Bible Commentaries

Hezekiah Warned

Isaiah 38:2-3).

Hezekiah's life was prolonged; the shadow on the dial was turned back. It was a wonderful dial; it was the dial of Ahaz, mayhap a mural dial, visible to Hezekiah when he lay in his sick-chamber; he may have actually seen the shadow going back. Some say it was a prolonged after-glow. Why trifle with the miracle? We know nothing about it, we have no answer to it; the Lord has given the fact, he has not given the explanation. Call it, if you please, a long eventime, a prolonged sunset So be it. Did the man live after it? As a matter of fact, we know, according to history, that he did live after it, and became the father of his successor upon the throne of Judah, and did many wonderful things. That is enough. As to dial and shadow and miracle, these must be to us symbolical of a providence which is mighty enough to do all these little things, and which has been doing in all the ages works compared with which these things are but trifles. Granting the almightiness of God, we need have no difficulty as to anything that has taken place; granting that God was before all things, and is above all things, and holds all things in the hollow of his hand, it ought to be easy for us to believe that he has done nothing but wonders, that miracles are the commonplaces of his government, and that to do aught but miracles would be to be less than God.

Here we must abide as to all such transactions or occurrences, for he who wishes to explain them simply wishes to be wise above that which is written.

How interesting it is to discover what Hezekiah really felt when he was in the pit of humiliation, and going down into the pit of corruption! A wondrous pensiveness there is in his tone:—

"I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world" ( Isaiah 38:10-11).

How Hezekiah found in all the nature round about him just what he wanted in his mood of dejection!—"Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove" ( Isaiah 38:14). He takes this, however, as an example of what he himself felt, when their voice of mourning was heard. Instead of "a swallow" read "the swift"—"like a crane or the swift.... Then I did mourn as a dove." We hear what we want to hear. Nature will help us in any mood. Sweet mother, sweet nurse, best, tenderest of friends, next to the Father! Nature herself seems to be always speaking in a minor tone; here and there, and now, and once more, she may break into loud and vivacious singing, but when she Isaiah 38:17). This misrepresents the thought of the man; it should be otherwise—namely, thus:—through great bitterness I got peace. The aloes was a bitter medicine, but what good it wrought, how it operated like a tonic, how it made me healthier and stronger altogether! I got peace through bitterness: "Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption,"—literally, thou hast loved me out of the pit, drawn me by love out of the pit of corruption. This was the experience of Hezekiah. It may be our experience. The purpose of God's love is to draw us away from all pits, dejections, humiliations, prostrations, and to give us life, vigour, triumph, sense and guarantee of immortality.

"The living, the living, he shall praise thee" ( Isaiah 38:19). That is the object of life. If we are using life for any other end, we are misusing it; we are arrested as felons in creation. Life is a sacred thing, a religious gift, a holy trust, and it is handed to us that we may make it an instrument of divine praise. Marvellous life! no man has seen it; it will not be looked at. It may be seen in incarnation, in temporary form, in some transient phase, but itself will never be gazed upon. Men have attempted to surprise life, but they have always failed in their endeavour. They have said, Let us quietly withdraw the veil, and see the angel. They have withdrawn the veil, and lost their labour. No man ever yet saw his own pulse. Tear off the skin, open all that wondrous mechanism,—where is it? Gone! It will not be found, touched, weighed, painted. You can paint form, but you cannot paint life. You say, That eye wants fire, that head wants dignity, the whole frame wants the accent which is vital. Give it! The artist may partially succeed, but one lifting of an infant's hand throws all the artist's skill away like a vain thing. One flash of the eye of anger, one gleam of the eye of love, one touch of friendship,—who can paint these, represent these? We can only speak of them, and remember them, and hide them in our grateful hearts: but to speak of them is almost to destroy them; they love the temple of silence, they delight in the sanctuary of holy things. Who will live unto the Lord's praise? who will say, I will now sing unto the Lord as long as I live: God helping me, no longer shall my life be mean, and empty, and poor, vicious, sophistical, self-seeking; hence on by God's help as revealed in Christ's Cross I will praise the Lord? Then we shall come to see what life can really rise to, and embody, and realise. No man yet knows what is in him: you have more intellect than you have yet supposed; you have greater capacity than you have yet measured; you only need the right inspiration, and out of you there will come sparks cf fire, and as it were in the very hem of your garment there will be healing, and all life will be a blessing to all other life.

Do not believe that you have attained your majority, that you are now going down the hill, that you have left life to others. In Christ Jesus we shall live to the very last. The last of your days shall be amongst the brightest jewels of your time. He who lives in Christ never tires; he is fed with energy divine, he is sustained from on high; he has indeed a long after-glow. And there are those who have not scrupled to say that, beauty for beauty, the prize must be given to eventide.

Note

"From720 , when Isaiah 21:1-10, Oracle of the Wilderness of the Sea, which announces the fall of Babylon."

—Rev. G. A, Smith, M.A.