Download Lesson 10_Isa 36-39

Discussion Summary
10: A Test Passed: King Hezekiah Trusts the Lord
Isaiah 36-39
Version 3: April 20, 2012
An Outline of Isaiah 7-39
If rebel Israel is to become a servant of God, they must trust Him
1. An example of distrust--a test failed: King Ahaz trusts Assyria and not God (7-12)
2. Lessons in trust (tutoring): God can be trusted to keep His word, for He is both true to
Himself and master over all the nations (13-35)
3. An example of trust--a test passed: King Hezekiah trusts God and not Assyria (36-39)
a. The Assyrian threat (36-37)
b. Human frailty even in trust (38-39)
Introduction to Chapters 36-39
This section, chapters 36-39, forms a “book end” with chapters 7-12. The lessons on trust
are enclosed between two special examples. The first, with King Ahaz as the exemplar,
is an example of not trusting God. The second, with King Hezekiah as the exemplar, is
an example of what trusting God really is.
King
Ahaz
Hezekiah
God’s promise
To defeat Damascus and Samaria
To defeat Assyria
Response
Bribed Assyria to defend him
Refused to surrender to Assyria
Discussion
A. The Assyrian threat and Hezekiah’s faith (36-37)
1. The Assyrians issue a threatening call for surrender (36:1-37:7)
a. The ultimatum (36:1-20)
b. Response to the ultimatum (36:21-37:7)
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2. The Assyrian king sends his final call for surrender (37:8-35)
a. The royal letter (37:8-13)
b. Response (37:14-35)
(1) Hezekiah’s prayer (37:14-20).
(2) Isaiah’s pronouncement (37:21-35)—God is in total control; Jerusalem
will be rescued.
3. The Lord destroys the Assyrian army (37:36-38)
B. Human frailty: the seduction of King Hezekiah (38-39)
We know that this record of the illness of King Hezekiah and his foreign visitors was
added to make a point, for the events recorded all took place prior to the Assyrian
threat to Jerusalem. Here’s the full story.
1. Hezekiah’s illness (chapter 38)
a. Prophecy and response (38:1-8)
We are never allowed to know in advance the full significance of our
decisions, and sometimes the simplest acts are discovered by hindsight to have
had, for good or ill, the most far-reaching consequences (Jonathan’s individual
assault on a Philistine outpost, David’s lightly committed adultery with
Bathsheba).
As we read Isaiah 38-39 we might do well to keep this in mind. In his
terminal illness (38:1) Hezekiah prayed for healing and the Lord replied with a
double promise that (1) he would recover and live a further 15 years and (2)
that king and city would be rescued from Assyrian assault (38:5-6). So serious
were these promises in the Lord’s mind that He confirmed them with a most
remarkable sign (38:7-8). It is hard to think that these confirmed promises did
not at that time produce in Hezekiah the utmost in trust.
b. Hezekiah’s psalm (38:9-20)
Hezekiah’s psalm of acknowledgement (38:9-20) provides essential
background for the understanding of chapter 39 and the decision Hezekiah
made there. The details of the psalm are highly instructive, but we must pass
over them to get to the main point.
Q1. What is the main point? What are we to understand to have been the
motives of Hezekiah? And what are we to learn (for our own understanding
of our relationship with God) from his decision to take the envoys on the tour?
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The point is that it was such a man as this who was confronted with the offer
from such a man as Merodach-Beladan. Hezekiah was a man with this faith in
God and this level of personal commitment. It was this man who, ruled for
the moment by pride, forgot God’s promise and, amazingly, made a decision
that flew right in the face of the confirmed promise and his own assessment of
his own experience with the Lord. We’ll discuss this more below.
c. Additional notes (38:21-22). Isaiah’s ‘prescription’ and Hezekiah’s request
for a sign.
2. Hezekiah’s seduction by the Babylonian dignitaries (chapter 39)
As scripture attests throughout, a believer’s grip on the promises of God do not go
untested, and so it was with Hezekiah. The testing came in the form of
messengers from Merodach-Beladan (39:1).
To the Assyrians Merodach-Beladan was a terrorist. To himself and the
Babylonians he was a freedom fighter, his life devoted to the liberation of his
beloved country, Babylon, from the tyranny of Assyria.
He was remarkably successful. Under his leadership Babylon gained its
independence for a few years in 722. But the new Assyrian king Sargon, after
consolidating his rule in Assyria, ousted Merodach and forced him into exile.
However later, just after the death of Sargon in 710, and thanks to the careful
planning of Merodach-Beladan, both the eastern and western portions of the
Assyrian empire exploded into rebellion.
A part of Merodach-Beladan’s scheme included King Hezekiah of Judah.
The visit of his envoys took place just after Hezekiah’s recovery from the near
fatal illness that brought the promise from God of another 15 years of life. From
the records in Kings and Chronicles it appears that the death of Hezekiah actually
occurred around 697/696, 29 years after his accession to the throne in 726/725,
probably as coregent with his father Ahaz (2 Kings 18:1). His illness and
recovery then, which must have occurred fifteen years before his death, would
have occurred around 711. Thus, as suggested by Isaiah in 38:6, this memorable
event in his life took place ten years before the Assyrian threat to Jerusalem.
Taking opportunity from the king’s recovery then, Merodach-Beladan sent envoys
with a gift and a letter.
Q2. What were the contents of that letter? Closely related to this, what was so
wrong with taking the envoys on the tour?
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Isaiah tells us the contents of the letter by recording King Hezekiah’s response to
it. We are told that Hezekiah took the envoys on a tour of his armory and capital
reserves. The letter was clearly an invitation to become a partner in a rebellion,
and Hezekiah fell for it.
Q3. Isaiah 39:3-7 explores the significance of Hezekiah’s act and possibly the farreaching consequences of a single decision. What should Hezekiah have said to
thank Merodach-Beladan for his gift and the invitation?
What should Hezekiah have said? “Thank you for coming, and thank Merodach
for his gift and invitation. However the fact is I have a divine promise to lean on.
It has been confirmed personally in my return to health and astrologically in the
sign of the sun. I cannot turn from faith in the promises of the unique God.”
But he did turn. He joined in with Merodach’s rebellion. Then the Lord reviewed
his decision through Isaiah: “You want to commit to Babylon; sadly all you have
will some day go to Babylon” (39:3-7; cf. Romans 6:16—“Isn’t it a fact that to
whomever you offer yourselves as slaves for obedience (if you obey him,) you
become his slaves? --Either (slaves) of sin unto death or (slaves) of obedience
unto righteousness/”).
Now we can bring the two chapters, 38 and 39, together. The two items inserted in
the narrative at 38:21-22, Isaiah’s ‘prescription’ and Hezekiah’s request for a sign,
provide a deliberate pause in the flow of the narrative as if to say, “Before we go on to
what happened next, stop and recall what has happened already: this is what the
prophet said, and this is what the king said.” In 38:1 Hezekiah is sick, and Isaiah
came to him. In 39:1 Hezekiah is well, and men from the leader in Babylon came to
him. And the comparisons continue until the final contrast: in the last part of chapter
38, where the king embraces the promise of God, and the last part of chapter 39,
where the king ignores the promise of God in favor of the worthless promise of a
man.
The message of the whole then is just this: Hezekiah is not the promised Messiah.
Israel needs a king who is far, far superior to even the best of fallen human kings.
Yes, finally, in 39:5-8, the complete Hezekiah has at last been seen—the architect of
potential disaster, shallowly content with his own immunity.
In Conclusion
In a recent Sunday school quarterly the lesson’s author wrote: “Hezekiah’s failure
produced long term (regrettable) consequences.” Was Hezekiah’s decision to show
the Babylonians his wealth really the cause of the destruction and exile that took place
over 100 years later? Or was it just one event in a chain? And if so, what were the
other links in the chain?
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Highly regarded commentators (e.g. Alec Motyer, whose work is the basis for much
in this lesson), make much of the supposed later consequences of Hezekiah’s lapse.
And they may be right. To me, though, a direct connection between Hezekiah’s lapse
and the later Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and exile is not at all obvious, and
quite possibly a distant consequence of Hezekiah’s lapse is not at all the point of
Isaiah’s record.
The word of the Lord through Isaiah to Hezekiah in 39:5-7 does not actually say that
the disaster of 587 BC would be the result of Hezekiah’s lapse. While admittedly
disapproving of Hezekiah’s rashness, he seems actually to be commenting on the
irony of it. I say this because the author of Kings says that Hezekiah’s son,
Manasseh, was the culprit who authored irreversible damage to the faith of the nation
Israel (see 2 Kings 21 and 2 Kings 23:26-27).
Still we might assume that Hezekiah’s lapse was seized on by his son, Manasseh, as
an example to follow. But does Scripture anywhere say so?
We should readily admit that the Babylonian envoys’ report back in Babylon about
Judah’s arms and wealth was not forgotten in the court in Babylon, but Biblical
historians (e.g., the author of Kings) tell us that it was the revolts of the Judean Kings
Jehoiachim and Zedekiah against Babylonian over-lordship that precipitated the
otherwise avoidable (according to Jeremiah) destruction and deportation. Perhaps
we’re putting too much blame on Hezekiah, one of Judah’s best kings.
Nevertheless, and however we answer this question, the point made by the record of
Hezekiah’s spiritual weakness, although a weakness overcome to a great extent when
Judah’s survival as a nation was challenged by the Assyrians, is a solemn warning to
Israel and to us. Any of us who have come to know God can temporarily be ruled by
pride and ignore the promises of God in favor of the worthless promises of a man.
However, probably, as Professor Oswalt contends, the main point of this story is that
Hezekiah is just a man. He’s not the Messiah. There is none other than God the
Father and His Son, Jesus, who will ever be worthy of our unreserved trust.
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