Comfort My People: The Prophecies Of Isaiah, Day 112

Comfort My People:
The Prophecies Of Isaiah
Day 112

We are reading the words of the prophet Isaiah, spoken about a hundred years before the Babylonian captivity, which will be a comfort to God's people when in exile there. They are not forgotten. God's covenant with them stands forever. And better yet, a King is coming, the King of glory.

"A voice says, 'Cry out.' And I said, 'What shall I cry?' 'All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.'" (Isaiah 40:6-8) Life is fleeting. Generation after generation passes out of this world but the word of God still stands. It's just as relevant in our times as it ever was. We need His word just as much in our day as the captive people of Judah needed it in Babylon and as much as Israel needed it in Assyria. His laws are still holy. His promises are still certain. His covenant is still unbreakable.

"You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, 'Here is your God!'" (Isaiah 40:9) The promise of a Redeemer still stands, no matter what the people of Zion have endured throughout the centuries at the hands of their enemies, no matter how many times they've been conquered and taken captive. We've all heard the Christmas song, "Go Tell It On The Mountain", and that's what the Lord is urging His people to do. The good news of the gospel is coming to Zion. Shout it from the mountaintops! Shout it from the rooftops! Shout it so loud that every ear will hear the message that hearts have longed to hear through the ages, "Here is your God!" 

The following passage appears to have more application to the second advent of Christ, when He will return to claim the throne of David and rule the world in righteousness. "See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and He rules with a mighty arm. See, His reward is with Him, and His recompense accompanies Him." (Isaiah 40:10) While receiving the prophecies of the end times from the risen Lord on the Isle of Patmos, the Apostle John heard the Lord reasserting this promise, "Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done." (Revelation 22:12) 

This mighty God, awesome in power, loves and cares for the lowly. "He tends His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; He gently leads those that have young." (Isaiah 40:11) David, the shepherd king, understood the loving tenderness of our Shepherd King. How patient the Lord is with our weakness. How kind and longsuffering in the face of our doubts and discouragement. How loving in spite of our tendency to stray like errant lambs. He tends us like a shepherd tends his flock, giving us rest in the green pastures, leading us beside the still waters, carrying those who feel faint on the journey, walking slowly for the sake of those who are weak. 

Prophets other than Isaiah predicted that the Lord would regather His people Israel like a shepherd gathers his flock: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, and Zechariah. The Lord Jesus also referred to Himself as a shepherd. Is it any wonder that the good news of His birth first came to shepherds, men with whose occupation the Lord identifies? His birth wasn't proclaimed by angels in the king's palace, but in a field to lowly shepherds, men who knew what it meant to love and guard the sheep. They could understand the character of the Shepherd of Israel, the One whose coming their shepherd king David and the prophets foresaw. These men, watching over their flocks by night, could comprehend what Jesus means when He later says, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." (John 10:11) 

In our own day, over two thousand years after the advent of Christ, we now know what the Lord meant when He said, "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd." (John 10:16) This refers to the gospel being received by the Gentiles, making these believers one family with the believing descendants of Abraham. We are one flock and we have one Shepherd: Jesus Christ the Lord. 

Life is fragile and fleeting. Like the grass, we wither. Like the flowers of the field, we fall. The urgency of telling the good news of the gospel cannot be stressed enough. We must go tell it on the mountain! We are commanded to share the gospel to our fellow men and women, to point them to the Lord Jesus Christ and proclaim, "Here is your God!"

Comfort My People: The Prophecies Of Isaiah, Day 111

Comfort My People:
The Prophecies Of Isaiah

Day 111

We continue on today with the first chapter of the messianic portion of Isaiah. Our first verse will be one you recognize from the New Testament, "A voice of one calling: 'In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.'" (Isaiah 40:3) This can also be translated as, "A voice of one calling in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way for the Lord'." This verse was quoted by John the Baptist in reference to himself in John 1:23 when the people were asking him if he were the Messiah. "John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, 'I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way for the Lord.'" 

