THE LAST ENEMY
Many of you know that I love movies. As a true movie aficionado I enjoy watching some of the really old movies. One of the most interesting movies from 1934 was called “Death Takes A Holiday.”
In “Death Takes A Holiday,” Death takes on human form as “Prince Sirki” to discover why people fear him. As he is drawn further into the mortal world, he becomes fascinated with the people he meets. A certain young woman named Grazia is the only person he meets who has no fear of him. However, the aged Duke Lambert, knows who he is and is threatened to keep quiet or many people will die.
The consequences of Death taking a holiday are darkly humorous. A man jumps off the Eiffel Tower in an attempt to kill himself but walks away without a scratch. During a horse race half a dozen riders and horses collide in such a calamity that all should have been killed. Horses and riders all get up as if they simply tripped. War rages without casualties, plants and flowers do not wither or die, no one dies because Death has taken a holiday and has fallen in love.
At the end of the movie Death returns to his domain and things return to normal; people die as they are supposed to. This is a fantasy, a “what if” scenario, not at all reality.
Death is obviously a morbid subject. It is a subject we prefer to ignore. We ignore it to a fault so that when death strikes our families we are rattled and unable to think clearly about the reality and nature of death.
Why do we fear death? Our society has taught us to view death with escapism, to live now and fulfill your dreams now. You don’t know when you will die so enjoy the moments. Eat your bran, exercise, and take your vitamins so you can live a long healthy life. Why? Because the world does not know what to do with death. Yet it is a daily reality.
What is the Christian response to death? How do we approach death? What does Hezekiah teach us about death?
1. Death Takes a Holiday
As we revisit the story of Hezekiah we could say that Death took a holiday in his situation. Very few of us are given the opportunity that Hezekiah receives to set his life straight before dying. Perhaps that is the reason for his response.
a) “Put your house in order” – Like a movie plot Hezekiah is warned of his impending death. “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” (v. 1).
What would you do if you were faced with this news? How would you put your house in order? I have sometimes imagined having cancer or something, knowing I was going to die, and pictured myself making amends with the people I had hurt in life. You would want to make sure that all your debts were paid; you would forgive and ask to be forgiven; you would spend time with your loved ones, maybe write a letter to each one expressing your affection for them. What would you do?
Hezekiah prayed. Yes we would do that too. But Hezekiah cried out for life. “Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, ‘Remember, O 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” (2-3).
In pleading to God, Hezekiah does three things: he prays, he appeals to God on the basis of his faithfulness, and he weeps. With what Hezekiah inherited as a king he did a good job as God’s servant. He reigned over a kingdom that had worshiped idols and did all kinds of detestable things. Hezekiah turned the nation around and sought to honor the LORD. The annals of the Kings remembered him this way: “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 cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses” (2 Kings 18:5-6). Based on this, wouldn’t God show mercy and spare his life?
b) God’s Answer – Of the three actions God responds to two. “This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayers and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life” (v. 5).
God hears the prayer. God sees the tears. But the good deeds of this king are in no way influential in changing God’s mind. Does God change his mind? Or was this a test of Hezekiah’s faithfulness? What matters more here is that God does not respond on the basis of Hezekiah’s faithfulness, but on his own. That is what the phrase “the God of your father David” refers to; God is faithful, God is merciful and gracious.
You and I know that when we die we come before God with nothing in our hands. My buddy Charles Spurgeon pastored a church of thousands, had hundreds of sermons translated into ten languages, established a pastors college and orphanages, and still went to see Jesus with nothing in his hands. That is how all of us live and die before the LORD.
Clearly God disregarded Hezekiah’s record and said, “I will save you for my own glory, not for yours.”
c) The Sign – God reveals his love and mercy to Hezekiah in most dramatic fashion. “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” (7-8). For this sign to have taken place the earth will have had to move backwards in its spin. The result of such an event would be globally cataclysmic. Tidal waves, earthquakes, windstorms and the like would have ravaged the earth to send the shadow back up those steps. It is difficult to know how this might have happened.
One thing is plain in this sign: whether literally or metaphorically, God would turn the world on its axis to show his faithfulness to his people.
2. Reflections on Life and Death
a) Understanding Death – What did death mean to Hezekiah? This question goes to understanding his mindset as he pleaded with God for life. In verses 9-20 we read his psalm reflecting on life and death in his view. In contrast I want to share with you the Post-Crucifixion/Resurrection view of the Christian.
Why did death frighten Hezekiah? For the OT believer there was a limited understanding of death. We read the king’s thoughts in vv. 10-11. Sheol, the place of death, was in the Jewish understanding, a holding tank for those who die. What happened next was the judgment at the end of the world. In a sense, to die was the end. To live was to enjoy the LORD’s favor. We read this in Psalm 90:10-12. To die was to face the wrath of God so it was best to live as holy a life as possible.
Even so there was no hope and no assurance in their way of thinking. For you and me, we have the benefit of knowing Christ. We know what Jesus said, John 11:25-26. And so we have hope when facing death that this life is not the whole story. We can die with joy if we know Christ.
b) The Fragility of Life – Hezekiah was correct in saying that life is fragile. He wrote vv. 12-14. He refers to his body as a shepherd’s tent, temporary and modestly adequate for life. If you tented in the past you know the misery of drizzle and wind and cold when you are sleeping in your so-called weather-proof tent. It is easily punctured or ripped. Life is like that.
Hezekiah also likens life to a weaver. The weaver has finished his pattern, detached it from the loom and rolled it up. You get to weave your own pattern on the loom of life but there is a limit to the material you are given and the time for weaving. Both are decided by another who cuts you off from the loom.
Then as his life was ending, Hezekiah could barely pray. In v. 14 he says his prayers were like a swift, a thrush or a dove. Prayer seemed to him as feeble and unhelpful as a birdsong. It was mere chattering and chirping as he grew weaker. Prayer was a burden to the sick man.
Yes, Hezekiah was correct in saying that life is fragile. What he did not know was our hope. We live in a tent now but these fragile bodies will be exchanged for a sturdy home. Paul uses this same imagery of a tent when he speaks of our hope in 2 Cor. 5:1-4. Isn’t this a great picture? This tent is easily blown about, but we look forward to a mansion of a body.
c) A Divine Reprieve From Dying – As his Psalm continues, Hezekiah celebrates God’s mercy in sparing his life. In v. 15 he vows to walk humbly, which is to say he will watch his step, he will be careful how he lives in view of this great mercy. In v. 16 he realizes that his miraculous recovery is an example to others of God’s goodness.
But it is in v. 17 where we see how he viewed his illness. He saw his illness as a divine judgment on his sin. If he had died in such a state he would have died unforgiven, as he understood it. This is not a universal theme but one that is particular to Hezekiah. His illness was the result of sin; not all illness is because of some unconfessed sin. You live in a world of diseases, a world where hand washing once the bane of OCD patients is now expected of everyone. You get sick, you will experience ill health and it is not because of sin.
One thing is correct in Hezekiah’s understanding though: sin does lead to death. When God forgives however, Hezekiah says it is like God putting our sins behind his back. If I put my sins behind my back, in my past, they can come back to torment me. Behind God’s back…well, you have to go through God to get at them. That’s a huge comfort.
While Hezekiah received a divine reprieve from dying once, we have received a divine reprieve from dying for eternity. (Read 1 Cor. 15:20-26; highlight v. 26).
d) “The grave cannot praise you” – Hezekiah concludes his psalm with this argument for life vs. death: “For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness” (v. 18).
Quite right…in Hezekiah’s time. Can the grave praise God? No, but an empty grave praises God to this day. That is the irony of Hezekiah’s words in this text. Certainly the death of a godly person deprives God of someone to praise him. But just imagine the praise and glory that will be God’s when all the graves rip open on the day of Resurrection because one empty grave praises God with its vacancy.
On a beautiful Sunday morning some women went to pay their respects at the grave of their teacher. They found it empty. Two angels explained it this way: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again” Then they remembered his words” (Luke 24:5-8).
This is the difference between Hezekiah’s understanding and ours. He feared the prospect of death; we embrace it as a passing from one life to the next. Our world fears death; Christians understand that death is the last enemy and it will be crushed when Jesus comes again. The cross wounded death and Jesus will come to finish it off.
3. Don’t Squander the Gift
a) The moment of decision – It is a sad commentary on humanity that we learn great lessons through incredible hardships and quickly forget them when times get better. This is a sad story too as it concludes in ch. 39.
The prince of Babylon comes to pay respects to Hezekiah and celebrate his recovery. Hezekiah takes these Babylonians and shows them all his wealth; “…the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oil, his entire armory and everything found among his treasures…” (v. 2).
What this suggests is not as innocent as it appears. History reveals that Babylon was looking for a way to distract Assyria and attack them when they least expected it. This trust that Hezekiah shows Merodach-Baladan is actually his consent that, yes we will ally with you against Assyria. Would Hezekiah join their rebellion? Sure, look at all my goodies …or yes.
His father Ahaz faithlessly refused to ask for a sign and invited disaster on Judah. Hezekiah asked for a sign but acted in faithlessness. You see, while he turned to God for his rescue from death, Hezekiah failed to trust God and instead put his faith in Babylon to rescue Jerusalem from Assyria.
Here again is where faith and fear cannot live together. Faith and doubt are incompatible. Either you trust God or you look to your own resources, and you will fail. How do you spend your life? How do you approach the gift of life that God has given to each of us? Paul courageously abandoned himself to Jesus Christ when he said, “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil 1:20-21).
b) Prophecy of Exile – The result of Hezekiah’s selfishness was the definite exile of Judah to Babylon. We read in vv. 5-7 that everything Hezekiah showed the Babylonians would be plundered. His own son would be carried off to exile. No one would be left in Palestine to be the people of God for nearly a century.
The theology of exile is huge in the OT and the Bible as a whole. Jews in exile dreamed of returning to their land and enjoying God’s blessing again. It was truly the Promised Land to them once again. In some respects we as Christians are also in exile, awaiting our deliverer and dreaming of the Promised Land. African slaves in the mid 19th century would sing about the Promised Land. To them it meant freedom, no more bondage, no more slavery, no more suffering and no more hurt. One more thing…no more death.
I have always had a healthy fear of bees, wasps, hornets and yellow jackets. Okay maybe it’s not so healthy. For the longest time in my life I could say I had never been stung. Never as a child and never as a young adult.
Then one day I was biking through Assiniboine Park and I was coming around a curve. The bike path wound around a patch of bushes with tiny little flowers on them. Of course this was a perfect place for an ambush. As I sped through the curve going full blast one way, a wasp was coming full blast the other way. We met. That little wasp was dazed and sitting in the crook of my arm. When he came to his senses he stung me and took off. I remember the feeling: it was like a wicked nurse jamming a needle into my arm with all the relish that it would cause me great pain.
Well, I let go of the handlebars with the wounded arm, but I grabbed the wounded arm with the other hand. Suddenly no one was driving this thing anymore. At the speed I was going I swerved into the oncoming bikes and promptly crashed into the boulevard.
The fear of something is greater until you have experienced it. I don’t know what death is like but I know I don’t have to fear it. Through our faith in Jesus Christ we have no reason to fear the sting of death:
Death has been swallowed up in victory! Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Corinthians 15: 54-57).
AMEN
