October 15, Isaiah 38
Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back. - Isaiah 38:17
The doctor sat down at his desk and smiled at the anxious patient. The test results were conclusive. He knew the answer to the question that brought the patient to him. He was sure of the diagnosis. There would be no recovery. Based on his medical knowledge and decades of experience, he knows the patient is going to die. He hated this part of practicing medicine.
He looked down at the file and then up at the patient. He began to speak in a gentle voice. "The tests show that your disease is spreading rapidly. There is no surgery, no treatment that will help. There’s nothing else we can do. You should take some time to put your affairs in order, and be with your family."
We all dread hearing a prognosis like the one Isaiah gave Hezekiah when the prophet made a house call to see the sick king: "Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover." If it's scary to hear it from a doctor whose words are backed by conclusive test results, how much more frightening must it have been for Hezekiah to hear it from a man he knew to be a faithful prophet of God, whose words always came true? There was no source for a valid second opinion.
Chapter 38 is about Hezekiah's incurable illness that the man of God said would lead to his death. After the prophet's diagnosis and the patient's fervent prayer, God changed his mind before Isaiah left the palace complex. Isaiah returned and told the king about the fifteen year extension of his life.
After that, Isaiah recorded Hezekiah's psalm of praise to God for his miraculous deliverance from the illness that was supposed to kill him. The psalm sounds like some of the songs and prayers by Hezekiah's ancestor David. Hezekiah's words remind us of David's psalms in which he acknowledged that it was good for him to be afflicted because it brought him closer to God.
The first two stanzas of Hezekiah's psalm describe his reaction to the news that he was going to die in middle age. The last two stanzas are a celebration of praise to God for his mercy and his power. All four stanzas are tearful, poetic descriptions of his emotions and gratitude to God.
When we compare this chapter to the parallel account of the events in 2 Kings 20, we find other interesting points for our meditation. Fig cake poultices were common in ancient medical practice. I'm not sure if there was any medicinal benefit to the fig cake dressing, but when the prophet ordered one for the king, it worked like the anointing oil in the New Testament days of the church. It was a symbol of God's blessing and power.
The sign of the sun going backward several degrees in its arc across the sky is interesting too. Some moderns, intoxicated with their advanced knowledge of such matters, declare it an impossibility. But it was not hard for a God to whom nothing is impossible to grant the sign that Hezekiah sought. The God who made the sun itself and controls its path across the sky could alter the sun's natural course and behavior if he so willed. You perhaps remember a time when God made the sun stand still for about a day to extend a day of battle for the Israelites to overcome an enemy. So this brief retreat of the sun along its natural path was no challenge to God. But it greatly assured the sick king that Isaiah's words would come true. Hezekiah recognized that God healed him because he loved him. He also recognized the greatest of all deliverances he was granted. It was wonderful to be delivered from the threat posed by the Assyrians. It was also wonderful to be delivered from the illness that threatened his life. But the most wonderful delivery of them all would be accomplished by the death of the greater Son of David, centuries later on the cross when he bore Hezekiah's sins, your sins and my sins on the cross. That amazing delivery is also from an otherwise impossible malady. It was achieved by God's great love for us through the life of his only Son. We can mourn and rejoice with King Hezekiah about our own fatal illness and miraculous deliverance.
Praise God!
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—October 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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