Year 3, Day 22: Isaiah 38

Chronological Anomaly

Isaiah 38-39 gives us a chronological anomaly.  If we take verse 6 literally – and I recommend we do – then the assumption is that when this incident occurred that Jerusalem had not yet been delivered from the Assyrians.  Of course, chapter 37 ended with the supernatural destruction of the Assyrian army and Sennacherib’s retreat.  Therefore, it is necessary to conclude that chapters 38-39 likely come prior to chapter 37.

Of course, this doesn’t have to bother us.  Remember that 36-39 are already a break in the prophetic poetry that makes up the majority of the rest of the book.  So these chapters are already an anomaly to the whole of Isaiah.  Furthermore, the author makes no promise for a chronological retelling.  In fact, often times in the course of human dialogue we don’t actually tell things in chronological order.  We start off explaining something only to realize that when we get to the end we need to go back and explain a little more.  This could easily be what Isaiah (or his scribe) has done here.  Isaiah may have wanted to complete the story of the Assyrian destruction first. Now, he could well be going back to complete the story of Hezekiah.

The Power of Repentance

Either way, notice what happens here.  Hezekiah is told to set his house in order because death will come upon him.  Hezekiah repents, and the Lord gives him 15 more years.  We see the compassionate side of God here.  Genuine repentance brings about genuine forgiveness and genuine restoration in whatever form God sees fit.

As an aside, I went back to my blog post on 2 Kings 20 from last year.  In 2 Kings 20 we have almost the exact same retelling of this story as it appears in Isaiah 38.  I wanted to bring forth some words that I learned last year as I think they are very important to the study of this chapter:

We know that the additional 15 years that God grants to Hezekiah were extremely fruitful.  Hezekiah did set his house in order.  Had Hezekiah died when God decreed judgment, Hezekiah would have not had an heir.  All of his children were born to him after Hezekiah recovered.  Clearly Hezekiah took seriously his part of God’s promise to ensure that an heir to David would be on the throne.  Furthermore, we know from many of our copies of Hebrew manuscripts that Hezekiah spent these last 15 years of his life paying for the law to be restored, copied, and distributed where appropriate.  We know this because at the end of many of the manuscripts we find the letters HZK in Hebrew, which stands for Hezekiah. 

Hezekiah received a great gift at the hands of the Lord.  He should have died heirless.  But in those 15 years Hezekiah produces an heir so that the line of Judah could continue.  Not only that, but Hezekiah also takes the time that he had and makes it so that God’s Word was accessible.  Hezekiah was genuinely repentant.  We know this because when God gave him a second chance Hezekiah produced an heir for God to use and he gave the Jews that would follow after him a great inheritance in the accessibility of God’s Word.

Hezekiah’s Response

How does Hezekiah respond to God’s generosity in the book of Isaiah?  Hezekiah writes a song of praise.  Hezekiah notes that he should have been cut off like fabric – probably an analogy to the fact that he was heirless.  But in being allowed to live, he has reason to thank the Lord.

In fact, we see just how grateful Hezekiah was to God.  In the song, Hezekiah can see how the illness was actually for his benefit.  Had Hezekiah not gotten sick, he wouldn’t have been in a position to think about his life and how he had frivolously let it get away from him.  But through his illness, he had an opportunity to put his life in order and perhaps reprioritize things.  He had a second chance to do God’s will. 

Through Hezekiah’s song we can see just how important hindsight is and how important it is to not make up our mind about an experience until we are through it and can see it from all perspectives.  There is no doubt Hezekiah hated being sick and hated being told that he would die as it was happening.  But when things were all said and done, Hezekiah could celebrate God’s bringing him to the point of death because it was that act that restored his faith to a place that it needed to be. 

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