I desire to direct your attention to the contrast between King Hezekiah and the Apostle Paul, in the scriptures we have read.
In the one, we have a picture of human misery, caused by the announcement that he must die in the other, we find what grace can effect for a soul in the power and possession of eternal life in Christ. When the Lord announces to Hezekiah that he is to die, his state becomes the most pitiable which it is possible to witness. All his links were connected with this world, and when they were about to be broken, he summons language to describe his misery. He bids creation, as it were, tell out the agony of his condition; and the fact of his being a really good clan makes his case the more pitiable.
What a contrast to this is the Apostle Paul in Phil. 1:2323For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: (Philippians 1:23). Worn in the service of Christ; now confined in prison at Rome, he rises before us as a magnificent picture of what grace can affect for a soul in the consciousness of its possessions in Christ. He longs to “depart and to be with Christ; which is far better.” He desires to leave this present scene, because all his links are above and beyond it. King Hezekiah’s links were only with earth; his hand was full of earthly blessings; as a Jew, he was a successful man because in divine favor and having God with him in his works. Sennacherib did not come against him for two years after this sickness; but his misery now consisted in his being called to depart out of this scene. If I have all my links here, and none in heaven, it can be no light thing to me to break them—to see them all go to pieces. Souls have but little real sense of what death is. It is the ending of everything here. What must it be to those who have the judgment of God before them? It is not judgment that Hezekiah fears; it is the simple fact that he is losing connection with the scene which is the sphere of all his blessings. With him it is that he is called to leave the scene where all his links and blessings were with Paul it is that he desires to depart and to be with Christ in the scene where all his links and blessings were. Is it any wonder then that there should be such a difference between them; or that Paul should long to depart, since it was to be “with Christ?” “Blest with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” was his portion. He had found what Christ is, and how He changes every feature in this scene, and loosens every tie the soul has with earth. Hezekiah had to find this out—Paul had perfectly learned it; he had done with things here, and was looking for blessings there. Which place would you take—Hezekiah’s place or Paul’s?
Would you be like Hezekiah, who was blessed with every blessing on earth? His life one of prosperity; up to this everything went well with him. God’s hand was lavish in its favors to him; and yet such is now the misery of his condition when called to die, that all the power of language is summoned to depict it. The heart melts at the description of the misery of the man: “I reckoned,” he says, “till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.” Oh! see what a great man is brought to; see the positive nothingness of one so lately basking in all the brightness of earthly prosperity! No wonder that poets describe death as the most awful thing in nature— “The King of Terrors.” No wonder when man, the most matchless work of God is brought to dissolution. Is it a trifle that it must go to pieces? No! people may trifle about death, but it is no trifle when man is brought to meet it, and to face the judgment which lies beyond.
Death and judgment rest on this whole scene. The heart knows that everything here, however bright and attractive in it must go. Then where are you? Have you got your links in heaven?
God had to break every link for Hezekiah, and to bring his soul into the sense that all here was gone, that he might find what resurrection really was. This he found when he said “O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit.” God’s way is to bring a soul into a sense of its condition.
See the Philippian jailer. (Acts 16) The Lord sends a great earthquake, and a man who a little before was full of his own authority; who had overstepped his orders; not only casting Paul and Silas into the inner prison, but making their feet fast in the stocks. This man, so satisfied with his own sense of power, suddenly finds the whole thing going to pieces, and he draws his sword only to use the remnant of his power for his own destruction. This is what a soul is brought to when God lays bare his condition. The eternal future comes before it. Can he face it?
It is well to look at these things solemnly. The sentence upon man is death; and after death the judgment. What an unaccountable thing! the potter makes a man in His own image and after His likeness; the most beautiful vessel God ever formed. It acts according to its own will, and God says, as it were, “I will break it to pieces.” Here is a vessel most singularly blessed and honored, and God says to him, “Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.” What! Must he give up all the things with which God has surrounded him? Must he pass from the height of eminence; from the place of kingly distinction to the darkness of death? How is the announcement received? Hearken— “Like a crane, or a swallow, so did I chatter; I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me.” To this was Hezekiah brought in view of death.
Now mark how differently another man looks at it, though he too is a Jew. Simeon comes to the temple and takes Christ the blessed babe in his arms, and says, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” (Luke 2) He can now connect himself with another scene altogether; he can let the things here pass from his notice. Why? Because he has got the Lord in his arms; he has possession of Him. He knows that to him was born a Saviour, even Christ the Lord.
