Isaiah - Lesson 12

Dr. John Oswalt

Isaiah

ot650-12

Whom Are You Trusting?

Lesson Transcript

We come to the final section. Actually subdivision of the third division of the book by my organization. That is trust. The basis of servant hood. The first subdivision was chapters 7 to 12. No trust, then chapters 13 through 35. Lessons in trust. And now trust. Yes, but. Hezekiah, the son of a has now has the rather frightening opportunity to take the test again. Is your way trustworthy? Can he be trusted? Or are we better off to trust humanity, to trust ourselves, to trust other humans, to trust nations? That's the question that runs all the way through this subdivision. Trust is the basis of servant hood. If we are to be the servants of God as chapter two verses one through five intimated and as chapters 40 to 66 are going to make very explicit. We've got to be able to lay down our robes of power and authority and trust the master. So the question has to be answered Can Yahweh be trusted? He has said no. What will Hezekiah say? In the introduction to the course, I mentioned that I am very opposed to those commentators who say that chapters 36 to 39 are a historical appendix. No, not at all. They are the book end. They are the other end of that section that began with Chapter seven. So. Why do I say that? Is it just the way I see the book, or is there reason to say it? Well, the very, very explicit reason is chapter 36. And verse. Three, two. Excuse me. Verse two, The king of a serious sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the upper pool on the road to the launders field.

That is the very same spot, the very same description as the place where Isaiah met Ahaz 35 years earlier. On that spot that Hezekiah challenged Ahaz to trust your way. This is the spot now where the Assyrian field commander, the term is. Rob Schachter. Where the field commander now dares Hezekiah to trust God, dares the people of Judah and Jerusalem to trust God on that very same spot. Furthermore, it is the issue of trust. By my count, words for trust appear in the rubbish as challenge seven times. This is about trust. And the question is will. Hezekiah. Choose to trust God. As we've said before, the situation here is now desperate. Isaiah had predicted to ahaz that the day would come when Assyria was flooding Judah and Jerusalem right up to the nose. That moment has come. There are no allies left except, of course, Egypt. All the other small countries that we talked about, with the exception of Tire and Sidon up in the north, who have not quite acquiesced yet, but they're not able to do anything for Judah. All the rest are gone. So an acrobat has come. He claims to have taken 46 strong cities. We would probably call them fortified villages. But 46 of them, only two are left. Lachish in the south west, which is a very significant, significant fortress. This is the road down to Egypt. This is the road down to Philistine. Lachish was a large, large fortified city. It's no surprise that it's the last one that Sennacherib's army is attacking and it's about to fall. What now I mentioned to you earlier that has a. We know from the Book of Kings sent a lot of money to Sennacherib asking him to please leave me alone, go home.

And Sennacherib had taken the money and stayed. If Hezekiah. Defies Sennacherib does not surrender. And Sennacherib has to besiege the city a very expensive proposition and finally is successful in his siege. Hezekiah is going to die. As terrible a death as the Assyrians can come up with. If he trusts God and God shames him. The results are going to be very bad. On the other hand, if he does surrender, he will probably die. But he may at least die in a somewhat more comfortable way than he would if he trusted Yahweh and refused to surrender. So the challenge now is much more than that that faced a has a has might have been deposed and replaced by someone who is not from the family of David. Hezekiah will suffer a terrible death. It's in that sense that we come to this test. Will Yahweh be proved faithful? Will Yahweh be true, be proven trustworthy? Or will Hezekiah not give you the chance to demonstrate it? This is what we're looking at. This is what we're facing now as we look at the four chapters, 36, 37, 38, 39. We find. An odd construction to the chapters. 7 to 12 began with no trust, but ends with the prediction of the Messianic Kingdom. God says, whether you trust me or not, I am trustworthy, whether you trust me or not. I'm going to keep my promises. And there will come a day when the failed House of David under Ahaz will be replaced by another king who is a descendant of Jesse. But what about 36 to 39? As we will see, it begins with trust. It culminates at the end of 37 with Hezekiah having trusted God and God having proven himself. But then what? Well, in one sense, another test comes in chapter 38, the test of illness.

