The Prayer to Be Spared: Hezekiah in His Palace and Jesus in Gethsemane
(2 Kings 20:1-11, Luke 22:39-46)
1. You can learn a lot about human nature by reading complaint blogs. One blogger wrote, “Today, I got pulled over for a traffic violation. Thinking I could get away with it, I spoke with a French accent. The officer then asked me a question in perfect French. I got a ticket.”
2. Another blogger, “Today, I learned that my new parakeet hates her reflection, and will screech loudly day and night unless I take the mirror out. My other parakeet loves the mirror and constantly cries out when I remove it. I can't win.”
3. We are different in many ways, and our opinions are all over the map. But usually have more in common than otherwise. Almost all of us, for ex., are in no hurry to die.
Main Idea: God was especially gracious to Hezekiah, but, by offering only limited grace to Jesus, He opened a floodgate of grace for those who believe in Him.
I. Hezekiah DESPAIRED Because His Life Was Nearing Its End (2 Kings 20:1-11).
A. God was doing Hezekiah a favor by urging him to get his house in ORDER before he died.
1. Parents should do what they can to make it easier for their heirs.
2. A comic: an older man showed his son a garage full of junk. The caption read, “Some day, this will all be yours.”
B. Hezekiah took his GRIEF to the Lord.
C. The Lord responded to his prayer by EXTENDING his life 15 years.
1. The Lord graciously extended Hezekiah’s life because He had a purpose in doing so.
2. In other instances – for example, the even godlier King Josiah – God allowed the king to die when nearing death.
3. From our perspective, there is no rhyme or reason as to why God answers one prayer a certain way one time, and another way another time. Especially when both prayers are offered in faith by godly people.
II. Jesus STRUGGLED in Prayer to Submit to the Father as He Prepared to Die (39-46).
A. He prayed because He felt the BRUNT of immeasurable stress (39-41).
1. Probably 10 or 11PM, which was considered late in that culture.
2. Peter, James, and John, the inner three
3. He felt as though he could die on the spot from stress…
4. Physical pain coming up: “Death by Crucifixion was designed to produce the greatest degree of SHAME, and to inflict the maximum amount of PAIN, for the longest possible period of TIME.” (Christian Cheong, Sermoncentral.com)
5. Spiritual suffering that would atone for all sin for all time.
6. Please note, folks, that feeling stress is not sinful.
B. He chose the Father’s WILL over his own (42-44).
1. The real test of submission to authority is when you don’t agree with the decision made by an authority: husbands, government, church leaders….
2. The Bible, for example, is not simply a source to consider or suggested approaches, but God’s Word to carefully interpret and seek to obey.
C. He needed human SUPPORT but did not receive it (45-46).
• The best support in a difficult time is the quiet, conscious presence of those to whom we are close. Job’s counselors were good until they began talking.
• One reason it is so important to not just attend church, but become part of the church via relationships because God ordained it that we need others to help us in our trials, and vice-versa.
• You see this is in action in our Ladies’ Bible study.
D. He BOLDLY faced his destiny for us.
• Describing His purpose in coming, Jesus said, “even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many…”
III. Jesus’ and Hezekiah’s Experiences Can Be Compared and CONTRASTED.
A. Both prayed to the Lord because of impending DEATH.
B. Jesus’ death, however, was more than physical, UNLIKE any other.
1. Because of WHO He is.
2. Because He is HOLY and had to carry the sins of the world.
3. His death was much more than merely PHYSICAL.
C. Both felt the burden of impending doom, but Jesus sweat drops of BLOOD, or so it seemed.
Luke 22:44, “And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
D. The Lord DELIVERED Hezekiah from his death, but sent ANGELS to strengthen Jesus to strengthen Him to endure the coming ordeal.
1. Often God answers our prayers by helping us get through the situation rather than changing the situation, though sometimes He does.
2. We are not wrong to ask to be delivered from our problems. Jesus did.
3. A woman claimed by taking high doses of vitamin C, she was cured of cancer. She promised her friend that this would cure her cancer as well.
4. The woman was not wrong to tell her the experience she had. Nor was she wrong to suggest her friend consider it. But to assure her that the vitamin C treatment would cure her cancer does not follow, is rude, and ignorant.
5. It is rude at best and ignorant at worst to think that God will do for others as He has done for us, or will do for us what He does for others.
6. While we can ask, we cannot demand. And if God does not see fit to change things, we must trust God’s hand despite the gloom. This is tough. If it was tough for Jesus, why should we expect it to be easy for us?
E. Hezekiah lived 15 more years, but Jesus drunk the CUP of God’s WRATH.
Jeremiah 25:15-16, Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.”
Isaiah 51:17, Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.
Isaiah 53:10, Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
F. Hezekiah died; his soul went to be with the Lord; his body will one day be resurrected. Jesus died, but rose BODILY to live evermore.
CONCLUSION
1. God might have purposes for prayers that are not answered in the way we asked.
2. If it weren’t for Jesus’ prayer being answered differently than He asked, we would all still be in our sin!
