Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Wednesday June 10, 2009

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Isaiah 38 p3 ( vv9-23)

6.8.09 | Last Thursday. the San Jose Mercury News reported that a 90-year-old woman spent three days trapped in her bathtub after becoming too weak to pull herself out.  Shirley Madsen, of Walnut Creek, Calif., survived her ordeal by drinking water from a rubber duck with a hole in the bottom.  She suddenly found herself in a place she couldn’t get out of.  She was stuck.  So, too, w/ Hezekiah – v1.   

    * Whatever H’s affliction was (bubonic plague?), it came on fast/hard.  Cf. vv12 & 13.  He was brought to his knees in a moment of time.
    * The plague was, and is still, rapid in its progress. It terminates the life of those who are affected with it almost immediately, and at the furthest within three/four days.  barnes
    * I have seen a case in which death took place ten hours after the first symptoms.  McAlister in ISBE
    * Many find themselves like Shirley/H – stuck in a place they don’t want to be.  Financial/relational/ health/career/emotional/ psychological woes can come suddenly and be overwhelming.  Shirley, H, you – need someone to pull you out.  Whether you were pushed/fell/dug a hole & crawled in it, God can pull you out.

10-20 record what was going on in his mind/heart during this time.

    * 10-14  Before his healing  cf. v2 – …turned his face to the wall…

9-11  He looks ahead and sees nothing

Midlife crisis.  Midlife crisis is when you come to the middle and you think it’s the end.  Seems like there is so much more to come, but he’ll never get to it.  “I’ve been robbed, ripped off.” He is stuck and there is no way forward.  I think there can be different types of midlife crises where people can feel stuck w/ no way forward - economic/philosophical/relational/health.  Maybe you’re here.  These are all areas where you can cry to God for a way forward.

His prayer was based on the fact that he wanted more.  He refused to bow before the inevitability of the disease that was wasting his life.  Ill. - Paul knew when he was to live/God finished w/ him – remain on/finish my course.  Maybe you are at a place where you realize that you have hit the ceiling and you won’t rise any higher.  Life is not over.  Live to glorify God!

12 He looks behind and sees incompleteness

His life is as temporary as a camping tent.  I weave my pattern on the loom, but He cuts the thread!  God is pulling up the stakes and cutting off the threads.  What H thought had real substance and weight is so easily dismantled.

From day until night Thou dost make an end of me.

Day until night = in the course of one day

Make an end of me = bring me to my completion (but I don’t see it that way!)

13-14  He looks above and sees coldness

Composed my soul until morning.  I quieted my soul until morning, hoping that the morning would bring relief, but no – it got worse!  Saying: It’s always darkest before the dawn.  For H, it got darker once the sun came up.  Now he could see what he was up against.

God was like a lion to him – the teeth slowly bearing down, digging in, and breaking all his hope.  Lion is the strongest, bird is the weakest.  God is the strongest, I am the weakest.  “Lord, I give up.  How can I fight against You?”

“O Lord, I am being squeezed, be my safety/security – take my place/pay what I owe/take the place of the debtor.”  This is what the Lord was waiting to hear.  “I owed a debt I could not pay; He paid a debt He did not owe.”

    * 15-20  After his healing

15-16  He looks inward and sees the promise and power of God

Cf. v5 – …I will add fifteen years to your life…

Wander should read “walk humbly”.  Because God has shown me how transient I am and how bitter I can become, I will walk softly before the Lord.

16  Refers to the promise and the work of God in v15.  He had been attempting to live in the strength of his cleverness.

17-20  He looks around and sees the grace of God/praises god

Hezekiah knew that all his sins were behind his back and he acknowledged the love of God for him.

When we cast our sins behind our back and take no care to repent of them, God sets them before His face.  But when we set them before our face in true repentance, God casts them behind His back.  Matthew Henry

21-22

The words of Isaiah point to them pressing the figs upon the sore or squeezing them over the sore.  The figs may have been mixed w/ wine or milk when applied.  It was the word of God that healed the king and the figs were only a means.

Hezekiah’s personal challenge prepared him for the national crisis

Cf. v6 – sickness preceded deliverance from Assyria.

Hezekiah cried out to God for his personal healing and deliverance.  This was training for crying out to God for national healing and deliverance.  The death sentence that was on Hezekiah was a microcosm of the shadow hanging over Judah.  If H couldn’t get the victory for himself, how could be the vessel used to make it available to others?

2 Cor. 1:3-7  What is happening to you personally is meant to 1) reveal to you goodness and power of God; 2) train and equip you for wider ministry and greater blessing.  What God is teaching you and taking you through is so that you might go through it with someone else.  You have been looking to God and can testify to the goodness of God to those who are bearing the difficulties and challenges of life.