And it's always fun when I'm working with students to to ask them, does Hezekiah trust Yahweh here? Well, yes and no. He cries. He says, God, I've lived the good life. I don't want to die now. And God responds to the prayer. So yeah, I think you can probably say that Hezekiah trusted God in that moment. But what follows in Chapter 38 is very surprising. You would expect a hymn of praise and hymns of praise in the Bible. Follow a very set pattern. This is not a hymn of praise. In fact, it's more of a lament. We talked about laments back when we were looking at Chapter 14. It's more of a lament and a lament over mortality. Hmm. It's as though Hezekiah knows he's been given 15 more years, but he also knows that in the end, he's going to die. And so he says, I'm going to walk very carefully. I'm going to walk very circumspectly in these years that are given me. And then. When the word reaches Babylon, which is in revolt against the Assyrians about this wonderful, miraculous recovery, they send an embassy. And Hezekiah. With the golden opportunity to declare the glory of God. Chapter two The nations are coming. Shows off his wealth and his armaments. And Hezekiah made some of these uncomfortable visits of prophets, says, What did you show them? And Jessica, kind of raisins it out. And says I showed them everything and has a car. And Isaiah says, Well, that's good because they're all going to own it one day. And your sons will be eunuchs in their court. And Hezekiah says, Oh, that's good. It won't happen in my day. Hmm. What's going on there. We start with trust and end with mortality and fallibility.

Whereas we started in 7 to 12 with no trust and ended up with the glorious promise of the Messiah. What's going on? Well, I'm going to leave you hanging on that for just a lecture. No, I'll answer it before the end of this lecture, but. We'll look at that in a few minutes. Now, let's go back to chapter 36 and look at the field commander, the Rob Chavez challenge. Look what he says. This is what the great king. Oh, excuse me. No, I'm going to start earlier than that. Verse four. The field commanders said to them, Tell Hezekiah. He doesn't call him King Ezekiel. In fact, he never does. Through this whole thing. I serve the king. The emperor of Assyria, Hezekiah. He's just a nobody. So this guy has done his homework. He has prepared for this very carefully. Tell Hezekiah this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says. On. What are you basing this confidence of yours? Right from the beginning. This is about trust. What are you trusting in? What's the basis of your confidence? You say you have counsel and might for war. Well, that's pretty clearly a reference to the alliance. With Egypt. The Council, the advice, the wisdom, counsel and mate for war. But you speak only empty words on what are you depending trusting that you rebel against me. Look, I know you're depending on trusting Egypt, so that's number one. What are you trusting in your trusting Egypt? Egypt? What a foolish thing to do. Egypt is a bent reed. It's not a solid walking stick. No, it's one of those Egyptian reads from along the Nile, and it's already been bent. What's going to happen when you lean on it? It's going to break and stab you in the armpit.

Are you trusting Egypt? What a foolish, foolish thing to do. Such is Pharaoh King of Egypt to all who depend on him. But if you say to me, Oh, we're trusting on your way, our God. Now, again, this guy has done his homework. He doesn't understand what the significance of homework is, but he's done it. He says, wait a minute, wait a minute. Isn't he the one whose high places? And Alter says, Look, I removed saying to Judea and Jerusalem, you must worship before this altar. You're always unhappy. Hezekiah tore down all his local churches and said, You got to come to the cathedral to worship. He always not happy with you? Well, of course, the very opposite is the case. That's what Hezekiah was supposed to do, and he had done it. But as I say, the rapture can't knows what's been going on. He doesn't understand. It is Paganism has blinded him to it. But there it is. Are you trusting Yahweh? Well, he's offended because you destroyed his high places. Well, how about it? Maybe you're trusting military hardware. Verse eight. Come now. Make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I'll give you 2000 horses if you can put riders on them. You made all your deals with Egypt and they give you all their horses. Big deal. I'll give you horses. Almost certainly. This is a reference to one of the technological or I should say, military technological advances that was occurring at this point, and that's cavalry up to this point. Horses had been used almost entirely for chariots and chariot warfare was sort of like the ultimate weapon. Main battle tanks today. But the Assyrians were developing cavalry. Armed horsemen. With all the speed of the chariot, but much more flexibility.

