Episode Transcript
Good morning.
Glad to see everybody here at 10 o'clock.
It is.
And we're in 2 Kings chapter 20, verse 3.
2 Kings chapter 20 and verse 3.
And last week we read the beginning of an interaction between Isaiah the prophet and Hezekiah the king of Judah.
And Hezekiah was on his deathbed.
Isaiah told Hezekiah to set his house in order because he was about to die.
And upon receiving that news, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and began to pray.
Sometimes the wall is the only thing you want to look at.
Have you ever been there?
And so let's reread verse 3 up to that point.
"I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight."
And Hezekiah wept sore.
And we made it all the way down to where Hezekiah in his prayer said, "I've done that which is good in thy sight."
Now the Bible tells us that's also what Solomon did and King Amaziah did.
They did that which was good in the sight of the Lord.
The Bible told us they were good kings, but their hearts were not perfect before the Lord.
That's what the Bible also told us.
So Hezekiah is appealing to God based upon his walk with God.
And we don't see that Hezekiah asked for anything in particular here.
Although later on he'll be given a choice, an interesting choice.
And yes, God did remember how Hezekiah walked before him.
And he did know Hezekiah's heart.
Now look back in your text, we're in 2 Kings chapter 20 and verse 3.
And it says at the end of the verse, "And Hezekiah wept sore."
This righteous king who was full of faith wept sore.
He did.
He was human.
Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus even though Jesus himself knew that He would raise Lazarus from the dead.
So weeping is not a sign of weakness or a sign of lack of faith, not at all.
Don't ever let someone tell you not to cry over something like this.
God gave us tears and He hears us when we cry.
You know I'm not fit to tie King Hezekiah's shoes and he cried over this news from Isaiah.
Let's think about the shock Hezekiah must have been in when he was told he was going to die.
If you go back and you don't have to turn there, I'll just remind you back in 2 Kings 18 verse 2 when we were introduced to Hezekiah, the Bible said this about him, "Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem.
His mother's name also was Abbie, the daughter of Zachariah."
Now based upon the math here, Hezekiah died when he was 54.
And if you subtract 15 years from this and you'll see why just a little later in our study, this means Hezekiah was 39 years old when Isaiah told him, "Thou shalt die and not live."
Now that changes things a little bit, doesn't it?
Can you imagine your 39 year old self and minus the Jeremy's, everybody in here has been 39 or they're close.
I won't ask Allison, I won't.
But close enough, right?
But can you imagine your 39 year old self being told by Isaiah, "You're going to die and you're not going to live."
You'd be in shock too, wouldn't you?
People might say about Hezekiah, "Oh, he was so young.
What a tragedy."
So please understand that Hezekiah is not a 90 year old man who's lived a long, full life and is just fading away.
He was a 39 year old king, full of faith, who contracted a deadly illness.
I was doing some financial research here a while back and I came across an online calendar that predicted my life expectancy.
And this wasn't some kind of crystal ball.
This was something that life insurance salesman used to figure out what their premiums are going to be and all of that.
And it bases your life expectancy on two main things, your age and your gender.
And it said I'd live to be 83.
Now I put zero stock in something like that, especially since I drive in Dallas-Fort Worth traffic every day for a living. 83 is pretty generous.
And even though it's used for financial planning, I don't put any stock in somebody telling me how long they think I'm going to live.
If I live to be 83, 63 or 103, I'll just be thankful to God because He has a reason for me living however long He determines.
But that life expectancy calculator's conclusion is nothing like hearing it from the prophet Isaiah because he didn't use a calculator.
He got it straight from God.
He was exact and he was blunt and Hezekiah wept sore at this news.
Look back now in verse 4, "And it came to pass, for Isaiah was gone out into the middle court that the word of the Lord came to him saying," and we'll read what he said in a moment.
Isaiah had not cleared the building.
After telling Hezekiah you're going to die and you're not going to live, Isaiah had not made it out of the building before God turned him right back around to deliver the rest of the message.
And during that time, perhaps God was testing Hezekiah, giving him the chance to respond in faith or in the flesh because those are the two choices we have.
And except for the few words we've read so far, we really don't know what else Hezekiah's thoughts were at that time.
Now verse 5, this is God telling Isaiah what to do, "Turn again and tell Hezekiah, the captain of My people.
Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears.
Behold, I will heal thee.
On the third day, thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord."
