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I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT LED TO THE UTTERANCE OF THIS PRAYER.

1. Hezekiah was sorely afflicted. The exact nature of his disease may be difficult to determine. There is no ground for the vague supposition that he was afflicted with the plague which destroyed the Assyrians. The malady was probably "a fever boil" (Ewald), or "a single carbuncle formed under the back of the head" (Thenius), or "fever terminating in abscess" (Meade). The word shechin, translated boil, means strictly inflammation. The crude state of medical science then would make many diseases fatal which are now easily removed. The body is subject to multifarious maladies. Few have perfect health. Doubtless better health would come from wiser habits and simpler faith. But many causes of disease are indefinable. A sick body often ministers to the growth of the soul. It casts the shadow of eternity over the fife. It awakens prayer in the most callous. It brings the prayerful nearer God.

2. Hezekiah believed that his affliction would be "unto death." He probably encouraged a hope of recovery until Isaiah came; though, as Josephus informs us, "the physicians despaired of him, and expected no good issue from his sickness; as neither did his friends." Hope dies hard in a sick man's breast. Isaiah, perhaps, did what, none of Hezekiah's physicians or courtiers were prepared to do. He faithfully delivered the Divine message. It was a painful duty. The dying should be warned. Not to do so is an unkindness and a sin. All have some preparations to make when death comes unexpectedly. The house of the soul needs to be set in order as well as the estate.

3. Hezekiah met death with great reluctance. Men generally shrink from death at its first approach. Dr. Johnson held that no man met death willingly. Many doubtless have. But to meet death without reluctance is no direct proof of meetness for eternity. Remember Bunyans "Weary of the World." The good may be unwilling to die. Hezekiah was not spiritually unprepared. He was reluctant to die —

(1) From the natural disinclination which men feel towards death. He was in the prime of life. His hold of all earthly things was firm. Age loosens the grasp. He saws time of quiet and prosperity dawning upon his kingdom, and he desired to live to enjoy it.

(2) He had no heir. It is certain that Manasseh who succeeded him was not then horn, for twenty years later he was but twelve years old; and the land had not yet begun to recover from the late ravages, so that his death would have left the nation in a distracted condition, and would probably have exposed it to many new calamities" (Kitto).

(3) He had not that clear revelation of immortality which we as Christians possess. He would look upon death as being "cut off from the land of the living," as going down into silence. Christ had not opened the kingdom of immortality to the eyes of men. This life was all to him, and he clung to it.

II. HEZEKIAH'S PRAYER.

1. He does not utter the desire that was uppermost in his mind. We may not have recorded all that he prayed: probably his prayer was broken off abruptly in weeping. He knew God could interpret his broken words, his sighs, his tears. Many prayers are too elaborately expressed. They prove their shallowness by the smooth elegance of the language in which they are uttered. Strong feeling makes the tongue falter. Much in prayer may be left to God's omniscience, justice, wisdom, tenderness, and love. Like a father He interprets the heart of His child.

2. Hezekiah appeals to his past life as a reason why his life should be prolonged. Few can do this. Most lives are so marred, so imperfect, so sinful, that they can furnish no argument before God. But, it has been asked, was there not in this prayer a spirit of self-commendation contrary to the spirit of the Gospel? Not a conscious self-clothing of deceit, but a pernicious self-ignorance? We think not. Hezekiah lived under a dispensation of religious thought that led him to believe that a man's character and conduct were the grounds upon which God's favour or displeasure was bestowed. And this is true under a dispensation of grace; though we, under that dispensation, realise as Hezekiah could not that all our virtue is by the help of God's Spirit, and can merit little in His sight. The modern habit of self-analysis and eagerness to find some evil to condemn at every turn, so as to describe ourselves as the vilest of the vile, was unknown to him. Many merely attempt to descend to some imaginary standard of vileness which they suppose is the proper depth of self-humiliation to reach to secure God's favour. Much of this confession of being miserable sinners is but miserable cant. Sick-bed confessions are exposed to this danger. Such lip-service may be, as Lynch says, "most suspicious and affrighting." What God desires is an honest expression of our heart's convictions.This Hezekiah gave. This prayer was uttered with true humility. Whatever had been his sins — and he recognised them (ver. 17) — he could claim —

1. Sincerity. He had walked before God in truth. He was conscious of no deceit, no inward angularities, no warping of conscience, no sophistical coverings, no histrionic attitudes. He lived out the verities of his soul.

2. Simplicity of purpose. His heart was perfect in its consecration to the Divine glory. He had no double aims. In building up the religious life of the nation he had not sought his own honour but God's.

3. That his acts had been regulated as in God's sight, and had been to increase goodness in the earth. His life was indeed his prayer. Life will have to be reviewed. A life of sin makes a death-bed terrible.

III. THE EMOTIONS WITH WHICH THIS PRAYER WAS OFFERED.

1. Hezekiah was filled with grief. But while grief prostrates the mental and physical energies it often gives great potency to prayer. The gaze of Hezekiah's almost speechless soul was fixed on God with beseeching earnestness, and the poignancy of his grief arrested the Divine arm.

2. There was in Hezekiah's mind a feeling of bitter disappointment. He expected to live, and his expectation rested upon his religious belief. In his day, under the incompleted revelation of t he Divine purposes, centering in human life and destiny, which was then possessed, longevity was regarded as one of the peculiar rewards of piety (Psalm 90:16). Hezekiah had fulfilled the conditions and he now looked for the reward. He was disappointed in God. To be disappointed in God is the direst disappointment that can fill a man's soul with bitterness. If God fail him, what is there in the universe that is firm? God sometimes permits men to think that He has not been faithful to them. This is, perhaps, the severest test that the human heart can bear. Christ descended to that "profundity of woe" when He uttered His agonising cry upon the cross. Many fail in such hours. But true faith can enable us to triumph even then. It will enable us to lie weeping before God, waiting for the explanation that it assures us God can and will give; clinging to His garments even when His face seems turned away, and His form, once so near and trusted, has changed, and seems moving steadily away from us. Thus Hezekiah waited, weeping Sore.

3. There was also within him the feeling of utter helplessness. All earthly resources had failed him. When he turned his face to the wall, he felt that no power on earth could help him. His physicians, his attendants, his most trusted counsellors, could render no assistance. He had only God.Hezekiah, even in such circumstances, found God nigh to help and to save. Isaiah was speedily sent back to comfort him with the Divine message: "I have heard thy prayers, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years." Learn —

1. That true piety will enable us to seek and find God m life's most painful extremities.

2. That in our hours of bitterest grief prayer will reach God's ear and bring us relief and deliverance.

(Homiletic Magazine.)

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KJV: Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,

WEB: Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh,