Roger Lewis - The Crisis of Hezekiah - Class 6 - The Sequel and The Cipher

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1. 0:24

   Brothers and sisters, we are ready to begin the third class. Our speaker is Brother Rodger Lewis, and the theme for Brother Lewis’s classes this week is The Crisis of Hezekiah, and today’s class is entitled The Sequel and The Sefer.

2. 0:59

   Well, thank you, brother Chairman, and good morning this last final morning, my dear brothers and sisters. So our tale is told, at least as far as the story itself permits us to see. Because Eyes Are 36 to 39 was the gripping account of a king in crisis, a record of personal drama that’s full of personal excitation for ourselves as we face the trials of life that we also experience in walking before our God. But as is the case with all of Scripture, we realize as we read that there must be more to the story than meets the eye. These chapters are clearly not accidental in their design, and they’re certainly not arbitrary in their placement. In fact, everything about them suggests a precise order of arrangement, a deliberate intention of purpose. So why did Isaiah put them where he did in his prophecy? And what did he really want us to learn from the dramatic story of Isaiah 36 to 39?

3. 2:29

   What was it that he really intended us to understand? So the time has come for us to investigate is is our title, therefore for this morning, the sequel now to this story and the cipher that might contain. Now that word cipher is an interesting one because it’s obviously connected to the word decipher, by the way, and here’s a set of definition of meanings of that word. The Merriam Webster Dictionary says that it’s a method of transforming a text in order to conceal its meaning. The Oxford Dictionary says it’s a secret or disguised way of writing, as in code.

4. 3:22

   The Britannica dictionary says it’s a way of changing a message to keep it secret. And the Collins Dictionary says it’s a system of secret writing according to a key. So you notice the crucial words both the word conceal and the word secret. Now, interestingly, they’re both thoroughly biblical expressions, are they not? Because Proverbs 25 verse 2 says it’s the glory of God to conceal a word, but the honor of kings is to search out a word.

5. 3:52

   Amos 3 verse 7 says surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants. So God uses codes and ciphers, God suit uses secrets embedded in his message so that the unholy and the profane and the arrogant and the boastful and the prayer do not see those secret treasures that he’s hidden beneath the surface of the word. They’re discovered only by those who come with that spirit of humility to try and understand what the Father would have us to know.

6. 4:26

   And so in that spirit, brothers and sisters, we come to our final study this morning that we might search out the cipher and unlock the deeper meaning of the crisis of his a car. Now the first thing I’d like to draw your attention to, as we have read these chapters, did you notice how closely they stand related in time? This is how Isaiah 36 begins.

7. 4:53

   Now, it came to pass in the 14th year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against you. Of course, he sent Rab Shaker, didn’t he, with a threatening message to try and coerce them into submission. And that message was delivered subsequently by the deputies to Hezekiah himself. It came to pass in the 14th year. But do you know how the next chapter begins? Chapter 37 verse one says.

8. 5:19

   And it came to pass when King Hezekiah heard it. Heard what? Heard the threatening message of chapter 36. How soon do you think in time does Isaiah 37 come after Isaiah 36? And the answer is at exactly the same time on the same day.

9. 5:34

   How does chapter 38 begin? In those days? Was Hezekiah second to death? What days? The days of the Assyrian invasion, The days of Sennacherib and Rab Shaker being present in the land in those days. How closely connected in time do you think Isaiah 38 is with the two that have preceded it? The answers, They’re very closely connected.

10. 5:57

    Do you know how chapter 39 begins? At that time, Miradak Baladdin sent letters in a present to Hezekiah. What time? The time of his sickness, the time of his recovery, the time of the overthrow of the Assyrians. It’s all at the same time. So the first thing we notice in this particular sequence of chapters is the tightness of the time frame. There’s something being compressed together here. The entire section is actually focused on a very, very brief period.

11. 6:28

    It’s all going to happen in a very short timeline in the King’s life. How short? Well, Hezekiah sat on the throne for almost 30 years, but this story in Isaiah and these 4 chapters is going to be compressed into probably no more than 18 months and possibly less than that again right at the middle of his reign.

12. 6:49

    Now, why do we need to know about just these 18 months? Why a period of time? Incidentally, that represents no more than 5% of Hezekiah’s time as a king. But Isaiah says you must know about this section, and the answer must be because in that brief stretch of time, events occurred which contained a hidden message that was directly related to the purpose of Isaiah’s prophecy.

