Today, in the prophet Isaiah, we read the account of one of the most remarkable and instructive stories of the Old Testament...
Today, in the prophet Isaiah, we read the account of one of the most remarkable and instructive stories of the Old Testament. It happened at the end of the eighth century BC, when the Assyrian king Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem and showered the city with blasphemous letters. Sennacherib wrote that none of the ‘gods of the nations’ of the Near East had saved either their peoples or their kings from Assyrian occupation. On receiving such a letter, Hezekiah, king of Judah, gave all generations a most important example of prayer. He took the letter and placed it on the altar in the Temple of God. Then he turned to the Lord of hosts in a prayer of praise and trust. Following this example, when we ask God to help us and all people, we say that we ‘bring to God’ our problems.
The Lord heard Hezekiah’s prayer and said, ‘I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David,’ and that very night He scattered Sennacherib’s army. Besides being an example of prayerful intercession, this story is important for another reason. Sennacherib’s letter was deeply insulting to Hezekiah, all the more so because the inhabitants of Jerusalem had learned of it. But Hezekiah brings his hurt, the insult he has suffered, to God, rather than avenging it himself. As we say in one prayer: ‘Thou knowest (You know) the wrong done to me—resolve it as Thou wilt (as You will).’
The short passage we read today ends with another prayer of Hezekiah. As death approaches, the king prays with tears and asks for his days to be prolonged. In doing so, he speaks not so much of his merits before God as of the devotion of his heart. And these sincere tears and this real, unfeigned devotion did not go unanswered.
38 Hezekiah in his sickness receives from Isaiah a message of death, Isa 38:1.
By prayer, Isa 38:2-3.
hath his life lengthened; the sun goeth backward for a sign thereof, Isa 38:4-8.
His song of praise to God, Isa 38:9-20.
38:13 I reckon - When I could not rest all the night even 'till morning, my thoughts were presaging that God would instantly break me to pieces, and the like thoughts followed me from morning 'till evening.
38:16 By these - By thy promises, and thy performance of them; therefore it is not strange, that one word of God hath brought me back from the jaws of death.
38:18 Praise - The dead are not capable of glorifying thy name among men upon earth. They cannot expect nor receive the accomplishment of thy promised goodness in the land of the living.
38:20 Was ready - Was a present help.
39 The king of Babylon sends ambassadors with letters and a present to Hezekiah, who shews them his treasures, Isa 39:1-2.
Isaiah foretells the Babylonish captivity, Isa 39:4-7.
His resignation, Isa 39:8.