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God had just routed the mightiest army of the ancient world on Hezekiah’s behalf, then healed him from a terminal illness—and somehow, facing the next threat, Hezekiah forgot both and went looking for an ally he could hold onto. Isaiah 39 traces how that forgetfulness works in a believing heart, and why it’s the sneakiest danger of all.
The following study questions are AI generated and may contain errors.
Hezekiah had witnessed God’s miraculous deliverance from the Assyrian army and his own healing from a terminal illness. Why do you think he still felt compelled to display his wealth and military resources to the Babylonian envoys rather than testify to God’s power?
The sermon compares God’s constant protection of Hezekiah to the beneficial bacteria in dirt that keeps us healthy—so present we don’t notice it. What are examples from your own life where God’s provision or protection was so constant that you stopped recognizing it? In what areas of life are we most prone to forget God’s past faithfulness when facing new uncertainties?
When Isaiah announces judgment—that Hezekiah’s descendants will be taken captive to Babylon—Hezekiah responds by accepting it peacefully rather than crying out for God’s mercy as he had done when facing death. What does his lack of repentance reveal about his spiritual condition, and why does passive acceptance of God’s word fall short of the response Scripture calls for?
The sermon emphasizes that Hezekiah’s real problem wasn’t necessarily the alliance with Babylon itself, but his forgotten reliance on God. How do we discern the difference between prudent planning and practical trust in God versus self-reliant anxiety that signals a shift in trust away from Him?
The preacher uses the image of driving I-70 on cruise control and missing the wonders just off the exit. What practical steps can believers take to “pull off the highway” spiritually—actively recognizing God’s blessings, seeking His mercy afresh, and testifying to His power rather than showcasing their own resources?
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
Was anyone following this week the unveiling of the new F-47 plane? Tom definitely was. Tom is a long-time veteran of Boeing, so I know this would be near and dear to him. It’s fascinating, though. I can make no such claim. I know what planes are. They go up in the air. I’ve been a passenger on a plane. I’ve never built one or flown one, though. But I still find it interesting.
Here is this plane, and this is not just any plane. It’s supposed to be the plane that’s the answer to everything our country might face in the future. Notably, I think it was really key if they were announcing this new fighter jet, that what they were announcing was a plane that can deal with drone warfare, because we’ve seen over the last few years that seems to be the future.
A few years ago, it would have been, oh, the people with the other more advanced fighter jets. We have to equal those. But now it’s who has the best unmanned vehicle that might come after us. So they made a huge deal, if they unveiled this, about how this plane could coordinate a response to drone warfare.
Thinking about that and thinking about how we try to build up our defenses, where are we going to look? If you are in charge of the Air Force or the Navy or the Army or the Marines, or you’re in some other country and in charge of their armed forces, what are you doing? You’re going to look at, well, what kind of planes, what kind of ships, what kind of missiles, what can we get that hopefully we never use but people see how strong we are without even using them and they say, well, we don’t want to do anything because those people are strong. They have these amazing, amazing weapons. And it’s a defense there to prevent something from happening, and, if it does happen, to respond.
Well, Hezekiah would have been really happy if he could have, King Hezekiah. Returning to Isaiah chapter 39 tonight, if you want to turn there. Hezekiah would have been really, really, really happy if he could have just had one F-47. Actually, he would have been happy to have one plane. They didn’t have planes. So, I mean, one plane and you would have been the ruler of the world. It would have been amazing and people probably wouldn’t even try to attack because they would have said, who is this that has this mysterious thing that floats in the sky? We surrender. Don’t shoot. Don’t blast us. Don’t do whatever you can do to us.
Hezekiah would have loved to have had that, but here’s the thing. Hezekiah had something better than an F-47 or an F-35 or an F-18 or a great aircraft carrier or anything else. Hezekiah had fought with the very power of God.
And if you go through the story we find in the Kings, if you go into the Chronicles, if you go here into the 37, 38, and 39 of Isaiah, we find this story of one of the mightiest empires ever known to mankind, the Assyrian Empire, coming up and preparing to attack. And what does God do? He proves that he’s stronger than the strongest army.
