King Hezekiah of Judah is a much more complex character than I ever realized! (Maybe that’s partly because there is so much Material about him in Scripture! Quite a biography! I mean in the Book of Second Kings and both Volumes of the Chronicles, as well as Isaiah and Jeremiah, Hosea, Micah too!)

In Isaiah 38 the King got some bad news, from the Lord at that! (“In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for THOU SHALT DIE, and not live.” Isaiah 38:1, sounding pretty ominous!)

But Hezekiah prayed! Oh, did he! Maybe I should say he prayed and prayed and prayed! (“Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and PRAYED unto the LORD.” Isaiah 38:2) And cried! (“And Hezekiah WEPT sore.”)

Then, true to His Word (“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” Jeremiah 33:3) … God answered that prayer! (From the Lord, through Isaiah the Prophet, to Hezekiah the King: “Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I WILL ADD unto thy days FIFTEEN YEARS.” Isaiah 38:5)

Fifteen more years!

A new “lease on life,” so to speak.

But then (now Psalm 106:15 is coming to mind … “And He, the Lord, gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.”) … comes Isaiah chapter 39. (You can review it in more detail by studying yesterday’s Lesson.)

King Hezekiah foolishly received a delegation from the (wicked) King of Babylon and showed them everything he owned! Even down to his silver and gold reserves! (Like wagging a bug juicy carrot in front of a wild rabbit! Or fresh, red meat in front of a wolf!)

For this indiscretion God rebuked Hezekiah. More than that, God punished him. And his whole nation, Judah! (God wants us loving and worshipping and impressing HIM and HIM alone!) As is recorded In Isaiah 39:5-7 … “Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

Wow! (It’s that “wages of sin” thing again! That “Be sure your sin will find you out” Syndrome, Law of Almighty God!)

Families dead, thousands of them!

Judah’s (God’s people) honor tarnished!

Her identity nearly erased!

National calamity!

And here is how Isaiah received that “bad” news! (Information every bit as disturbing as the King’s “bad news” last chapter! About setting one’s house I order! About preparing to die! But it’s his Nation this time, not him personally.)

At first Hezekiah’s words sound pretty mature! A good attitude! “Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, GOOD IS THE WORD OF THE LORD which thou hast spoken.” Isaiah 39:8a

Almost on as high a plane as Job’s “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” But in Hezekiah’s parlance: “Though God slay my Nation, my progeny, I WILL TRUST IN HIM?” (Note the ?, not a ! here.)

Then the King added these last, selfish words! “He (the Lord) said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.”

Wow!

“Yes, my grandsons will die in an enemy attack! But at lease my remaining years will be good!”

The nation’s economy “under my watch” will continue to prosper!

Yes … “There shall be peace and truth in my days.”

Suddenly, what at first appeared to be a good attitude proved sour!

Selfish!

Immature!

Wow!

Fifteen more years … an answer to prayer! But years in which Hezekiah perhaps made the biggest (and most costly) mistake of his life, career, administration!

Yes … God granted his request (to live longer) but perhaps send “leanness” to his soul (and his Nation’s) because of Hezekiah’s not submissively yielding to God’s perfect Plan for his life.

Not everyone will agree with my assessment of Hezekiah’s blunder, his big mistake. I just think sometimes we can “push” it too far concerning prayer … when God has made His Will plain in the first place.

Think about it.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Oh, by the way, wicked (future) King Manasseh was born to Hezekiah curing this added fifteen year span too! (Fifty-five years of degradation for Judah!)

A very dangerous fifteen-year addition!

Wow!

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“At that time Merodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered. And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.” Isaiah 39:1-2

The Assyrian Empire is waning, but world politics seldom exists as a vacuum. And the Babylonians were waiting “in the wings” to assume hegemony! They would next rule the then-known world.

So … in today’s Lesson the aspiring Babylonians send a delegation to King Hezekiah, with devious goals in mind.

Under the “guise” of a gift for the recovering King (whose life had recently been spared and extended by the Lord) the representatives of Merodachbaladan wish to “spy” on Judah.

And unsuspecting (or maybe just naïve or maybe “lifted up in pride” due to such unusual international attention) Hezekiah talked (and showed) way too much to his covert potential enemies!

Big mistake, which Isaiah the Prophet will (soon) soundly rebuke!

“Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon. Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, ALL that is in mine house have they seen: there is NOTHING among my treasures that I have not shewed them.” Verses 3 and 4, Isaiah obviously at the moment not being “in the loop” of intimate Palace business.

But Isaiah certainly was “in the Loop” with Almighty God!

“Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: Behold, the days come, that ALL that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: NOTHING shall be left, saith the LORD. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” Isaiah 39:5-7

He showed them ALL. And some day they would come and take his ALL! Oh, how gullible we Christians can be!

Hezekiah, who once trusted the Assyrians too much … now has trusted the Babylonians too much!

When will we ever learn?

Proverbs 3:5-6 … “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

I personally do NOT believe the Devil is omni-present and omnipotent and omniscient! (My living God is all That, and a whole Lot more!) But not Satan.

And sometimes, I suspect, the more we can keep our mouths shut around evil and wicked people … the better off we’d be!

Whatever his motive, Hezekiah blabbed too much!

