Chapters 38 and 39

In the 37th chapter we studied the deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib and in that particular situation we saw the prayers of two kings: Hezekiah who prayed a very effective prayer which definitely contributed to the deliverance, and the other was the prayer of Sennacherib who went back into his own heathen temple to pray, and when he did was assassinated by one of his own children. One of the two things that impress about chapter 37 is the fact that Hezekiah did not get on the panic button in that chapter, and secondly the fact that Hezekiah prayed a very effective prayer in that chapter. In fact, he looked very good spiritually.

The reason that Hezekiah impressed is given in chapter 38 which took place a short time before chapter 37. This is the typical Jewish style to give you someone’s victory and then give some of the tremendous information behind that victory. And the reason why Hezekiah is great in chapter 37 is because he had had a previous experience where he was dying the sin unto death, and he rebounded. And the secret to Hezekiah’s success is, from God’s viewpoint, His grace, and from Hezekiah’s viewpoint, rebound. So chapter 38 is the story why Hezekiah was so successful and so great in chapter 37. The events of chapter 38 took place when Sennacherib first started his invasion before he actually sent his propaganda machine to the walls of Jerusalem.

Chapter 38:1 — “In those days [reference to the beginning of the Sennacherib invasion of Palestine] Hezekiah was sick unto death.” Specifically he had a terminal illness.

Three causes generally for Christian death

1. To glorify the Lord as in the case of Lazarus — Luke 16.

2. Divine discipline as in 1 John 5:16.

3. Work on this earth is finished, as in the case of Paul — 2 Timothy 4:7.

The reason why Hezekiah is dying in verse one is because he is under extreme discipline. This sin unto death is found in many passages, Saul was a believer who committed the sin unto death — 1 Chronicles 10:13. In Acts 5:1-10, Ananias and Saphira committed a sin unto death. 1 Corinthians 5, a believer in Corinth committed the sin unto death. 1 Corinthians 11 — other believers in Corinth we warned about the sin unto death.

What is the sin unto death? It isn’t one specific sin. Saul committed the sin because of disobedience to the Word of God. But over in 1 Corinthians 5 the Corinthian who was under the sin unto death was guilty of persistent incest. The sin of Ananias and Saphira is described as lying to the Holy Spirit, but when you analyse the passage lying to the Holy Spirit is a sin of false motivation. So the sin unto death isn’t some specific sin. The conclusion from all of the passages in the Word: it is habitual and continual activity in some field of sin over a prolonged period of time without rebound, or committing a sin which introduces a false issue so that believers are confused with regard to the truth, as in the case of Acts 5. Regular use of rebound and some kind of Christian growth precludes any cause for being frightened of the sin unto death. And, if one ever finds himself in the sin unto death there is a very simple procedure to follow: 1, Check his own life to find out what he is doing that is wrong; 2, Confess it.

The classic illustration in the Old Testament is Hezekiah. Here he is in the 14th year of his reign and he is under the sin unto death, and he is dying. Yet he is going to live 15 more years actually. So while he is dying at this point he is going to rebound and after he is forgiven he will continue to serve the Lord — except for those times when he gets out of fellowship.

This was the way in which Hezekiah was headed — crisis, failure, discipline, dying — and then he rebounded. So the pattern of this passage is crisis, failure, rebound, victory. The overall principle of the passage is that their is no victory apart from rebound. In other words, there is no victory apart from the grace of God because rebound is something God does for us.

There were three reasons why Hezekiah was under the sin unto death. The first thing he did that was wrong is that he sent money to the king of Assyria. What is wrong with sending money to the king of Assyria? By sending money to the king of Assyria he demonstrated that he could not trust in the Lord for deliverance from the king of Assyria. Whatsoever of not of faith is sin. So Hezekiah sinned by depending upon money to deliver him 2 Kings 18:13-16. His second sin was depending upon Egypt for cavalry and chariots — 2 Kings 18:21; Isaiah 31:1; 36:6. The third part of his sin was pride [the original sin of Satan] — 2 Kings 32:24-26.

