ISAIAH - Chapters 38 & 39 - Hezekiah's Illness, Healing and Pride
ISAIAH 38-39 – Hezekiah’s Illness, Healing and Pride
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
June 10, 2014, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Hezekiah’s illness was prior to Sennecherib’s defeat, so the account is out of chronological order. However, it is appropriate at the end of the narratives about Hezekiah and Isaiah, since it points forward explicitly to the Babylonian exile.
It is a reminder to every nation that actions of rulers have the power to affect morally, religiously and politically a whole nation.
Hezekiah’s Illness and Healing
As a personal testimony, I want to say that when my father became ill with cancer and the doctors gave him up, I was not ready to let him go. I went before the Lord and prayed the prayer of Hezekia. Through a miraculous surgical intervention, his life was extended 15 months. The Lord gave Hezekia 15 years of extended life.
38:1: “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came upon him, and said unto him, Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order; for you shall die, and not live’.”
The sickness of Hezekiah was during the time of trouble with the Assyrians; when they were seeking his surrender. This seems clear also from the fact that he reigned 29 years and this invasion of Judah was in his 14th year (36:1), leaving the added 15 years of his life and reign to take place after this.
The cause of his sickness was a large boil or ulcer. According to 2 Chr. 32:25, the judgment of this sickness was because his heart was lifted up.
2 Chr. 32: 24-26: ‘In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death, and prayed unto the LORD; and he spoke unto him, and he gave him a sign. Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up; therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem. Notwithstanding, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.”
Isa. 38: 2-3: “Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the Lord. He said, ‘remember now O LORD, I beseech you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight, and Hezekiah wept bitterly.”
Hezekiah was one of only a few men among all the kings of Israel, from Saul to the captivity, who were somewhat Godly.
3 Claims of Hezekiah:
- I have walked before You in truth.
- I have walked before You with a perfect heart.
- I have done that which is good in Your sight.
Then---when Hezekiah had prayed, wept aloud very grievously, humbled himself and repented of his pride. Before Isaiah had departed from the middle court, God told him to return and give a new message of life to the king (2 Ki. 20: 4-7).
38: 4-8: “Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, “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 add 15 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. This shall be a sign unto you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has 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 has gone.”
2 Kings 20:5b: “on the third day you shall go up unto the house of the LORD…Isaiah took a lump of figs. They laid it on the boil, and Hezekiah recovered.”
In 2 Kings 20:8-11: “Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the third day? Isaiah said, ‘this sign shall you have of the LORD, that the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees’? Hezekiah answered, ‘it is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees; nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees’. Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD; and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.”
The Lord made five promises to Isaiah of which have all came to pass exactly as prophesied:
- I will add 15 years to your life.
- I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria.
- I will defend this city.
- I will do this thing as spoken – the miraculous sign of the sun moving ten degrees backward.
Technically speaking the earth revolved back 10 degrees from where it had come on that day. There is no need to guess how that was done, by eclipse or some other act of God. It was a supernatural miracle.
38: 10-20: -- Hezekiah’s Psalm after he had recovered from his sickness.
“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. My 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 will you make an end of me. I reckoned until morning, that as a lion, so will he break all my bones; from day even to night, will you make an end of me. Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter. I did mourn as a dove, my eyes fail with looking upward; O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.’ What shall I say? He has both spoken unto me, and he has 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 will you recover me and make me to live. Behold for peace I had great bitterness; but you have in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back. The grave cannot praise you. Death cannot celebrate you; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for your truth. The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day; the father to the children shall make known your truth. 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.”
Hezekiah looks back in serene trust on his earlier distress. He describes the state of his soul and body during his illness. He now sees value both in the past suffering and in the future years added to his life. He breaks out in praise to God for deliverance. After the deliverance Hezekiah consecrated himself anew to Jehovah, to his praise, and to his service.
We can all look forward expectantly to God help in times of trouble, gaining confidence from Hezekiah’s experience.
CHAPTER 39 – Hezekiah’s Folly
Here we have the account of Hezekiah’s sin, his foolish pride. Merodach-Baladan, a Chaldean and the son of Baladan, pretended to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery from illness. He sent an embassy with lavish presents to draw the Jews into a league against Assyria. Hezekiah’s egotistical folly in displaying all his wealth and power draws a scathing rebuke from Isaiah and a warning of the Babylonia Captivity.
2 Kings 20:13-18: ‘Hezekiah hearkened unto them and showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures; there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah did not show them…Isaiah cam to Hezekiah and asked, “what did you say to these men? From where did they come to you. Hezekiah said, they have come from a far country, even from Babylon. Isaiah said, “hear the word of the LORD, “Behold the days come that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried unto Babylon; nothing shall be left. Your sons that shall issue from you, which you shall beget shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
2 Chronicles 32:30b: “…Hezekiah succeeded in everything he undertook. Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the prince of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart…” Hezekiah did not give the glory to God for all the good that was done to him, for his heart became proud (at such a spectacular response to his prayer); therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 32: 25-31)
After King Hezekiah died, the loyal and Godly Eliakim took on the role of father to Hezekiah’s sons and chief adviser to the young King until Manasseh was twenty-one. When Manasseh turned twenty-one, due to his insecurity, he began consulting with the false prophets of Baal and with the dead, as well as sorcery. The so-called New Age movement is centuries old. Practices such as astrology, channeling, voodoo, crystals, divination and witchcraft date back to ancient Canaanite and Babylonian beliefs. These pagan beliefs are rooted in the four lies used by Satan in the Garden of Eden and were condemned by God in ancient times, just as they are now.
It is believed that Eliakim was murdered along side Isaiah. Shebna escaped, but died just as Isaiah had prophesied. According to Zephaniah 1:1, Hezekiah had at least one other son, Prince Amariah. “The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.” Zephaniah was the great, great grandson of Hezekiah.
2 Chronicles 33:9-11: “Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the heathen whom the lord had destroyed before the Israelites. The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not listen. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh with hooks and bound him with fetters and carried and brought him to Babylon.”
1. (Isaiah 39:6) Hezekiah’s sons will be taken to Babylon.
2. Isaiah 37:29: “Because you rage against me, and your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came.”
It is believed that Manasseh was arrested because the Assyrians found papers of a treaty with Egypt sealed with the royal ring of the House of David agreeing to fight with Egypt against Assyria. They thought Manasseh was disloyal. He was imprisoned in a dungeon for one year in Babylon in total isolation. It is considered that Prince Amariah would have signed the treaty with Egypt when Assyria invaded Egypt. He would have owned a royal ring. The Jewish settlement in Egypt fought valiantly when Assyria invaded Egypt. This is another indication that Prince Amariah could have been with the exiles. In which case, the Prince would have been a Godly man.
During his imprisonment, Manasseh repented to the Lord for all that he did. The Amazing Grace is the Lord forgave him and restored him back to his throne in Judah.
2 Chronicles 33: 12-13: “When he was in affliction, he sought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed unto him; and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.”
Hezekiah’s answer to Isaiah was submission, and thankfulness as he recognized that for the remainder of his life (at least) there would be peace and truth in the land. His submission was not unselfish.
The first major part of the book of Isaiah ends.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible; The International Bible Commentary; Sermon notes by Carolyn Sissom on the Redemption of Manasseh 1/29/12, the Year of our Lord on website under Sermon notes.