ISAIAH 37, 38, 39, and 40
When Hezekiah heard the Assyrian commander’s threat on behalf of the King of Assyria, he did the right thing: he humbled himself, dressed for mourning, fasted, and went to seek the Lord in his temple. And he sent word to Isaiah to the effect that the King of Assyria had insulted the Living God and needed to be taught a lesson. The reply came via Isaiah, telling Hezekiah not to be afraid, and that He, the Lord, would deal directly with the King of Assyria.
Fulfilment of the promise started to happen swiftly, and the besieging armies almost immediately withdrew – but not before Sennacherib had given a final parting insult to God and Hezekiah, telling them that ‘he would be back!’. Again, on hearing this message, Hezekiah went and humbled himself before the Lord; his prayer is instructive for us, since it embraces two opposite truths: “Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth…” (37:16) and: “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands…” (37:18). The prayer recognised the majesty, the power, and the sovereignty of the Lord, and it was realistic about the human opposition that Judah faced. Prayer needs to be truthful and realistic, whilst still leaving room for faith in the miraculous. Joining these two thoughts together, Hezekiah prayed: “Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are the only God.”
And so, because Hezekiah had prayed for God’s honour and glory to be seen, the Lord responded and declared that he would put up with Assyrian ridicule no longer! And that he would defend Jerusalem for the sake of his glory and for Kind David’s sake. God put to death 185,000 enemy soldiers and forced the end of the war. The King of Assyria retreated home to Nineveh in shame and was killed with the sword by his own sons.
Chapter 38: What would you do if you were told – during an illness – by God’ prophet that you would soon die; that there was no chance of you recovering? Would you just accept it? Hezekiah was distraught; he had not lived a great number of years and had been one of the best and most faithful kings that Israel or Judah had ever had. It just seemed so unfair! When you consider that Manasseh, such an evil king, lived the longest of all Judah’s kings, it is clear that a lengthy life is not always given for good behaviour – it is not as simple as that. So Hezekiah wept bitterly before God – a very normal reaction that God did not criticise at all – and reminded the Lord how faithfully he had served him. God heard Hezekiah’s prayer and changed his mind, choosing to add 15 years to Hezekiah’s life. As a sign that this promise was true, he made an ancient sundial go backwards – symbolically ‘turning the clock back on his original decree’. Later on, after he had recovered, Hezekiah wrote a highly perceptive hymn of worship, including such phrases as: “Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish…”.
In the last two verses of this chapter (38) it is clear that God’s healing power was not contradictory to the medical practices of the time either – they worked hand in hand. We must realise, in prayer for healing, that we must first and foremost trust the Lord and seek his glory. Also, we must be realistic about the human chances of recovery. Asking God to glorify his name is the prime reason for calling for healing. And don’t pour scorn on modern medicine; God can use all kinds of means to achieve his ends! God is sovereign in healing, as much as in anything else in life, so let us not pretend that we can change his mind if he does not want to change it; yet persistent prayer does seem to accomplish much. Don’t we live in a paradoxical world! In chapter 39, Hezekiah is clearly on an ‘emotional high’ after his healing, and probably feels invincible! Unwisely, he then ‘shows off’ to some envoys from Babylon, the growing new empire from the East. Isaiah the prophet brings a subtle rebuke to the King for his overconfidence and recklessness; before long, those envoys would be back at the head of an army – and it wouldn’t end well for Judah!
And so we come to Isaiah 40 – effectively the first chapter in “Isaiah Part Two”. Remember that this book, the most profound and amazing revelation by the very best writing prophet – this book is a Bible in miniature: 66 chapters in Isaiah compared with 66 books in the whole Bible. The first 39 chapters relate to the Judgment by God – analogous to the 39 books of the O.T., and the last 27 chapters relate to Comfort from God – similar to the 27 books of the N.T. So now we reach the New Testament equivalent; after 39 chapters of God’s judgment we at last reach the Comfort of God poured out on his people and focussed from his Messiah. Where there is ‘judgement talk’ from the Lord, it is now more often targeted at the godless nations around the world, rather than at his people.
The BibleProject summary of Isaiah 40 – 66 is found here: https://youtu.be/_TzdEPuqgQg?si=FUw-iJtouQVwiKmJ
If we want to divide up the final 27 chapters of this great book, then it might be in this way:
The first nine (40-48): “The Sovereignty of the Lord”
- The second nine (49-57) “The Servant of the Lord”
- The third nine (58-66) “The Salvation of the Lord”
Each group of nine chapters ends with the ominous phrase: “There is no peace for the wicked” or a paraphrase of that.
So we open the first set of nine with a bucketful of hope: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin had been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins”. Isaiah was looking forward prophetically to the return of Judah’s people from the Babylonian exile – and actually the final 27 chapters of the book are all focussed on this period and beyond. Remember that when he first wrote this whole prophetic book, the exile had not even begun!
Prophecy such as this often has multiple fulfilments and we can look at some of Isaiah’s words and interpret them as also referring to the creation of the church (God’s ‘New Nation’) under the Messiah, to the re-creation of the nation of Israel in AD 48, or to the final ingathering of both redeemed Jews and Gentiles into Christ before the end of the age. Having four possible fulfilments does make interpretation of biblical prophecy somewhat uncertain (just wait until we reach the Book of Revelation!) but it may well be part of God’s strategy of keeping believers eagerly looking forward to the near future, and therefore living lives of holiness and self-sacrifice.
So Judah has received ‘double for all her sins’! This probably means ‘a double’ – in other words, the punishment has exactly matched the crime, and it is now completed, so the exile is over. We then move into 40:3-5 (do read it) which is usually interpreted as referring to John the Baptist (see Matthew 3:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23.) Whenever a Middle Eastern king was due to visit a region of his empire, he would send representatives ahead of him to prepare both the infrastructure and the local population to receive him properly. Isaiah 40:4 reads like a civil engineering project to create a fast motorway: fill in the valleys, cut away the mountains, straighten the paths and smooth out the bumps! The royal visitor was of such status that no expense or effort was to be spared to prepare a worthy reception for him.
John the Baptist did that ‘civil engineering’ in the hearts of men and women; he prepared a highway of repentance so that the royal Messiah could have access, and so that the willing ‘hosts’ could truly see his glory (40:5). Luke 7:29-30 states bluntly that the people of Judah who accepted Jesus were those who had been through the waters of John’s repentance-baptism, whilst those who refused to have their hearts prepared in this way were the ones who later rejected Jesus. We need to learn this crucial spiritual lesson that repentance – acknowledging in our minds that God was right, and we were wrong, and so submitting to his Lordship – is a prerequisite for coming to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Without repentance, our faith is nothing more than intellectual ‘PlayStation’ or ‘Xbox’!
If you want convincing that our God is the greatest, and that he is more than capable of rescuing us, look up at the skies… “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: who created these?” (40:25-31). God has not forgotten us; He has not overlooked our needs by mistake. He keeps the entire universe working together in harmony – giving second-by-second commands to the sub-atomic particles and to the super-clusters of galaxies – so he is not going to forget or ignore the cries of his beloved children, is he?
The Big Picture 