So he says, Hey, we've got cavalry. We give you cavalry horses. You don't have anybody trained to ride them, do you? You trust in Egypt? Bent Reed. Dressing your way. Oh, he's offended you. Trusting military hardware. You couldn't manage it if you had it. Do you think I came to attack and destroy this land without way? You always told me to come. Yeah. He told me to come get you. Mm hmm. If he only knew. He doesn't. But it's simply part of his argument. So the embassy's Eliakim Shaffner DOA. They say, please speak to your servants in Aramaic. We understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew. In the hearing of the people on the wall. And he says. These people are going to be eating their own dung and drinking their own urine. They have a right to hear what's going to happen to them. He's learned Hebrew. He says, I'm going to speak to you and them in Hebrew. Hmm. The Assyrians were nothing if not thorough. So he says, But I'll tell you what. Maybe your trusting has a higher. Verse 14. This is what the king says. Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you. And then he moves it up a step. Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in your way when he says Yahweh will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the King of Assyria. Don't listen to Hezekiah. This is what the King of a serious says. Trust me. Make peace with me and the army will go away and everybody will be happy. And then a little later, I'll come back and I'll take you all off to a land that's much nicer than this one.

Can't trust Egypt. Can't trust. You can't trust military hardware. Can't trust Ezekiel. But you can trust Sennacherib. Mm hmm. And then he brings it back. Or 16. Don't listen to Hezekiah verse 18. Don't let Hezekiah mislead you when he says the Lord will deliver us. And here's the clincher. Have any other gods ever delivered their nation from me. No. This is not a contest between Sennacherib and Hezekiah. It's a contrast between Sennacherib and Yahweh. It's not a contest between Ashur, the God of Assyria and Yahweh. It's a contest between Sennacherib and York. Who? That's what my Jewish friends call chutzpah. Look what I've done to all the other gods. Look what I've done to all the gods of the nations. I've destroyed them. Where are they? Who, of all the gods of these countries, has been able to save their lands from me. How then, can your way deliver Jerusalem from my end? Hmm. Hmm. So I say, can we say anything other than this subdivision of the book is about trust. Who are you going to trust? The Iowa. Or snack grab. It has. Your father trusted Tig laugh pleaser all those years ago. Now you can trust me. So the embassy goes to the king. And the king tears his clothes and puts on sackcloth. Chapter 37. And he sent them to the prophet. And this is interesting. He doesn't go himself. He sends them to the prophet. And they told him this is what Hezekiah says. This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace as when children come to the moment of birth and there's no strength to deliver them. Do you remember that same figure was used by Isaiah back in chapter 26 when he says we have not wrought deliverance in the land? It's like we've come to the moment of birth and we've had no strength to deliver.

Here it is again. The same, not exactly the same wording, but a similar figure is going to appear later in the book. Isaiah loves to use these phrases and terms and themes and pictures and uses them over and over again in similar and sometimes somewhat similar ways. So he says, Here's the moment, here's the moment, and we can't deliver ourselves. We're unable. We're like a woman who has labored for 30 hours. And she's going to die. It may be and this is interesting language. It may be that the Lord Yahweh, your God, Isaiah. We'll hear the words of the field commander whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God. Living God, as a phrase, only appears seven or eight times in the Old Testament. But every place that appears, especially in Deuteronomy. It is this idea of the one who is not an idol. And that's significant. In this context. Yes. And Akram has destroyed the idols, but has he ever come up against the living God before? No. It may be that your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the King of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, pray for the remnant that still survives. Now, I don't want to overinterpret that. It's easy to do that sort of thing, but it's just interesting to me that it's not my God, Hezekiah. It's your God, Isaiah. Isaiah, you're really a godly man. You're really in touch with the Lord. And and so here am I in the palace. And I'm asking you over there in your house or wherever to. To intercede with your God for me.

