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Isaiah 38 & 39
Have you ever been in really bad shape and thought you might die? Or perhaps you were bad enough off that you kind of wished you could die? Have you been in overwhelming trouble and great distress?
What did you do? Have you ever made a poor decision because you were too focused on the things immediately around you and didn’t consider the long term results?
What is the reason for trouble in the world? Why was Hezekiah sick?
God the Heavenly Father created a good universe and had good intentions towards His creation. He did not create man selfishly because of what He could get out of them, instead He created them so that they could experience to some level the fellowship that exists between God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The idea that God is good is demonstrated quite clearly in the life and person of Jesus Christ. The reason for our trouble has something to do with satan who said, “I will be like the Most High.”
Romans 8 – Ever since the fall the world has been groaning and full of pain. Not all trouble and pain that is in the world is because of sin.
Back to Hezekiah in our main text. There isn’t a reason given about why Hezekiah was about to die. Generally Hezekiah was a good king, but in this situation he failed in some respects, especially a little further along. Hezekiah wept bitterly, it sounds like he wasn’t getting what he deserved. It sounds like he is saying, “I’ve been a good man, and I don’t want to die.”
Even though Hezekiah may not have been completely in the right in everything, God heard his prayer, and his crying, and he answered him.
Maybe you’ve had a bitter complaint and in your trouble and you now wonder where God is and what is He doing? Hopefully we are experiencing God through our prayer, through the word, through other people. When we pray, how God answers, this can be a struggle for us.
Hezekiah response to God telling him that he would have another 15 years. “I will walk humbly. We will praise the Lord in the temple every day.”
Hezekiah welcomed the envoy from Babylon, along with all of their gifts. But then he showed them all the wealth and treasure in the kingdom. He was proud of all the wealth in the kingdom. He was trying to impress them. It seems like he forgot God here and was somewhat intimidated by these folks and wanted to impress them.
How we live our lives depending on who we want to impress says a lot about us. We can forget a lot of things that are important to not forget.
Hezekiah heard that Israel would be conquered after he died and he said, “it is good” because it wouldn’t happen before he died. Hezekiah demonstrates here a fatal flaw, he failed to remain humble when life was good, he forgot God and failed to make a wise choice. A decision based on immediate self preservation and not the long view.
For those of us with responsibility these verses call us to be tender, but strong. We need to be able to make tough decisions and carry them out, choosing the difficult thing now for the sake of eternal value and long term return instead of immediate return.
We are called to make wise and righteous choices. We all face hard choices, choices that determine what life will be like in the future, perhaps we don’t recognize the importance of a decision at the moment, but what is the direction of our heart, what do we generally base our choices on?
God is good. We all have a need for humility. There is right and there is wrong. We are called to seek God in all things.
We are not alone in our troubles. Jesus Christ our creator came to earth to live with us in our troubles. He was attacked by Satan many times and He trusted the Father and took care of our sins on the cross. By the power of the Holy Spirit God is walking with us and is guiding and pleading on our behalf in our need. Jesus is the answer to our trouble.