Isaiah Chapter 38
[Isaiah 38:1] IN THOSE DAYS WAS HEZEKIAH SICK UNTO DEATH. AND
ISAIAH THE PROPHET THE SON OF AMOZ CAME UNTO HIM, AND SAID UNTO HIM, THUS
SAITH THE LORD, SET THINE HOUSE IN ORDER: FOR THOU SHALT DIE, AND NOT LIVE.
The Prophet said he was going to die. He did not say “you are in danger of
dieing.” He prophesied he would die. Nevetheless Hezekiah prayed. This establishes
the Talmudic principles:
1. In every situation, even the seemingly most impossible, always pray. God is always approachable, always capable of mercy.
2. Prophecies for good always come true somehow or other almost despite how undeserving we may become (Jeremiah 28;9).
3. Prophecies for bad can always be averted through prayer and repentance.
[Isaiah 38:2] THEN HEZEKIAH TURNED HIS FACE TOWARD THE WALL, AND PRAYED UNTO THE LORD,
“THE WALL” of his room. Some say the wall of the Temple.
[Isaiah 38:3] AND SAID, REMEMBER NOW, O LORD, I BESEECH THEE, HOW I
HAVE WALKED BEFORE THEE IN TRUTH AND WITH A PERFECT HEART, AND HAVE DONE
THAT WHICH IS GOOD IN THY SIGHT. AND HEZEKIAH WEPT SORE.
[Isaiah 38:4] THEN CAME THE WORD OF THE LORD TO ISAIAH, SAYING,
[Isaiah 38:5] GO, AND SAY TO HEZEKIAH, THUS SAITH THE LORD, THE GOD
OF DAVID THY FATHER, I HAVE HEARD THY PRAYER, I HAVE SEEN THY TEARS: BEHOLD,
I WILL ADD UNTO THY DAYS FIFTEEN YEARS.
He went in the ways of David his father and so when he was virtuous the virtue
of David was added on to his. So too can we be helped by virtue of our forebears,
if they had virtue. If not, we should know that our own virtue can help our
children in time of need and our distant descendants long after we are gone.
“…FOR I THE LORD THY GOD AM A JEALOUS GOD, VISITING THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHERS
UPON THE CHILDREN UNTO THE
THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION OF THEM THAT HATE ME;
“AND SHEWING MERCY UNTO THOUSANDS OF THEM THAT LOVE ME, AND KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS” [Exodus 20:5-6]
God promises that for thousands of generations he will remember our good
deeds. There is a principle that God punishes and rewards a person according
to how that the person would himself choose if he knew all the options.
[Isaiah 38:6] AND I WILL DELIVER THEE AND THIS CITY OUT OF THE HAND
OF THE KING OF ASSYRIA: AND I WILL DEFEND THIS CITY.
[Isaiah 38:7] AND THIS SHALL BE A SIGN UNTO THEE FROM THE LORD, THAT
THE LORD WILL DO THIS THING THAT HE HATH SPOKEN;
[Isaiah 38:8] BEHOLD, I WILL BRING AGAIN THE SHADOW OF THE DEGREES,
WHICH IS GONE DOWN IN THE SUN DIAL OF AHAZ, TEN DEGREES BACKWARD. SO THE
SUN RETURNED TEN DEGREES, BY WHICH DEGREES IT WAS GONE DOWN.
>From: "John Geiger"
solar aberrations and late 8th century BC history
>
> Thank you for posting your 16 Jun 2001 Orientalia 70:1 contribution
>including the URL for Jeremy Goldberg's Biblica 80 (1999) 360-390 extensive
>article: Two Assyrian Campaigns Against Hezekiah and Later Eigth Century
>Biblical Chronology. I backed into this area several years ago pursuing
>what could have made the shadows go backward for Hezekiah as reported in 2
>Kings 20:8-11 and 2 Chronicles 32:24 and the possibility that it was related
>to the third event Herodotus reported in book 2-142 wherein the Egyptian
>priests had told him that in their history of human kings that the sun had
>risen in the east twice and in the west twice.
> A friend of mine in a book proposed a mechanism for this almost
>incredible Herodotus reference which made sense and could explain the
>backward moving shadow of Hezekiah and contended he that it occured in 701
>BC and that this was the fifteenth reignal year of Hezekiah.
> Quoting from his book:
> "Assyro-Babylonian records recall that during the reign of Sargon
>(722-705) there came into being a new world order, and then another one in
>the days of Sennacherib (705-681) Winchler, Forschungen, III:300."
> And evidently from the TRACTATE SANHEDRIN (96a) on the day King
>Ahaz of Judah was buried in 714BC, the day was quickened.
> This friend also thinks there was another change to the sun's
>passage in 687 BC which he also links to the final battle of Troy because of
>a quote in the Odyssey of Homer which seems to indicate that Odysseus was
>confussed by an unpredictable sun. Quoting from THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER
>(Harvard Classics vol 22 p 141 1909)
> "Hear my words, my fellows, despite your evil case. My friends, lo,
>now we know not where is the place of darkness or of dawning, nor where the
>Sun, that gives light to men, goes beneath the earth, nor where he (it)
>rises; therefore let us advise us speedily if any counsel yet may be: as for
>me, I deem there is none."
>John Geiger, Oklahoma, USA
[Isaiah 38:9] THE WRITING OF HEZEKIAH KING OF JUDAH, WHEN HE HAD BEEN SICK, AND WAS RECOVERED OF HIS SICKNESS:
[Isaiah 38:10] I SAID IN THE CUTTING OFF OF MY DAYS, I SHALL GO TO
THE GATES OF THE GRAVE: I AM DEPRIVED OF THE RESIDUE OF MY YEARS.
[Isaiah 38:11] I SAID, I SHALL NOT SEE THE LORD, EVEN THE LORD, IN
THE LAND OF THE LIVING: I SHALL BEHOLD MAN NO MORE WITH THE INHABITANTS OF
THE WORLD.
[Isaiah 38:12] MINE AGE IS DEPARTED, AND IS REMOVED FROM ME AS A SHEPHERD'S
TENT: I HAVE CUT OFF LIKE A WEAVER MY LIFE: HE WILL CUT ME OFF WITH PINING
SICKNESS: FROM DAY EVEN TO NIGHT WILT THOU MAKE AN END OF ME.
[Isaiah 38:13] I RECKONED TILL MORNING, THAT, AS A LION, SO WILL HE
BREAK ALL MY BONES: FROM DAY EVEN TO NIGHT WILT THOU MAKE AN END OF ME.
[Isaiah 38:14] LIKE A CRANE OR A SWALLOW, SO DID I CHATTER: I DID MOURN
AS A DOVE: MINE EYES FAIL WITH LOOKING UPWARD: O LORD, I AM OPPRESSED; UNDERTAKE
FOR ME.
[Isaiah 38:15] WHAT SHALL I SAY? HE HATH BOTH SPOKEN UNTO ME, AND HIMSELF
HATH DONE IT: I SHALL GO SOFTLY ALL MY YEARS IN THE BITTERNESS OF MY SOUL.
[Isaiah 38:16] O LORD, BY THESE THINGS MEN LIVE, AND IN ALL THESE THINGS
IS THE LIFE OF MY SPIRIT: SO WILT THOU RECOVER ME, AND MAKE ME TO LIVE.
[Isaiah 38:17] BEHOLD, FOR PEACE I HAD GREAT BITTERNESS: BUT THOU HAST
IN LOVE TO MY SOUL DELIVERED IT FROM THE PIT OF CORRUPTION: FOR THOU HAST
CAST ALL MY SINS BEHIND THY BACK.
God can forgive all our sins and make them as if they were not.
[Isaiah 38:18] FOR THE GRAVE CANNOT PRAISE THEE, DEATH CAN NOT CELEBRATE
THEE: THEY THAT GO DOWN INTO THE PIT CANNOT HOPE FOR THY TRUTH.
[Isaiah 38:19] THE LIVING, THE LIVING, HE SHALL PRAISE THEE, AS I DO
THIS DAY: THE FATHER TO THE CHILDREN SHALL MAKE KNOWN THY TRUTH.
[Isaiah 38:20] THE LORD WAS READY TO SAVE ME: THEREFORE WE WILL SING
MY SONGS TO THE STRINGED INSTRUMENTS ALL THE DAYS OF OUR LIFE IN THE
HOUSE OF THE LORD.
[Isaiah 38:21] FOR ISAIAH HAD SAID, LET THEM TAKE A LUMP OF FIGS, AND
LAY IT FOR A PLAISTER UPON THE BOIL, AND HE SHALL RECOVER.
[Isaiah 38:22] HEZEKIAH ALSO HAD SAID, WHAT IS THE SIGN THAT I SHALL GO UP TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD?
Chapter Thirty-Nine
HOme