And his ill advised “openness” led to the pronounce of future judgment on his progeny and his people.

Proverbs 30:32 might apply to each of us in this context. “If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, LAY THINE HAND UPON THY MOUTH.”

Ephesians 4:27 says: “Neither give place to the devil.”

In many cases … “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: BUT HE THAT REFRAINETH HIS LIPS IS WISE.” Proverbs 10:19

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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What an answer to prayer! God added fifteen years to the life of King Hezekiah!

“Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.” Isaiah 38:5, deliverance from a terminal illness!

And those bygone years … belonging to an age when God gave “signs” … watch what happened next: “And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city. And this shall be a SIGN unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken; behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.” Isaiah 38:6-8

(Today, with us having the completed Word of God, Old and New Testaments, God does not communicate as much in “signs,” but rather in the precious Revelation we call “Scripture.”)

But the “signs” God gave King Hezekiah are nonetheless thrilling! Confirming miracle number one: the Assyrians are gone! No more trouble from them! The Same God Who can heal bodies can also control the political landscape! (The next enemy Judah will face, the Babylonians, no longer the Assyrians!)

Confirming miracle number two: the sun will digress backwards, ten degrees! This Same God then can also control the world of astronomy. Amazing!

And, best I can tell, these two “signs” were God’s idea!

Wow!

Surely this occurrence illustrates to us the Significance/Importance God places in His Word, especially during these last days! (I believe there are no “signs” whatsoever pointing to the Rapture. By that I mean that great “Catching Away” could occur any minute, any second! Nothing remains to be “fulfilled” before that Event could transpire! The “signs” of Matthew 25 and 25 all relate to the literal Second Coming of Jesus to earth.)

Today here’s all we need to confirm God’s future plans. “Thus saith the Lord …!” The Bible, inspired Holy Writ! Infallible, we believe.

Be sure to take some time today and invest it in that Book. Pursue some daily (regimented) study program to better learn the Scriptures. Be often “in the Word.”

After all, it’s better than any system of “signs and wonders.” To this (ineffable) extent: “I will praise Thy Name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: FOR THOU HAST MAGNIFIED THY WORD ABOVE ALL THY NAME.” Psalm 138:2

Enough has been said.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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The Passage is relatively lengthy, but must be viewed as a whole. Take a minute and read it, carefully …

“9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness: 10 I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. 11 I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. 12 Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. 13 I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. 14 Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me. 15 What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. 16 O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live. 17 Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. 18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. 19 The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth. 20 The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.” Isaiah 38:9-20

In verses 10 and 11 (verse 9 is introductory) the King “laments” his condition. His mortality. “I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.”

Then, unexpectedly, in verses 12 and 13 he envisions God as “attacking” him! “He (God) will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt Thou make an end of me. I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.” There may even be a “tinge” of bitterness here! God, like a lion!

Old Testament Psalmists are brutally honest with God!

Then, in this Thanksgiving Hymn, Hezekiah re-lives his recent prayer and deliverance from that terminal “boil!” Verses 14-16 … “Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; UNDERTAKE FOR ME. What shall I say? HE HATH BOTH SPOKEN UNTO ME, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou RECOVE ME, and MAKE ME TO LIVE. The Poem has now become a testimony!

Verse 17 is critical … “Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but THOU HAST IN LOVE TO MY SOUL DELIVERED IT FROM THE PIT OF CURRUPTION: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.”Healing and forgiveness!

Wow!

More honoring the Lord! “For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall PRAISE THEE, AS I DO THIS DAY: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.” Verses 18 and 19 … joy indeed!

And the Psalm closes with a pledge to worship God, Psalm 23:6 like … “and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.” But in Hezekiah’s words … “The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments ALL THE DAYS OF OUR LIFE in the HOUSE OF THE LORD.”

Amen!

Well written, by one of King David’s descendants!

How to close this Lesson?

Let’s all praise God today for some deliverance he has sent our way.

Psalm 34:19 … “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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The event we are about to notice is recorded in three different places in Scripture! That alone makes it significant! (Paul’s conversion experience, for example, is recorded three times by Dr. Luke in the Book of Acts! And that event was certainly fundamental to the growth of Christianity! In Acts chapters 9 and 22 and 26, amazing!)

Today’s Text: “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.” Isaiah 38:1

Now here’s 2 Kings 20:1 … “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.”

Then 2 Chronicles 32:24 … “In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death.”

Wow!

Seems to have been a sudden illness, and terminal.

But, alas, the good King prayed!

“Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD.” Isaiah 38:2

As he prayed, he brought his “arguments” before the Lord, his “reasons” to live longer! (“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD.” Isaiah 1:18)

Here’s that prayer: “And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.” Isaiah 38:3, asking for nothing! Just reminding/communing with God!

Those few words … then God came to Isaiah and commanded him: “Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.” Isaiah 38:5

God answered prayer!

Fifteen more years!

Obviously, God is the Healer, but medical “means” were also used it seems! “For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.” Isaiah 38:21

What a blend of earthly remedies and divine Power!

Then this interesting little fact. Soon as he is “well,” Isaiah wants to go to God’s House and worship! “Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?” Isaiah 38:22, see his heart’s desire?

Divine healing!

A reality, way back in the days of the Kings of Judah .. and still so today!

Praise the Lord.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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