The Pride of Hezekiah – Part 1
Isaiah 38:1–39:8 (38:1-16)
January 21, 2024
You know that we are now in that middle section of Isaiah.
• The first 35 chapters of Isaiah looked backward primarily dealing with the issue of Assyria.
• Chapters 40-66 look forward to the reality of the Babylonian captivity.
In the middle we have 4 chapters that contain two narrative stories.
Both of them examine events in the life of Hezekiah.
As we have said, they are out of order chronologically,
That is because Isaiah is using them as a bridge between halves.
When we look back at the Assyrian invasion
• We saw that it was faith in God that led God to turn the Assyrians away and deliver his people.
• Hezekiah was the leader in that.
• It was his faith that prompted God to save the nation.
But when we look forward to the coming Babylonian invasion
• We will learn that pride is what will lead God to hand Judah over to the Babylonians.
• And while there are certainly more sinners than just Hezekiah to blame for the exile, his pride is the root that starts it all.
So we saw the first narrative story and saw the great faith of Hezekiah.
(I do want to make sure you understand that he ended there)
THIS MORNING let’s look at the second narrative
And see the pride he exhibited which is the very type of attitude
That caused God to bring Babylon upon them.
As we look at this, let me go ahead and label the two chapters for you.
Chapter 38 we’ll call: A TRIAL TO HUMBLE
• You’ll see God confront and seek to correct the pride that has been building in Hezekiah’s heart.
Chapter 39 we’ll call: A TEST TO EXPOSE
• After Hezekiah makes a verbal confession regarding his pride we’ll see God send a test to see if his confession is true.
I think if you understand that,
It will make the story in these two chapters become more clear to you.
So let’s just begin what that first point.
#1 A TRIAL TO HUMBLE
Isaiah 38:1-22
Obviously we’re going to break this point down a little more.
Let me give you 5 subheadings to help us walk through this chapter.
1) THE REVELATION (1)
(1) “In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’”
First, we begin with the obvious.
“Hezekiah became mortally ill”
• You’ll find out later that whatever was wrong with him, it produced a boil.
• I’m sure he felt terrible, and I’m sure he sought out advice and perhaps even treatment.
But one day, it was ISAIAH who knocked on his door
And gave him SOME BAD NEWS.
“Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’”
God tells Hezekiah that he is about to die.
That should be a pretty sobering warning.
And at this point we should just clearly note that
GOD IS GETTING HEZEKIAH’S ATTENTION.
That is the revelation
2) THE RESUME (2-3)
“Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, and said, “Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.”
I know that at first the term “resume” may not seem correct.
• Shouldn’t this be his prayer?
• Shouldn’t this be his humble supplication?
Perhaps, except that it is very difficult to read what Hezekiah says
And come away in awe of his amazing humility.
• Hezekiah is blindsided by the news that he’s about to die.
• And he is correct in appealing to God for help,
• But his appeal leaves a little to be desired.
The entire basis for why he believes God should restore his life is recounted specifically by him.
• “how I have walked before You in truth”
• “how I have walked before You…with a whole heart”
• “how I have…done what is good in Your sight”
Now first of all, we must acknowledge that there is some real truth to that.
• Certainly if we were to measure Hezekiah according to Christ we’d see that like
all of us he has “fallen short of the glory of God.”
• Surely he hasn’t been perfect, but I don’t think that’s what Hezekiah is
claiming.
• I don’t think he’s saying he has been sinless.
But he is pointing out that his life has been devoted to the things of God.
And look, the book of 2 Chronicles agrees with him.
We won’t go hash back through all of it again, but perhaps I can give you again the highlights of his life:
We said he was:
1. A Reforming King
2. A Gospel Evangelist
3. A Faithful Intercessor
4. An Encouraging Shepherd
5. A Devoted Worshiper
Do you remember how he restored the temple, and restored the priestly order, and how they had the biggest Passover Jerusalem had had since the times of the Judges?
Do you remember how he interceded for the people when God was making them sick, or how he encouraged the priests who were embarrassed that the Passover wasn’t done perfectly?
Do you remember how much of his own private means he dedicated to the LORD for the ongoing worship of the temple?
We studied all of that, he WAS devoted to God.
