared state secrets. Any reference to divine assistance is conspicuously absent. Rather, it appears that Hezekiah succumbed to the temptation to parade the trappings of his own power and success."

So Isaiah confronts him and tells him that the time was coming when everything he had would be carried off to Babylon, including some of his own descendants. And when Hezekiah heard this, here was his response:

“This message you have given me from the Lord is good.” For the king was thinking, “At least there will be peace and security during my lifetime.”

That is how chapter 39 ends. I peeked ahead to chapter 40, and there is no mention of Hezekiah. Then I went to Bible Gateway and searched all of Isaiah with the word "Hezekiah" and chapter 39 is the last mention of him. I went back to 2 Kings that had these same stories and this account ended with 'When Hezekiah died, his son Manasseh became the next king.' So that was it. It seems we are left with the final words written about his life, ending with him not consulting the Lord and being rebuked by Isaiah. Sad for a king that seemingly sought the Lord his entire life to be remembered this way. But that's the way it seems to go. You can have a long and fulfilling career, (example Tiger Woods) and make foolish mistakes, and it seems as the mistakes are what people remember about you. All the more encouragement to "finish strong". Make me think of Pastor Kelly's teacher asking them in Bible college, "Do you want to be great?" And of course everyone wanted to be that. His answer "Don't quit and don't fornicate". Maybe we should add to the list, 'don't be proud'.