I don't think we ought to paint some of these biblical heroes in a brighter light than the Bible presents them. The Bible does tell us that Hezekiah was a good man, that he was a faithful follower of Yahweh. But. I don't think we ought to see him as some plaster saint. He's a man. A man like us with fears, with anxieties, with uncertainties. The issue is, will he trust God anyhow? And that's the same issue for you and me. We don't have to be plaster saints. We don't have to be somebody who never has committed a failure in terms of our relationship with the Lord. The question is, will we trust him? That's the question. Isaiah said to them, Tell your master this is what Yahweh says. Do not be afraid of what you've heard. Those words with which the underlings, the minions of the King of Assyria have blasphemed me. Listen, when he hears a certain report, I'll make him want to return to his own country. And there I will have him cut down with the sword. Now, critical scholars often at this point say, well, he doesn't say anything about destroying his whole army. He doesn't say anything about being horribly, tragically defeated. Just as he will hear a certain report. But that's exactly what he did here. He did here. Your arm is dead. So there's nothing here. If it's not as full as some might like it to be, there is nothing here that is contrary to the fact. And indeed. When he did go back home. It's 19 years later. But when he did go back home, his own sons killed him in his temple. So. What Isaiah says here is precisely what did happen. So the field commander.

Here's that. He has left Lachish, where Sennacherib with the rest of his army, was besieging the city. And has gone to fight against live. Now, we don't know from this account, but we know from kings and from extra biblical literature that the reason he left Lachish was that wonder of wonders the Egyptian king had supplied forth with his army and Sennacherib has to go take them on him. So the field commander withdraws from Jerusalem with his army to go join his master in the field. As I suggested to you earlier. This might be the basis for Isaiah 22, where the people are rejoicing and crying and laughing and all of this. This might be the reason for that passage where Isaiah said You are rejoicing too early. And. That's exactly what happened. Sennacherib easily defeated the Egyptians and the Egyptian king fled back to Egypt. And so Snacker wrote a letter to Hezekiah. Don't get your hopes up, guy. Do not let the God you trust depend on deceive you when he says Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the King of Assyria. Surely you've heard what the Kings of Assyria have done to all the countries. And so he renews that argument. Your God can't help you. You have seen what I and my predecessors, the Kings of Assyria, not the gods of Assyria, The Kings of Assyria have done to all these other gods. Including. Hey MAF Zephyr via Hannah, Eva, all these large north Syrian cities. He'd taken them all. This time. Hezekiah takes the letter. And goes into the temple. I think. He's much more serious now. Before he sent a message to the prophet and said, What do you say now he goes to Yahweh. It's not your way, your God, it's your way.

My God. He goes to Yahweh with the letter, and I can sort of imagine him saying, Yahweh, have you seen this letter? And now says, Yeah, as a matter of fact, I have. He spread it out before the Lord and he prayed. This short prayer, in my mind is one of the great prayers of the Bible. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord Yahweh, of Heaven's armies. The God of Israel. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm. The transcendent one. Yahweh of Heaven's armies and the imminent one, the God of Israel. Enthroned. Above the chair of them. Mm hmm. There you are. And then invisible space above the covenant box. That reminds us that you've committed yourself to us. And we've committed ourselves to you. They're in that space. You alone. Our God. Overall, the kingdoms of the earth. There's nobody else like you. You made the heavens and the earth. Yes. Yes. You're not part of the earth. You're not part of the heavens. You made them. Are. Give ear, Lord. And open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. The Smiths love to do this. The gods have ears but cannot hear. The gods have eyes, but cannot see. This God who has no ears, can hear this God who has no eyes, can see. He is the living God. He's not a dead idol, he's not a stone. He's not a chunk of wood. He is the living God. Here again. Is this marvelous? In these few words, marvelous theological description of God's transcendence and His personhood. Oh, my. Our prayers need to be based on that kind of an understanding of who he is. I fear. I fear for much of evangelical religion. Because we have reduced God to a rather blind, deaf old grandpa.