And today, if this were happening a few thousand years later, that army would have been coming up with planes we haven’t even dreamt of yet. F-95s or something. They would have been arriving and they would have been saying, wow, we have nothing to compare to. And then that army with those F-95s would have fled. That’s what Hezekiah saw, the great army of the world coming up against them and turning away.
And then after that, Hezekiah thought of a personal battle. He was told prophetically, as he grew ill, that he was going to die. And then the great physician, the greatest physician, came and healed him. God gave him personal physical health in addition to giving him military victory. And that’s the context where we arrive in chapter 39.
And it’s so important to remember that, because here is the thing that was true for Hezekiah and is true for us. We forget what God does. You might think that Hezekiah, as he looked at this army with all their F-95s and 205s and so on, they had spacecraft coming in at them, and God defeats them that Hezekiah would remember. You’d think that as Hezekiah received a terminal diagnosis and then lived to tell about it, he would remember what God had done. And yet Hezekiah forgot.
And every time that God rescues us, there’s something that’s going to happen too, which is that we’re going to forget. We’re not going to hold on to the full force of the power of what God does. It sneaks up on us like those sneaky snakes. And the question then is, what are we going to do?
Let’s pray that God would help us to be those who are prepared to see we’re losing sight of God’s power, and we won’t trade it for the greatest airplane or the greatest ship or the greatest medical healing or anything else. Will you pray with me, please?
Father, we come before you as a people who are forgetful. We forget what you do. We lose confidence in what you do. And Lord, as we look at this story tonight, as we consider the whole of Scripture and the faithfulness that you have testified to from beginning to end, the faithfulness we’ve seen tonight as we’ve looked at parts of Romans 8 as well, Lord, would you help us to feel that so strongly that we would not forget. We pray this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Let’s go ahead and look at the first eight verses of chapter 39. We read these words:
At that time, Meredok Baladon, the son of Baladon, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that he had been sick and had recovered. And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly, and he showed them his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices, the precious oil, the whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realms that Hezekiah did not show them.
Then Hezekiah, the prophet, came to king Hezekiah and said to him, What do these men say? From where did they come to you? Hezekiah said, They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon. And he said, What have they seen in your house? Hezekiah answered, They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing to my storehouses that I did not show them.
And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good. For he thought, There will be peace and security in my days.
It helps to remember, as we’re trying to understand what’s going on here, a few things. Babylon had been a force at a point before this, but at this point Babylon is not the great empire of the moment. It’s not something to sneeze at, but it’s not the great empire. That’s Assyria. Babylon had received freedom. They deliberated themselves for a while. Babylon had received freedom. They deliberated themselves from Assyria, and they are stretching their wings a bit, trying to see what they can do.
One thing that Babylon understands is that Assyria could try to retake them at any time, and they’re looking for friends. Hezekiah, incidentally, he’s interacted with Assyria, as I just mentioned a moment ago, and he doesn’t really want to deal with Assyria either. When the Babylonian envoy shows up, Hezekiah thinks, Hmm, this is really intriguing. Someone who isn’t looking to conquer us, and has the same enemy that we do. I wonder how we could work something out. And it’s understandable.
What you hear in our world today is there seems to be so much unrest because people are worried about what China’s going to do, and what Russia’s going to do, and what Iran’s going to do, and so on. We see these things, and we see not just theoretical, but we see a world that feels like a powder keg at the moment, and what do people say? I’m glad we’re building new jets. Bring on those F-47s. Let’s get them. Why are they going to be years in the making? We want them now. We want that security.
It’s understandable that Hezekiah would feel that way. Assyria left. God gave them victory over Assyria. They’re not defeated. They’re not conquered. The northern kingdom, the rest of the people of God have been conquered by Assyria. But Hezekiah lives to survive and tell the story. It’s understandable that he’s thinking, Okay, we missed a close call. How do we arm up? How do we make sure that we’re ready? As king, that’s not necessarily entirely an irresponsible thing.