2 Kings 18:3 “He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done.”
2 Kings 18:5-6 “He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. For he clung to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses.”
2 Chronicles 31:20-21 “Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah; and he did what was good, right and true before the LORD his God. Every work which he began in the service of the house of God in law and in commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and prospered.”
We are not, in any way, questioning the accuracy of Hezekiah’s statement.
• He did walk in truth.
• He did serve with a whole heart.
• He did do what was right in God’s sight.
We aren’t questioning his actions at all.
NOR are we suggesting that God has somehow overlooked all of that.
Hebrews 6:10 “For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.”
We genuinely believe that Hezekiah did those things
And that God took note of all the things he did.
SO WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
The problem is not the accuracy of what Hezekiah’s resume,
It’s the incompleteness of his resume.
Hezekiah tells the story of his life without any acknowledgement
That perhaps God was working through him.
2 Chronicles 30:12 “The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD.”
And the simple point to be made is that
The success Hezekiah enjoyed
Was not the result of the devotion of Hezekiah.
There have been plenty of devoted servants of God who have experienced “zero” measurable success in their ministry.
• Would anyone accuse Jeremiah of not being devoted?
• Would anyone say that Ezekiel lacked commitment?
• Was Isaiah half-hearted?
We don’t deny that Hezekiah was devoted,
But it is a little strange to see that
He has difficulty recognizing the grace of God in his life.
Even the good Hezekiah accomplished
Was only because of God’s hand to cause it to occur.
It brings to mind Paul’s question to the Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 4:7 “For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”
Paul reminded the Corinthians that every success they had achieved
Was only because of the grace of God.
Paul certainly understood that.
Romans 15:17-19 “Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”
And yet such a perspective seems to be lacking from Hezekiah.
You could even look at his grief and bitterness in receiving this bad news.
• Him turning his face to the wall.
• Him weeping bitterly.
That can lend almost to being a pity-party
And that is a prideful thing as well.
You can again see the difference between his response and responses like PAUL’S:
Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Romans 14:7-8 “For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”
Or any other of the saints of old
Who faced death with faith and boldness to the glory of God.
I’m not saying that any of us might have done better than him here,
But I am pointing out that his attitude
Doesn’t do much for the glory of God.
It speaks more to
• His pride,
• His accomplishment,
• His feelings of being treated unjustly
Than it does to a man who recognizes the grace of God upon his life.
When faced with a piece of bad news
He does not appeal to God’s mercy,
He appeals to his own resume.
The Revelation, The Resume
3) THE RESPONSE (4-6)
“Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. “I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.”
Let’s PAUSE here and seek out a little CLARIFICATION.
There have been plenty who have expressed confusion
Regarding this response from God.
Not so much that God healed him,
But because just a moment ago God emphatically stated
That He was about to die.
And it has sparked a number of questions from people.
Did Hezekiah’s prayer change the mind of God?
And look, that is sort of a cheap and easy way to approach this story,
But it brings with it A LOT OF BAGGAGE.
You could just chalk this story up to the “power of prayer”
And point out that prayer changes things.
But this has been the very start of the heresy known as “Open Theism”.
It gets defined in various ways, but it is basically the belief that seeks to reconcile the love of God and the supposed “free will” of man.
It basically states that the future is “open”.
• It will depend on man’s decisions and God’s responses to those decisions.
• Nothing is set, it’s just God and men sort of reacting to one another as the
future unfolds.
Namely that God is just sort of watching the drama unfold, He doesn’t really know how it all ends, He’s just sort of winging it and things like our prayer have drastic influence on the direction everything heads.
People who hold to Open Theism love stories like this,
• Or like the one where God tells Moses He’s doing to kill the Israelites but Moses prays and God changes His mind.
I hope I don’t have to sell you on the error of Open Theism.
The very fact that it totally STRIPS God of His sovereignty is bad enough,
But it also SUPPLANTS God’s sovereignty with man’s or even Satan’s.
How can we look forward to any promise of God if everything God says is up for debate and His mind can be changed about it?
You see the problem, but don’t fear, Open Theism NOT TRUE
Isaiah 40:7-8 “The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”
Isaiah 43:13 “Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”
You get the idea.
But that is why it is problematic to just see Hezekiah pray and God change direction.