Who exists to say, That's all right, Tony. It doesn't matter what you did. Or to a slot machine. Into which we punch our quarters and pull the handle and expect him to give us silver dollars in return. No. Has a guy knows who he's talking to. Listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Wow. It's not merely about whether you can trust him or not. It's about whether he's trustworthy. And the answer is, of course not. You can't trust that God any more than you can trust any of your other gods. He's not the same. He is the living God. It's true. The way that the Assyrian Kings have laid waste. All these peoples and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them. For they're not gods, but only wooden stone made by human hands. The Old Testament loves to work that concept. Are you going to worship your maker? Are you going to worship what you made? Sure. God, they did. Those kings of Assyria did burn up all those gods because they're not gods. Now here comes the clincher. Here comes the clincher. I'm afraid if I were in Hezekiah's position, I would say something like this. Please, Lord, deliver us. We've been so faithful. We've been so dependable. And really, Lord, you you can't let us be wiped out. I mean, what are you going to do without us? You need us, God. Now your way. Our God. Deliver us from his hand. So that all the kingdoms of the earth. All those kingdoms that had all those gods. A wooden stone. May know that you, Yahweh, are the only God. That's a prayer. God has a hard time saying no to deliver us.

Not because we deserve it. Not because we've earned it. Not because you need us. Deliver us so that the world may know. Yes. Jesus. Deliver me from my addictions. So that I can be happy now, so that the world can say, Wow. Wow. What kind of a God deserve? Deliver me from my hatreds so that the world can say. That guy serves a real god. So I say these short verses, in my judgment, are one of the greatest prayers in the Bible, a man who knows who he's praying to. A man who knows what the issue is. The issue here is not do we survive. The issue is, is the living God going to be ridiculed or not? And is he going to be known? Because you see, there is no salvation in us. But there is salvation in the living God. Let the world know who you are so that they may be saved. Even then, a Syrian. So then we have. Isaiah's response? You always response. A marvelous poem. And if if the Rapture has done his homework, Isaiah has done his homework, too. It's interesting in the language. There's a lot of reflection of the Assyrian annals and of their bragging and of their boasting. Now you say, How would Isaiah have known that? I don't know. But I suspect there was a lot more communication in the ancient world than we really think of a lot slower than ours is today. But I think they're they knew one another a good deal better than we may think they did. They were not so isolated as we tend to think they were then. Isaiah, Son of Moses, is verse 21 of chapter 37, sent a message to Hezekiah, This is what your way the God of Israel says, because you have prayed to me concerning Synoptic canvas area.

This is the word Yahweh has spoken against him. The Virgin daughter Zion despises and mocks you. Daughter Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride against the Holy one of Israel? By your messengers. You've ridiculed the Lord, you said, and this is where the Assyrian Owls really show up. Here with my many chariots, I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest junipers. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests. I have dug wells in foreign land and drank the water there with the soles of my feet. I have dried up all the streams of Egypt. That's. That's right out of the annals. That's the kind of thing the Assyrian our Assyrian Kings bragged about all the time. That's what you've said. Verse 26. Have you not heard? Long ago, I ordained it. In the days of all, I planned it. Now I've brought it to pass that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone. That goes all the way back to Chapter 14, when in the little Oracle against Assyria there he says, I planned this. I purposed it. You're doing what I planned centuries ago. You think? You think you have the capacity to do whatever you choose? No, you don't. No, you don't. I like that opening. A Syria thinks he has come to rake. Judea and Jerusalem. The virgin daughter. And now as he sneaks away, she is saying, Yeah. And then and then you ridicule your way. And now Jerusalem. Judah ridicules you. Because you made a fundamental error. You thought you were in charge of your destiny when all along your way was.