He said, "Turn again and tell Hezekiah, the captain of My people.
Thus saith the Lord."
Go back and tell Hezekiah that the one to whom you've prayed has something else to say to you.
When Hezekiah prayed, it was I to thee, O Lord.
We looked at that last week.
When God spoke, it was the Lord to Hezekiah.
It wasn't God just making this general pronouncement, hoping somebody like Hezekiah would be able to hear His audible voice.
No, He was speaking through Isaiah to Hezekiah specifically.
And we've learned in other studies that our prayers, remember Hezekiah was praying, that our prayers are already answered either specifically in the Bible or principally, meaning there's a principle that applies.
And it's found in God's Word.
So when people say, "Well, I'm just waiting around for the Lord to tell me whether I should start doing this or start doing that."
Well, if the Bible says you're supposed to do it, the Lord's already told you what to do.
But this answer was a very specific answer meant only for Hezekiah.
However, we're going to learn something from it as well.
He said in verse 5, "The God of David, thy father."
Now that is how Isaiah describes God to Hezekiah at this time.
He said, "The God of David, thy father."
The God who's faithful to His servant David is speaking here.
And David's been dead a long time by this time.
And it's important to see that there is only one God.
Now that right there would get you in an argument with many people in this world, many religious people, in fact.
And you might think, "Well, that's obvious that there's only one God."
But it's not obvious to many people.
They pray to a God with a little g who is not the God of David.
They pray to a God who is not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the seed of David as the Bible says, and in identifying Himself in this way like He did, He said, "The God of David, thy father."
In identifying Himself this way, God is underscoring to Hezekiah that the one true God is speaking through His prophet Isaiah directly to Him.
And through Isaiah, God would tell Hezekiah, look back in your text, "I have heard thy prayer."
Now that's what's wonderful about praying to God is that He hears us.
1 John chapter 5 verse 14, just write that down in your notes, 1 John 5, 14, "And this is the confidence that we have in Him," that is God, "that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us."
God's paying attention the whole time His people are praying.
Before the service, I was over here speaking with Ann and Glenda was over there, the three or four of us talking, and Abigail was just so polite, I know she wanted to practice, and I turned around and I said, "If you're waiting on us to be quiet, to start playing, it'll never happen.
Go ahead and practice."
And she wasn't wanting to interrupt, which was very sweet.
But with God, He doesn't say, "Hold on, Andy, hold on, Ann's talking right now, you're next."
He can hear them all at the same time.
Every word of every prayer, every time, and that's so comforting to me, because I'm not on a party line having to wait to talk.
Some of y'all know what I'm talking about, the old party lines, don't you?
You snoopers.
But you know, if we'll pay attention to what God, to praying according to what God's will is, then we can be sure that He hears us, because that's what the text says.
Our prayer is not some noise that distracts God from what He was doing.
We are His business.
He hears us.
And added to this promise that God heard Hezekiah, we see that God not only hears us, but He also sees us.
Looking back in your text, He said, "I have seen thy tears."
He said, "I've heard thy prayer," and now He says, "I've seen thy tears."
Even when you're all alone, not wanting anyone to hear you or see you, God sees your tears.
When my dad lost his wife earlier this year, I corresponded with him, and I was ready to come right down there, and he said, "Son, give me about two or three days."
You know why?
That's when you do your ugly crying right there, isn't it?
That's when it's just you and the Lord.
Nobody needs to be in there.
You don't have to hold back for anybody.
That's when you begin that grieving process or you continue it.
And that's okay.
That's what God gave those tears to us for.
But He sees them.
Even though nobody else sees them during that time.
When I was a little boy, it really embarrassed me to get into trouble.
Now, some of you didn't get embarrassed, but who in here, to be honest with me, was ...
You really got embarrassed when you were in trouble.
Anybody like that?
And let me tell you, that was ...
It's the worst thing you could do to me when I was a little boy, probably not a lot of fun now, but I can take it.
I'm older and I've had all kind of things said to me by now.
But as a little boy, I hated to be embarrassed.
Oh, it would just scar me for a long time.
And it would embarrass me if somebody saw me crying.
And it doesn't embarrass me anymore.
If I cry, I cry.
And if you see me, that's fine.
But if I was in a crowd, I'd got so embarrassed.
And so just like a lot of children, I'd go off somewhere and sulk and pout and you know the routine.
But all the while, I was secretly hoping that my dad would come find me and see me cry.
