In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the Prophet
Isaiah, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said unto him, Thus
saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die,
and not live. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed
unto the Lord, saying: I beseech Thee, O Lord, remember now 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. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the
middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
Turn again, and tell Hezekiah, the captain of my people, Thus
saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father, I have heard thy
prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee; on the
third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord. And I
will add unto thy days fifteen years.--_2 Kings 20, 1-6._
None reading the Gospel-lessons of these successive Sundays with
an observing mind will have failed to discover that they treat of
life's ills, its sufferings and sorrows. Last Sunday it was the
matter of care, anxiety, worry concerning which our Lord gave us
instruction; the Sunday before ten lepers--the picture of intense
bodily affliction--appear upon the scene; and previous to that we
heard of the deaf-mute and of the Good Samaritan administering his
work of love, until in to-day's Scripture, as if the climax, we
observe a young man, under circumstances the most pathetic, being
carried out to his burial-place. Nor can we do more wisely than to
follow the line of thought thus indicated, for which reason we have
selected the foregoing text. May we, under God's blessing, learn its
comforting and practical truths!
Three things would we note from the Scripture: _I. King Hezekiah's
affliction_; _II. his recovery_; _III. what he gained from his
experience_.
The verses before us tell us that just after the destruction of
the army of Sennacherib, which had been laying siege to Jerusalem,
King Hezekiah was prostrated with a dangerous malady, the result,
most probably, of the fatigue and anxiety in connection with the
defense of his capital. At first it would seem that he had little
apprehension as to the issue of his illness, but when the Prophet
Isaiah told him that his disease was mortal, and bade him set his
house in order, his heart sank within him. He was yet a young man,
possibly forty years, in the prime of life; he had just escaped a
great peril; the Lord had given him a marvelous, yea, miraculous
deliverance, from the hands of the Assyrian oppressor, and he was a
good man, a pious king, who, more than any other since the time of
David, was zealous for the honor of Jehovah among the people.
But now all these hopes were dashed to the ground; the cherished
purpose of his heart frustrated, his life's work promptly cut short;
and as he thought over these things, he turned his face toward the
wall, and prayed to the Lord, and wept sore. He could not understand
God's dealings with him. Why had he been delivered from the Assyrian
king if he was thus and now to be removed? To what end had all
his efforts in the interest of true religion been if he was to be
cut down before they could be carried through? It was like the
gardener plucking the flower before it was opened, like the builder
destroying his own structure before it was finished. It was not
Hezekiah's case alone; there have been and are many others since. It
is an old problem and a constantly recurring problem: Why does God
deal so, and why does He deal so with those who are His people?
In reply, I would say that a full answer to that problem has not
been furnished us, and yet there is some light cast upon it by
this and other accounts in God's Word.--First of all, would we
ward off the rash conclusion, so commonly heard and everywhere
repeated, that because we are afflicted, we cannot be the objects
of God's love, that, if a person is sick and suffering, he must
have done something, committed some sin or sins which have brought
upon him such affliction. How frequently does this lamentation
reach a pastor's ear, "What have I done that God should thus deal
with me?" The Savior distinctly warned His disciples against such
a conclusion, that particular suffering is always the consequence
of some particular wickedness. It is clear that all such reasoning
in the case of Hezekiah was unwarranted; he had done no special
sin; he was not a sinner above all other sinners; his ailment came
in the course that all bodily ailments come. Why, then, make such
conclusions regarding ourselves and others? No, God's Word offers
a different explanation. The Savior, on one occasion, speaking of
the sickness of His friend Lazarus, said, "This sickness is for the
glory of God." Let us mark that statement. The design of God in
the affliction of His people is to show forth His glory. In what
respect? How? In two respects, in the afflicted one himself and
upon others. God's glory is advanced by the afflicted person, if
the person afflicted is helped by the affliction in his spiritual
growth, is made firmer in faith, established in Christian character.
Luther numbered trials as among his best instructors. The Psalmist
records the experience of multitudes when he says: It is good for
me that I have been afflicted. When afflictions have this effect,
they are to the glory of God. Then, again, the afflictions of God's
people may redound to His glory in the effects which they may have
upon others, to silence the gainsayer, convert the careless, or
educate the weak believer into stronger faith. An instance of that
is Job. The calamities came upon him to prove the utter falseness
of the assertion made by Satan that Job was serving God for what
he could make thereby; and I doubt not that even in our days many
Christians have been sorely afflicted just to show the unbelieving,
scoffing element by whom they are surrounded how firm and abiding
their faith is, and how lovingly God can sustain them in their
deepest distress.
Sometimes, too, through the sufferings of a believer the indifferent
and careless are awakened and led to the Lord. The affliction of
a parent has been a blessing to a son or daughter; the illness of
a wife, borne with Christian submission, has led many a man to
Christ, while all of us are strengthened in our faith by the sight
of the calm and simple trustfulness of a dear one on whom God's hand
has been laid. Afflictions are often to the glory of God. These
reflections may not, indeed, fully explain the mystery why God lays
low His people, but it lessens it. In any case it ought to keep us
from that rash and altogether too common conclusion that because we
are afflicted we are particularly faulty. The contrary seems really
true. When the teacher desires to demonstrate his own excellence
as an instructor, he takes not the poorest, but the best pupil and
subjects him to the severest examination; so sometimes, I think, the
Lord exposes His dearest people to fierce trials, just because He
knows their strength and would thereby commend that faith by which
they stand to the acceptance of their fellow-men.
That is the first consideration that we would direct attention to:
Hezekiah, the beloved, pious, God-praying King of Judah, was laid
low with a serious malady. And so, as the Apostle expresses it, let
God's people not think it strange concerning the fiery trial that
cometh upon them as though some strange thing had happened unto
them. The very best of men are often the greatest sufferers.