If our leaders said, Yes, the world looks dangerous. Let’s go ahead and disarm. Yes, it looks like China could attack someday, and they’re getting more and more powerful in their military. Yes, it seems like Russia has powers that they want to flex and see how far they can expand. I know what we should do. We’re going to get rid of all of our nuclear weapons. We’re going to retire all but some historic planes that we can fly on Veterans Day and Memorial Day for air shows. Get rid of all the rest. That’s going to be a great thing, right? Because then we can’t wage war. It’ll be peaceful. We’d say, Are you crazy? Do you realize what you’re doing if you do it? They’ll attack.
It’s understandable that Hezekiah says, I think I’d like to see if I can amp up my military. He can’t reach out to Boeing or some other company and say, Hey, build me a fleet of aircraft because they don’t exist yet. What he can do, though, is ally himself with militaries that may have more advanced technology and simply are larger.
Especially in this era, one of the most important things is simply having a very, very large army. If Assyria is afraid if it attacks Judah, it’ll be attacked by Babylon, Assyria might think twice. Not because Assyria isn’t more powerful than both of them, but it may not want to have to spread out and have a two-front war. So maybe it works.
So why does Isaiah come back and come with judgment towards Hezekiah? Isn’t he just being a good steward of God’s people? Well, I don’t think the problem is, per se, that he talks to the Babylonians. The problem is the way he’s approaching the Babylonians. And this seems to be implied by how Isaiah responds to him.
I believe when Hezekiah sees the Babylonians, he doesn’t say, Well, God has provided a new gift to me. First, he just gave us a supernatural rescue. Now he’s providing a natural, continued defense for the land. I think what Hezekiah says is, Boy, I’m so glad we made it that first time, and now I see some way that we can make it again.
And in that we see that as he’s searching for an ally, I wonder whom it is that we can ally ourselves with that will protect us. The problem is he’s forgotten he’s already allied with the greatest ally he could ever have. That God has said that he intends to preserve his people, that God has called him to trust in him, that God has even acted in that. He’s actually rescued the people. And Hezekiah’s saying, Hmm, I wonder where I could find an ally. An ally over here? An ally over there? And God’s knocking on his head and saying, What do you think I am?
And you’d think after Isaiah had been working with Hezekiah over this period of time and relaying the messages of God, and Hezekiah had seen the army come and fall and then his own health fall and then rise again, you would think he would see this. But he’s just starting to take that protection for granted, I believe. He’s forgotten who his protector is. And we forget who our protector is.
And so, intellectually, if someone had said, Did the Lord rescue you back then? Did the Lord allow you to recover your health? I think he would have said yes, but he says, But now I need to worry about what’s next. And the Lord’s protection has been so present, he doesn’t even recognize it fully. It’s so just natural that God has provided for them that as he faces the next fear, he’s not accounting for it.
It’s sort of like, let’s go a little higher. We’ve been flying. Let’s go up into outer space and go to the International Space Station for a moment. A fascinating thing I was reading this week as well, lots of articles after the astronauts had been stranded up, they were brought home, and people just, I think, are interested in what’s going on in the ISS.
And so there was an article talking about the health of astronauts in the ISS. And one thing they’ve discovered is that astronauts often get rashes and have new allergies form and infections while they’re in the space station. And they’ve measured the different environmental contaminants in the space station. They’re very low. It would seem as though this should be the ideal place for a person. You don’t have to worry about an oak tree deciding to spew its pollen out.
Our common enemy for many of us is coming again, friends. It’s just weeks away. Don’t have to worry about that. Don’t have to worry about the grass, goldenrod, nettle, whatever it might be. Get to know all those every year when I pull up pollen.com. You don’t have to worry about any of those. Don’t have to worry about colds and flu, right? You go months and months and months between people going up there. There’s nothing up there that’s being added. Don’t have to worry about walking outside in the mud and after a rainstorm like we had today and then traipsing it back in the house. You’re not going to do that. You’re not going to step in any mud up there.
So why is it they’re getting infections? Why are they getting new allergies? Well, they’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because of the useful things that we find in dirt. The useful things that we encounter when we encounter plants and animals and each other. And there’s just that useful dirt that keeps our bodies actually in balance. And there’s a healthy level of bacteria on us. Not too pleasant to think about. But there’s a healthy level that actually helps to keep us healthy. And when you take that away, the things that are left on us don’t have anything to stop them from growing. And they start getting infections. And they start reacting. And they’re actually talking about, well, how can we basically contaminate spacecraft more so that the astronauts stay healthy?
Sounds kind of funny, doesn’t it? I mean, it sounds insane. But it’s that there’s something that’s so present that normally if we’re not up in outer space, none of us are getting away from that’s so present that we don’t even realize it’s helping us. And for Hezekiah, I believe, God has been so present in helping him that it’s almost as though he’s forgotten.
If you ask me, is there pollen out there? Is there dust? I’d say, well, yeah, of course. But I don’t normally think about it a whole lot unless I’m sneezing. And for Hezekiah, God has been so present. He’s all over him. He’s up and down his skin. He’s in his body. He’s breathing in the very presence of God. And Hezekiah says, I don’t see anything. I need an ally I can hold on to.
And I think when we think about it and recognize how present God’s protection has been for him, it starts to become more understandable why Hezekiah can be so dense. Because as God protects us, as we look back and we realize God’s gotten us to this point in our lives, we realize that we have been protected many, many times by God, and we often don’t notice either.
Hezekiah wants someone who will be a faithful ally, someone who can protect him, someone who can prevent the enemy from conquering him. And the danger when we start to get fixated on the enemies ahead, the dangers ahead, is that we start to run, ironically, towards them. Maybe not the exact enemy. We have our eyes here, but where we should be running back away from them and towards the Lord, we instead kind of veer off and just try to dodge around them and end up with another enemy.
Hezekiah says, oh, the Babylonians, they’ll help us. Now, if you’ve read through the Old Testament, you know it doesn’t quite work out that way. It might seem like a good idea for a time. Often our sin seems like a good idea for a time. It seems like something that will rescue us from whatever problem we have at the moment. And we don’t realize we’re actually running deeper and deeper into the very things that frighten us, the very things that cause us to fear, until we’re already there.
It really is just this simple, I think, when we think about Hezekiah’s life and ours. We forget who provides for us, not just who protects us, but who provides everything we have.
Take a look again at our passage. What does Hezekiah do in verse 2? And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly, and he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oils, his whole armory, all that was found in the storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.
Here is something that Hezekiah is acutely aware of. He has a lot of stuff, really nice stuff. Now, maybe not as much stuff as the Babylonians have, but Hezekiah says, I think the Babylonians would be more inclined to see me as a worthy ally if they see how much stuff I have.
I have stuff, too. They have nice things, I have nice things. We were thinking last week about wanting nice things. He says, I have nice things, and I want them to know that. See, I’m worth something. I can pay soldiers. I can even pay them if I need them to defend me. Let me show them what I have.
And I imagine Hezekiah walking through the storehouse, and here’s the gold utensils for future use in worship of the Lord, and here’s the silver for the treasury and the plates and so on, and here’s the shelves, and he’s walking through in his royal robes feeling pretty mighty.
See, over there, exhibit A2. Look at this nice piece of gold that we have here. And he’s thorough. He shows them everything. He doesn’t hold anything back. He doesn’t say, I need a secret weapon of wealth they don’t know about. No, he’s going to show them everything. Why? To make them think he’s any less wealthy than he is.
You wonder how important I am? What a big, important king I am? Let me tell you what kind of king I am. And so he puts on all the pomp and the circumstance, and he shows them all this stuff. The only thing he doesn’t show them is the God who’s given it to them, to him.
You know, you would think if you’re going to go and proclaim to this envoy from a powerful nation, distant nation, you might want to focus on saying, hey, you know what we have here in Israel, what we have in Judah? We have the Lord, the one who made heaven and earth, and the one who sent our mutual enemy, the Assyrians, fleeing. When others fell to them, they had to turn away from us. And you know why it wasn’t because of all this neat stuff that he’s given us? It’s because of him.
And when we think about the mission of the people of Judah, that was their mission, to testify to the goodness of God, to say it’s not about that we have a lot of stuff like all the other nations. The thing that we have that you don’t have and that you need, and in fact we would like for you to have as well, is the God who made you. I want you to know him. And know that with him, no empire can ever stand against him. No power can stand against and separate us from the love of God.
Back to Romans 8. That’s not where Hezekiah goes. But I think as it tells us about, with thoroughness, about what it is that he’s showing them, I think it’s very clear what he isn’t doing is testifying to the goodness of the Lord. It’s about him. I’m a powerful king. And he says, you know, if I talk about that, it’s going to sound like I’m not really that great. I want them to feel like I’m a successful king. I’m a king who can enrich my country, and therefore I’m a partner that can enrich them as well.
And he withholds the treasure that he was placed on earth to share. He’s forgotten where he’s received his treasure, and he’s forgotten that his purpose is to share that treasure. We show what we think is most important.
We just came out of opening day at Bush Stadium, right? A high holy day here in St. Louis. We know how important this is, and if you don’t, we’ll pray for you after the service. This is a big deal, right? We celebrate the greatness of the St. Louis Cardinals and their 11 world championships. Yeah, St. Louis Cardinals, woo-hoo, yeah, hey, yeah. Can’t you just hear? You can hear the pipe organ playing right now celebrating Clydesdales coming in. I mean, it’s big, and it’s mighty, and what do we do every year?
Well, after the Clydesdales come the Red Jackets, right? Here are the Hall of Famers. Here are the men who have played on this team that come back to celebrate the greatness of the St. Louis Cardinals and what we’ve accomplished as a baseball team. Look at them. Remember what they’ve done. This is what we hold that some other team doesn’t. And I have to say, as a St. Louisan, it makes me happy every time I hear someone talk about how you’ll hear a player from another team come and say, you know, St. Louis really knows how to do opening day. This is something special.
Well, of course, we’re the 11-time world champions. You’re not, unless you’re the Yankees. We won’t get into that, but they’re the Yankees. Come on.
So we show what we think is important, right? And in baseball, what’s important? Players and winning. And so the only thing that can make opening day better is the fact that the opening series, we swept, right? We won every single game and sent those twins home without happy flight. I mean, sorry, in baseball, there is no mercy. This is a good thing.
That’s what’s important if you’re talking about baseball. We show what’s important, right? You don’t show at opening day a reflection on what things used to cost at the baseball stadium. Remember when it only cost this much to buy a hot dog? And by the way, remember how much hot dogs cost down the street? You’re not going to do that, right?
You hail the things that are important and reflect, well, you don’t reflect on the things that seem to imply something needs to change. And we do the same with our lives, right? We show the things we think are important. And all too often, what is it? It’s how much money do I have? What things do I have? What power do I have? Whom is it that are my allies in this world that are more powerful than yours?
I think our current culture really, really plays into this. Every culture does, but I think we’re good at this. We’re good at trying to find ways to brag about whatever we hold on to. The challenge, I think, is how often is it that what we’re doing is we’re bragging about how good God is to us and how much we have that we haven’t any right to have, that it hasn’t been our ingenuity, that it hasn’t been our cleverness, that it’s been nothing but God’s providence, His care for us.
It doesn’t build up our egos very well when we talk like that, does it? And so ironically, even sometimes when we’re sharing about Jesus, what do we do? We talk about how smart we are and why are these people so dumb that don’t see it? And we share those stories about the college student that outsmarts and utterly humiliates the stupid atheist teacher.
Because what we really want is to feel like we’re on the smart side, that we can do something, and those other people aren’t as smart as us, aren’t as successful as us. What you don’t see is the story of the student that doesn’t humiliate the atheist teacher but walks up afterwards and prays for that teacher and actually shows love to that teacher because that teacher’s going through something. That doesn’t make as good a story.
That’s where God’s calling us. Hezekiah had an opportunity. I believe there was something he could have done. I believe this envoy would have received a testimony about the Lord. Hezekiah says, Look at the stuff I have. And I say, Duly noted. We’ll be back. Looks nice.
So we get off track. Maybe part of it for Hezekiah is that he wonders if God will keep having mercy on them. And I really believe if you look at the end of the story, Hezekiah’s lost sight of that. And that’s something that we do too. And sometimes that’s why we rush into this. I have to defeat the others because I don’t know if God’s going to continue to have mercy on me.
Maybe we’re acutely aware, Yes, I have failed. God’s not going to do this. I better do it for myself. Take a look at verse 8. Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good. For he thought there will be peace and security in my days.
I have to confess, I struggle with this verse. I spent almost the entire time preparing this sermon on this verse because depending on how I read it, I come at it very differently. And the way I usually depart from it and the way that many commentators have departed from it is to say, Hezekiah really doesn’t care what happens to anyone else as long as he’s okay. And I think there might be some truth to that.
I continue to think there’s some truth to that. If we’re told something bad’s not going to happen while we’re there at some place, we feel a little relief. A little bit of this struck me today as we had the storm passing through and there were reports of giant hail that was going a little north of us. And I thought, Can it just keep going north? I don’t want it to come south and hit my car.
And then I thought about that for a second. I thought, Can it hit other people’s cars instead? As long as there’s peace for my car. How often do I do that? As long as there’s peace for me. And I think that is part of what Hezekiah is going through here. But I don’t think it’s all of it.
And here’s what reading through John Calvin’s reflection on this passage really hit me with this time. Hezekiah gives a very different response than most of the evil kings. And incidentally, Hezekiah’s a good king. That’s why he does it.
But this doesn’t seem like a good response. But he gives a very different response. Because what do the bad kings do? The prophet comes and says, Bad things are going to happen to the nation. And the prophet then goes to jail. The prophet gets thrown into a well. The prophet no longer is breathing in the next hour. Things like that happen to prophets that say those things.
Hezekiah accepts it. And he doesn’t say necessarily what we want him to say. But he accepts it. And I think there’s a couple of things there.
First, what we see throughout Hezekiah’s life, we have every reason from Scripture to believe Hezekiah is someone who believes in the Lord. That’s why Hezekiah wants us to hear this story. I think he wants us to understand the dangers of those sneaky sin snakes that sneak in in the lives of believers.
Yes, there are those that keep us away from the Lord entirely. But what about the ones that just keep us from actually living as he wants us to? Of experiencing his grace fully? Of sharing his grace fully? What about those? I don’t think Hezekiah tosses Isaiah out the door for a very simple reason.
He doesn’t toss him out the door because he believes him. He believes this is a message from the Lord. And I think Hezekiah is convicted. I think he understands he has done something he shouldn’t have.
He doesn’t say, well, what are you talking about, Isaiah? I just conducted a perfectly good envoy meeting with the Babylonians. God should be pleased that I did this. Get out of here. You’ve lost your game, Isaiah. You don’t know what’s going on.
This message from the Lord is good. And indeed for Hezekiah, there are probably some things in here that are good. For example, it’s been noted that if you look here, when Isaiah talks about this piece for Hezekiah’s time, he talks of the children whom you will father.
And people have reflected on that and said, I think rightly that we have good reason to think that Hezekiah does not yet have any children when this happens. He doesn’t have any descendants.
Now, this is going to be a gloomy forecast for them, but he catches the promise in this. God has not abandoned him. Maybe when Isaiah walks in, he’s already feeling a little bit of a conviction on this, and he says, oh, no. I was hoping he wouldn’t show up. And he waits for Hezekiah to no longer be king. He says, here he comes. Isaiah’s going to come in here, and he’s going to tell me, Hezekiah, you’re out, or you’re going to be out shortly. The Syrians are coming back. You’re done.
