We are coming to the end of the first major section of Isaiah:

• Messages of Judgment (chapters 1–39)
• Messages of Comfort (chapters 40–55)
• Messages of Hope (chapters 56–66)

The section ends with chapters 36 – 39 essentially replicating 2 Kings 18 – 20. Yesterday we looked at chapters 36 and 37, the encouraging story of God delivering Jerusalem from Assyria during the reign of Hezekiah.

Today we look at Hezekiah’s end as recorded in Isaiah 38 and 39. A rough start:

In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.” (Isaiah 38.1, ESV)

As an aside…

I’m not planning to die anytime soon, but “set your house in order, for you shall die” is a good word. It’s on my list of things to do during Lent. My friend Rich Hughes dropped dead. Now that taxes are done, “setting my house in order,” i.e., organizing my financial information and other actions is the next thing.

For Hezekiah, dying is a problem. We’ll see shortly that God gave him 15 more years. We read in 2 Kings 21.1 that after Hezekiah’s death his son began his reign at age 12. Can we conclude that Hezekiah was childless? How then will King David’s line continue?

Again, Hezekiah goes to prayer:

Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, and said, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. (Isaiah 38.2, 3, ESV)

Isaiah reported that God had heard his prayer and given him a reprieve:

Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city. (Isaiah 38.4 – 6, ESV)

Hezekiah then writes a psalm which ends:

The LORD will save me, and we will play my music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives, at the house of the LORD. (Isaiah 38.20, ESV)

But then Hezekiah doesn’t finish well. He receives the envoys from Babylon (from too far away to matter, right?) and shows them all his treasures with pride as the 2 Chronicles commentary confirms:

Some time later Hezekiah became deathly sick. He prayed to GOD and was given a reassuring sign. But the sign, instead of making Hezekiah grateful, made him arrogant. (2 Chronicles 32.24 – 25, MSG)

Back to the Babylonian envoys:

And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. (Isaiah 39.2, ESV)

Oops.

Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.” He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

Ouch. But Hezekiah doesn’t care…

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days.” (Isaiah 39.3 – 8, ESV)

Not much of a legacy, beginning with his son Manasseh who reigned for 55 years and was one of Judah’s worst kings.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. (2 Kings 21.1 – 2, ESV)

Lord, help us all to finish well! After a terrible reign, a brief captivity in Babylon, even Manasseh finished well!

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9.25 – 27, ESV)