13. 7:25

    And that leads us to the next question, which relates to their positioning, because not only were these events in the middle of Hezekiah’s reign, but where will Isaiah put them? He’ll put them in the very middle of his book.

14. 7:38

    So the first part of Isaiah’s prophecy runs from chapter 1 to chapter 35, and then he suddenly breaks off, and the second part of his prophecy will not commence until Isaiah 40 through to Isaiah 66. But in between those two prophetic sections, he suddenly inserts these four chapters where he stops being a prophet, becomes an historical writer.

15. 8:01

    So why was the drama of Hezekiah inserted at this point? Why not somewhere else in the book? Well, the answer is because the crisis of Hezekiah was going to form the pivot upon which the rest of all his Isaiah’s book was going to be hinged. Now, let me just show you that in terms of the narrative, and just imagine for a moment that we don’t have the crisis of Hezekiah sitting in the middle chapters 36 to 39. This is how Isaiah would read, or how it would read across from the first section of the book to the second if we were to look at the flow of the narrative.

16. 8:36

    Now, you’ll all know these words in Isaiah 35 because they’re famous. It talks about the wilderness and the desert blossoming like the Rose. Remember those words? But do you know that that same 2 explosion, same 2 expressions are found in chapter 40 verse 3, in the wilderness and in the desert?

17. 8:53

    Same words. And what about Isaiah 35 verse 2? They shall see the glory of Yahweh says Isaiah 35. But Isaiah 40 verse 5 says The glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. Same thing what about Isaiah 35 verse four? Say to them, Behold, your God will come. It says, but that’s Isaiah chapter 40, isn’t it? Verses 9 and 10 say unto Judah, Behold, your God will come. In Isaiah 35 verse 8 it says, and the highway shall be there, and the redeemed shall walk therein. But isn’t that the highway referred to in Isaiah 40 verse three?

18. 9:36

    Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. And when it says in Isaiah 35 verse 10, the ransom of Yahweh shall come, they shall come to Zion with songs. Isn’t that chapter 40 verse 9, O thou that tell us good tidings to Zion? Now, you see, without the historical insertion, don’t you think that we would read straight through from Isaiah 35 straight into Isaiah 40 and recognize a complete continuity in the themes?

19. 10:08

    So why then did Isaiah permit the flow of his own prophetic utterances to be interrupted right in the middle of those two chapters in such a way? Well, may I suggest to you, brothers and sisters, that one of the key reasons is because we read these aspects, and rightly so in a sense.

20. 10:27

    But we read all of this as relating to the future, don’t we? The wilderness shall blossom as the Rose, the glory of Yahweh shall appear, the ransomed of Yahweh shall return. They’ll walk upon the highway to all the future. We see it all this future. But Eyes are puts the crisis of Hezekiah smack in the middle between these two chapters to make the point that there was an initial fulfillment and immediate application to all these words and to all these ideas in the life of Hezekiah himself. All of these events found their substance in the story of this king, and those events were going to be dealt with in the very pivot of the book, which concerned the crisis of his Akai.

21. 11:10

    So again, let’s just examine that matter of the pivot in a little more detail so that we can see how that works. So here we’ve got Isaiah 1 to 35, the first great section of the book, and then Isaiah 40 to 66, the second great section of the book. And in between we’ve got these 4 chapters that we’ve had the pleasure and the privilege of examining the crisis of Hezekiah.

22. 11:33

    Isaiah 36 to 39. Now, if I was to ask you this question, brothers and sisters, who would you say is the hero of the first section of the prophecy of Isaiah? Who’s the hero figure behind those chapters? And I’m going to suggest to you that the hero of the first section is the king in his righteous reign, because he’s going to be referred to in Chapter 9, verses two to seven, in Chapter 11, verses one to five in chapter 32, verses 1 to 8. In chapter 33, verses 14 to 17, four poems about the righteous king.

23. 12:08

    He’s the hero figure of the first, the first half of the book of Isaiah. But the theme of the second part of the book is really quite different. And if I was to ask you who’s the hero of the second part of the book of Isaiah, I’ve no doubt that you would correctly answer why it is the Servant in his suffering service.