God the Father chose the precise time in history in which to reveal His Son. He had maintained a prophetic silence for four hundred years and the people, suffering under Roman occupation, longed for a word from the Lord. This was the day the prophet Amos had spoken of centuries earlier, "'The days are coming,' declares the Sovereign Lord, 'when I will send a famine through the land---not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.'" (Amos 8:11) One of the psalms of Asaph expresses grief over the period of silence, "We are given no signs from God; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be." (Psalm 74:9) It was following the four hundred years without a word from God that the Word Of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, stepped into history. The years of silence had accomplished what all the years of pleading by the prophets could not: they prepared the way for the Lord. They prepared the hearts of many people to hear the preaching of Jesus. Prior to the beginning of Christ's public ministry, John the Baptist walks onto the pages of the Scriptures like an Old Testament prophet and the people think he might be the one to save Israel, but he declares plainly, "No, I am not the Messiah. I am His friend, the voice of one calling in the wilderness. I've been sent to soften the hearts of the people in preparation for hearing Him." When blessing his son, John the Baptist's father said of him through the Holy Spirit, "And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him, to give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins." (Luke 1:76-77)

Isaiah's prophecy is twofold in that it indicates both the first and second advent of Christ. The first part was fulfilled when John the Baptist came preaching to prepare the hearts of the people to hear Christ during the days of His earthly ministry. The second half will be fulfilled when the Lord returns to rule the world from the throne of His forefather David. "Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." (Isaiah 40:4-5) There will be nothing to impede the Lord's way to the throne when He returns. As we learned from our study on the book of Revelation, when our Lord reigns sovereign over the earth, His enemies will be no more. Satan, along with the beast (the Antichrist) and the false prophet, will be cast into the lake of fire, never again to tempt or deceive the people of earth. All rebellion will be in the past. No enemy will try to lay claim to God's people or to Christ's throne. It will be as if every valley is raised and every mountain and hill laid level; nothing will stand in our Lord's way.

About a hundred years after Isaiah came preaching and prophesying to the people, they would be sitting captive in the foreign land of Babylon, and in reading the scroll of Isaiah they would have noticed a similarity in the language to a Babylonian hymn about the false god Nabu. It said, "Make Nabu's way good, renew his road. Make straight his path." (from An Introduction And Commentary On Isaiah, pg. 244) Nabu was a pagan deity that the Babylonians claimed to be the son of one of their chief gods Marduk. Though Marduk was preeminent over his son, the son was given more attention and honor in their religious festivals, and worship of Nabu eventually gained supremacy over worship of Marduk. The Babylonians made a statue of Nabu which was carried through the streets on the day of a festival dedicated to him and it was during this procession that the people would sing the hymn about making his path straight. God's people would have noticed the similarity between Isaiah's words and the Babylonian hymn, but they would also have noticed the contrast between Babylon's false gods and the living God of Israel. Where is Nabu today? Where is Marduk today? Their idols are laid low in the dust and the civilization that praised them is no more. But the God of Israel is the God of the ages, the One whose Son is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who holds the title to the throne of David and will reign from it forever and ever. He is the One whose glory will be revealed to the entire world so that all people see it together. (v 5) The prophet Daniel, the Apostle John, and Christ Himself said of this appearing, "every eye will see Him". 

Throughout the ages, Satan has tried desperately to provide us with substitutes for Christ. Cults have arisen that mimic the relationship between the Father and the Son. In the end times, the false church instituted by the Antichrist will mimic the Trinity. Satan will be a father of sorts (spiritually speaking) to the man of sin known as the Antichrist who is an impersonator of Christ. In addition, there will be a false prophet whose ministry on behalf of the Antichrist will be a parody of the ministry of the Holy Spirit on behalf of Christ. When the people of God were held captive in Babylon they would have noticed the similarity of the Babylonian false religion to the religion of Israel but far more importantly they would have recognized the monumental differences. Had Nabu ever delivered his people from slavery and given them a promised land? Had Nabu ever saved a soul or changed a life? Was Nabu going to give himself for the sins of anyone? In Chapter 40 the Lord is promising His people a sacrifice that will pay for their sins, a way to be made clean and whole, a Savior who will come someday to receive His kingdom and whose glory will appear to every person on earth. The Lord is promising them a day when they will be released from captivity, not only their physical captivity in Babylon, but their spiritual captivity to sin. Later in our chapter Isaiah will present our Savior to us as the One who is so great the universe was formed by His word but who is so loving that He is the Shepherd who tenderly cares for His sheep. There is no god like this God! There is no other Savior. And as Isaiah continues with the messianic portion of his book, this will be made clear to all who read it.

Comfort My People: The Prophecies Of Isaiah, Day 110

Comfort My People:
The Prophecies Of Isaiah

Day 110

We concluded Chapter 39 with the fearsome prophecy of Babylon someday coming to loot the nation and take its people captive. King Hezekiah was informed that even the royal family will be dragged into exile in a foreign land and Jerusalem will be destroyed. But as is Isaiah's habit, he follows bad news with good.