So it goes through the rest of this beautiful, beautiful passage. Go to verse 33. Therefore, this is what the Lord says concerning the King of Assyria. He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow there. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came, he will return. He will not enter this city, declares Yahweh. I will defend this city and save it for my sake and for the sake of David, my servant. Hmm. Yeah. You marked it your way. That's going to really cost you. Now, I like the way Isaiah has structured all this. We've we've had all this build up. We've had two chapters of buildup and immediately we've just had this long message from Yahoo to snack group and now sort of boom. Then the Angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 in the Assyrian camp when the people got up the next morning. There were dead bodies. So Sennacherib King of Assyria, broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. Yeah, I would do. You just lost your whole army in a night? Yeah. It's time to go back home for a while. Now, here's the interesting thing. Sargon Sennacherib's father died in 705. It took an of a couple of years to get things back together. And in fact, during this time, almost certainly has a choir put together a coalition to be ready when snack grub came back. And this is what snack grub is angry about. People don't stand up to me. So it's 701. He's been on the throne four years or so. He has campaigned he's is gone around the empire and and put down rebellions everywhere in a very powerful and effective way.

And now he's putting down the last one, the Judean revolt, before finally going for the whole banana. Egypt. He never campaigns in the West again. He's on the throne another 18 years. He never campaigns in the West again. I wonder why not? He campaigned throughout the rest of his empire with great effectiveness. But he left Egypt untouched. He was on the doorstep. Why not? Well, of course he doesn't tell us in his annals. He's not going to give us that information. But I think that's the explanation. I'm not going to mess with those people again. I can't afford to lose another whole army. And so we see fulfilled. Those several passages that I've mentioned as we've gone along where God has said, I'm going to destroy Assyria on my mountains. I'm going to destroy him without a sword. Yeah. So has the Kaia has passed the test. He has passed the test with flying colors. Will you trust yours? Now, we can say, as we can say about ourselves sometimes. Well, he sort of had his back to the wall. He had tried everything else. He had tried to buy snack or off. It's sort of like we often here. When all else fails, try prayer. So we can say that about him. But the fact is that in the end, he did it. He did what Ahaz was unwilling to do. He did it. And God proved you can trust me. Okay, Wonderful. Let's move on. Uh. What's going on in 38 and 39 that. Almost certainly not all commentators agree on this, but many do. Almost certainly the events of 38 and 39 took place before the events of 36 and 37. They're not in chronological order. Part of the reason that one can come to this conclusion is the reference in 39 one to Marduk Ballad Dan the King of Babylon.

He was not in power in 701. His revolt was about ten or 12 years earlier than that. So that's that's a major reason. Another reason that I find not mentioned so often is look at 30, 38 six. God has given him the promise of 15 more years. And now look what he says, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the King of Assyria. I will defend this city. He's already done it. If we take it in chronological order and you will perhaps remember that the Rapture and then Sennacherib both referred to this. Almost quoted it. Don't believe Yahweh when he says this city will not fall to the king of Assyria. I will defend this city. Sounds to me like Hezekiah had this promise years before. He's quoted it to people. It's common knowledge. Even the Assyrians know it. Wait a minute. Why would Isaiah do that? Why would he reverse the chronological order? Well, I mentioned this already in the introduction back several years ago, but do you remember what I said about repetition? And we repeated again. Is has a higher. The child who is to be born to us upon whose shoulder the kingdom authority will rest. The wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father. The Prince of Peace. Is he the one? Who is referred to in Chapter 11. The shoot from the stump of Jesse. Upon whom the spirit rests. And I think Isaiah is saying to us, No, no. He has proven his point in the end. But he is not the Messiah. He is not the one to whom we look for our ultimate salvation. He's not the final living evidence of God with us. We have to look somewhere else for that.

So that I think Isaiah has structured this. Subdivision. Precisely to prepare us for what follows. You're going to have to look beyond human perfectibility to find the hope of the world, because in fact, human perfectibility doesn't work very well. I think that's what's going on. And that Isaiah has consciously structured this passage to make that point. Our trust is in Yahweh, not in the hezekiah's of this world. Who are both mortal and fallible. So, you know, it was it was really tough being a prophet. God, says Isaiah. His guy is sick. I want you to go over there and tell him he's going to die. Gulp. Okay. This is what the Lord says. Put your house in order because you're going to die. You will not recover. He has no more than gotten to the front porch before God says. Go back in there and tell him he's got 15 more years. God, I'm going to look like an idiot. I just said he wasn't going to recover. Now you say he's going to recover. What are you doing? And God says, Who are you working for? You know what happened? Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you. In truth. And with a perfect heart. Now that language shows up in Kings several times in reference to the good king's. Modern translations fall all over themselves to avoid using the word perfect. But the word that is used is a word that is used for the sacrificial lambs. You have to give a lamb, that is. Whole. A lamb. That is all a lamb ought to be. Four legs, not three. Two eyes. Not for wool, not hair. It's got to be just exactly what a lamb is supposed to be. So what do we mean when we say you got to have that kind of art? We mean a heart that is completely God's.