Have you thus got possession of Him? If you have, you will not easily let Him go. Every one you meet now-a-days will tell you that they believe in Christ; but talk to them and you will find that what they live for is themselves; their pleasures and their money. If they had possession of Him-If they had found Him as the One who had delivered them —He would be the one object of their hearts. Love possesses the thing it loves, it never rests till it does so. “We love Him because He first loved us.” It was revealed to Simeon that he should not see death till he had seen the Lord’s Christ; and when he does see Him, he has done with all things here—clean done with them, and says, “Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.”
God’s Son came to bear the judgment for me. He has “abolished death,” and “brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel.” (2 Tim. 1:1010But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: (2 Timothy 1:10).) You may say you believe that, but do you possess Him? Do you believe that He is your Saviour; and has abolished death for you?
Look at another example in Acts 7:5555But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, (Acts 7:55). Here is a man not only like Simeon, who had Christ before his eyes, but who “being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” They were gnashing on him with their teeth, and about to stone him. Was he afraid? No. The very Holy Ghost who had revealed to Simeon, that he should not see death before Christ came; that same Holy Ghost fills Stephen the Martyr, and he looks up, when surrounded by his murderers, and sees “the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” NO—he was not afraid! He had link there in the glory. All his links were there; all here were gone! They stoned Stephen, calling upon and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” So safe, so calm, so satisfied was he, that “He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice.” Was it for himself? No! but for the people that were murdering him! He had no need to think about himself, for Christ had thought about him; and he had got life in Him. He passed out of things here, on the wings of the new creation, and in the power of the Holy Ghost, reaching up to the place where all his links were.
This is indeed a contrast to Hezekiah. This is what the apostle Paul was practically brought to in 2 Cor. 4:8-108We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:8‑10), “the dying of Jesus.” He could say as it were, “I am living in my own death, I have got a life out of it all,” People are cultivating various things here; but he was cultivating his own death. Was not this wisdom? Let Hezekiah answer. He proved that every link formed with earth must be broken, that the soul may find its entire rest and satisfaction in God. People seem to think one loses by being occupied with Christ. They pity one who cannot enter into their joys. Oh! it is they who are to be pitied! I have untold joys of which they know nothing. They must one day lose all their joys, and perhaps be brought like Hezekiah to chatter like a crane or a swallow! People’s trials are because they connect their blessings with earth; and God is forced to put them through experience—He must put every one through it. The moment I look for anything in this scene to be the proof of God’s mercy to me, I must go through the experience of Hezekiah; I must surrender the things here. Nor these alone; I must surrender not only the things that would connect me with earth, but I must surrender myself. I must not only have a sense that the blighting hand of death has passed over the scene, and that I stand alone in it like a blighted tree, with all its branches withered; but the tree itself must fall,—the root must go. This is another page in our history. Is it to put a soul to needless pain, that God does all this? No! it is to bring out to it the blessedness of Christ-to open out what Stephen knew—and what Paul knew.
I ask you who are converted, to put the question to your souls before God, “Am I like Hezekiah, looking to God for blessings on earth? or am I like Simeon, or Stephen, or Paul?”
Testing is the harvest time of faith. The crops must grow before; but it is at harvest they are put to the test. The Lord in mercy lead our souls to see the solemnity of these things. I thank God many are rejoicing in Him, and know how bright it is to look up and say, Jesus is there. I have a link there. My links are in the glory of God. I can look up without fear or shame, because Jesus is there; and he has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. I can let things here go; I can carry about the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in my mortal flesh.
One word more. Don’t deceive yourself by thinking that you believe in Christ, if it is only profession. If you do, you will make him prominent. Look at the woman in the house of the Pharisee (Luke 7) Nothing would stop her from coming to Him. Her heart could not be checked; it had such a sense that He was the Saviour—the one to meet her need. He must be the controlling object of the heart. If you believe, depend upon it, He will be so; He gives you a link with glory, but no links with earth. He connects you forever with the bright glory of the Father’s house, so that, like Paul, you can say, “I long to depart mid to be with Christ, which is far better.” God grant every one of us may be able to utter the same words in the presence and ear of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for His name’s sake. Amen.