SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/4/2013
9:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The
Illness Crisis PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah
38:4-20
Message of the
verses: We will begin to look at the
rest of chapter thirty-eight in the book of Isaiah, which speaks about Hezekiah’s
illness, but remember that this incident happened before what we have read
about in chapters 36-37, as we can see from Isaiah 38:6.
Promise (Isaiah 38:4-8):
“4 Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and say to
Hezekiah, ’Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, "I have heard
your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your
life. 6 “I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria;
and I will defend this city."’ 7 “This shall be the sign to you from the
LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He has spoken: 8 “Behold, I will
cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the
stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps." So the sun’s shadow went back ten
steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.”
This whole event is also recorded in 2 Kings 20:1-11 and
I want to quote from that book for us to see something that is not recorded in
the book of Isaiah. “8 Now Hezekiah said
to Isaiah, "What will
be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the
house of the LORD the third day?" 9 Isaiah said, "This shall be the
sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten
steps or go back ten steps?" 10 So Hezekiah answered, "It is
easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps." 11
Isaiah the prophet cried to the LORD, and He brought the shadow on the stairway
back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.”
We see in this section two promises from the Lord, the
first one was the Assyrians would not attack Jerusalem, and that is found in
verse six and the second promise which was that Hezekiah would not die is given
with a sign to prove that the Lord would do it.
Think about having the sun go back up the stairs and you must come to
the conclusion that the earth had to go backwards on its rotation for this to
happen. No small miracle, but remember
Who did this miracle.
Just let me touch briefly on what the Lord used to heal
Hezekiah’s illness. “7 Then Isaiah said,
"Take a cake of figs." And they took and laid it on the boil, and he
recovered 2 Kings 20:7).”
I am not so sure of the spiritual value of what I am
about to write, but I want to write something about what the Lord told Isaiah
to put on the boil that was about to kill Hezekiah, and that was a cake of
figs. For the last eight months I have
been seeing a woman who has given me herbs to take for things that are problems
in my body. I also saw a doctor who
stated that the Lord has put things upon this earth to heal our bodies when
they are sick. Now I am not saying that
a person who uses all of these herbs will live forever, but that herbs are
things that the Lord has placed on this earth to help us to get over
sicknesses. All I can say is that I have
had success by using these different herbs, and the praise goes to the Lord for
creating them when He created the world.
Pondering (Isaiah 38:9-20): “9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after
his illness and recovery: 10 I said,
"In the middle of my life I am to enter the gates of Sheol; I am to be
deprived of the rest of my years." 11 I said, "I will not see the
LORD, The LORD in the land of the living; I will look on man no more among the
inhabitants of the world. 12 “Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up
and removed from me; As a weaver I rolled up my life. He cuts me off from the
loom; From day until night You make an end of me. 13 “I composed my soul until
morning. Like a lion-so He breaks all my bones, From day until night You make
an end of me. 14 “Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter; I moan like a
dove; My eyes look wistfully to the heights; O Lord, I am oppressed, be my
security. 15 “What shall I say? For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has
done it; I will wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.
16 “O Lord, by these things men live, And in all these is the life of my
spirit; O restore me to health and let me live! 17 “Lo, for my own welfare I
had great bitterness; It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of
nothingness, For You have cast 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 “It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today; A father
tells his sons about Your faithfulness. 20 “The LORD will surely save me; So we
will play my songs on stringed instruments All the days of our life at the
house of the LORD.’”
In this worship to the Lord we see that first of all
Hezekiah was given a new appreciation for life as seen in verses 9-12, and then
we see in verses 13-14 that he had a new appreciation for prayer, for if it
were not for prayer then Hezekiah would have died. Prayer is something that the Lord has allowed
His children to speak to Him, and when we truly know the Lord He will cause us
to pray for things that He will accomplish in our lives or the lives of who we
are praying for. Prayer is
wonderful! In verse 15-20 we see the
service that Hezekiah will accomplish for the Lord because of His answered prayer.
I want to quote the last paragraph of Warren Wiersbe’s
commentary on this section for in it we will find great wisdom: “There are some students who feel that
Hezekiah was wrong in asking God to spare his life. Three years later, his son Manasseh was born
(2 Kings 21:1), and he reigned for fifty-five years, the most wicked king in
the entire dynasty! Had Hezekiah died
without an heir, this would not have happened.
But we have no guarantee that any other successor would have been any
better, and Manasseh’s grandson was godly King Josiah, who did much to bring
the nation back to the Lord. Manasseh
did repent after God chastened him, and he ended his years serving the Lord (2
Chron. 33:11-20). It is unwise for us to
second-guess God or history.” (Amen to
that last statement.)
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: There are times
in my life when I don’t always agree with the things that are going on it my
life, but knowing that God who is called “The Lord of Hosts” over 300 times in
the Bible, which means that He is in charge, gives me comfort. We read in the Scriptures that life is just
like a breath, but life is precious and in the case of Hezekiah he truly
appreciated life more when he was given an extension to his life by the Lord
through the answer of His prayer. I have
been praying for a special person in my life for almost 38 years, and now the
Lord has answered part of this prayer so that I can begin to rebuild a
relationship with them, and I continue to pray that the Holy Spirit of God will
be greatly at work in this person’s heart convicting this person of sin, and
then calling this person to salvation.
Prayer has become more precious to me because of God’s gracious answer
to this long time prayer.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to pray.
Memory verses for the
week: 2 Peter 1:1-6
1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus
Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as our, by the
righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be
multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that
His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness,
through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His
precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of
the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by
lust. 5 Now for this very reason also,
applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your
moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge self-control, and in your
self-control perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Philippi” (Acts 16:16).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Who described herself as ‘The
handmaid of the Lord’?
Answer in our next SD.
10/4/2013 10:33 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment