"My will be done" (Hezekiah)
Rev Dr Robert Leroe, Cliftondale Congregational Church, Saugus, Massachusetts
Outline: Hezekiah’s: Illness (vs 1)
Outcry (vss 2-11)
Outcome (vss 12-21)
Introduction:
A friend of mine serves as a hospital chaplain in Long Island, New York. As he makes his rounds he tries to encourage patients to view their hospital bed as the loving hand of God, holding them in His care. Not everyone feels while experiencing illness that God is lovingly caring for them. When I served as a hospital chaplain at Letterman Army Medical Center, occasionally patients would get angry at the very sight of me. They didn’t know me, but that didn’t matter; they knew Who I represented. They were angry with God for allowing them to be sick. Many people are unable to learn the lessons and blessings of affliction because of pride and/or bitterness towards God. Some people respond to illness like king Hezekiah. This morning I want us to consider the king’s illness, his outcry, and the outcome.
A. Hezekiah’s Illness (verse one)
Hezekiah was a faithful but proud king. He had served God, and he felt that God owed him a long life. When told by the prophet Isaiah to get his house in order and prepare to meet his Maker, the king turns in bitter despair toward the wall and weeps. The unthinkable had happened, and he was sure God had let him down. He will die without a son to reign in his place.
Illness can make us compassionate or bitter. Like Hezekiah, we can yield to the temptation of thinking God is obligated to heal us, that we’re entitled to a long life. We may pray the Lord’s Prayer, but often we’re more concerned with having our will done in heaven than for God’s will to be done on earth. We should be thankful for whatever time we’re allotted. If we’re not careful we can become like Hezekiah, selfishly dissatisfied with the divine plan.
When we read God’s word we gain insight into His will and then we know what to ask for. John the Apostle encourages us to ask, but to leave the answer with God. He points out in his first epistle, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (I John 5:14). When God’s answer is “No”, it likely means that our request did not conform to His plan. When praying, do you issue instructions, or report for duty?
If you’ve read about bereavement you’ve likely encountered the stages or tasks of grief. Let’s apply the grief process to Hezekiah:
Denial--He couldn’t imagine the benefit of departing this life.
Anger--He was bitterly opposed to God’s purpose
Depression--He turned his anger inward, sulking, turning toward the wall in tears.
Bargaining--He pleaded with God for more years.
Acceptance--He didn’t get to this stage; had he, it would have been better for him and his people.
B. Hezekiah’s Outcry (verses 2-11)
Hezekiah was unable to fathom what possible purpose his untimely death might accomplish. He should have been grateful for the time he was allotted, which was time well spent.
A parallel passage, II Chronicles 32 points out that it was Hezekiah’s pride (vs 25) that motivated his outcry. It would be understandable for Hezekiah to beseech God for healing had his doctor told him he was to die; but when a prophet explains that God has decreed the end of his days, his response was inappropriate. He was forgetting his place. Hezekiah was a king, but he answered to the King of kings.
Paul (in Romans 9) forcefully rebukes arrogant prayers: “Who are you to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, ‘why did You make me like this?’ (vs 20).”
Do I mean to infer that it is improper to pray for divine intervention? Biblical instruction regarding prayer encourages us to make our requests known to God, but with the understanding that God’s will is best, and that His answers are wiser than our prayers. Hezekiah opposed the will of God spoken through Isaiah. I suspect that many of us could admit to some foolish prayers. I’ve certainly asked for things of which I had little understanding. We come to our infinite, omniscient God with our limited perception. Wisdom ought to assure us to trust even when we cannot understand. Faith is living with the unexplained, with the confidence that there is a reason, a purpose behind it all.
In the Lord’s Prayer we urge, “Thy will be done”. This is not a cop-out prayer, but a prayer strategy for people who have the strength to accept the verdict of God, whatever it might be. Rather than make too many assumptions, we rest in the will of our sovereign Lord. What some people call confident prayer may well be strong self-will and even rebellion. It is not God’s way for us to demand healing or anything else. Prayer is not to force the hand of God.
A fearful curse might be: “May God give you everything you ask for.” A Christian author claims, “I’ve lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered” (Jean Ingelow). God tells Hezekiah in vss. 5-6 that He will heal him and add 15 years to the king’s life. He also explains why He has chosen to grant this request: “for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.” When God says “yes” to our requests, we may think it is because He finds favor in us. Yet God often grants our requests in spite of our shortcomings. This is true in parenting--children receive kindness in spite of misbehavior. We receive the rich mercy of God even though we fail to meet His expectations. In Hezekiah’s plight, God is clear that He is less than impressed with the king’s pouting. In bringing up his ancestor David God seems to be saying, “I’d do this for David’s sake before I’d consider doing it for yours.”
Let me also say something about David: When king David’s newborn son became sick, David prayed and fasted, spending day and night prostrate before the Lord. In spite of his sincere petitions, his child died. David accepted God’s “no” and drew comfort in the knowledge that he would one day see his son again. God grieves with us in our losses, yet He asks us to trust Him even in our pain.
Not satisfied with Isaiah’s response, Hezekiah asks for a miracle to confirm this change. And he gets it. The word “steps” of vss 9-11 could be better translated “degrees”, referring to the degrees of a sundial. The only time a miracle of this kind had been done before was for Joshua. For Hezekiah God turns back the clock twice: den degrees on the king’s sundial (to satisfy his need for a sign), and 15 years of his life.
There are some who interpret this incident differently, who defend Hezekiah’s actions and even his response to Isaiah’s pronouncement. It disturbs me to see that while Hezekiah cannot accept God’s will for himself, he quite easily accepts a grim outlook for his people. This brings us to the outcome of Hezekiah’s request...
C. Hezekiah’s Outcome (vs. 12-21)
Hezekiah had been warned by his political advisors not to trust Babylon. Nonetheless, he received the Babylonian envoy, Merodach-Baladan, the son of the Babylonian king, and inadvertently gave him reason to invade Israel. He took his visitors on a tour of the royal armory and storehouses. This would be like the Emir of Kuwait taking Saddam Hussein on a tour revealing the lavish wealth of his emirate. Babylon saw how Hezekiah had destroyed the Assyrians (ch 19) and were interested in an alliance. There is some suspicion that Hezekiah was delighted with their company, put himself on their level and claimed credit for his victory, which was miraculously given to him by God.
When Isaiah worriedly asks in vs 15 what the Babylonians saw, Hezekiah replies, “They saw everything; there is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.” Pride caused Hezekiah’s foolish prayer, and now pride causes him to foolishly drop his guard by showing a potential enemy his nation’s wealth. He was miraculously given more years to live and uses them to exalt himself. He should have been cautious with these visitors.
What Hezekiah thought was a blessing was not. God granted his request, even allowing Hezekiah to receive a miraculous sign as divine affirmation. But the worst thing God could have done was to grant the king those 15 years. C.S. Lewis wrote, “I don’t know where I’d be today if God had granted all the foolish prayers I’ve offered to Him!”
Hindsight is 20-20, and we have the benefit it in the case of Hezekiah. Dr. Larry Dossy, a medical doctor who has written books on prayer, says that he usually prays “for the best possible outcome.” And sometimes the patient dies. Faith understands that death sometimes is the best outcome. Believers do not fear death; for us, death is the final healing of the body. We grieve over losing a loved one, but we know that death is not a final parting. Death would have been the best possible outcome for Hezekiah, but he cannot accept that. Hezekiah assumed healing was best for him, yet the consequences of his healing was disastrous for Israel. In this case healing was the “worst possible outcome”.
Babylon is only part of the problem. Manasseh, the son who would not have been born had Hezekiah died on schedule, rebuilt the pagan temples his father had destroyed and led the people back into idolatry.
Hezekiah finally repented of his pride, but not before his fatal flaw had done its deed. In the same way we must guard against our weaknesses becoming our undoing. We need a healthy distrust of self to resist temptation.
The reign of Hezekiah began with promise, but sadly ended on a negative note. The king who sought God in time of national crisis and who heeded the advice of his spiritual advisor Isaiah is a far cry from the person we observe in the previous chapter.
It’s hard to understand Hezekiah’s cynical comment in verse 19. Perhaps one way to understand his response is a statement I read about governmental leaders: “A politician sees only to the next election; a statesman sees to the next generation.” Hezekiah was only concerned about what happened “on his watch.”; future generations weren’t his problem. Yet he left a legacy of irresponsible leadership, a legacy which revealed a lack of trust in God along with generous helpings of self-pity and self-interest
which caused blindness to security issues. Hezekiah was healthy, wealthy, but not wise.
Conclusion:
I won’t stand here and say accepting God’s will is easy to do. When our hopes and dreams are dashed, we find little to rejoice over. In those times of great loss and pain, God has our attention, and He wants us to trust Him, in spite of our circumstance. In such times we need the self-talk of Psalm 42:5: “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.”
Prayer:
Loving Father and Great Physician, be with us when life hurts. Comfort us when we are ill. And if it please You, heal us. Touch our bodies, and grant us confidence in Your care for us and those we love. Help us to learn from pain, and to rise above the circumstances of life. Change us so that we will trust You, even when our eyes are filled with tears. Increase our faith in Your purpose, and help us to truly know that You cause all things to work together for our good and Your glory. In the holy Name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
