Isaiah 38:1-3 – Crying to the Lord
It’s important to get our chronology of this chapter straight. It looks like this is something that happened after God had destroyed the Assyrians, but that is not quite right. This happened at the same time. While the Assyrians were attacking, we see Hezekiah having his own problems. He’s deadly sick. You can read about this more in 2 Kings 20 and in 2 Chronicles 32. We don’t know exactly what he had. But in this situation, like in all our diseases, God is in complete control.
The timing, humanly speaking, was horrible. The Assyrians were invading. And Isaiah must go to him and tell him, ‘You’re going to die.’ As a godly man, as the godly king, Hezekiah was disturbed not only at the end of his own life, but what would come to the people of God? What would come to those who were his to protect and his to shepherd? So it was that Hezekiah wept. He was concerned for the glory of God. He was concerned for the people of God. His weeping here was of much the same nature as our Lord Jesus weeping over Jerusalem shortly before His death. Hezekiah’s response was not a wrong one. He didn’t attempt to defy God’s Word, but submitted to it. He did not reject God, nor did he think God had rejected him. He went to this God who had said, wind up your affairs, get them in order because you’re going to die. He went to this God in faith, knowing Him through the covenant of grace, knowing Him through the One Who was the Mediatorial King and Who would come someday. He went to God, reminding God of his gracious working in his life.
It is always good for us, friends, to have our affairs in order before God. We are going to die. Hebrews 9:27 tells us that it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment. If you’re in Jesus, of course you’re safe. You’re entirely safe. But my point is this, we must be ready. And how do we have our affairs in order? By making sure that we are in Jesus Christ; that we’re right with God; that we have asked Jesus to save us from our sin. And then that we are seeking, as we’re empowered by the Holy Spirit, to be living for Him more and more, and to be seeking to be using all that He’s given us for His glory.
Questions
- What does Isaiah tell Hezekiah?
- What does Hezekiah do?
Prayer Points
- Pray for the salvation of family and friends.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.