p. 268 | HEZEKIAH by John Nevins Andrews

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 8, 1868

HEZEKIAH.

By John Nevins Andrews

ISAIAH’S MESSAGE TO HEZEKIAH.

“In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.” Isa. xxxviii, 1.

This counsel was given to Hezekiah as a favor from the hand of God. In view of approaching death, there were many things to which he should give close attention, and that he should set in order. Things pertaining to the kingdom, to the maintenance of the worship of God, to the disposal of his property, to the concerns of his family, and to the payment of every debt and the fulfillment of every obligation,—all these demanded particular care and prompt, decisive action. The advice given to Hezekiah is of great importance to many of us. We are about entering upon a new year. To not a few in our own ranks it will be the last year of life. What is the condition of your own house, dear brother or sister? Are your business affairs so complicated that you hardly know yourself how they stand? What could your family do in settling them, were you suddenly taken away? Is your property scattered in many directions, much of it due you in smaller or larger sums from many persons? Would not much of this be lost in case of your immediate death? Do you keep your accounts with sufficient accuracy to have another take your books, and from them settle your business? Are you owing others? Particularly, do you owe many little debts? Do you owe conscience money, i. e., debts due in honor and conscience, where all your deal has not been exactly upright and just? Have you discharged your duty to the cause of God? Have you done in the support of the work of God what you should as you have been connected with it for so many months or years? If you have not, should not this be paid up before you are called hence? If you have done what you should hitherto, is there not even then some portion of your means that should in case of your death be devoted to the cause of Christ, so that being dead you may yet speak? What are your family relations? Is there a liability of dissension among them in settling the estate? Are there not some who are liable to be wronged, who need your care? Have you made your will? Would it not be highly proper and advisable that you should settle your debts, simplify your business matters, put all your accounts in proper order, make your will, and, in a word, set your house in order, so far as business matters are concerned? This would be incomparably better than it is now in case you are taken hence by death; would it not be far better even should you live?

HEZEKIAH’S EARNEST DESIRE TO LIVE.

Why did it seem so hard to Hezekiah that he must fall asleep? One reason was because he did not regard death as the gate to endless joys. Thus he writes concerning his own ideas of death and the grave (Hebrew sheol): “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 thy back. For the grave [Heb. sheol] 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, I do this day; the father to the children shall make known thy truth.” Isa. xxxviii, 17–19. Hezekiah did not want to be one of the dead; for he could not, while deprived of life, be one of the worshipers of the Most High. The living can praise God; but those in sheol are unable to do this.

The chief reason, however, why Hezekiah so earnestly desired to live was, that he might behold the advent of the Saviour. The promise made to Ahaz, his father, having nothing connected with it to throw it into the distant future, must have excited in the minds of pious men the most lively hopes of the immediate advent of Christ. Thus to Ahaz it was said: “The Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isa. vii, 14. We know from Hezekiah’s own words that the thought of dying before this grand event was the chief cause of his reluctance to fall asleep: “I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living.” Isa. xxxviii, 11.

Hezekiah was one of those of whom our Lord spoke to his disciples: “For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.” Luke x, 24.

The people of God in ancient times were not indifferent to the advent of the Lord. Death was not then, as now, the hope of the professed people of God. They longed for the coming of Him who should slay death, and give eternal life to all who put their sins far from them. Hezekiah loved the advent of Jesus. Yet even the first advent was far in the future. How different our circumstances! The first advent far in the past; the second advent to be witnessed by this generation, because to this one the promised tokens have been manifested. Thank God! the long night of sin and death is almost past. Now is the time for us to watch. What a triumph awaits those who shall say as they behold Jesus, “This is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us.” Isa. xxv, 8. Shall we be of those who utter these triumphant words?

A PRAYER THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN OFFERED.

When Hezekiah had reigned fourteen years, there came to him a message from the Lord that he should die, and not live. 2 Kings xx, 1. He had accomplished a great work in behalf of the people of God. His father Ahaz had brought the kingdom of Judah to the verge of ruin by his terrible wickedness. But as soon as Hezekiah had received the throne, he entered upon the work of reform with such earnestness that a thorough and extensive repentance and turning to God among the people was effected. The work for which he was raised up of God was finished. It was better for himself, and more for the honor of God that he should now fall asleep.

Instead of setting his house in order, and then humbly bowing to the mandate of Heaven, he begged the Most High to reconsider the matter, in view of his perfect walk before him, and he even wept sore as he prayed. Verse 3. Apparently to show by experimental test the folly of those prayers that are offered for things which God sees it best not to grant, and also of prayers which are offered without submission to the will of God, the Lord granted his request, and added to his life fifteen years. The result is given us in these expressive words:

“But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up; therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem. Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah.” 2 Chron. xxxii, 25, 26.

Had Hezekiah set his house in order when bidden so to do, he would in thus doing have selected from his sons that one who would have reigned in righteousness. But instead of this it does not even seem that he set his house in order at the end of the fifteen years. For when he died, the succession to the throne was given to Manasseh, who could not have been his eldest son; for he was but twelve years of age, and was born three years after the respite granted to Hezekiah. This boy proved the worst of all the kings of Judah, and filled Jerusalem with crimes which God could not forgive, and which rendered the destruction of the city inevitable.

Had Hezekiah submitted to the will of God, and obeyed his counsel to set his house in order, this wicked king would never have ruled in Judah. But instead of this he prayed in such a manner that God saw it best to grant him life, and to let events show the wisdom and the mercy which had once determined that he should, after due time to arrange his affairs for death, fall asleep. Had he done this, Manasseh would never have reigned. Nay, he would never have existed. The ruin of Jerusalem would have been deferred, if not prevented. But he threw everything into disorder by his unsubmissive, presumptive prayer. God saw fit to show the folly of praying thus by what should come of it. Things never recovered their just balance in his whole lifetime. And when at the end of his fifteen years respite, which as he knew the exact bounds of life, must have been a kind of living death to him, he finally fell asleep, his house was not set in order; for a lad who was the most unfit to reign of any who ever filled the throne, succeeded to the government, and ruined the nation. Let us never pray, except in submission to the will of God.”

TIMELY REFORMATION.

The deliverance of Jerusalem from the power of Sennacherib was an event of the most remarkable character. The hand of God alone was able to deliver the people of God from utter destruction. And that hand was most signally manifested in their behalf. Hezekiah and Isaiah each offered to Heaven humble, importunate prayers for deliverance from the impending destruction. These prayers were heard, and an angel of God in one night caused 185,000 men of war to sleep the sleep of death.

Only a few years before this mighty deliverance, wicked Ahaz occupied the throne, and the whole nation was plunged into abominable idolatry. Had the king of Assyria come against the Jews while they were in this situation, the ruin of the nation would have been certain. The arm of God alone could save them, and that arm could not have been extended in their behalf. Prayer for such a people could not have been heard.

But Hezekiah having come to the throne, at the very beginning of his reign, entered upon the most thorough and searching reform. Several years were thus employed by him, and a work of great magnitude was wrought for the people of Judah. And now mark the statement of the sacred historian:

“After these things and THE ESTABLISHMENT thereof, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself.” 2 Chron. xxxii, 1.

He came too late to meet with success. The work of repentance and reform had preceded him. The people of God had put away their sins. He had now not merely to contend with man; for the Lord of hosts was returned to his people, or rather they were returned to him. Hezekiah’s great work of turning to God was just in season to save the nation from utter ruin. When will men ever learn the fact that sin is the cause of all our troubles, and that when we put away our sins, we do thereby bring ourselves under the protection of an almighty Arm?

J. N. ANDREWS.