WITH OUR FACE TO THE WALL – 2 Chronicles 32:24-26
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on February 18, 2018 under 2018 |
Preached Sunday, February 18, 2018 from 2 Chronicles 32:24-26
Theme: Even in times of great revival—when great spiritual renewal is going on all around us—God will make sure our own personal dependency is kept upon Him.1
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
But this morning, we consider an important element of revival with regard to King Hezekiah as an individual man before God.
When we think about the need of our nation for a spiritual awakening, and as we pray for revival on a large scale, it’s easy to forget what a revival really is. A true revival in the sight of God is nothing else but a very large number personal revivals happening at once—where individual men and women turn to God, and believe on Jesus in a personal way, and experiencing their own unique spiritual renewals … together. We might pray for revival as—and even see it as—God working to transform an entire nation. But we mustn’t forget that God cares about each individual personally, and desires for every one of them to personally experience renewal and devotion to Him.
In revival, He is not satisfied with anything less than our own personal, individual devotion to Him. And if we loose sight of that, He lovingly takes action to bring our hearts back to a sense of dependency upon Him—even when it might be that revival is going on all around us.
I believe that we see that illustrated to us in the story that we find told to us in 2 Chronicles 32:24-26.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; to appreciate the lesson that this part of Hezekiah’s story has to teach us, we need to remember that it comes after the story of two other very important events in his life.2
The first event was the remarkable spiritual revival that God had used King Hezekiah to bring about for his people. Under Hezekiah’s leadership, the people of Judah had returned to the God of their fathers and were restored to a faithful worship of Him. And the second event—one that occurred after that great spiritual revival had begun—was the way Hezekiah’s faithfulness to God was tested by the threat his people experienced from the dreaded kingdom of Assyria. The vast army of Assyria, you’ll remember, had surrounded helpless Jerusalem; and Hezekiah cried out in faith to God. As a result, God brought about a great victory for His people.
After these two great events had occurred—the revival in Judah, and miracle of the defeat of Assyria—2 Chronicles 32:22-23 tell us this;
Thus the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all others, and guided them on every side. And many brought gifts to the LORD at Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations thereafter (2 Chronicles 32:22-23).
What victory! What a revival! God was pouring out His blessings, in a remarkable way, upon the people of Judah and on King Hezekiah. But it was in the midst of these blessings that a new challenge came—not externally as from a foreign king, but internally as from the sinful tendencies of the fallen human heart. Hezekiah began to respond wrongly to the rich blessings that God had poured out on him. His heart became lifted up in pride.
The verses that follow give this morning’s story to us in just a few words, and in a way that sort of mingles the chronology of events just a bit:
In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death, and he prayed to the LORD; and He spoke to him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah did not repay according to the favor shown him, for his heart was lifted up; therefore wrath was looming over him and over Judah and Jerusalem. Then Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah (vv. 24-26).
Now; before we get too far along, I hope I may clarify something. I want to be extremely careful not to communicate—in any way—that I believe that times of illness are always brought about because of sin in our lives. That’s something that some people teach; and I believe it’s one of the most cruel errors anyone can ever propagate. It’s simply not the case that all illness is the immediate result of personal sin.
But as our story this morning shows us, God may at times permit illness to come upon one of His beloved children whose heart is getting out of line toward Him. He does so for a redemptive reason—that is, in order to chasten them, and humble them, and lead them back to a more faithful dependency upon Him. That’s what appears to have happened to godly King Hezekiah.
And just think of what a horrible thing this pride was in his life. Hezekiah was proud—if you can imagine it—because God had blessed him richly. How sad it is that, because of the sinful inclinations of our heart, we sometimes can’t even receive an outpouring of God’s undeserved blessings upon our lives—blessings that He longs to pour out on us—without corrupting it with pride! How sad it is that we can’t even seem suppress pride in our hearts just a little bit, without becoming proud of ourselves for having done so! Personally, I don’t think we should come down too hard on Hezekiah for his very terrible failure in this passage. If we had been blessed as much as he had been, we might have fallen into the sin of pride too.