Isaiah 38:1 “ … and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order [make your will!]; for thou shalt die, and not live.”

Verse 2 — “Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall.” There is a great deal of significance in turning his face toward the wall. Went an oriental continues to look around the room or out the window or at anything that is living, that means he still has hope. But when an oriental turns his face toward the wall it means he has no hope; he knows he is going to die and there is no hope. So turning his face toward the wall means not only that but something else: it is an expression of supreme helplessness. Hezekiah, by turning his face toward the wall, shows that there is nothing in the world that anyone can do for him. Therefore, he expresses his total helplessness by turning his face to the wall.

There is only one course left open to him and that course is one on which he has not been for some time. When he started his rulership twelve years before he had been a real spiritual giant but somehow during the interim his faith had gone down and he had stopped using the faith-rest technique. He had stopped depending upon the Lord so that when this crisis came, the Sennacherib invasion of the Assyrian army, he did two things. He sent money to Sennacherib and he sent to Egypt for help, but he omitted to trust the Lord and claim promises because apparently he had not been doing so for some time.

Faith varies just as physical strength varies. Physical strength depends upon exercise, nourishment and things of that sort, and spiritual strength depends upon exercise and nourishment. It depends upon nourishing one’s self daily upon the Word of God and using God’s Word which is the faith-rest technique or spiritual exercise. And Hezekiah is a perfect illustration of the principle that one victory in the Christian life does not guarantee victory for the rest of the Christian life. Success in the Christian life does not mean success tomorrow or the next day. If one is going to perpetuate victory it means that he must continually claim and use the promises of God, he must be habitual in using the faith-rest technique. Any letup on any day will weaken the believer spiritually.

Once again Hezekiah has come to a place in his life where he recognises that no man, no power, that amount of wealth or influence can help him, and by turning his face to the wall he has declared his total helplessness. This is the point at which the grace of God always begins — total helplessness. That is why in Isaiah 30:18,19 God is said to be tapping His foot waiting to bless us because in the whole picture of grace we must recognise that we have no ability in ourselves. And that is exactly where Hezekiah is. But he didn’t stop there. He took the step he should have taken some time ago when he first got out of fellowship, and that was to turn to the Lord. Remember that Hezekiah is a believer out of fellowship and the only way a believer can turn to the Lord is by confession of sin — rebound, 1 John 1:9.

So the next phrase we read: “and he prayed unto the Lord.” This part of the prayer is not recorded, only the last part of the prayer is recorded. In verses 9 to the end of the chapter we actually have how Hezekiah felt, the pain he was in at this time of his dying. We do not have the actual details of his confession for several good reasons. First, because it is none of our business, except as the Word of God has previously revealed that he was out of line. (Just as the sins of other believers are not our business) The second reason is that we do not have to know the lurid details of his confession. All we need to know is the result and at the end of verse 16 we read” “So shalt thou recover me and make me to live", and at the end of verse 17: “For thou hast cast all my sins behind my back” .At that point in his prayer he was forgiven; he had confessed his sins; he knew that he was forgiven and he makes the statement, the first declaration in some time, “Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back” .And then his prayer goes on to other things.

One of the tough things about this particular chapter in Isaiah is that the verses themselves are not chronological. They are in a sequential order, he writes down his testimony in part after it is all over. But, for example, the last two verses in the chapter belong between verses 6 and 7. This chapter is not chronological; it is logically sequential.

