Isaiah 38 (HCSB)
Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery
1 In those days Hezekiah became terminally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your affairs in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. 3 He said, “Please, Lord, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and wholeheartedly, and have done what pleases You.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: 5 “Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I am going to add 15 years to your life. 6 And I will deliver you and this city from the power of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city. 7 This is the sign to you from the Lord that He will do what He has promised: 8 I am going to make the sun’s shadow that goes down on Ahaz’s stairway go back by 10 steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back the 10 steps it had descended.
9 A poem by Hezekiah king of Judah after he had been sick and had recovered from his illness:
10 I said: In the prime of my life I must go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the rest of my years.
11 I said: I will never see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living; I will not look on humanity any longer with the inhabitants of what is passing away.
12 My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver; He cuts me off from the loom. You make an end of me from day until night.
13 I thought until the morning: He will break all my bones like a lion; You make an end of me day and night.
14 I chirp like a swallow or a crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed; support me.
15 What can I say? He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it. I walk along slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul,
16 Lord, because of these promises people live, and in all of them is the life of my spirit as well; You have restored me to health and let me live.
17 Indeed, it was for my own welfare that I had such great bitterness; but Your love has delivered me from the Pit of destruction, for You have thrown all my sins behind Your back.
18 For Sheol cannot thank You; Death cannot praise You. Those who go down to the Pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
19 The living, only the living can thank You, as I do today; a father will make Your faithfulness known to children.
20 The Lord will save me; we will play stringed instruments all the days of our lives at the house of the Lord.
21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of pressed figs and apply it to his infected skin, so that he may recover.” 22 And Hezekiah had asked, “What is the sign that I will go up to the Lord’s temple?”
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verse 15): For far too long I have walked on this earth harboring so much bitterness in my soul; bottling up my emotions because the world says that’s what a real man does. Father, please forgive me of the sins this has produced daily from bottling things up. Help me to release this bitterness I hold onto in my soul regularly so that I do not explode anymore. Help me to be the man You expect me to be, so that I may glorify You inside and out, Father.
PROMISE (verse 17): You promise us here, Father, that all the bitterness and the sins it produces are forgiven because You are a gracious God who has “thrown all my sins behind Your back.” Thank You, God, for showing me unending and unfailing grace and mercy throughout everything I have done and will likely do in the future, Father.
ATTITUDE (verse 17): Father, help me to change my attitude of bitterness to one of love in all things. You tell us that “Your love has delivered me.” Help me to feel over-flowing in Your love, Father, so that it pours out of me onto others.
COMMAND (verse 19): Your command here is something I’ve struggled with for a long time, Father. You tell us that a “father WILL make Your faithfulness known to children.” Father, please help me to be more wise, open, and vulnerable with my children more often so that I may glorify You and be a living example of Your faithfulness.
EXAMPLE (verses 17-19): In these verses You bless us with Your grace and mercy, but You also remind us that we are to praise You and thank You while we are still living and walking on this earth. Help me to follow this example You give us, Father, by keeping love, praise, and thanks embedded in my heart so that I may glorify You in all that I do, Father.
*DAILY NOTE: This world and the enemy definitely has a way of “breaking” us in ways that we don’t realize how crippling it is at first. Like being raised in a world and era where the world told me so often through all the media, TV shows, and even those that raised me that real men don’t cry and don’t show their emotions. The only way to do this is to bottle things up and try to “get passed” those emotions. As we all know, this is a very toxic way to live and isn’t even remotely close to how God expects us to live as men. Thank You, Father, for offering me an example of how a man should be living on this earth. Thank You, Father, for offering me healing and correction from all the bad teachings I grew up with on how to be a man. Just quite simply, thank You for being a true Father to me as I never had one.
*GENERAL NOTE: I always "sandwich" my quiet time with God in prayer and do it in a location that I will not have any distractions so that I can be focused on my quiet time with God. Do not worry about how short or long your journal entries are for that day's quiet time. Just focus on the actual quiet time and relational conversation with God through the Holy Spirit and His Word. The journaling is an enhancement to your quiet time conversation with God, but also to allow you to reflect on things later as you can look back on your journal entries later when you do the chapters again in the future to see how you have grown. See the FAQ for more detail on how I do my quiet time.
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