But here is the good news: God loved and blessed Hezekiah so much that He humbled him—even in a time when the blessedness of revival was going on all around Him—all so that He could love him and bless His servant even further. And I believe that this illustrates a great spiritual lesson to us: that even in times of great revival, God will make sure our personal dependency is kept upon Him.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Now; it’s interesting how little the writer of 2 Chronicles tells us about this. But we can know much more of the details of the story of King Hezekiah’s humbling; and to do so, we need to go elsewhere in Scripture. So; I ask that we turn to one of the Old Testament passages that tells us this story in greater detail—particularly, to 2 Kings 20.
The Book of 2 Kings also tells us much about the story of the revival under Hezekiah, and of how God had miraculously delivered his people from the Assyrians. And 2 Kings 20:1 begins by telling us;
In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death (2 Kings 20:1a).
What was the nature of this sickness? As we read on in the story, we find that it was—of all things—a boil that had become infected. It had become so infected, in fact, that it made Hezekiah gravely ill. And there’s something terribly humbling in just that much of the story, isn’t there? Imagine such a great and powerful king brought to death’s door, not by a mighty army, but by a pimple that went bad! How frail even the best of us are! It doesn’t take much at all to cut us down to size; does it? Just a boil will do the job. What do we have to be proud about?
Now; the great prophet Isaiah was alive and ministering in the days of Hezekiah. And God sent Isaiah to tell Hezekiah how serious the situation was. Verse one goes on to tell us;
And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live’” (v. 1b).
Now; you and I may read that and think, “Really, Isaiah! Can’t you be more ‘pastoral’ in your care for the sick king than that?” But if you think carefully about it, you realize that this was a great act of grace. After all, if God had truly meant for Hezekiah to die, He would have simply said nothing to him, and would have just allowed the boil to do its deadly job. But when you look at the story as a whole, you realize that by giving this information through Isaiah, God was testing Hezekiah’s faith and to granting him a chance to repent. The king’s heart had degenerated into pride; but what would the proud king now do with the news of his impending death? Would he abandon his pride and self-sufficiency, turn once again to the God that he had neglected, and cry out to Him for mercy?
And what did Hezekiah do? What would you do if you received news like this? Would you get angry and bitter toward God?—as many sometimes do? Or would you cry out to God in humble dependency? Well; this great but fallible man of God set a great example for us. He humbled himself and cried out to God for mercy. We’re told that, after receiving this news from God’s messenger, he “turned his face toward the wall”; which suggests that he was bed-ridden. But it also suggests that he turned himself away from everything else—from all the great and important affairs of his kingdom—in order to do serious business with God. Verses 2-3 tell us;
Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly (vv. 2-3).
There are a couple of things that we need to say about this. First, we shouldn’t be too quick to assume that Hezekiah was trying to ‘bargain’ with God on the basis of his good works—as if God was being unjust toward a good and worthy man who really deserved to live. With his face toward the wall, and the news about his impending death fresh in his ears, Hezekiah had made a careful and reflective review of his life; and he was able to say—with full integrity—that he had lived a life of loyalty to God. It would not be ‘pride’ to say a thing like that if it was really true. And in Hezekiah’s case, it was. It is a precious thing to be able to say such a thing while a deathbed—and for it be true. Would that, in Christ, we all invested now in being able to have a good conscience then—while we can!
And second, we should consider that his reasons for weeping may not have been entirely because of selfish concerns. On the one hand, he may have been concerned that, if he had suddenly died of illness after God had just delivered his people from the Assyrians, the Assyrian king might be tempted to come back and avenge himself on King Hezekiah’s people. And there’s another part of the story that you can’t see on the surface. It’s something that you would have to dig down a bit deeper in order to discover. You see; this ‘deathbed’ event took place around the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign; which would have made him thirty-nine years old. The son of Hezekiah (named Manasseh) would not be seated upon his father’s throne until the age of twelve—and that’s fifteen years from the time of this story. Hezekiah’s son, then, would not have been born for another two or three years. This meant that Hezekiah was dying of an infected boil without having yet left an heir to take his place! What then would happen to the covenant promise of God to King David that his throne would be established forever, and that a son that would come from David’s own body would be the Messiah? Was the Messianic hope of Israel—and even their safety and security as a people—about to be lost because Hezekiah’s lapse of pride? And more; would fallen mankind’s hope of a Savior—the promised Christ—now be lost because of an infected boil?