Instead, Isaiah says, you’re going to have a peaceful life, and you’re going to have children. Now, not everything’s going to go so great for them, but you’re going to have children that will carry on the family.
And so Hezekiah may, in part, be grasping onto the fact that God is providing blessing and promise even in the midst of his sin and his brokenness.
And I thought about that, and I think, you know, I think there’s something to that, because this is a very unprecedented response that Hezekiah provides. It’s not like other kings. It’s not like when they do what’s right, and it’s not like what they do when they do something wrong. So there’s maybe something in the middle here, and I think there’s something to that.
There’s hope, and there’s God’s faithfulness in you. And yeah, maybe he’s selfish. Maybe he’s short-sighted, right? He’s only thinking about how things are going to be okay for the moment, and he’s not saying, Boy, you know, I’m glad I’m going to have sons and daughters, and they’re going to carry on the family, but boy, I feel awfully heartbroken they’re going to suffer because of my sin.
He doesn’t say that either. So maybe he’s short-sighted. But I think the bigger problem is one that we miss. It’s not that he’s set his goals too short. It’s not that he’s sinned even. It’s that he’s failed to understand the depth of God’s mercy.
Go back to chapter 38. We see what Hezekiah does when the prophet tells him he’s going to die. Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord and said, Please, O Lord, remember how I walk before you in faithfulness with a whole heart and have done what is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
He’s been told before by a prophetic word that things are going to go really, really badly. Hezekiah, you’re going to die. And if everything I’ve just said is the correct understanding of his situation, we don’t have an exact timeline for when his children are born.
But if this is all true, he knows that this is the end of his line, the end of his dynasty. And what does he do? He comes before the Lord in tears and prays to the Lord. And what does God do? God heals him.
Hezekiah has understood that if he comes before the Lord, the God of the universe, the God of the universe is powerful and caring, that he will come and he will hear the prayers of his people and he will respond to those prayers. He understood that and he’s seen it work in incredible, almost unimaginable ways.
And yet here is what should be a very sobering word, that yes, he will have descendants, but those descendants, they’re going to be enslaved. They’re going to serve the leader of that envoy that’s just come to see him.
He accepts God’s blessing, but he doesn’t come before God and weep and repent. And he doesn’t seek God’s mercy in this. And I think there is the heart of what happens here. And it’s so key to what happens thereafter in Isaiah, because as we read on in Isaiah, if we go into chapter 40, if you know Isaiah 40, one of the most beautiful things ever written in the history of the world, it’s about God showing his mercy to his unfaithful people.
I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Hezekiah forgets that. He doesn’t cry out here. He knows that God hears his prayers. He’s seen God hear his prayers, even when he’s undeserving. And here Hezekiah, he hasn’t become utterly unfaithful. He hasn’t rejected his faith. He’s just sort of become passive and dead to it. Just flat. He just accepts it. He’ll get there.
And in that, he’s missing out on what God’s really calling him to do in this moment. He’s missing out on a chance to turn away from what he’s done and see God work powerfully. He’s missed the opportunity to share with the people that were coming to see him the wonders of God because he’s just accepting, just driving along.
I’m sure some of you, many of you maybe even have made the trek down I-70 to Indianapolis from here or beyond, going east on 70. And if you have, you know, a lot of that drive is really pretty bland. You get out in the middle of Illinois, it’s pretty flat, pretty nondescript on 70. It’s just mile after mile.
And what do you do if you need to get to Indianapolis? Well, you accept it. Okay. I’m in St. Louis. I need to get to Indianapolis. This is how I get there. It’s going to be nondescript for hours. I’m going to do that because I need to get there.
But have you ever pulled off 70? There’s a lot that we miss. For example, in Casey, just a little bit east of Effingham. Did you know that Casey, okay, brace yourselves for this, they have the world’s largest golf tee. See that back there behind the tree there? World’s largest golf tee.
But that’s not all. They have the world’s largest knitting needles and crochet hook. Oh, it doesn’t stop there. They have the world’s largest wind chimes. And wait, there’s more. They have the world’s largest number two pencil. And the world’s largest rocking chair.