The Lord says to him, "Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins." (Isaiah 40:1-2) Many scholars consider the book of Isaiah to be divided into three sections, with the first being prophetic, the second being historic, and the third being messianic. We are now entering the messianic portion. When Isaiah says Jerusalem's hard service is completed, he is speaking of a day in the distant future. Jerusalem has been attacked, besieged, and even razed to the ground probably more times than any city on earth and in Isaiah's day most of this destruction was still to come. He's not saying that Jerusalem has already suffered all she is going to suffer. Even after her return from exile in Babylon, her hard service is not completed. Many nations over the centuries will attack and overthrow Jerusalem. Even in our times the city is divided and the area of the Temple Mount hotly contested until the "times of the Gentiles are fulfilled". (Luke 21:24) 

The hard service of Jerusalem is not what is going to save her, for no man or woman is saved by works or even by his or her own suffering. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith---and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." (Ephesians 2:8) God is going to provide the sacrifice for His people's sins, a sacrifice so pure that it is able to satisfy His requirements for holiness. Bible scholar J. Alec Motyer, whose works on Isaiah are highly respected, says, "Here is the element of justice that lies behind the word of comfort. How can the God of judgment become the God of pardon? Not just by saying so---for that would be to treat His holiness as negotiable and sin as negligible. The verb 'paid for' (raza, 'to be favorable') is used of the Lord's 'pleasure' and particularly of the acceptance the Lord accords to atoning sacrifices. It stresses, therefore, not so much that the sacrifice offered is sufficient to cover the sin committed (though that has to be true also) but that it satisfies the requirements of a holy God." 

In other words, it is the Lord's pleasure to offer us a means of redemption. He desires to show us favor. In our sins He can't show us this favor but if He can somehow provide a means of atonement, then God is able to love and bless us in the way He has always wanted. In order to satisfy His holiness, and in order to make us acceptable in His sight, there had to be a sacrifice capable of making us perfect forever. (Hebrews 10:14) The Lord had to offer a solution that solves the following two problems: 1. We are sinners and the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23), and 2. Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22) The only solution in heaven or on earth or under the earth or in all the universe was this: "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned...how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!...Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one Man the many will be made righteous." (Romans 5:12,15b,18-19)

The first man, Adam, sinned and fell from grace. Every man and woman since the creation of the world has sinned except for one: the Son of God, the spotless Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. In Adam we all became sinners. But in Christ we can all become righteous. 

During the remaining years of King Hezekiah's reign, during the reigns of the final seven kings of Judah, and during the seventy years of captivity in Babylon, the people of Jerusalem must have studied Isaiah's scroll and marveled that he could proclaim a day of comfort for them. They must have wondered how their revival and redemption would come about. What can wash away their sins? Who is going to pay for them? In our third and final section of the book of Isaiah, the messianic portion, we will read of the Suffering Servant. We will see Isaiah accurately describe the details of the crucifixion seven centuries before it takes place. We will also learn that the Suffering Servant is the Righteous Servant, the Man whose sacrifice will "justify many" because He will "bear their iniquities" and "make intercession for the transgressors". What better comfort is there than this? What more can God say to us? What more can He do for us? Jesus Christ the Messiah, the holy Son of God, the perfect Lamb, paid it all. He took the stripes that heal us. He was pierced for our transgressions. He tasted death and punishment in our place, literally becoming sin in the sight of God, so that the wrath of God could be satisfied. The wrath of God that we deserved fell on Him instead so that someday we can stand in our Creator's presence and be told, "Be comforted, My child. Your sin has been paid for." 

If you don't know the Lord Jesus, and if you don't have the comfort of knowing you have been made righteous in the eyes of God through Christ the Lord, there is no better day than today to have this wonderful assurance. It is God's good pleasure to be able to show you this favor through His Son. He desires to be gracious to you. You can confess your faults and failures to Him, admitting you need a Savior, and you can become a child of the living God. Today is the day of salvation. "For He says, 'In the time of My favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.' I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2) 

Comfort My People: The Prophecies Of Isaiah, Day 109

Comfort My People:
The Prophecies Of Isaiah

Day 109

Yesterday we found King Hezekiah recovered from his illness and King Marduk-Baladan of Babylon sending envoys to him with a congratulatory gift and personal handwritten letters. We discussed the likelihood that the first letter handed to Hezekiah was probably one that established a basis of friendship between the two men. Marduk-Baladan wanted Hezekiah to know how pleased he was about his recovery. This was a good way to set the stage for the second letter, which was the invitation to join the rebellion against Assyria. Carried away with the privilege of being noticed by such a great kingdom, one that was swiftly becoming a major world power, Hezekiah hurried to show the envoys the surprisingly great wealth of Judah along with the weaponry, shields, and chariots of the army. He wanted to prove to the Babylonian king that he was a worthy ally in the struggle against Assyrian domination.