I wanted him to have to put a little effort into it, come find out what's wrong with his son, why his son's in there, make sure I sniffle loud enough where he could hear me.
God sees your tears as you can't hide them from him.
And he sees them before you ever shed them.
And he knows just what you need for your consolation.
And it's found right here in his Word.
If you ever think, "Brother Andy, you don't understand."
I know I don't.
But God does.
And his Word has exactly the scripture that you need for whatever is going on.
And every one of us are going through something.
Luke chapter 7 verses 37 through 38.
Luke chapter 7 verses 37 through 38.
This is how precious tears are to the Lord.
And behold, a woman in the city which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment.
Now this was a woman who was a sinner.
She was condemned and she knew it.
And it was her tears that washed Jesus' feet.
Now listen to what... if you want to know what man sometimes thinks about your tears, here it is.
Look at what the Pharisee thought of this woman and her tears and her precious ointment with which she anointed Jesus.
It's found in verse 39 in that same chapter, Luke 7, 39.
Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself saying, "This man," speaking of Jesus, "if he were a prophet would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner."
That Pharisee, a doctor of the law, the most religious among the people, should have had compassion on this poor woman.
He too knew she was a sinner, but he condemned both the woman and the Lord in one sentence because he said, "If only this man," speaking of Jesus, "If only he knew what kind of woman this was who was touching him, who was washing his feet, Jesus did know."
What does that tell us about that Pharisee?
He did not recognize Jesus as God.
He did not believe he was God.
Because had you asked that Pharisee, "Sir, does God know all things?"
He'd say, "Absolutely he does."
He wouldn't quibble with you about God's omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, all of those things.
But he didn't believe Jesus was God so he said, "If only this man knew who this woman was who touched him."
But what was precious to Jesus, it was those tears.
It was more than her tears, but he saw her tears and he mentioned them.
This is one of the reasons, speaking of this Pharisee, religious but lost, this is one of the reasons so-called pastoral counseling can turn into a nightmare.
A person goes to a pastor or priest or bishop or whatever they may be called and that person tells this Pharisee about all the wicked things she's done.
And rather than pointing her to Jesus, that religious leader gives her all these things she must do to wipe away the filth, but none of them work.
And if this Pharisee in our text or in the text I read you from Luke 7, if he'd have been a Christian, he'd have said she's right where she needs to be.
She's gone to the right place.
She's standing by Jesus right there behind him.
She's washing his feet with her tears.
I can think of no other place that she should be.
The Lord sees her tears.
Just as the Lord saw Hezekiah's tears.
Look back in our text now and God tells Isaiah to tell him, "Behold, I will heal thee."
Now Hezekiah had a physical illness.
We'll see what it is in just a moment.
So his healing here would be physical, but it would also point to a spiritual healing that God brought him at the very moment he placed his faith in God.
You see Hezekiah was a better king than David.
The Bible says that.
Or I would have never said that.
I would have never guessed it that God would ever say there was a better king than David.
But he was.
And when God healed him spiritually was when he believed in the Messiah who would come and save his people from their sins.
The one who's been prophesied since Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 and all the way through the Old Testament.
When God says you're going to die then you can bank on it.
But when he says he's going to heal you, you can also bank on that.
In our text the word heal, H-E-A-L, is also translated as the word physician five times in the Old Testament.
A physician heals people.
Now that right there disqualifies every abortion doctor in the world.
Every one of them.
My best friend in high school and a young lady that went to school with us had a, well they were about to have a child out of wedlock and she had an abortion.
And he never got over it.
He never did.
And I doubt she did either.
She has children now.
My friend passed away about two years ago.
He had children.
But I know he never got over it.
And I know some of the reasons I say that I won't share those publicly.
But that so called doctor kills a baby and sends a mother and father down a lifelong road of guilt and self loathing.
Every doctor who attempts to surgically and hormonally change a person's gender is also disqualified from being called a physician because what does a physician do?
Heals.
That's what the Bible teaches us.
And instead he harms rather than healing.
He ruins the mind and the body of a poor boy or girl or adult who's already got some serious emotional problems to begin with.
How is that healing?
A doctor who helps a person commit suicide is not a physician.
He's a killer as well.
Listen to this.
In 2022, I don't know if Sister Jenny watches us or not sometimes, but she could probably say amen to this.
In 2022, in Canada, 4.1% of all deaths were from assisted suicide.
And I quote from that source, "The law is set to extend access to medical assistance in dying to those whose sole medical condition is a mental illness in March 2024."
So it's already gone into effect that if somebody is depressed, having problems with anxiety, then the law will allow whatever entity to help them kill themselves.
Can you believe that?
The government is going to help people commit suicide when they're suffering from a mental or emotional disorder that may be cured, or at least it may be improved to where they don't feel that way anymore.
And friend, we can be glad that God is able to heal us physically as in Hezekiah's case, emotionally, and most importantly of all, spiritually.
Now he said after he healed him back in your text, "On the third day, thou shalt go up into the house of the Lord."
This is great.
On the third day.
Don't miss that.
That ought to cause us to remember another place where this same phrase was used.
Speaking of Jesus teaching his disciples in Mark chapter 8 verse 31, Mark 8 verse 31, we read, "And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again."
Jesus said that about himself.
Now why would Jesus die a physical death?
We know why Hezekiah would.
As good a king as he was, he was still a sinner.
The soul that sinneth it shall die.
The wages of sin is death.
It is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment.
Bible's very clear that we're going to die because of sin.
But Jesus wasn't a sinner.
Was he sick unto death like Hezekiah?
No.
But because he took upon himself our sins and died on the cross for our forgiveness, his body had to die so that it could be raised again.
And after three days he rose again.
So it's significant that Hezekiah who is sick unto death would be healed on the third day so that he would be able to go into the house of the Lord.
Let's look at that part of the verse.
He says, "Thou shalt go up into the house of the Lord."
Now the house of the Lord, if you remember, many moons ago is where Hezekiah first spread the matter of the Assyrians before the Lord.
He actually had a letter from them that said what all they were going to do to Jerusalem.
And he just took it up there and spread it before the Lord.
He said, "Lord, I can't handle this.
I've given this to you.
What do you want me to do about it?
What do you want to do about it?"
And now Hezekiah is going to return to that same house, to the house of the Lord after God heals him.
Friend, that is God's will for you when He heals you.
That you turn or return to the house of the Lord.
It doesn't matter what kind of healing it is.
And the reason the house of the Lord was significant in Hezekiah's days was that it had been sanctified.
Now God would have never sent him to the house of the Lord in the condition it was before he became king.
It was a mess.
The priests were defiled.
There were abominations in the house of the Lord and none of the sacrifices and ordinances were being done like they were supposed to.
So we remember that the priests sanctified themselves because Hezekiah said, "Sanctify yourselves."
And the house of the Lord was cleaned out and shaped up.
And that's the one God said He would send Hezekiah back to.
All that worldliness had been driven out of it.
And the priests, the worldliness that was upon them was driven out.
What makes the house of the Lord a place to worship is not the building, not the baptistry or the beautiful furnishings, the carpet.
It's the presence of the Lord.
And that's what the house of the Lord needed in Hezekiah's day.
I'm going to read you a passage from Luke chapter 17, Luke 17 verses 11 through 19.
Speaking of Jesus, the great physician, the one who heals, right?
It says, "And it came to pass as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
And as He entered into a certain village, there met Him ten men that were lepers."
Now these men had sickness unto death too, just like Hezekiah, "which stood afar off.
And they lifted up their voices and said, 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.'"
Now everybody's going to want that.
They're going to want Jesus to have mercy upon them.
Have mercy upon me, Lord.
That's what people are going to say one day or another.
"And when He saw them, He said unto them, 'Go show yourselves unto the priests.'
And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed.
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks.
And he was a Samaritan.
And Jesus answering said, 'Were there not ten cleansed?
But where are the nine?'
They are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger.
And He said unto them, 'Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.'"
These lepers had the sentence of death upon them.
They were also outcasts from society.
In fact, there was a certain requirement placed upon a leper all the way back in Leviticus in chapter 13 verse 45, Leviticus 13 45, where it said, "And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent," that means torn, "his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip and shall cry unclean, unclean."
That was a requirement in the law for a leper.
Torn clothes, head shaven, a mask, if you will, and had to cry unclean, unclean.
Now Jesus healed all ten of these lepers, but only one did what he should have.
He turned back and He glorified God.
When Hezekiah is healed, he will turn back to the house of the Lord.
He'll go unto the house of the Lord and God will be glorified.
You know, when a person comes to Central Baptist Church and hears the gospel and believes the gospel, then he or she should turn back to this place and glorify God.