Verse 3 — “And said, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, [then he reviews the general tenor of his life before being out of fellowship] how I have walked ["walk” means fellowship] before thee in truth [doctrine] — No person has fellowship with the Lord apart from doctrine. You do not have fellowship with the Lord in your emotion, by how you feel, or because you are in church, or because you have some sort of a posture. All fellowship with the Lord is based on doctrine — “with a perfect heart,” reference to the imputation of divine righteousness to Hezekiah at the moment he was saved. It refers to imputation and justification. Hezekiah was only perfect in the sense of receiving the righteousness of God at the moment he believed in Christ; “and have done that which is good in thy sight [experiential righteousness,” a reference to his early ministry as king]. “And Hezekiah wept sore [to the extreme].” He broke down and had a cry for several reasons. Josephus actually talks about the crying of Hezekiah, and he says that Hezekiah cried and wept because at this time he was in the direct line of David and he has no children. He is familiar with the passages dealing with the Davidic covenant, that David would have a son who would reign forever, an unconditional covenant. Hezekiah should have believed these passages instead of crying about it. This is lack of faith on his part. He should believe the Word of God instead of crying about it. The world is filled with believers who are cry-babies! Hezekiah needs faith, not tears. Instead of crying about the Davidic covenant he ought to be believing it. Here is a man who is dying, yet he can’t die until he has a child!

Verses 4-6, the answer to the weeping of Hezekiah.

Verse 4 — “Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying,

Verse 5 — “Go and say to Hezekiah” — Hezekiah has rebounded and he is now weeping. And God instructs Isaiah to go with a message — “Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard they prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold I will add unto thy days fifteen years” .He is out from under the sin unto death. Why? Because he rebounded.

Verse 6 — “And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.” This is why Hezekiah spoke with confidence, prayed with confidence, when the emissaries of Sennacherib [Rabshakeh] finally arrived at the walls of Jerusalem in the previous chapter.

Verses 21 and 22 belong right after verse 6.

Verse 21 — “For Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the ulcer [or skin cancer], and he shall recover.” This is a miracle, not a medical remedy. The bruised or crushed figs are actually a picture of Christ dying on the cross, crushed for our sins, drawing our sins off, as it were, and taking them on Himself. Cancer is a picture of sin and the healing is a picture of salvation. Healing is not salvation, it is an illustration of salvation. The therapy is not in the figs; the therapy is in the hand of God.

Verse 22 — “Hezekiah also had said” — that is when Isaiah came and told him that he had fifteen more years, that he would be delivered and Jerusalem would be delivered from Sennacherib and the invading Assyrians. He gave instructions to put a poultus of crushed figs on the cancer and then told him one other thing. Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?” One of the things that Isaiah had said to him was, Three days from now you will go up and worship in the Lord’s house. So Hezekiah asks for a sign. To find out what the sign is it is necessary to go back to verse 7.

Verse 7 — “And this shall be the sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken.”

Verse 8 — “Behold, I will cause the shadow on the steps, which is gone down on the dial of Ahaz with the sun, ten degrees backward.” There is a parallel passage to this in 2 Kings 20 where we have a little bit more information. The master bedroom of the palace overlooked the courtyard. In the courtyard was a famous “watch,” a sundial. It was built to face the direction of the rotation of the sun. When the sun was overhead there was no shadow except on the top step — midday. Then as the sun began to move in its rotation, setting in the south west, as it moved down it moved behind this needle and it cast a shadow. The shadow would fall on the various steps as the day went on. There were twelve steps and each step was supposed to represent a half hour — pm. Now, there were ten steps in the shadow — to 5pm. So when Isaiah was telling this to Hezekiah it was 5pm. So Hezekiah could look out of the master bedroom of the palace and see the shadow on ten steps. What time was “ten degrees backward?” Noon. This clock operated on the position of the sun. The big question is, How did God perform this miracle? He could move the sun back or, by a miracle, He could simply move the shadow.

Now we have a different person. He no longer has his face to the wall but he has his face out the window. And he suddenly saw the shadow disappear for the only time in the history of the existence of that sundial. Here is a man who one minute has his face turned to the wall, discouraged, upset, at the end of himself. And not long after that he is looking out the window with a smile on his face when the shadow disappeared. And what makes the difference between looking at the wall and looking out the window of victory? In one word, Grace. Rebound is grace and rebound made the difference. The difference on outlook is based upon grace.

“So the sun returned ten steps by which steps it had gone down.”

Then we have an addendum to the chapter, verses 9-20. In this we have the meditations of a face turned to the wall. This is what Hezekiah thought; this is what, in part, he said when his face was turned to the wall before Isaiah came with the message that his sins had been forgiven, that he would live fifteen years, that he and Jerusalem would be delivered from Sennacherib. This is the diary of the man with his face to the wall.

Verse 10 — “I said, in the cutting off of my days [dying] I shall go to the gates of Sheol [grave]: I am deprived of the residue of my years.” He knew that he was dying for discipline and he knew that God had intended for him to live longer.

Verse 11 — “I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living.” This means he would no longer have victory in this life. He was saying in his hopeless despair he would no longer have the privilege of being occupied with Christ in time. “I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world” — I will no longer see people.

Verse 12 — “Mine age is removed [dying before his years], and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent [ a shepherd’s tent is one which is suddenly taken down]. My life has been cut off like a weaver; he will cut me off with pining [painful] sickness. From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.”

Verse 13 — “I reckoned till morning” — In other words, when the night came he thought he might live until morning, but in the morning — “as a lion, so he will break all of my bones. From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.” In other words, he was constantly anticipating his last breath.

Verse 14 — “Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter.” A crane or a swallow never screams when it is hurt. It can only utter broken sounds. He is past screaming, he just utters broken sounds of pain. “I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward” — his eyes are tired — “O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me.” Then we have his confession — not given.

Verse 15 — “What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it.” He has forgive him. “I shall go softly all my years [I am going to live a better life now]” — he is between verses 14 and 15, he has rebounded and now his sins were forgiven and now he says: what shall I say? — “on account of the bitterness of my soul.” Because of bitterness of soul, not in bitterness. Because of the bitter experience he had he is going to walk softly [watch his step].

Verse 16 — “O Lord, by these things men live [by rebound, by the provision of grace], And in all of these things is the life of my spirit [he is going to live on]: So wilt thou recover me and make me to live.”

Verse 17 — “Behold, instead of peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love toward my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.” He was delivered from the pit [grave] of corruption.

Verse 18 — “For the grave cannot praise thee [I am going to live to thy glory], death doth not celebrate thee [I am going to continue my life to celebrate thee] : They that go down into Sheol cannot hope for thy truth” — I can’t learn anything more in time after I’ve gone.

Verse 19 — “The living, the living [he rejoices in the fact he is going to continue to live], he shall praise thee, as I do this day: The father to the children shall make known thy truth.” Now here is that great tragic phrase. He is going to teach his children. He doesn’t have any, he won’t have any for three years. He is going to teach his children to know the truth. He didn’t live long enough to do it apparently.

Verse 20 — “The Lord was ready to deliver me: Therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.” This testimony will be sung to the praise and the honour of the Lord.

Rebound always turns cursing into blessing. Notice the result of Hezekiah’s rebound: 1. He was healed from the cancer; 2. He offered the effective prayer of Isaiah 37:14-20.

Chapter 39

The background for this chapter is that Hezekiah goes from extreme difficulty to extreme prosperity. He becomes one of the most prosperous people in the world. Hezekiah’s experience was publicised that God might be glorified because it was pure grace. But when a believer has an unusual experience you can count on it that they are also going to be very definitely attacked in that experience because there is the struggle between the grace of God and the human ego.

Some believers cannot stand adversity and some believers cannot stand prosperity and Hezekiah had the most unusual experience of going from extreme adversity to extreme prosperity. Isaiah chapter 39 could be called “The vulnerability of the victorious.” In chapter 38 Hezekiah is as low as you can get and now he is as high as you can get from the standpoint of human prosperity and materialistic wealth. Note 2 Chronicles 32:20-23 — after the deliverance — and verse 24 which explains all of this [not in chronological sequence]. Verse 25 — continues after the deliverance.

“But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him.” Principle: A believer becomes extremely vulnerable to defeat immediately after a great victory and Hezekiah has just been involved in a great victory of grace. After the deliverance all of these people started bringing presents to him and he becomes very wealthy and becomes in danger of getting out of fellowship again. Some believers cannot stand prosperity. Any believer can stand prosperity if he is properly related to the Lord and if he stays in fellowship. But there are many believers who cannot stand prosperity simply because immediately they forget the grace of God, they forget doctrine, they are no longer interested in the Word. They become interested in things but not in the Word and they lose their touch with the Word and, therefore, their occupation with Christ and, as a result, they become proud and they have had it. Many believers fail in prosperity just as many do in adversity.

“for his heart was lifted up” — pride, vanity — therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.” He just gets out from under discipline and he goes right back.

Verse 26 — Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself [rebounded] for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah.” It will come later. In other words, Jerusalem will be prosperous again and in the future there will be discipline as a result of pride. This gives us a pattern of where we go in chapter 39. Hezekiah became proud again but he rebounded. He used the grace of God.

Two principles in introducing chapter 39

1. We are most vulnerable to defeat immediately after great victory. Why? Because Satan is the greatest counter-attacker that ever lived. Watch the great victory.

2. The victory of the believer today is no guarantee that the believer will be victorious tomorrow. You can’t live on yesterday’s victory, our walk with the Lord must be current. Each day must bring fresh victory and fresh victory is based on what He has provided — the techniques of the Word of God.

Verse 1 — “At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he heard that he had been sick, and was recovered.” Merodach-baladan was one of the most unusual kings of the ancient world and we have only discovered some of the details of his life, apart from the scriptures, in the last fifty years.

His name: Merodach is a very unusual word and there hasn’t been any word like it in the Old Testament except for the original root of it which is Nimrod [ both have m-r-d in the root]. They look dissimilar in the English but they are exactly the same root in the Hebrew. Nimrod is just simply n,r,d with an “n” in front of it and when you take the “n” of you have m,r,d just as you do with Merodach. So what does this root mean? It means to rebel. Merodach means “the rebel”; Nimrod means “the rebel” .And both Nimrod and Merodach are designated by this particular word to indicate that they are really in rebellion against God. Nimrod was an emperor; he was the first emperor. He revolted against God by being a great hunter, not a hunter of animals but a hunter of men. He was a gangster, a murderer and a rebel against God. And now Merodach is a rebel against God, one of Satan’s men in the world.

He also has another name — “baladan.” It means “Bel [the god of the Babylonians] is my lord.” “Adon"is simply the Hebrew word for “Lord.” This name tells us: 1. Merodach, the rebel against God; 2. Baladan, he is a religious man following Satan’s religion.

Historically, who was Merodach-baladan? He was the king of the Chaldeans and was from a very famous anti-God house called the house of Jakim. He was one of the cleverest men who ever lived because he lived under the shadow of the Assyrian empire and even though he raised many revolts against the Assyrians, and even though the Assyrians always defeated him at the field they were never able to capture him. The house of Jakim were not Chaldeans, they were from one of the Arabic groups from out of the Arabic peninsular, and every time things got too hot he moved back into Arab land and got himself lost among the Arabic tribes. And every time the Assyrians left Babylonia and went north again on their field of conquest he would pop up at Babylon again and would be pronounced king and would go right on. This was one man that Sennacherib was never really able to conquer. He was Satan’s man and he did Satan’s work. He was the thorn in the flesh to Sargon as well as to Sennacherib.

The Hebrew of Jeremiah 50:2 tells us something else about him. Both of his names, Merodach and baladan, are connected with heathen deities. This indicates several things: his worship of Satan as well as something that always goes with it, the deification of man. Remember that the deification of man is always a part of the Satanic strategy or the deification of the creature — Isaiah 14:14; Colossians 2:8. Satan’s method is to work on man through pride; he works on man’s ego all the time.

Hezekiah has just had a great spiritual experience and Satan is going to try and convert that spiritual experience into something that it isn’t .He is going to try to take the credit away from God. This is a pattern that comes right down to us now. Satan takes spiritual experiences today and changes them into something else. The tongues movement is a part of this thing.

Hezekiah has had a great spiritual experience and now Satan is getting his crowd to come in and bring him presents to get his eyes off the Lord and to get his eyes on things. This is exactly what we have at the beginning of verse 2.

