Hezekiah doesn't want to die - that seems to be the main theme of ch. 38. Given what we said earlier about the nether world, this makes perfect sense. Life is short, and once you die, there's nothing more you can do, since the Messiah hasn't come yet to defeat death. You're remembered only for the deeds of your life and your faithfulness to God in that time. (I suppose you could say the same of us, but we also hope for immediate resurrection which drastically changes things.) Hezekiah explains in his hymn of thanksgiving that an early death or "death in the noontime of life" is a curse since the two things you get to do in life (great deeds and faithfulness to God) are cut short. He grieves that he will be consigned to the nether world for the rest of his years and unable to see the Lord in the land of the living. On these grounds, he begs God for more time, and God grants him fifteen years. God even allows Hezekiah an impressive sign which puzzles me. Did Hezekaih want a sign that he would get well? Wouldn't he know whether he was well or not? Any help with this would be much appreciated! But onto the next chapter in the meantime.
Now Hezekiah has fifteen extra years to do his great deeds and be faithful to God. So what does he do? Falls victim to flattery! He shows absolutely everything he owns - treasury, armory, storerooms, you name it - to the king of Babylon of all people! All because the king was clever enough to send letters and gifts in honor of Hezekiah's recovery. Isaiah then delivers the devastating news of what this will mean for Israel. Nothing of Hezekiah's kingdom will be left. Some of Hezekiah's own descendants will be servants in the Babylonian king's palace. But here we hear the most disturbing response possible, "The word of the Lord which you have spoken is favorable." Hezekiah realized he would not live to see the Exile and that there would be peace and security in his own time. He's completely forgotten why he wanted to live longer in the first place. He's neither done great deeds nor been faithful to God. Worse, he doesn't seem to have remorse for what he's done to his people. When he was ill, he turned his face to the wall and prayed, but here we see nothing of the kind, even after the startling results of that earlier prayer. It appears that he just flippantly dismissed the tidings, perhaps out of despair or as a defense for what he'd done. What he should have done instead was turn back to God in constant prayer as he had when he was ill. That time, he was given wandering shadows and longer life. Who knows what he would have been given this time had he first humbled himself and admitted that he'd made a really bad move.
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In this passage, 38:13 reminds me of Hopkins’ poem [Carrion Comfort]. The contrast between struggling with war and struggling with illness is awesome from a literary perspective . . . I’m marking this to spend more time on it.
The thing that scares me most about Hezekiah is that he is completely selfish; he asks God for longer life and yet when he finds out that evil approaches, he is thankful it will not be in his time. Not like he could have asked God to choose a wiser successor, or to help prepare for the next king . . . Gah.
Gah, I agree. An even bigger GAH, because Hezekiah is not an uncommon figure. This may be dark and dreary, as my mother likes to say of my opinions, but it seems that Hezekiahs populate the majority of the world. It's so easy to forget about God when things are going well, and only turn to Him when we want or need something.
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