Well; of course not. God will never let any of His promises fail. This was all obviously a test of Hezekiah’s faith—and of his readiness to repent of the pride of his heart. And he responded to this test rightly. He humbly cried out to God with a renewed sense of dependency upon Him for mercy.
Verses 4-6 go on to tell us;
And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David”’” (vv. 4-6).
Now; things in our passage seem to be presented a bit out of order; but the proper order of events is not hard to construct. First, notice what it says in verse 7;
Then Isaiah said, “Take a lump of figs.” So they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered (v. 7).
According to some ancient writings of the time, figs were recognized as having a healing property. And if this was the case, then God was simply blessing the use of natural means to accomplish His purpose. But I suspect there was much more to this than just putting figs on Hezekiah’s wound; don’t you? I believe this was a miracle with symbolic importance. Do you remember how the Lord Jesus once came to the fig tree on His way to the cross? He was expecting to see figs, which would have been a symbol of the life and spiritual vitality of His people Israel; but instead, He found none. I wonder if God was, here, symbolically showing us that He was miraculously maintaining the life and vitality of the lineage of King David—and showing that He would keep His promise to provide a Redeemer through David’s offspring.
Then we’re told in verse 8;
And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day?” (v. 8).
If indeed the application of figs to Hezekiah’s wound is meant to call our attention to the time when the Lord went to Jerusalem in preparation of the cross, then do you suppose there is also great significance in Hezekiah being raised from his death bed to go to the temple on the third day? I certainly do. What a picture this gives us of our Lord Jesus! He heals us by going to the cross for us; and He raises us up with Him by His own resurrection three day later!
Well; Hezekiah wanted to know how he could be sure that this would happen. And so we read on;
Then Isaiah said, “This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees?” And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.” So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz (vv. 9-11).
How such a thing happened is something we’re not told. But it was obviously a miracle—one that others that cared about Hezekiah and prayed for him must have also seen. And it confirmed to them—and to him—that God would indeed keep his promise.
And He did keep His promise! How this must have fixed Hezekiah’s heart in humble dependency upon God from then on!
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; what we’ve looked at so far are the facts of the story. But God wanted us to know more than just the facts. He also wanted us to feel the emotions and to walk through the heart-transformation that occurred within Hezekiah throughout it all; and all so that we, like Hezekiah, could fully appreciate the lesson God was seeking to teach us.
And this takes us to yet one more passage in the Old Testament that reveals Hezekiah’s heart to us after this great miracle of healing. In Isaiah 38:9-20, we’re given a poem that describes the emotional and heart-transformational part of the story. As verse 9 tells us;
This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness . . . (v. 9).
You can divide this fascinating song into two parts. The first part has to do with the anguishing cry of Hezekiah at the news that he would die. That first part begins with the words “I said …” (v. 10). The second part has to do with Hezekiah’s response after God promised to heal him. That second part begins with the grateful words, “What shall I say? He has both spoken to me, and He Himself has done it” (v. 15).
Consider the first half—that is, his anguished cry at the news that he would die;
I said,
“In the prime of my life
I shall go to the gates of Sheol;
I am deprived of the remainder of my years.”
I said,
“I shall not see YAH,
The LORD in the land of the living;
I shall observe man no more among the inhabitants of the world. (vv. 10-11).
The anguish of Hezekiah’s heart was not simply that he would experience death. It was also that, because of death, he would no longer be able to praise God in the land of the living.
My life span is gone,
Taken from me like a shepherd’s tent;
I have cut off my life like a weaver.
He cuts me off from the loom;
From day until night You make an end of me.
I have considered until morning—
Like a lion,
So He breaks all my bones;
From day until night You make an end of me (vv. 12-13).
Suddenly, abruptly—as if in the course of a single day—his illustrious life on this earth was about to be brought to an end. What a blow to his pride this was! And so, he remembered the cry he made to God:
Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered;
I mourned like a dove;
My eyes fail from looking upward.
O LORD, I am oppressed;
Undertake for me! (v. 14).
And do you notice how that first half ends? It ends in Hezekiah’s appeal to God—in his darkest moment—that He would ‘undertake’ for him or come to his aid. And in this, Hezekiah sets a great example for us. He’s example to us is not one of how to be perfect, of course. But then, we don’t need an example of how to be perfect. What we need is an example of how, in times of discipline and chastening, fallible people like us should cry out to God—and of how faithful God is toward those who humbly cry out to Him.
And God certainly proved faithful to Hezekiah. Look at how the mood changes in the second half of the poem:
“What shall I say?
He has both spoken to me,
And He Himself has done it (v. 15a).
It’s clear that the trial of Hezekiah’s illness was meant to wean him of his pride—to wean him of ever thinking he could get by without being utterly dependent upon God. And Hezekiah most certainly learned his lesson:
I shall walk carefully all my years
In the bitterness of my soul (v. 15b);
or, as I believe it is better translated in the New International Version, “I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul.”
O Lord, by these things men live;
And in all these things is the life of my spirit;
So You will restore me and make me live.
Indeed it was for my own peace
That I had great bitterness;
But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption,
For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
For Sheol cannot thank You,
Death cannot praise You;
Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth.
The living, the living man, he shall praise You,
As I do this day;
The father shall make known Your truth to the children (vv. 16-19).
Perhaps those words about ‘the father’ and ‘the children’ were just a hint of an affirmation that Hezekiah would, indeed, live to see a son take the throne, and the Messianic promise that God made to David would indeed be fulfilled. And what’s more, the great anguish of his heart would be answered. He would live to praise God in God’s temple among the living:
“The LORD was ready to save me;
Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments
All the days of our life, in the house of the LORD” (v. 20).
* * * * * * * * * *
I wonder, in all of this, if anyone here today has felt the Holy Spirit gently tugging at your heart. It may be that you have been in quiet, secret rebellion against God. It may be that pride has risen up in you—as it did in Hezekiah. Or it may be something else that has hindered your progress with the Lord. But perhaps you are even feeling the hand of God pressing upon you in some way because of it.
If you or I ever feel that hand, we should take it as very good news. It means that God loves us and is calling our hearts back to a complete, whole-hearted dependency upon Him. He is calling us to follow the basic principle of life that we find in Micah 6:8;
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8).
This principle is worthy to be remembered always; and especially during a time of revival. May we take fully to heart this great lesson from the experience of Hezekiah—and humble ourselves under God’s disciplining hand, so that we may receive the rich blessings He longs to give to those He loves.
Much of the material from this message has been adapted from my sermon ‘Hezekiah’s Cry’; preached on Sunday morning, July 3, 2011.
“Most scholars place the events of our passage this morning before the great victory over the Assyrians in 701 B.C. One of their strongest reasons for doing so is because of God’s promise to defend Jerusalem from the king of Assyria found in 2 Kings 20:6 and Isaiah 38:6. I, however, lean strongly toward placing it immediately afterwards. Arguments for both views can be made, and both positions have their merits and faults. But my two greatest reasons for placing it afterwards is (1) because of the fact that all of the accounts of Hezekiah’s life report the story of his illness after the defeat of the Assyrians; and (2) it makes more sense of the series of events as they are described in 2 Chronicles 32:22-26. As to the promise from God to defend Jerusalem, I believe it’s important to remember that the king of Assyria lived for another twenty years or so after the defeat at Jerusalem. He would naturally have been considered by Hezekiah to still present a threat long after his humiliating defeat; and perhaps even particularly so if he were to hear that Hezekiah was stricken and made vulnerable by illness” (ibid).
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