The envoys must have stayed with Hezekiah for at least several days, for we were told, "There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them." (Isaiah 39:2b) During that period of time it's notable that Hezekiah avoided the prophet Isaiah entirely. Isaiah was a man who regularly appeared in the court and in the private quarters of the king. I think he was so well known and so trusted by Hezekiah that he could freely enter the palace whenever he chose. All of Hezekiah's officials and palace guards knew him well and I bet whenever they saw Isaiah approaching they just waved for him to go on inside. He didn't have to show a badge or prove he was on the king's guest list. But while the envoys are in town, Hezekiah has no contact with the prophet at all, and I wonder if that's because he knew Isaiah would disapprove of how he was handling his guests.

As soon as the envoys hop on their camels and head back to Babylon, Isaiah appears before the king. "Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, 'What did those men say, and where did they come from?'" (Isaiah 39:3a) I am sure Isaiah knew exactly who these men were. Everyone in Jerusalem must have known they were from Babylon. You would have to be living under a rock not to know that the king of Babylon sent envoys, probably with a huge entourage of servants, to King Hezekiah with a magnificent gift and personal letters. Their arrival would not have gone unnoticed and I think the whole city was talking about it. The citizens would have seen Hezekiah, along with his bodyguards and officials, showing the men around town and all over the countryside with much fanfare. Isaiah's question is intended to provoke Hezekiah into admitting what he has done; it's not a request for information. This is similar to the Lord's questioning of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He already knew what they had done but it was essential that they confess it. Restoration and forgiveness cannot come until acknowledgement of sin has been made. 

Hezekiah attempts to impress Isaiah with the honor that was shown him by the arrival of these guests, "'From a distant land,' Hezekiah replied. 'They came to me from Babylon.'" (Isaiah 39:3b) Hezekiah completely glosses over the fact that Isaiah has asked him what the men said. He doesn't want to tell Isaiah what the men said about the proposed alliance against Assyria. He hopes to distract the prophet from this question by bragging about how far the men traveled to see him. As the crow flies, it would have been about five hundred miles from Jerusalem to Babylon's capitol, but it was as much as nine hundred miles if traveling by foot or by camel along the Euphrates. 

Isaiah is no dummy. He knows Hezekiah's propensity for pride and he has heard the talk about town that Hezekiah squired these men all over the place showing them the kingdom. He suspects the envoys have seen everything worth seeing in Jerusalem and Judah. "The prophet asked, 'What did they see in your palace?'" (Isaiah 39:4a)

I can't help but picture Hezekiah standing tall and puffed up with pride right now, with a smug expression on his face, when he answers, "'They saw everything in my palace,' Hezekiah replied. 'There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.'" (Isaiah 39:4b)

A fearsome prophecy is issued next. At the time of this prophecy, Assyria looks like the nation to be dreaded. It has already brought down the northern kingdom of Israel and many other neighboring nations. Babylon looks like a good friend and ally, a rising world power capable of helping Judah get out from under Assyrian oppression once and for all. But God's ways are not man's ways. Things aren't always how they appear to us. Assyria will indeed fall to Babylon but Babylon will be no friend to Judah. God was Judah's friend. God was going to rescue Jerusalem from the Assyrian army. But Babylon would be like a snake that turns around and bites its handler. "Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, 'Hear the word of the Lord Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'" (Isaiah 39:5-7)

Isaiah's prophecy comes on the heels of Hezekiah's unwise behavior with the envoys, but Judah's fall to Babylon a hundred years later is not exactly a direct result of what has just happened. The main reason the Lord will allow the southern kingdom of Judah to be conquered is because of idolatry and wickedness. Had the people remained faithful to the Lord, the Lord would have protected them even though they once had a king named Hezekiah who made a bad choice. Hezekiah's bad choice was in proving to Babylon that Judah was a wealthy nation worth plundering; but his actions are not what caused the Lord to take His protective hand off the nation. Isaiah makes his pronouncement at this specific time in order to say, "This kingdom you feel so warm and fuzzy towards will return in about a hundred years and carry off everything the envoys have seen here. Marduk-Baladan may have offered you his hand of friendship but he won't live forever. A king named Nebuchadnezzar will arise and make Babylon one of the greatest world powers ever known. He will have access to all the historical writings of his predecessor Marduk-Baladan and in them he will read of the vast treasures of Judah, the treasures with which the Lord our God has blessed us. The nation you now trust in to deliver you will someday drag your descendants in shackles to a foreign land. Everything in the palace and the temple and the storehouses will be carried to Babylon, along with the royal family."

We would expect the king's mouth to drop open in horror about now, with him crying out to the Lord to deliver the nation from such a fate, with him begging the prophet to intercede on behalf of the people. But instead he says a very self-centered thing, "'The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,' Hezekiah replied. For he thought, 'There will be peace and security in my lifetime.'" (Isaiah 39:8) The Babylonian invasion won't come in Hezekiah's generation and so he simply shrugs his shoulders, knowing he won't have to deal with it. He's wrong when he thinks he will have peace and security, for he has yet to face the arrival of Assyrian troops at the gates of Jerusalem, but his lack of concern for his descendants is shocking. He's not a man with long-term views. He's caught up in the here and now. God, however, sees all of history as one long interwoven story. God is able to look at all of time all at once. He sees how one thing builds upon another, how one bad choice leads to another bad choice, and He knows the far-reaching consequence of some of these bad choices. God can look ahead and say, "If you continue down this path, disaster awaits." Or He can say, "If you remain faithful as you are today, you will accomplish much for My kingdom! The example you have set will even live on after you, bringing your family members to Christ. Your godly life will be a legacy you leave behind for your descendants." 

We make choices every day. Some of our mistakes have few consequences; some have consequences that endure for a long time, generations even. Hezekiah's poor judgment in showing the Babylonian envoys his treasures will come back to haunt the nation a century later. In addition, during the fifteen years the Lord adds to his life, Hezekiah will father the most wicked king Judah ever had. He will fail to instill godly character in his son. We don't know exactly how this happened, but it may have been rooted in the pride Manasseh saw in his father. Manasseh was only twelve when his father died and he himself ascended to the throne, but the training in the early years of a child's life are vital. As King Solomon said, "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6) Manasseh was deeply idolatrous, even going so far as to have the prophets of God slaughtered. It is thought he was responsible for the death of the prophet Isaiah: his father's friend and adviser. What went wrong in Hezekiah's final fifteen years as king that led to such a horror in Jerusalem, that led to his son being such an ungodly man? In the kingdom of Judah, it is mostly downhill from here. After Hezekiah there will be only seven more kings, and out of those seven only one will be a godly man. Judah is on the downswing and within a century will be destroyed to such a degree that it will appear she cannot rise again. But again, things are not always as they seem, which is why the Lord begins our next chapter with the key verse of our whole study, "Comfort, comfort My people, says your God."

Comfort My People: The Prophecies Of Isaiah, Day 108

Comfort My People:
The Prophecies Of Isaiah

Day 108

Today we will study the first half of Chapter 39. It's quite a short chapter but we have to take the time to look at a little history before getting into the text. 

Here in Chapter 39, King Hezekiah of Judah has recovered from what would have been a terminal illness if the Lord had not stepped in and healed him. The news of his miraculous healing has spread even as far as Babylon, where the current King Marduk-Baladan is impressed with the story of the shadow of the sun moving backwards.

At this time King Sennacherib of Assyria considers himself the rightful king of Babylon because his grandfather, Tiglath-Pileser III, subjugated that nation and declared himself king over it. During the reign of Tiglath-Pileser's son Sargon II, Marduk-Baladan (a chieftain or district ruler in Babylon) claimed the throne of Babylon and drove the Assyrians out with the help of the Elamites, the descendants of Jacob's brother Esau. After about ten years passed, Sargon marched against Babylon and retook it, sending Marduk-Baladan fleeing into the desert, at which time Sargon declared himself the king of Babylon. But now Sargon is dead in battle and his son Sennacherib has ascended to the throne of Assyria, and it is at this time that scholars and historians believe Marduk-Baladan reclaimed the throne of Babylon and sent envoys to King Hezekiah to enlist his help in a revolt against Assyria. We need to keep in mind that Isaiah has taken us backwards in time a bit to relate the story of Hezekiah's illness and his visit from the envoys of Babylon. These events occurred before the Assyrian army came to lay siege to Jerusalem and they happened at about the time Hezekiah decided, along with the nations around him, to rebel against paying tribute to Sennacherib.

