Year 2, Week 7, Day 1 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 7, Day 1

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Isaiah 38-39; Psalm 76.

Today’s reading continues Isaiah’s prophecy to Judah. Today’s reading is the conclusion to a small segment of Isaiah (chapters 36-39), that focuses on a few key historical events that happened during the reign of Hezekiah. Isaiah 38, which parallels parts of 2 kings 20 and 2 Chronicles 32, records events surrounding a severe illness that Hezekiah experienced: “In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover” (Isaiah 38:1). As Hezekiah earnestly cried out to the LORD, Isaiah spoke a Word from the LORD to him: “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life” (Isaiah 38:5). Isaiah 39 records an incident involving envoys from Babylon in which Hezekiah shows them the wealth of the kingdom. This mistake on the part of Hezekiah previews a future time when the Babylonians would take of Judah’s wealth: “Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD” (Isaiah 39:5-6). Today’s reading also includes Psalm 76, a Psalm of Asaph, in which the LORD is portrayed as a victorious warrior, in language reminiscent of the Exodus, as the LORD crushed Pharaoh: “At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both rider and horse lay stunned” (Psalm 76:6).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was Hezekiah’s Psalm as he wrote of his illness: “I said, In the middle of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years. I said, I shall not see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the living; I shall look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world” (Isaiah 38:10-11). Hezekiah feels the weight of how near he was to death. Like the chirping of a bird in distress, Hezekiah cried to the LORD: “Like a swallow or a crane I chirp; I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!” (Isaiah 38:14). Hezekiah is weary as he expressed the lament of his serious illness. And yet, Hezekiah is away that the LORD is at work in his affliction: “What shall I say? For he has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul” (Isaiah 38:15).

Hezekiah’s Psalm begins to move from lament to thanksgiving: “O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. Oh restore me to health and make me live!” (Isaiah 38:16). Hezekiah seems to express a sense of confidence that the LORD would heal him. Hezekiah even senses that blessing coincided with his bitterness: “Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back” (Isaiah 38:17). Hezekiah is learning that the God who afflicted him was also the God who deploys affliction to instruct, and then after the point of the instruction is made, restores from the instructive affliction.

Since Hezekiah expressed at the start of his Psalm that he would be unable to praise the LORD if he was dead, he now revisits that point to declare praise and thanks to the LORD since he has been healed and lives: “For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness. The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness” (Isaiah 38:18-19). Hezekiah is emphatic in his extended opportunity to live: he will give thanks to the LORD on this very day he is alive. Hezekiah is no longer in at the gates of Sheol; he is now in the house of the LORD: “The LORD will save me, and we will play my music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives, at the house of the LORD” (Isaiah 38:20). And in the house of the LORD, Hezekiah is there to worship the God who gives him extended years.

Isaiah 38 ends with a shift from Hezekiah’s Psalm to a resumption of the narrative describing the health ordeal that Hezekiah faced. A part of Isaiah’s Word from the LORD concerning Hezekiah’s healing also entailed medical instructions: "Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover” (Isaiah 38:21). The use of medical means does not deter from the LORD Himself at work in providing the healing. The application of medicinal remedies serves only as an instrumental cause for healing; the LORD is the ultimate source or cause of healing. Without the sure promise of healing from the LORD, the remedy of figs would have been woefully inadequate.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe