6/8/2011 9:25:25 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Hezekiah the sufferer
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: 2Ki. 20:1-11; 2Chron. 32:24-26; Isa.
38:1-8
Message of the verses: “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.’" 2 Then he turned his face to the wall and
prayed to the LORD, saying, 3
"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. 4 Before
Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him,
saying, 5 "Return and say to
Hezekiah the leader of My people, ’Thus says the LORD, the God of your father
David, "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will
heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD. 6 "I will add fifteen years to your life,
and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and
I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s
sake."’" 7 Then Isaiah said,
"Take a cake of figs." And they took and laid it on the boil, and he
recovered. 8 Now Hezekiah said to
Isaiah, "What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I
shall go up to the house of the LORD the third day?" 9 Isaiah said, "This shall be the sign to
you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that He has spoken: shall
the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?" 10 So Hezekiah answered, "It is easy for
the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten
steps." 11 Isaiah the prophet cried
to the LORD, and He brought the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which
it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.”
“24
¶ In those days Hezekiah became mortally
ill; and he prayed to the LORD, and the LORD spoke to him and gave him a sign. 25 But Hezekiah gave no return for the benefit
he received, because his heart was proud; therefore wrath came on him and on
Judah and Jerusalem. 26 However,
Hezekiah humbled the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD did not come on them in the days of
Hezekiah.”
“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.’"
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the
wall and prayed to the LORD, 3 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. 4 Then the
word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, 5
"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. 6
"I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of
Assyria; and I will defend this city."’ 7
"This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do
this thing that He has spoken: 8
"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.”
I
have written earlier that the events recorded in the Scripture about Hezekiah’s
life are not written in chronological order.
I looked up the note on verses seven and eight in the MacArthur Study
Bible and he concurs with what Dr. Wiersbe has been writing on this
subject. I wish now to quote the first
paragraph in Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on this section: “According to chronologers, this is the next
important event in the life of Hezekiah.
It took place fifteen years before his death in 687, so his sickness and
healing, as well as the visit of the Babylonian ambassadors, occurred in the
year 702B.C.. The next year, the
Assyrians returned and attacked Jerusalem.”
Now
the question is whether or not the Lord sent this illness on Hezekiah as a form
of discipline or not? I believe that the answer is found in verses twenty-four
and twenty-five of 2Chronicles chapter thirty-two which are written as part of
the text for this SD. In the last SD we
found Hezekiah giving tribute to the king of Assyria in order for them not to
attack Jerusalem, and this was not the way to handle that situation, for the
Lord is the Almighty God who has power over all the kings of the earth
including the king of Assyria at that time in history.
Isaiah
comes in to talk to Hezekiah and has a message from the Lord that Hezekiah was
about to die and that he should get his house in order, in other words chose
who the next king was going to be. I was
always under the impression that his son Manasseh was born after this incident
occurred, but that is not the case as he was seven years old when this took
place for he was twenty-two years old when he became king.
Hezekiah
began to immediately pray to the Lord about what Isaiah had told him and as
Isaiah was leaving the Lord told him to go back and tell Hezekiah that he was
going to add fifteen years to his life.
He told him how he was going to be healed, and that he would worship in
the temple in three days. He also told
him that He would defend Jerusalem against the Assyrians, something that would
take place soon. God performed a miracle
for Hezekiah making the shadow go down the stairs ten steps, something that he
chose from the two choices that Isaiah gave to him. Hezekiah asked for a sign and this was the
sign that the Lord gave to him. This was
no problem for the Lord who created the sun and the earth and all the stars in
the sky and set them in motion. God
could make this happen and He did.
There
is another thing seen in this section of Scripture and that is the importance
of David’s line which God promised would bring about the Messiah. God was doing this because of His promise
that He gave to David and this can be seen in this section. God will keep His promises and His covenants
that He has made with His people.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I kind of summarized all that I felt that the
Lord was teaching me or what I feel is Him leading me to work in the Kalaheo
Missionary Church, and in today’s SD I am learning about humility and the need
to be humble before the Lord. Hezekiah
became proud and so the Lord had to discipline him and because the things in
the OT are written for us in the NT so that we don’t fall into the same
temptations and sins that these people did this is what I am learning, or
better yet this is what the Lord is teaching me from this section. If this is what the Lord is leading me to do
then the power will come from Him to accomplish this and therefore there will
nothing for me to be proud of.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Give myself to the Lord for worship and for service.
2.
Continue to be a teachable student.
3.
Continue to learn contentment especially when it
comes to my relationship with Sandy.
4.
Remember the battle is getting hotter and I am in
need of the Spiritual armor.
5.
Trust the Lord to lead me into why He has called us
to Kauai.
6/8/2011 10:20:59 AM
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