"At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery." (Isaiah 39:1) This must have seemed like a perfect opportunity for Marduk-Baladan to present his plans for rebellion. Sending letters and a congratulatory gift gives him an excuse to get his men into the presence of the king. Hezekiah might or might not have agreed to see them if they came boldly inciting revolt, but it's hard to turn people away from the door when they come bearing a fine gift and personal letters from the king. 

As Bible scholar J. Alec Motyer points out, the Assyrians considered Marduk-Baladan a terrorist and a fierce enemy, but he was regarded by the Babylonians as a hero, and he thought of himself as a freedom fighter. As a native Babylonian who took the throne back from the hands of the Assyrians, he believed he was the rightful heir, and he wanted nothing more than to push the occupiers out and set his people free, to make Babylon a sovereign nation once again. Marduk-Baladan had his ear to the ground and he knew unrest was growing in Palestine and Egypt. He knew alliances were forming to overthrow Assyrian domination and that Egypt was actively recruiting Judah into the coalition of rebellion. It was important to Marduk-Baladan to know that Hezekiah, whom Bible scholar Barry G. Webb calls "the de-facto leader of the anti-Assyrian coalition in southern Palestine", was a friend of his.

Hezekiah is thrilled with the arrival of the envoys, with the gift and the impressive letters from the king. This is a big deal to him. Babylon is a valuable friend in these troubled times and to have the "hero king" send personal congratulations on his recovery must have made Hezekiah feel special. He is the king of a small nation in comparison to the nations around him, yet this renowned freedom fighter has taken the care and the time to recognize him as a worthy ally. Hezekiah becomes so carried away with this honor that he hastens to show the envoys that Judah is a wealthy and valuable nation to have on their side. "Hezekiah received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses---the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine olive oil---his entire armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them." (Isaiah 39:2) 

The Bible doesn't describe the gift Marduk-Baladan sent but we can logically assume it was of high value as would befit a gift sent from one king to another. The Bible also doesn't tell us the content of the letters or how many there were. I feel there were at least two. The first letter presented to Hezekiah was probably the one that broke the ice, that immediately congratulated him and expressed thankfulness that he had recovered, and that said wonderful things about his leadership and his nation. This first letter set the mood of mutual friendship and appreciation. I think then that the envoys presented the second letter, the letter that revealed Marduk-Baladan's true motive, which was an invitation to join the revolt. He would have laid the plans out step by step, along with all the reasons why it was in Hezekiah's best interests to join, and it was likely full of flattery about how necessary the cooperation of Judah was to the rebellion's success. This would explain why Hezekiah was so eager to show off his wealth. 

Hezekiah has forgotten the lesson he learned during his illness, during which time he realized how important it was to stay close to the Lord. In his dealings with these men he has failed to seek the will of the Lord. While he was sick he prayed fervently for the Lord's help and spoke with the Lord's prophet Isaiah for guidance. But now he's whole and well again, on top of the world, and has forgotten the promises he made while he was sick to "walk humbly all my years". (Isaiah 38:15) Overwhelmed by relief at his recovery, feeling strong and powerful, flattered and lifted up in pride at the attention from Babylon's king, Hezekiah makes a mistake. He throws caution to the wind and becomes instant friends with the nation that will later conquer his own. Instead of proving Judah a valuable ally, his unwise pride causes him to prove only that Judah is worth conquering. The small nation of Judah has been blessed by God and I think that the enormous wealth he showed to the envoys came as a surprise to Babylon. About a hundred years later, when Babylon is at its height of power and actively involved in nation-building, a king named Nebuchadnezzar will remember the wealth of Judah and all that was in her palace and storehouses and temple...and he will come for it.

Comfort My People: The Prophecies Of Isaiah, Day 107

Comfort My People:
The Prophecies Of Isaiah

Day 107

Today we conclude Hezekiah's writing about his illness and recovery.

"You restored me to health and let me live. Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish." (Isaiah 38:16b-17a) Hezekiah is thanking the Lord for his troubles. There are things I wouldn't want to go through again for anything, yet I'm thankful for those troubles. I'm thankful for what I learned about the Lord during my trials. I can say, along with Hezekiah, "Surely it was for my benefit." 

The king's words remind me of one of my favorite verses from the psalms, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey Your word." (Psalm 119:67) Before he was afflicted Hezekiah was trusting in his alliance with pagan nations to save him from Assyria. Before he was afflicted Hezekiah looked everywhere but to God for help. After he receives divine intervention in his terminal illness, he will look only to the Lord to rescue him and the city of Jerusalem from the enemy. 

"In Your love You kept me from the pit of destruction; You have put all my sins behind Your back." (Isaiah 38:17b) "The pit" in the Bible was an abode of the dead but with a negative connotation. A person might refer to the pit in the same way in our times we might refer to hell. Literal pits were used in ancient times to trap wild animals or to place a prisoner in, so the term is connected with having fallen or with being trapped. Because Hezekiah is saved by his faith in the Lord, his sins are forgiven. He is spared the destiny of the pit. God has placed his sins behind Him, where they cannot be seen or brought up again. In addition to these wonderful things, God has also spared his life.

"For the grave cannot praise You, death cannot sing Your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness." (Isaiah 38:18) In Old Testament times, before the advent of the Lord Jesus and His clearer teaching about death and resurrection, people had only a cloudy idea about the realm of the dead. They believed in a place called sheol in Hebrew, known as hades in Greek, which unfortunately got translated as hell in English. This world of the dead was believed to have been divided into two compartments: one for the godly and one for the ungodly. In Old Testament times some believed this was the permanent abode of the dead, while others clearly understood there would be a resurrection of the dead, as attested by some powerful statements of faith. For example, the Lord revealed the resurrection to the prophet Isaiah, "But Your dead will live, Lord; their bodies will rise---let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy---Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead." (Isaiah 26:19) Job, in his anguish, spoke of a new life and a new body that his Redeemer would give him, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes---I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" (Job 19:25-27) Bridging the gap between the Old and New Testaments, we find Martha the sister of Lazarus proclaiming a belief in the resurrection, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." (John 11:24) 

When Hezekiah says the grave can't praise the Lord, he is displaying his fear and confusion about what the realm of the dead might be. God has forgiven his sins, so he need not fear the pit of destruction, but he has no idea what activities go on in sheol for the godly. Will he know anything there? What will the nature of his existence be? Will he simply be asleep until the resurrection? The only thing he knows for sure is that, while he yet lives, he can praise the Lord on the earth. He can tell of the goodness of the Lord to others. "The living, the living---they praise You, as I am doing today; parents tell their children about Your faithfulness." (Isaiah 38:19)

"The Lord will save me, and we will sing on stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the temple of the Lord." (Isaiah 38:20) We don't know who wrote Psalm 146 but at this point in his life I think Hezekiah would agree with its message, "Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live." (Psalm 146:1-2)

At the conclusion of Hezekiah's writing, the scribe of Isaiah adds this information, "Isaiah had said, 'Prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.'" (Isaiah 38:21) I don't think the poultice itself had the power to heal Hezekiah. Fig poultices were commonly used in ancient times to draw out inflammation and help relieve pain, but if this had been capable of healing something as deadly as Hezekiah had, it would have already been tried. I think whatever infection he contracted, whether it was bubonic plague or something equally virulent, had spread throughout his entire system by now. He was terminally ill. If God had not stepped in he would have died. 

I think the poultice was intended more as a sign than as a cure, for the Bible tells us, "Hezekiah had asked, 'What will be the sign that I will go up to the temple of the Lord?'" (Isaiah 38:22) Isaiah had told him in 2 Kings 20:5b, "On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord." And upon hearing this, Hezekiah asked for a sign that he would indeed be in the temple three days hence. The sign appears to be the poultice, There are ancient medical writings from Emar on the Euphrates which indicate the use of poultices as signs for whether or not a person would recover. After applying the poultice, its color would be checked to see what type of inflammation it had drawn from the body, and the person would be treated accordingly. Apparently if the poultice turned black it indicated the person would die. I think Isaiah applied the poultice and used its color as a sign to Hezekiah that he would live. It did not turn the dreaded black that meant death.

Hezekiah's healing was from the hand of God, just like his forgiveness and redemption. No works of man healed his body. No works of man could save his soul. God alone performed these things for him and no wonder he intends to sing the praises of the Lord for the rest of his life.

Comfort My People: The Prophecies Of Isaiah, Day 106

Comfort My People:
The Prophecies Of Isaiah

Day 106

We are in the middle of a writing that King Hezekiah composed about his illness and recovery.  We begin with the anguish he felt while he was still sick, "I waited patiently til dawn, but like a lion He broke all my bones; day and night You made an end of me." (Isaiah 38:13) Hezekiah in his trial tossed and turned all through the dark night, waiting for dawn, only to find that no relief came with the sunrise. His fever did not break with the morning. We don't know how many days Hezekiah wrestled with his illness but he speaks of "day and night" as if it went on for a while. He's crushed by his circumstances like bones that have been crushed in the lion's mouth.

"I cried like a swift or thrush, I moaned like a mourning dove. My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens. I am being threatened; Lord, come to my aid!" (Isaiah 38:14) Hezekiah recognizes that it is the Lord who has given him this trouble, but he also knows it is the Lord who can save him from it. 

At the same time Hezekiah lies sick with his life threatened, his nation is being threatened by Assyria. He feels there isn't a worse time to have become sick. The small kingdom of Judah already appears weak in King Sennacherib's eyes; how much more will she appear weak if he finds out her king is dying? Hezekiah is looking at his situation from a human standpoint but God, in His awesome wisdom, knows there is not a better time to allow this trial to come into the king's life. Hezekiah is going to need the faith that will come from his healing in order to stand firm at the approach of the Assyrian army. As we've already seen in our study of Isaiah, by the time the soldiers reached the gates Hezekiah was depending on no one but God. He was promising the people that God was going to deliver them. He was praying a humble prayer in the temple. He was seeking the advice of the prophet Isaiah. The man who cried bitter tears on his sickbed will be the same man who stands firm in the faith when the enemy is at the door.

The remainder of the writing is about Hezekiah's healing. "But what can I say? He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done this." (Isaiah 38:15a) The Lord told Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah that He had seen his tears and heard his prayers; He was going to add fifteen years to the king's life. Hezekiah knows the Lord is the One who has healed him. 

"I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul." (Isaiah 38:15b) I think Hezekiah meant this when he said it. Like many of us, he is ready to make great promises in the face of deliverance. He is overwhelmed with relief and thankfulness. But in our next chapter we find him pridefully showing the wealth of his palace treasuries to the envoys from Babylon. We know he doesn't do it in the right spirit because Isaiah gives him a woeful word of prophecy as a result of his actions. King Hezekiah is a man who messes up from time to time, just as we all do, and I'd be tempted to give him a pass on his problem with pride except it's evident the Lord views it harshly, coming as it does directly on the heels of the king's miraculous recovery. These two events (his illness and his behavior with the Babylonians) are inextricably linked together. Isaiah intends for us to see the contrast between the humbleness of spirit in today's chapter and the pride in tomorrow's chapter. 

But we don't want to get the impression that the Lord can't use Hezekiah after he makes a mistake. The author of the books of the kings says, "Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following Him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses." (2 Kings 18:5-6) There were twenty kings of Judah and Hezekiah receives the highest praise of them all. He overcame a great deal to serve the Lord, having been brought up in the idolatrous household of king Ahaz. He had the courage to reform the entire religious system and destroy the pagan altars of his father. He held fast to the Lord even in his illness, with no ugly words against God for allowing it to happen to him. When the enemy stood outside the gates of Jerusalem, scorning the king and blaspheming the Lord, he instructed the people to trust in God and promised them that God was coming to the rescue. Of course he made some mistakes in his life, but these did not disqualify him from serving the Lord. And thank God for that! If mistakes disqualified us there would be no place for me at the Lord's table! "If You, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve You." (Psalm 130:3-4) God, in His precious mercy, looks at our lives as a whole narrative, not as a series of specific bad choices. He sees us for who we can be, not who we were in the past. 

"Lord, by such things people live; and my spirit finds life in them too." (Isaiah 38:16a) By what things? I believe Hezekiah means the word of the Lord. He has just finished saying, "He has spoken to me", and the word of the Lord to him means more than simply a reprieve from death. His spirit finds life there too. The Lord spoke the word that healed his body but more than that, in the Scriptures Hezekiah finds what heals the soul. 

In God's word we find deliverance from many snares of this life and we find the deliverance of our souls from death. In His word we find the assurance that, if we have stumbled and fallen in the faith, we can repent and be restored. God doesn't cast us aside when we mess up. Like a father teaching a small child to walk, God lifts us to our feet and helps us on our way again. What father would say to his toddler, "Son, you've fallen down too many times. I'm just going to leave you there."? God our Father is patient with us and merciful to us. Every time King Hezekiah failed in his faith, the Lord helped him back up, and this is why the author of the kings has such wonderful things to say about him above all the other kings of Judah. Hezekiah never scorned the helping hand of the Lord. He had a teachable spirit. He had a heart that longed to know the Lord and to study the Scriptures. As long as we have these attitudes, God can do something with our lives. We don't have to just lie there in the mud when we fall down; God is reaching out His hand. With Him is forgiveness so we can get back up and keep on serving.