An undivided heart. A heart that is wholly his. So some translations will say wholehearted. Some others will say completely loyal. Struggling to avoid. Perfect. Because unfortunately, perfect in modern contemporary English means flawless. That's not what's being said here. But he's saying, God, my heart has been yours. Not part yours and part somebody else's. Not part yours and part mine. My heart has been yours. Oh, I don't know about you, but I want that to be said of me. Whatever was what was, how big a mess he was. He was all God's. Walked before you faithfully with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes. And God clearly says, You got that right. He doesn't say, Oh, come on, come on. Has a guy. Let's get real here. You've never been all mine. No. He says. For whatever, whatever shortcomings, whatever failures. It is true. You have walked with me faithfully. You have been all mine. And you've done what I asked. Wow. Wow. And you be wonderful to hear the Lord say that to you on the last day. That's what he said. And so he got 15 more years and he got the promise that God was going to defend Jerusalem. God kept both promises. He gave me another 15 years. Now then, as I said, what follows ought to be a hymn of praise. Oh, praise the Lord. Though. I was sick. He delivered me. Local, he says, in the prime of my life. Must I go through the gates of death and be robbed of the rest of my years? Will I not see the Lord again? And the Ivy has sort of they've stuck in. I said, and I said and that sort of thing. And it not quite that clear that I said this in the past.

Like a shepherd's tent. My house has been pulled down and taken from me like a weaver. I've rolled up my life. Verse 13. I waited patiently till dawn, but like a lion, he broke all my bones. Verse 14 I cried like a swift through a rush. My eyes grew weak as I looked at the heavens. I'm being threatened, Lord, come to my aid. What can I say? He's spoken to me. He himself has done this. So I'll walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul. You can't let me die. God. Because dead people don't praise you. It's only the living who praise you. Is there some thanks Here? Yeah. Look at verse 20. The Lord will save me. He will sing with strictly and we will sing with stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the Temple of the Lord. But. This is not praise for deliverance. It is a reflection on mortality. Yes, Hezekiah. Proves we can trust your way. But has the car is a mortal. Then of course, comes chapter 39. We've already talked about it pretty thoroughly. Verse three, Isaiah the Prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, What did those men say and where did they come from? Oh, they came from a distant land. Hezekiah replies. They came to me from Babylon. Hmm. Is he saying, Well, they can't do us much harm because they're from far away? I don't know. But it's interesting. So what did they see in your palace? They saw everything in my palace, Hezekiah said. There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them. They didn't come to see his treasures. Look at verse one. At that time, Murdoch, Ballard and son of Ballard and King of Babylon sent Ezekiel letters and a gift because he had heard of his illness and recovery.

They didn't come to see his treasures. They came to hear. How is it that you recovered from that illness? And Hezekiah did not tell them. Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of your way of heaven's armies. The time will surely come when everything in your power is all that your predecessors have stored up until this day will be carried off to battle and nothing will be left. Some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, who will be born to you. Make it a point, isn't he? Will be taken away and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon. Now again, commentators argue a bit about the significance of Hezekiah's response. I just can't see it as. Anything other than, Oh, goody, it's not going to happen to me. No confession. No repentance? No. Oh, my goodness. What's going to happen to the promise to the House of David if my sons, to whom I gave birth? My descendants are castrated. Don't see it. I think what Isaiah is saying to us, don't look to the hezekiah's of this world. The best of them will fail you. The best of them will die. Our hope has to be somewhere beyond human perfectibility.