BUT STILL THE QUESTION LINGERS.
WHAT HAPPENED HERE?
• God told Hezekiah he was about to die.
• Isaiah presented it with a “Thus says the LORD” and then it didn’t happen.
WHAT IS HAPPENING?
WELL FIRST, MIGHT WE POINT OUT THAT
People die all the time without being warned by God that it is coming.
• In fact, this is the way that 99.9% of the people of all time have died.
• They knew they would die sometime, but very few were ever told by God that there time is now and they are about to die.
So God sending a specific warning like this ahead of time
Is definitely not the norm.
COULD THERE BE A PURPOSE IN IT?
Let us consider a couple of times when God has intervened and told men they were about to die.
Genesis 20:1-3 “Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in Gerar. Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married.”
• People typically blame Abraham here, but I would remind you that God never rebukes Abraham in this chapter.
• The sole rebuke of God is for Abimelech who we learn later has no fear of God.
• So God tells Abimelech here “you are a dead man”.
However, if you continue reading you find that like Hezekiah,
God did not follow through. Abimelech repents and God spares his life.
Or this one:
Jonah 3:4 “Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
• There again was a message from God to a people and it was that in 40 days they would all be dead.
• And yet again, we read the story and find that Nineveh repented and God did not do it.
But hopefully you are beginning to SEE A PATTERN EMERGING
When God warns a person that their death is coming.
It doesn’t appear to be a resolute sovereign decree of God,
But rather God does this as a warning to someone in their sin
That things need to change or else.
After all, if God desired their death, why warn them?
If there is no chance of changing His mind, why tell them?
God is seen in Scripture as One who warns of coming doom that man might repent of his sin and be spared.
Ezekiel 33:13-16 “When I say to the righteous he will surely live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but in that same iniquity of his which he has committed he will die. “But when I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and he turns from his sin and practices justice and righteousness, if a wicked man restores a pledge, pays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the statutes which ensure life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. “None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness; he shall surely live.”
• That is what we saw with Abimelech
• That is what we saw with Nineveh
• That is even what we saw with Moses when he interceded
And it is best to understand that this is what we are seeing here.
God was threatening Hezekiah with death to lead to his repentance.
And I think, after seeing his prayer, we can confidently say that
We know what sin God was confronting: PRIDE.
BUT HERE WE HAVE GOD’S ANSWER to Hezekiah’s prayer.
God tells him, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.”
2 Kings adds the statement, “I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD” (2 Kings 20:5)
And God also promises to deliver him
And the city from the coming assault from Assyria.
So now we see that God, though He warned of death, has responded with mercy.
• He gave mercy to the children of Israel upon Moses’ prayer.
• He gave mercy to Abimelech when Abraham prayed for him.
• He gave mercy to Nineveh when they humbled themselves in repentance.
• And He gives mercy to Hezekiah here.
But with that acknowledgment, don’t buy into backward thinking.
That is to say, DON’T walk away with the assumption
That Hezekiah was right and he did deserve to be healed.
• That would be God operating in justice, not mercy.
• That would also come with the assumption that God had wrongly inflicted
Hezekiah with the sickness.
• That would assume that God, having now been corrected by Hezekiah, was
repenting and removing the sickness.
No, that’s not what is happening.
• God is merely showing mercy here.
• God is not treating Hezekiah as he deserves.
AND GOD HAS THE RIGHT TO BE MERCIFUL TO MEN.
Hezekiah is not going to die.
But then something bizarre happens,
Which causes us to question just how much Hezekiah actually learned from this trial.
In Isaiah the verse is pushed down to verses 21-22
(21-22) “Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”
When you read the narrative in 2 Kings
Those verses occur immediately following verse 6.
It becomes apparent to us that Hezekiah was here
Having a little difficulty actually believing that God would heal him.
• He had no problem believing the death part, after all, he could see the boil.
• But when God promised life, Hezekiah is a little doubtful.
• So Hezekiah asked for a sign.
Well, God here is more than just merciful, He is also gracious.
We learn in the N.T. that there is wickedness in seeking for a sign,
But God grants it anyway.
The Revelation, The Resume, The Response
4) THE REASSURANCE (7-8)
“This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He has spoken: “Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.”