He ought to continue to desire the teaching of the same God who saved him, the one who keeps him, the one who's going to build up his faith.
Why would a person believe they could become a Christian and then go to somewhere else?
I'm not saying that we're the only church who can teach them.
There are plenty.
Not enough though.
But if somebody said, "Well, I became a Christian and so what I'm going to do, I'm going to go join up a certain club and on Sundays I'm going to be very faithful to go to that club and play golf or poker or something."
That sounds silly, doesn't it?
No, where you build your faith is the same place that you heard the Word of God preached in the first place.
You believe the soul-saving gospel and if somebody preached that to you, you ought to go back and give them a second chance and see what the man has to say.
See if he's rightly dividing the word of truth.
And it pleased God that Hezekiah, following his healing, would go up into the house of the Lord.
Now look in verse 6 with me and God says, "And I will add unto thy days 15 years."
Now this does not mean Hezekiah won't die.
So both things are true.
Thou shalt die and not live.
That's true.
He is going to die.
It means his death is going to be postponed for 15 years.
That's what God's promise is.
Let that sink in.
Two years ago, a dear family member of mine was diagnosed with a glioblastoma, which is a brain tumor.
And it's very aggressive.
And its diagnosis is almost always a death sentence and doesn't take long.
And she was told that without treatment she'd live three to six months and with treatment she'd live 12 to 15 months.
And although medical professionals can't tell us exactly how long we have to live when we get one disease or another, they have a large database from which they draw their estimates and they're pretty good on this one.
But what if God were to tell you that on your deathbed, He was not only going to extend your life, but He was going to heal you from the disease that you had, restore you to perfect self, what would you do during those 15 years?
Perhaps God's extended your life.
He didn't come down and tell you, "Sir, ma'am, I'm going to extend your life 15 years," but maybe He has.
I believe He's extended mine several times.
There were some close calls along the way.
At least in my eyes, they were close calls.
What would you do during those 15 years?
Well, if you had any sense at all, you'd live for God until your last breath, wouldn't you?
But just like those nine lepers we read about, most people turn up their noses when God heals them.
They turn that second lease on life into lasciviousness and they don't have any gratitude toward the Lord.
Is there anything significant about the number 15 here?
Let's look at that.
Why did God choose 15 years rather than 10 or 20 years, a good round number?
Well, let's read from some passages where the number 15 is used.
You know, that's the first thing I do when I don't understand what a passage means.
I just go look in the Bible where else it's used, where else the Word is used, where else that doctrine is taught, and that usually clears it up for me right there.
It's amazing how the Bible teaches the Bible.
Genesis chapter 7 verse 20.
Genesis 7 verse 20.
Now this is speaking of the flood during Noah's day.
"Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail and the mountains were covered."
Now a cubit, if you don't know, is the distance between the crook of your elbow and the tip of your finger.
Now that can vary in people, but it's roughly a foot and a half.
Might be a little less, might be a little more.
Roughly a foot and a half.
So about 22 feet above the tallest mountain did the waters go.
And that made sure nothing on this earth would survive.
In Leviticus chapter 27, God told Moses how many shekels a person must bring when making a singular vow unto the Lord.
Very specific in the law.
In verse 7, Leviticus 27, 7, it said, "And if it be from 60 years old and above," I'm almost there, "if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be 15 shekels."
So you had a flood that rose 15 cubits above the highest mountain.
You had 15 shekels of money paid for the vow of a male who was 60 years or older.
And there are other places in the Bible where the number 15 is used, but there was something about those two passages I just read concerning the flood and concerning that vow.
Both of those events were about a promise.
When God flooded the earth, He made a covenant with Noah to deliver him.
He made a covenant or a promise never to destroy the earth with water again.
And his token of that promise was a bow in the cloud, which we call a rainbow.
In making a singular vow unto the Lord, the male who was 60 years old or older was making a promise to the Lord.
And his token of that promise was 15 shekels.
Another thing we might notice about the number 15 is found in the study of Bible numerology.
Now Bible numerology is not some mystical formula.
It's based upon the pattern of numbers you see in the Bible.
So for example, you see the number two throughout the Bible, that's the number of witness.
And the number 15 is a product of multiplying the number three by the number five.
The number three in the Bible represents God and His three persons, the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
And the number five represents grace.
And this promise to Hezekiah to live another 15 years is the promise of God according to His grace.
