A Brief Outline of Lectures on Hezekiah
Read carefully 2 Chron. 32.
THE UNSETTLED QUESTION.
You may have thus been privileged. The doors opened. The Holy Ghost known and owned in the assembly. The immutable value of the precious blood known. Joy, and bowing, and worship in public. Gathered to take the Lord’s supper as it is written. Testimony in the world. Abundance of fruits. You may know the privileges and responsibilities of the porter — the parcel-carrier for Christ. You may have been preserved through long years of the siege of the city, within the exclusive walls. Great victories of faith and prayer. And yet there may be the unsettled question of Isaiah 38.
“In those days (days of such victories) was Hezekiah sick unto death.” We now come to the inner experiences of the soul — a soul that has not yet learned the death of the flesh. What a sentence on the old man — “Thou shalt die, and not live.” Ah, now he says, “I beseech Thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before Thee in truth.” Very sorely did Job try this, but it would not do. Neither would it do for Hezekiah; no; there he lay, with his face to the wall; and he wept sore. The Lord is very pitiful; He heard those prayers, He saw those tears, and He granted a new term of life. He also assured him of full deliverance of the city, and He gave him a remarkable sign, that the Lord will do this thing which He hath spoken. “Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.” “He restoreth my soul.” “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me.” We speak of the sun rising, or going down; as to fact, it is the earth that has turned from the sun. So with our souls. Our constant tendency to depart from the Lord is like the diurnal motion of the earth. The Lord is ever the same, as we always find, when He restoreth our souls.
Will you read Hezekiah’s own account of his experience in learning this unsettled. question? (Isa. 38:9-209The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness: 10I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. 11I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. 12Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. 13I reckoned 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. 14Like 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. 15What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. 16O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live. 17Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. 18For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. 19The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth. 20The Lord was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. (Isaiah 38:9‑20)). His heart almost sank in despair.
Is it not very striking, after such public testimony for the Lord? He says, “I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living.” Yes, at such a time, such is the sense of the vileness of the flesh. And Satan now suggests the terrible thought, that afflictions prove that God is against us. He says, “He will cut me off with pining sickness; from day to night wilt thou make an end of me.” The dreadful working of unbelief. “I reckoned till morning, that as a lion, so will he break all my bones.” O, what chattering, and what mourning! “Mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I AM OPPRESSED, UNDERTAKE FOR ME.” Was it not just so with Job? “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Is not this the very condition of a quickened soul under law? “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin” (Rom. 7). However earnest the desire of such a soul to keep the righteous requirements of the law, yet no power. “For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Hezekiah says, “Behold, for peace, I had great bitterness.” Behold, reader; until the question of the old man is settled, for peace what bitterness of soul you have had. Yes, bitter herbs indeed. You love the Lord — you long for holiness; but, oh, the bitterness, the loathsome flesh. Did I not hear you saying, Surely I must be a hypocrite: What did that deep groan say: O, shall I ever see the Lord? Are not all these afflictions a proof that He is against me? O, how I loathe, abhor myself! I am oppressed — undertake for me! O, wretched man that I am — no better, no better — who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
This lesson must be learned; and what is the answer? With Hezekiah it is, “What shall I say? He hath both spoken to me, and himself hath done it.” With Paul it is the eye turned from wretched self, the old man, to Christ, and then the joyful exclamation, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” What a deliverance, when we learn the answer to the unsettled question, as to the old man! He hath both spoken Himself, and He hath done it. He has been fully judged for us, made sin for us. In the likeness of sinful flesh, and by a sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Thus we accept the death of the old man, crucified with Christ — buried with Him in death. Judicially there is the end of I. No longer I, but Christ. I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. He hath spoken it — He hath done it. There is generally a little more sobbing at the funeral of the old I. “I shall go softly all my years, in the bitterness of my soul,” says Hezekiah. No, not so, Hezekiah! Not so, deeply exercised soul! No, you will have higher thoughts.
Sweetly now the Spirit whispers in the heart, “But thou hast, in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption; for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.” Yes, dear soul, it is true, quite true-rest in it. O, think of the love of God in delivering you from the pit of corruption. Had He left you to your wretched self — ah, the pit, the pit. Thanks be to God: Now a little further discovery for you. It is blessed to be brought to the foot of the Cross yes, to the very grave of Christ — dead and buried with Him. This is the answer in part, full answer, to the old man; death, and the grave of Christ. But do not be too sure that that is all — that you are to remain there. No; “For the grave cannot praise Thee; death cannot celebrate Thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth.” Is not this also most true? Yes, if Christ be only dead for us; and if we are only dead, and even buried with Him; all is in vain. “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain! ye are yet in your sins.” (1 Cor. 15:1717And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. (1 Corinthians 15:17)). “The living, the living,” exclaims Hezekiah, “he shall praise Thee: as I do this day.” Yes, we are not only dead with Thee, Lord Jesus but risen in Thee. “The living, the living, shall praise Thee, as I do this day.”
Thus, through the death of Christ, we have passed through death into life. Old things are passed away, all things new, and all of God. What a new creation!
It is not now bitterness of soul, and doubts, and misery. O, no, says Hezekiah, “The Lord was ready to save me; therefore we will sing my songs all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.” O, that is far better; yes, let us sing His praise with adoring hearts.
The Warning
The business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon. If we are left but for a moment, to prove us, alas! all is failure again. What a danger, even in much blessing and prosperity!
“Hezekiah was glad of them, and showed them the house of HIS precious things” (Isa. 39:22And Hezekiah was glad of them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not. (Isaiah 39:2)). “Mine house;” “my treasures” (Isa. 39:44Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them. (Isaiah 39:4)). Yes, if left to ourselves, it will be, “our precious truth,” “our testimony,” “our table,” “our treasures.” Rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing. There is only a step from Laodicea to Babylon. We cannot praise our God and Father too much for the precious truth He gives — for the treasures of His Word — for the restored table of the Lord. But are these treasures to be boastingly shown as ours to the princes of Babylon? If Hezekiah humbled himself, surely we ought to take the lowest place: nay, not take it — it is ours. The Lord keep us near Himself, in lowly dependence, and enjoying the discernment of the Holy Ghost. Thus may He enable us to do that which is right in the sight of the Lord, in the midst of all that is wrong.
Concluded.