Also in the Kings narrative you find that
• Isaiah asks Hezekiah if he wanted the sun to move up or down ten steps
• Hezekiah basically says moving down is nothing, make it move up.
And so that is what God does.
He graciously gives Hezekiah a sign
That He will certainly heal him just as He promised.
So now, not only are we questioning Hezekiah’s pride,
But we also have a slight question about where his faith is at the present.
Again, WE’RE NOT questioning the testimony of his life here.
• We know even how he will end up, trusting God in a mighty way.
• We know that he is remembered as a King with great faith.
But here we are in this one trial and we have a difficult time seeing
That his faith is really strong at this point.
But none-the-less you are aware of the scene.
• He got sick
• God told him he would die
• He cried out to God
• God promised to heal him
• God confirmed it with a miraculous sign
And everything we have just said about his attitude and pride and struggling faith is at best JUST OUR ASSESSMENT.
Where it not for what we have next.
Verses 10-20 are NOT included in the book of 2 Kings.
It is a writing from Hezekiah where he explains exactly what was going on in his heart throughout the sickness and the healing he experienced.
5) THE RETELLING (9-20)
Let’s just be as honest as we can about what Hezekiah has to say here.
This writing occurred “after his illness and recovery:”
So the trial is behind him.
He’s just sharing testimony of what was going on in his heart at the time.
Let’s start with: (10-12) “I said, “In the middle of my life I am to enter the gates of Sheol; I am to be deprived of the rest of my years.” I said, “I will not see the LORD, The LORD in the land of the living; I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world. “Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me; As a weaver I rolled up my life. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me.”
Now let’s be honest in what we read.
You see words like
“deprived” or “pulled up” or “removed” or “rolled up” or “cuts me off”.
You see that Hezekiah assesses that this has been done to him
“in the middle of my life”
WHAT IS HE SAYING THERE?
That when God gave me the announcement that I was about to die, the first thought that occurred to me is that, “I’m too young for this.”
THIS ISN’T FAIR.
God is just plucking me out right in my prime.
If you couple that with the prayer he offered up in verse 3 you understand that there is a certain, “I don’t deserve this” mentality occurring here.
• He laments that he’s not going to see God at work anymore.
• He laments that he’s not going to see the deeds of men anymore.
He then just sort of throws up his hands to the unjustness of it all.
(12) “Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me; As a weaver I rolled up my life. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me.”
It’s the equivalent of saying, “He’s treating me like an old ratty T-shirt that is just picked up off the floor and tossed in the trash.”
You see the pride here.
He feels as though God is treating him unjustly.
(13) “I composed my soul until morning. Like a lion—so He breaks all my bones, From day until night You make an end of me.”
Here you find that he tried to “pull it all together”
“I composed my soul”
• I tried to make peace with it.
• I tried to get over it.
• I tried to come to terms.
But every time I did, it’s like God just hammered me again.
His warning to “get your house in order” just sort of haunted me.
“Like a lion – so He breaks all my bones”
And again that same statement:
“From day until night You make an end of me.”
God, You’re killing me!
He’s suffering
It feels unjust
And God is to blame
(14) “Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter; I moan like a dove; My eyes look wistfully to the heights; O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.”
There he describes his sobbing.
• He says that he sounds like a twittering crane or a moaning dove.
“wistfully” means “a feeling of vague regretful longing”
The Hebrew word behind it means “to be brought low.”
He’s just telling the Lord that I have bottomed out.
I have sunk deep in despair.
In that frustration he cries out, “O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.”
This isn’t so much a prayer of faith
As it is a complaint that God needs to rise up and do something.
Enough is enough!
Can’t You see!
“be my security”
• Be my guarantee
• Be my pledge
• Be my surety
Do you see now how Hezekiah has a feeling of entitlement here?
• God, You see all that I have done.
• You see how I have served You.
• Don’t You think it’s time to rise up and defend me here?
• (15) “What shall I say?”
AND THEN A STRONG LAMENT
“For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it; I will wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.”
It is God who has afflicted me with this promise of death.
And I’m going to be bitter about this until it happens.
Listen, that’s nothing but pride.
(16) “O Lord, by these things men live, And in all these is the life of my spirit; O restore me to health and let me live!”
Translators will tell you that this is a difficult verse to translate.
It’s hard to grasp exactly what he is saying here.
Most take it to mean something like this:
“O Lord, other men lengthen their life, but I am stuck with this bitter lot.”
Maybe it is, maybe not.
But then he cries out, “O restore me to health and let me live!”
Now we have no difficulty looking back at that prayer in verse 2
And understanding the pride that accompanied it.
Again, we’re NOT SAYING that we are better than him,
But pride is pride no matter where it dwells.
We actually saw the same types of things in the life of Job
• Who was also a righteous man,
• But his bitterness and pride caused him to be greatly humbled before God and
brought low.
This is actually one of the things that gives us
Great confidence that the Scriptures are the word of God.
The Bible does not hide men’s warts.
• If men were writing it there would be great temptation to omit the embarrassing parts,
• But this is God’s word and He includes the less than flattering stories.
Hezekiah started well and Hezekiah will end well,
BUT THIS IS A LOW POINT IN HIS LIFE.
He is a proud man and God has brought that pride to the forefront
With this boil and promise of death.
Hezekiah feels as though God is cheating him and treating him unjustly.
verse 17a, “Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness;”
We’re running out of time so we’re going to pause here for a moment.
You will see that after that statement God clearly intervened.
• It was there that God determined to heal Hezekiah and He did so.
• And the rest of this statement speaks of God’s goodness and mercy to save
• And we’ll talk about that tonight.
But this morning we just need to make some honest assessments.
PRIDE IS DANGEROUS
Certainly the MOST TERRIFYING aspect of pride is this:
James 4:6 “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”
• The fact that God is opposed to pride should be enough to cause us to desire it to be rooted out.
We think of that Pharisee in the temple,
• Who like Hezekiah, delighted in giving his resume to God.
• “I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all that I get”
• But God said about that man that he was not justified when he went away.
So we know the danger of pride.
It condemns men and it attracts the discipline of God.
But in Hezekiah we also learn that pride
Can very easily grow undetected in even a devout life.
Hezekiah was a faithful man.
Hezekiah was a devout man.
And even in his life this seed of pride has germinated and begun to grow.
Sennacherib’s taunt and Sennacherib’s letter
Were not the only Satanic attacks Hezekiah faced.
• Here Hezekiah is dealing with Satan’s influence.
• Hezekiah has begun to read his own press clippings.
• Hezekiah is pretty proud of all that he has accomplished.
• Hezekiah has started thinking on what he deserves from God.
That’s why he was so upset when God told him he would die.
His pride was offended and bitterness reared its ugly head.
And we think about the warning of Paul:
1 Corinthians 10:12-13 “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
We recognize that “let him who thinks he stands” part.
In those times when you think you’ve done the best, Satan is more than willing to push you right into that arena of prideful thinking.
And it shows up when you face a trial
And feel as though you don’t deserve it.
Do you want to know the proper response to trials?
James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Do you see the difference?
• A TRIAL COMES and a prideful man grows bitter and complains that God has cheated him.
• A TRIAL COMES and a humble man rejoices that God has seen fit to correct what is still broken in him.
How do you face trials?
How do you face adversity?
• Do you realize that God may be bringing them in your life for the purpose of crushing your pride?
• And when He does that, do you readily receive it, or grow bitter and fight it?
Hezekiah is a good man, but even good men are susceptible to pride.
John Calvin wrote about this story:
“And if a king so eminent in piety needed almost to suffer anguish, that he might be more powerfully excited to seek the favour of God, and, being almost wasted by grief, might groan from hell to God; let us not wonder if he sometimes permits us for a time to be agitated by fears and perplexities, and delays longer to bestow consolation in answer to our prayers.”
(Calvin, John [Calvin’s Commentaries Volume VIII; Baker Books; Grand Rapids, MI; 2005] Pg. 157)
THIS MORNING MAY OUR PRAYER BE
That God would examine our hearts and cleanse us from pride.
Even if bitterness were the only thing Hezekiah experienced as a result of his pride that would be enough to want it gone.
BUT AS WE’LL SEE TONIGHT, his pride was going to bring far more trouble than just his own personal bitterness.