It's wonderful.
God had no obligation to give Hezekiah another breath.
Now let's look at one place where God told one of His chosen men, "No, I'm not going to heal you or extend your life."
Second Corinthians, and by the way, this is the heresy of the so-called Word of Faith movement.
Is that if you're not healed of a disease, the Word of Faith movement will tell you it's because you have a lack of faith and that's not it at all.
Second Corinthians 12 verses seven through nine.
Second Corinthians 12 verses seven through nine.
This is written by the Apostle Paul under divine inspiration.
And that's another man whose shoes I'm not worthy to tie in the faith.
He said, "Unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice."
He prayed God three times, "That it might depart from me.
And He said unto me, 'My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.'"
Well, how did Paul respond when God said no?
He said, "That's all right, I'll glory in my infirmities."
He's a coward, glory in his healing.
And even though God did not take Paul's thorn in the flesh away from him, God was still gracious to him.
He said, "My grace is sufficient for thee, that's all you need."
Whether his body were healed or not, Paul's weakness would be where God was showing himself to be strong.
Now would you rather have the power of Christ rest upon you or would you trade that for good physical health?
Paul chose to glory in his infirmities and he did so gladly.
Looking back in our text now, he said in the middle of verse 6, "I will deliver thee in this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria and I will defend this city for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake."
Now we saw this same promise back in chapter 19 verse 34 and we studied it.
But just to review, God was promising to deliver Jerusalem, meaning Judah as well, Jerusalem was the capital of Judah in those days.
He was promising to deliver them not for their sake because they were a hard-hearted, stiff-neck bunch of people for the most part.
He promised to do it for his sake.
God promised to deliver them for his own sake and for David's sake.
And that was based upon the promise that he made David in the person of Jesus Christ, the throne of David.
David, for him to rule on the throne eternally was not possible in his flesh.
David died.
But it was in the person of Jesus who the Bible says was of the seed of David, that means he descended from David, and who would sit on the throne of David.
And for that reason, God said he would deliver Jerusalem for his servant David's sake.
Now one of the benefits of studying other passages that parallel, they describe the same passage we're studying, is that we get to see different details about the same events.
You'll see that in the gospels when you study.
You'll see an event captured in Mark that's not captured in Luke or vice versa.
And so it's wonderful to see those different events or different details described.
And we've referred to Isaiah chapter 37 during our study of Hezekiah's reign because Isaiah the prophet prophesied during Hezekiah's reign.
Now I want to show you something that Hezekiah did between verse 6 in our text and verse 7.
He wrote a song.
Turn to Isaiah chapter 38, Isaiah chapter 38 verses 9 through 20.
I'll give you a minute because I want you to see it with me.
The song won't mean as much to you if you don't know the condition Hezekiah is in and what God has just told him.
Isaiah chapter 38 and I'll begin reading in verse 9.
The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah when he had been sick and was recovered of his sickness.
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.
Now I don't know the tune he used so I'm just reading it.
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.
Mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent.
I have cut off like a weaver my life.
He will cut me off with pining sickness from day even to night.
Wilt thou make an end of me?
I reckoned till morning that as a lion so will he break all my bones from day even to night.
Wilt thou make an end of me?
Like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter.
I did mourn as a dove.
Mine eyes fail with looking upward.
Oh Lord I am oppressed undertake for me.
What shall I say?
He hath both spoken unto me and himself hath done it.
I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
Oh Lord by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit.
So wilt thou recover me and make me to live.
Behold for peace I had great bitterness but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption.
For thou hast cast all my sins behind my back.
Now that is key right there.
For the grave cannot praise thee.
Death cannot celebrate thee.
They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
The living the living he shall praise thee.
As I do this day the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
The Lord was ready to save me.
Therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.
That's why we sing.
When brother Doug gets up here between the songs we do scripture memory and we say that and on either side of that we sing we sing we say we do all that because God has saved us that's what those songs in the book are about and if I come across a song or brother Luke does and it's got words in there that aren't scriptural we just don't sing that verse or we don't sing that song.
But I wish I had more time to comment upon this we're out of time for now and so we will pick right back up with the end of verse six next week.
Let's pray father thank you so much for all who've come for members visitors for those who have tuned in on the internet and those who will watch later on and we pray that your truth would appeal unto them and that they would desire it as their necessary food in Jesus name.
Amen.
