xxxviii. 2, 3. _Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the
wall, &c._
The causes of Hezekiah's reluctance to die may be gathered from his
circumstances. {See Outline: _Hezekiah's Prayer,_ p. 426.] That
ungodly men should be terrified at death is what might be expected
(P. D. 684); but reluctance to die is not confined to them (H. E. I.
1570).
I. _The Christian has naturally a feeling of repugnance at the very
thought of the disruption of the union between soul and body._ What
precedes death, the stroke itself, and its consequences, all excite
feelings of dread (P. D. 741, 761).
II. _True believers may feel reluctant to die because of the doubts
which they entertain with respect to their eternal state._ After
death is the judgment. Their fears may proceed from various causes.
From constitutional temperament, increased by a relaxed state of the
nervous system; from the prevalence of unbelief, the imperfection of
knowledge and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; from the powerful
agency of the god of this world in producing them. A last desperate
effort is made to overthrow faith. While these prevail, recovery from
bodily distress is felt to be a mercy of no ordinary kind (H. E. I.
323).
III. _Religion may be in a declining state in them, and a
consciousness of this may render the prospect of death distressing to
them._ The progress of the Christian is not uniform. If, while in a
backward state, he is called to die, conscience is awakened, and he
is thrown into alarm (Matt. xxv. 1-13).
IV. _The prospect of death may be distressing, because the believer
will then be deprived of all opportunity of honouring God in this
world._ This was one reason for Hezekiah's unwillingness to die. He
was in the prime of life. Believers, at a like time, may pray to live
in order to be useful in the Church and world. The prayer proceeds
from a right principle--a desire to honour God. It seems hard for the
minister of Christ, after a long course of laborious preparation, to
be smitten down to die before he has well begun the great work of
preaching. The philanthropist, like Howard, feels a bitterness in the
stroke. The Christian parent also. In these and like circumstances a
rare strength of faith is called for.
V. _God may see good to withhold from true believers the comforts of
religion under bodily distress and in their dying moments._ To what
is the difference in the measure of comfort enjoyed on a death-bed to
be ascribed? The sovereignty of God must here be admitted. Objection
against it here applies equally in other circumstances. The Divine
reasons may be inscrutable to man, although assuredly dictated by
infinite wisdom. The newly converted may die joyfully; the veteran
Christian may have much less comfort. But generally the faithful life
will end, at least, in a peaceful death (H. E. I. 1264).
Would you meet death without terror? 1. _Improve by faith that
righteousness which Christ wrought out in our nature._ 2. _See to it
that your hearts are changed by the Spirit of God._ 3. _Devote
yourselves unreservedly and unweariedly to the cultivation of
holiness in heart and life._ The longer we are here, we are the more
prone to get our hearts upon the world as if it were our rest. It is
from this tendency that the aged Christian sometimes feels as great a
reluctance to depart as the Christian in the morning of life (Col.
iii. 2).--_James Anderson: Scottish Christian Herald,_ iii. 569.