Again, we notice the conduct of Hezekiah. His case was hopeless. The
prophet had been directed to tell him: "Set thine house in order,
for thou shalt die, and not live." What does the king do? The record
says: "He turned his face to the wall." Was it to conceal his grief
at the fatal intelligence he had received from the prophet? Was
it to be more unmolested from the presence of his attendants, or
because the wall was on that side of his mansion which faced toward
the Temple of God? We are not told; but it says: "He turned his face
to the wall, and prayed." He had a place whither he went in his
distress. When all earthly hopes vanished and all help seemed at an
end, he addressed himself directly and immediately to Him in whose
hands alone rests the outcome of life and of death. Pouring out his
heart in tearful sobs, he pleads with the Lord, tells Him of his
sincerity of life and purpose to serve Him, and of God's promises
to His people to give length of days; and He who by the mouth of
His prophet had directed: "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and
I will deliver thee," had His ears open unto his cry. He is not
displeased with the outpouring of their souls to Him, He delights in
it, and it has power with Him. Yes, it is by this very conduct that
one can test whose they are and whom they serve. To whomsoever they
first go in the time of their extremity, to which refuge they betake
themselves when calamity is overtaking them, determines, more than
anything else, whether they are God's followers or not. To use an
illustration: Traveling once, there was among my fellow-passengers
a little girl who romped about and was at home with everybody, and
while she was frolicking around it might have been difficult to tell
whom she belonged to, she seemed so much the property of every one;
but when the engine gave a loud, long shriek, and we went thundering
along into a dark tunnel, the little one made one bound and ran to
nestle in a lady's lap. Then one knew who was her mother. So in the
day of prosperity, it may be occasionally difficult to say whether
a man is a Christian or not, but let him be sent through some dark,
damp tunnel of severe affliction, and you will see at once to whom
he belongs. That will infallibly reveal it. Take a note of it, my
beloved hearer, and when affliction comes, observe to whom you flee
for help; that is a sure test whether you are Christ's and Christ is
yours.
To recur to the narrative,--Hezekiah's appeal was not without
results. As he lay there tearfully communing with his own heart and
with God, Isaiah returned to his chamber with a message of healing
assuring him that he should go up to the temple on the third day,
and directed him to take a lump of figs and place it upon the boil.
This simple direction goes to refute and correct some errors very
common in our day. The one is that remedies are to be absolutely
tabooed, that they do no good; faith and prayer alone are to be
resorted to to effect a cure. The theory, and the heresy that has
prompted it, are set at naught by this one direction, in which God's
prophet, under the direction of the almighty Physician, specified
the remedy to be used. And the other error which it sets at naught
is, that medical remedies have, in themselves, aside from God,
any virtue or value. Too much does suffering humanity rely upon
medicine; the drug bottle has become with many a veritable idol;
that is their god who is going to help them. The application of
figs to boils was a remedy known before Isaiah suggested it, in all
likelihood it had been tried in Hezekiah's case without result; now,
at the prophet's injunction, it is tried again and effectively. In
other words, this time God worked through it, and so it proved of
value. All the medicine in the world is worthless if He does not put
divine properties into it. And so let us beware of idolizing the
medicine, and forgetting over it Him who put the good into it, and
when we take it, let us not fail to offer up with it prayer to Him
who can and must make it efficacious.
And so it came about, through the use of the means which the prophet
prescribed, that Hezekiah improved,--_improved_, I repeat, only
physically, to natural strength and health? Is that all that his
sickness was intended for, that is included in his recovery? Is that
all that our affliction is intended for, that, having been confined
to the sick-room for a while, we return to our work and calling as
before? Hezekiah was a wiser man than that. The song that he wrote
after his recovery, recorded in the 38th chapter of Isaiah, shows
that looking death in the face had not failed of good results. No
man, if he be a thinking man, can be brought to the brink of the
grave, and raised almost as if from the dead, without some benefit
from the experience. For one thing, it ought to make him a better
Christian. "Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee, e'en though it
be a cross that raiseth me." Luther was wont to say that his three
great teachers were prayer, study, and trial, and any reader of his
life can perceive that if it had not been for the experiences that
he passed through, he would not have been the sturdy character that
he was. What the tempering is to the iron, giving it the toughness
and endurance of steel, that afflictions are to the soul. The wind
might shake and uproot the stripling of a tree, but its blasts are
harmless to the oak that has passed through many a hurricane and
storm. And so unbelief may give out its miserable twaddle, the
faithless world raise its scoffing and deriding tongue, the man who
once turned his face to the wall and prayed will not be upset, he
knows whom he has believed, what he has experienced in his own soul
and life.
And, again, as it strengthened his faith in God, Hezekiah, after
his recovery, was a faithful servant of the Lord, using his kingly
authority to bring his people back to the true worship of Jehovah.
Simply enough; a man who has been in the very grip of the last enemy
and has recovered, cannot but reason thus: "What if I had died?
These possessions would have been no longer mine. They cannot,
therefore, be mine at all in the highest sense; they must have been
entrusted to me by God, and I must use them for God." Usefulness, in
most cases, is the result of discipline, the trials we have passed
through. Who is the sympathetic person? You will find it to be him
who has passed through similar affliction that you are passing
through. Who is the one that is willing to give a helping hand? Not
the priest and the Levite, who, if we knew their prior testing,
never knew a serious affliction,--but the Good Samaritan, who very
likely knew from personal experience what it meant to be waylaid.
And so, to conclude, despise not the chastening of the Almighty.
Learn to look upon it aright; go to the right source for relief, and
thus derive from it the spiritual benefit which God designs. May you
lay up what you have heard against that time when you need it, for
there comes a time when you will need it. Amen.