And just in case you go there and you want to send a postcard, they, well, no, I’m getting ahead of myself. I don’t want to miss the point. There’s a pitchfork. World’s largest pitchfork. And if you want to tell people about this, guess what? They have the world’s largest mailbox. All in Casey.
And if you don’t pull off the highway, you just see a bunch of farm fields. You don’t see anything. But if you pull off, you see all these things in Casey. It’s really, all kidding aside, it’s kind of neat. I mean, at least I find it neat. I know, I know. But I think it’s pretty neat when you stand next to a number two pencil. It’s neat.
And there’s all kinds of other things. There’s beautiful covered bridges. There’s pretty creeks and trees and hills. And it’s all less than a mile off the road.
And you know what? If you keep driving on that, you’ll still get to the same place. But a lot of times we become so focused on where we’re going, we just keep going and we’re just satisfied, right?
And friends, I think a lot of times for those of us who have been following Jesus for a long time, we become complacent and satisfied. We say, I read my Bible, I pray, I come to church, I haven’t murdered anyone.
Everything’s pretty good. And I know because it’s about grace that someday I’ll be in Jesus’ presence. And those are good things to do and that’s a good truth to hold on to. But what I think we see in Hezekiah’s life is that he’s been driving down that highway for so long he’s forgotten to pull off. And to see the blessings that are alongside the road that he doesn’t notice.
A lot of times we’re cruising down that road and it’s not just for four or five hours from one city to the next, it’s for life. And we’re cruising and we’re going to get there. If you trust in Jesus, you’re going to get there. But what we all are invited to is to hear the comfort that God offers His people.
Isaiah 40, verse 1: Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended and that her iniquity is pardoned that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
We’re called to hear that afresh and pull off of the road that we’re just driving down on cruise control. Pull off and actually see God’s blessing and share God’s blessing. Invite someone else to come see the world’s largest golf tee or to climb into a mailbox.
Say to someone who’s hurting, there’s someone who heals that hurt.
For Hezekiah to say to the Babylonians, yes, the Assyrians are mighty, but let me tell you, turn and believe. Turn and follow the Lord because you right now, you can’t defeat the Assyrians, we can’t defeat the Assyrians, but guess what? I already have the ally who can.
Turn to Him. They’re so fixated on I’m 200 miles from the exit I need to get off on. Can’t even see it. He’s there with the Lord. He’s saved. And He’s not fulfilling His purpose.
And here’s the thing I think we’re meant to take away from this passage. This is what really struck me on this passage. If we find ourselves and we are going to in those places where we’re just cruising along and part of the reason we’re so flat is we think, I can’t cry out for this anymore. God knows I have a hard heart in this area and I won’t let go of this sin and so I’m just going to be content that somehow I get over the line and that’s going to be enough.
But the message for us is it’s never too late to repent. It’s never too late to cry out for His mercy. It wasn’t for Hezekiah and it’s not for us. And Christians, it’s not too late to cry out afresh and be refreshed.
The sneaky snake that we see here is a snake that entangles us and chokes us as believers that we just are somehow going to muddle through. We’re going down that highway. We forget who God really is. We forget what He’ll do for us.
But God doesn’t forget how He loves us. So let’s turn to Him afresh and pray with Him.
Lord, we come before You and for some of us we’ve never entrusted our lives to You. Lord, would You speak to us and to our hearts and remind us that we can turn this very night and You are faithful to respond. For those of us that have trusted You, Lord, we pray that You wouldn’t let us become spiritually complacent.
That You wouldn’t let us just live a life on cruise control on a flat highway, but You would help us to see those places where You want us to turn off and witness Your majesty and Your beauty and Your forgiveness.
Because we are confident we will reach the end, we can stop at the scenic overlook and see what You’re doing and testify to it to others because we already know that Your destination for us is secure.
Because of that, would You motivate us even this week to share with those around us the hope that we have in You, to not testify to ourselves and our own strength and our own glory, but to testify to Your love.
We pray this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
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