"Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: 'I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. Sermons
I. GOD'S SPEEDY CONSOLATION. "Go, and say to Hezekiah." For the Divine heart meets the human heart according to its moods. And there was no need to intensify Hezekiah's sorrow or to test its sincerity. Just as our Saviour, remembering Peter's fears after his denial, and knowing that the memory of his unfaithfulness and falsehood was a burning shame in his heart, said immediately after his resurrection, by the mouth of the angel, "Go your way, tell his disciples, and Peter (Mark 16:7), that Peter might know that the look" which struck out the fountain of tears, was turned into the look of forgiving grace and mercy. So here God would comfort Hezekiah at once in his true-hearted contrition. II. GOD'S TENDER REMEMBRANCE. "Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father." What music is that! Then there is something in a pious ancestry - more than we think of at times. Your father was a man of God, perhaps. Then there are prayers treasured up for you in the greater Father's memory. When we think of our Saviour, we "member his own words," For my sake." So God remembers also the sake of others: "For Zion's sake;" "For Jerusalem's sake." And as concerning Solomon God says, "Notwithstanding in thy days I will not rend the kingdom from thee, for David thy father's sake." We read also in Genesis, "The Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake." This is as touching as it is comforting. "The God of David thy father." III. GOD'S GRACIOUS SPEECH. "I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears." The prayer that is heard is the prayer that is heartfelt. None need be ashamed of tears. They are not unmanly. "Jesus wept" When a man weeps we are accustomed to wonder, nay, sometimes to scorn. The world prefers the sternness of endurance and the courage of despair. God hears heavenly eloquence in sighs, and beautiful liturgies in tears. "A broken and a contrite heart, O Go(!, thou wilt not despise." And the answer came: "I will add unto thy days fifteen years I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the King of Assyria." So God will save nations because of righteous souls, and will deliver us from worse Assyrians than those that imperilled Israel. - W.M.S.
I have heard thy prayer. ? — Most of us who have had some experience of life, have seen instances in which a man who has set his heart too fondly upon one object, has gained that object, and with it (to use the language of St. Paul to his shipmates) "much harm and loss." He has won the position which he coveted; but perhaps he finds himself saddled with the burden of a crushing responsibility; or perhaps his health — the one condition of enjoyment — breaks up just as he grasps the prize; or perhaps he is snatched away by death, "while the meat is yet in his mouth"; and those who knew him are unpleasantly reminded of the end of Israel's lusting in the wilderness, "He gave them their desire, and sent leanness withal into their soul." And thinking men say, when they hear of this result, "Strong wishes for earthly blessings are to be avoided." The Book of God, as being the book of Truth, gives an exact echo of human experience in this matter. God acceded to Hezekiah's request, and added fifteen years to his life. But now comes the grave question, Did the fifteen years thus added prove, in the issue, a blessing to Hezekiah personally, or to the nation over which he so worthily presided? The sacred narrative gives an emphatic negative to both branches of the question.1. Hezekiah, when God had originally proposed to take him to Himself, and had sent Isaiah with the message, "Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live," was at the zenith of his spiritual prosperity. And now Hezekiah was to be gathered to his fathers, full, if not of years, yet of honours, spiritual and temporal. But by his prayers and his tears he succeeded in prolonging his span; and the first result of this, which the history brings before us, points to a spiritual decline in Hezekiah (chap. 39.). The sweet ointment of Hezekiah's graces was flawed and corrupted by the dead fly of vanity. Had Hezekiah died when God proposed to take him, he would have died humble; as it is, he dies after being humbled by God; and all those who read the narrative thoughtfully will surely say, "Better far he had died at first." 2. But more than personal interests are at stake in the life of princes; and we are led to inquire what, as far as it is given us to know them, may have been the effects upon the Jewish nation of the addition of fifteen years to Hezekiah's life? The answer is conveyed in these words: "Manasseh (Hezekiah's son, who succeeded to the throne) was twelve years old when he began to reign;" so that if Hezekiah had died when God intended he should, Manasseh would never have existed. Now who was Manasseh? and what part did he play in Jewish history? Manasseh, by his extraordinary wickedness, surpassing that of all who had gone before him, involved the nation which he governed in ruin. Manasseh's crimes cried to heaven for vengeance, and were heard, long after Manasseh s body had mingled with the dust, and long after Manasseh's soul had become, through Divine grace, profoundly penitent. For when the author of the Books of Kings traces up the captivity to its originating cause, thus he writes: "Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of His sight, for the sine of Manasseh, according to all that he did; and also for the innocent blood that he shed (for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood), which the Lord would not pardon." Possibly, then, if Manasseh had not existed, the great national de. gradation of the Jews by the captivity, and the demolition of the city and temple, would never have taken place. (Dean Goulburn.) (J. N. Norton.) (J. Parker, D. D.) People Ahaz, Amoz, David, Hezekiah, IsaiahPlaces AssyriaTopics Add, Adding, Behold, David, Ears, Fifteen, Hast, Hezekiah, Hezeki'ah, Prayer, Says, Tear, Tears, Thus, WeepingOutline 1. Hezekiah, having received a message of death, by prayer has his life lengthened8. The sun goes ten degrees backward, for a sign of that promise 9. His song of thanksgiving. Dictionary of Bible Themes Isaiah 38:1-5 1120 God, repentance of Library The Life of the Spirit(First Sunday after Christmas.) Isaiah xxxviii. 16. O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit. These words are the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah; and they are true words, words from God. But, if they are true words, they are true words for every one--for you and me, for every one here in this church this day: for they do not say, By these things certain men live, one man here and another man there; but all men. Whosoever is really alive, that is, has … Charles Kingsley—Town and Country Sermons No Man Cometh to the Father but by Me. Epistle ii. To Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch. Sign Seekers, and the Enthusiast Reproved. Letter Xliv Concerning the Maccabees but to whom Written is Unknown. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: Meditations for the Sick. Assurance The Power of God I Will Pray with the Spirit and with the Understanding Also- Isaiah Links Isaiah 38:5 NIVIsaiah 38:5 NLT Isaiah 38:5 ESV Isaiah 38:5 NASB Isaiah 38:5 KJV Isaiah 38:5 Bible Apps Isaiah 38:5 Parallel Isaiah 38:5 Biblia Paralela Isaiah 38:5 Chinese Bible Isaiah 38:5 French Bible Isaiah 38:5 German Bible Isaiah 38:5 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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