July 14, 2008

• The Book of Isaiah Chapter 1 V.1 Part 5.8

  The Book of Isaiah

  Chapter 1 V.1 Part 5.8

   

   

  Hezekiah’s Choice of the Sign:

   

  We can therefore understand the nature of the choice of the sign that was offered by the prophet to the dying king. Would he choose that ten more steps should be straight- way engulfed in the shadow, or that ten steps already shadowed should be brought back into the light? Either might serve as a sign that he should arise on the third day and go up in renewed life to the house of the Lord; but the one sign would be in accordance with the natural progress of events, and the other would be directly opposed to it. It would be a light thing, as Hezekiah said, for the shadow to go forward ten steps; a bank of cloud rising behind the Temple would effect that change. But no disposition of cloud could bring the shadow back from that part of the staircase which had already passed into it, and restore it to the sunshine. The first change was, in human estimation, easily possible, “a light thing”; the second change seemed impossible. Hezekiah chose the seemingly impossible, and the Lord gave the sign and answered his prayer. We need not ask whether the king showed more or less faith in choosing the “impossible” rather than the “possible” sign. His father Ahaz had shown his want of faith by refusing to put the Lord to the test, by refusing to ask a sign, whether in the heaven above or in the earth beneath. The faith of Hezekiah was shown in asking a sign, which was at once in the heaven above and in the earth beneath, in accepting the choice offered to him, and so putting the Lord to the test. And the sign chosen was most fitting, Hezekiah lay dying, whether of plague or of cancer we do not know, but his disease was mortal and beyond cure; he was already entering into the shadow of death. The word of the Lord was sure to him; on “the third day” he would rise and go up in new life to the house of God.

   

  It’s interesting that that this perspective is one of “putting the Lord to the test by asking for a sign.” From what we saw earlier of Ahaz, I don’t think he was in the position to “put God to the test.” He did not follow God, so I think that is the difference here. For him, Ahaz to ask for a sign would have been reminiscent of Mat 12:39-41 that I mentioned two posts ago. 

   

  Isa 38:9  The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness:

  Isa 38:10  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.

  Isa 38:11  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.

  Isa 38:12  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.

   

  1) tent

  a) nomad’s tent, and thus symbolic of wilderness life, transience

  b) dwelling, home, habitation

  c) the sacred tent of Jehovah (the tabernacle)

   

  Isa 38:13  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.

  Isa 38:14  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.

   

  Here, he recognizes God’s purpose in the sickness.

   

  Isa 38:15  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.

  Isa 38:16  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.

  Isa 38:17  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.

   

  This sickness’ purpose was to deliver his soul, so that God’s name would be praised and glorified.

   

  Isa 38:18  For the grave cannot praise thee, death can [not] celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

  Isa 38:19  The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I [do] this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.

  Isa 38:20  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.

  Isa 38:21  For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay [it] for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.

  Isa 38:22  Hezekiah also had said, What [is] the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?

   

  2Ch 32:27  And Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honour: and he made himself treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all manner of pleasant jewels;

  2Ch 32:28  Storehouses also for the increase of corn, and wine, and oil; and stalls for all manner of beasts, and cotes for flocks.

  2Ch 32:29  Moreover he provided him cities, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance: for God had given him substance very much.

  2Ch 32:30  This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.

  2Ch 32:31  Howbeit in [the business of] the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire 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.

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