FROM PENDING DEATH TO LIFE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in Your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

“‘This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’”

So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.

Isaiah 38:1-8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Jerusalem was under threat of the Assyrians who had already attacked and captured all the other fortified cities of Judah. The people and their King Hezekiah were at a point where they could easily die as so many other of their fellow Israelites had done already. At this point of uncertainty and threat, Hezekiah urged his people to maintain their faith in God, their deliverer, the only One who could take them from pending death to life.

But the Assyrians weren’t the only problem that Hezekiah had.

For as Chapter 38 opens, we find the king having to face his own mortality as he falls ill and on the brink of death before the prophet Isaiah brings him some bad news. Look again at today’s verses:

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in Your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. vv. 1-2

As King of Judah, Hezekiah had tirelessly devoted himself to faithfully serving God, making it a priority to glorify and honor Him in every way possible. We know this from the scriptures found in 2 Kings, Chapter 18:

He (Hezekiah) did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)

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. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook.  vv- 3-7

This man of God who had been appointed to lead the people of God was now on his last leg. The prophet affirmed it with the assurance that Hezekiah would not recover. Such was the news that the king wept bitterly as he recalled how he had faithfully and devotedly served God, seeking to do right in His eyes.

I don’t see this sorrow as Hezekiah saddened over the end of his life. No, I believe the deep anguish the king displayed was more a product of him knowing his service to God was going to end.

The story could have ended there. Hezekiah could have died and no one would have thought much of it. He was a devout man of God who lived a good life and now that life was going to be over. Everyone is going to die sometime, right?

But God has a way of changing the story, doesn’t He? He has a way of saving like no one else, a knack of making the way where there is seemingly no way, a miraculous ability to take someone from pending death to life.

So was it with Hezekiah:

Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

“‘This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’”

So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down. vv. 3-8

God was moved by Hezekiah’s sadness and I think His decision to extend the king’s life and deliver him and the people of Jerusalem from the Assyrians was an indication that Hezekiah’s heart was inclined toward God even in his final moments. Such was the love that God had for him.  

And such is the love that He has had, has today, and will always have for us, His people.

For each and every one of us was on the brink of death because of our sinfulness. We were without hope and unable to save ourselves or find anyone else who could do it for us. At least not on earth anyways. Without intervention, we would all have perished from the pending death awaiting us all.  

But God so loved the world (and all of His people abiding on it) that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). In other words, God loved us all so much that He provided the way for us to go from pending death to life.

That way was named Jesus, the One who paid the price or all the sins of mankind when He died on the cross of Calvary bearing the penalty we all deserved, the One who died and then rose again from the grave to ascend to God’s right hand where He rules with authority and power over all creation, the One who made the way for the rest of us to join the very God who delivered and rescued us out of love through giving up His only Son.

Friends, as we head to worship tomorrow and every day, let us do so with a renewed vigor of thanksgiving and praise for Jesus and the God who used Him to take us from pending death to life eternal.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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