Verse 2 — “And Hezekiah was glad of them” — he was no longer rejoicing in the Lord and he was glad because of them — because of these wonderful gifts that came. Isaiah specialises in the one who was Satan’s great emissary of the day, Merodach-baladan, and he uses the incident here to indicate terrible things to come. “Hezekiah was glad of them.” In other words, he received all of these presents and he began to base his happiness on the things that he had rather than on his relationship to the Lord, a danger which believers have to face periodically.

“and he showed them the house of his precious things.” All of his happiness began to be based upon the tremendous prosperity that came to him. Now he is rejoicing in all of the things that he has and when people become so occupied with things, what do they want to do? They want to show other people all of the nice things that they have. When you are enthusiastic about the Lord you want to show other people about the Lord but when you become enthusiastic about materialistic things, then you want to show them off. And that is exactly what Hezekiah is doing now.

“the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and precious oil, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not.” Notice what his precious things are! Precious means things which are important to him. There was nothing in all of his kingdom that he did not show these ambassadors from Merodach-baladan. If they had come perhaps six months earlier he would have given them a wonderful testimony about the Lord. He would have witnessed to them concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. But now it is all different, now instead of talking about the Lord all he is talking about is all of these wonderful things that he has. And every believer at some time in his life will face this same issue. What is more important to you, the Lord or the things that you possess?

Between verses two and three we have the passage in 2 Chronicles 32 where Hezekiah became proud. And whenever we find Hezekiah getting proud we have Isaiah coming back to get him straightened out. And Isaiah has two sessions with him.

Verse 3 — “Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are from a far country unto me, even from Babylon.” People are coming from far countries to this man — he is a “big wheel.” He is trying to impress Isaiah but Isaiah in not impressed, he has his eyes on the Lord.

Verse 4 — “Then said he [Isaiah], What have they seen in thine house?” The answer to that should be: “They’ve seen the Lord. I told them about Jesus Christ. I told them about how I was saved and how later on I got out of fellowship and about rebound and all of the wonderful things connected to the grace of God. But that isn’t what he says. “And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them”.

Verse 5 — “Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord of hosts.” He is now going to present him with the divine viewpoint because Hezekiah is out of fellowship and has lost his perspective.

Verse 6 — “Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and all and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.” So you are impressed with Babylon. Well that country is coming up. In roughly 120 years these Babylonians are going to come back and they are going to come down and take everything.

Hezekiah has opened the door for divine discipline. If divine discipline is to be understood correctly it must be remembered that the Jews in the days of Nebuchadnezzar will have the same attitude that Hezekiah has now. This is the whole subject of Jeremiah who warned the Jews: You are thinking in terms of prosperity, you are thinking in terms of materialistic wealth, and it is going to be taken away. The king of Babylon is coming.

The attitude of believers comes first: the attitude of believers who are not occupied with the Lord, but are occupied with materialistic things or something else. That is the principle. And so we have this prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and the loss of all of their wealth.

Verse 7 — “And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” Cf Daniel 1:3.

Verse 8 — Takes place after Hezekiah has rebounded. This is his final testimony. “Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good [Heb. gracious] the word of the Lord” — there is no verb. Why? To emphasise the word “gracious.” The source of our information with regard to grace is the Word of the Lord.

If Hezekiah had received from God what he deserved Merodach-baladan would have come back with his army and destroyed him right then and there. Hezekiah wouldn’t have lived five minutes! But Hezekiah didn’t get what he deserved. But neither does any other believer get what he deserves. God deals with us in grace.

“which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.” This is the beginning of a good reign again. First of all there shall be peace in that he knew that God would deliver him from all enemies round about. But that isn’t the important word here. Peace in his time meant that there would be no more warfare in Jerusalem but, he said something much more important: “there shall be truth in my life time.” And that means that Hezekiah, from that point on, was going to see that the Word of God was taught and that doctrine reached the people of the land. For there is no substitute for doctrine in the frontal lobe.