24. 12:35

    And he’s going to be referred to in Isaiah 42 verses one to seven, Isaiah 49 verses one to six, Isaiah 50 verses 4 to 9, Isaiah 52, verse 13 to 53, verse 12, four songs about the suffering servant, but a different place, quite a different person. Who’s the key to the second-half of the book of Isaiah? And then between the two is the crisis of Hezekiah. And the reason I suggest is because Hezekiah was the prototype for both.

25. 13:10

    They’re both initially to be seen in the Life and Times of Hezekiah because he was the righteous king who led Judah in true worship and inspired them to faith in a time of danger. The righteous king that the nation so desperately needed to lead them in times of trial. But it will turn out in this story of the crisis of Hezekiah that he will also be the suffering servant who would suffer for his people in bringing them to salvation. And the change from the one to the other, from the righteous king to the suffering servant, would all come about in Hezekiah’s reign.

26. 13:52

    That’s where the story of Isaiah will switch over to the second-half, and it will all have its out, working at the pivot in the crisis of Hezekiah. In fact, the themes of Hezekiah’s crisis have to do with the supremacy of Yahweh over the gods, the sinful state of the nation, the leprous condition of the king, the joyful return of the Exiles, the salvation of the people, the calling of the Gentiles.

27. 14:18

    And all of those themes which begin in the Life and Times of Hezekiah are going to be finally at work in the second part of the book. But the outline of Hezekiah is going to be found right across the pages. His story is the centerpiece of the whole prophecy of Isaiah. And you know what’s interesting about that centerpiece?

28. 14:38

    It is this that this section of Isaiah in the middle chapters 36 to 39 just happens to be a perfectly formed chiasmus surprise, surprise that sits like a jewel in the middle, you see. So should we just look at the chaos, Miss to see the sense of how it takes us into the middle of a journey that we might understand the crisis of the king more perfectly? You see, if you were to ask yourself how does this story begin in these 4 chapters, the answer is, well, it’s all about the arrival of the hostile Assyrian emissaries. But you know how the story will finish in chapter 39, it’s all about the arrival of the friendly Babylonian ambassadors. In the first story, the Assyrian king sent envoys to Hezekiah with a threatening message in an army. In the second story, at the end, the Babylonian king sent envoys to Hezekiah with a peaceful message and a prison. In the first story, Hezekiah refused them admittance to the city and would not give them a reply. In the second story, he gave them welcome into the city and show them all his treasures.

29. 16:07

    Do you censor chiasmus bill and sisters? Oh yes. There’s a whole structure here in these chapters that are going to bookend the story of the crisis of Hezekiah and these two accounts, first of the Assyrian envoys and then of the Babylonian envoys. They become in themselves the bookends of the Chaosmas. But you see, what’s interesting is that those two powers also answer to the two halves of Isaiah’s prophecy, because Isaiah 1 to 35 is set in the context of the threat of the Assyrian invasion. But Isaiah 40 to 66 is all about the implications of the Babylonian exile, and that changed from Assyrian to Babylonian.

30. 16:47

    The book is going to pivot from 1:00 to the other in this chiasmus. During the life of this king. The circumstances of his life will mark the moment of the change. So let’s come in from the bookends. So in the middle is Isaiah 37, verse one and three to the end of Isaiah 38, verse 22.

31. 17:14

    And if we were to advance that a little further, we have the distress of Hezekiah in the start of chapter 37. And he’s distressed, of course, that the impending invasion, in fact, the threatened invasion of of Sennacherib, since he’s already at Lakish, not far away from Jerusalem. And at the other end of the story, we have the sickness of Hezekiah and his appeal to God. So really, at the top, that’s the first crisis, isn’t it? The threat of invasion.

32. 17:38

    At the bottom, that’s the second crisis, the threat of sickness. These are the two great tragedies that came upon Hezekiah at the same time. In the first, Hezekiah received the distressing news of the threat of imminent invasion. In the second, he received the terrible news of the prospect of impending death. In the first, Hezekiah appealed to Yahweh for divine assistance. In the second he appealed, he prayed to Yahweh for divine remembrance.

33. 18:10

    In the first, Isaiah came back with a comforting message of reassurance to the king. In the second, the prophet Isaiah came back with a comforting message of reassurance to the king. And therefore we’re left with Isaiah 37, verse 8 to 37, verse 38.

34. 18:31

    Shall we take a step further? So in Isaiah 37, verses 8 to 13, we have the blasphemous words of Sennacherib, the ultimate challenge that reproached the living God. And in response to that, in chapter 37, verses 21 to 38, we have the powerful response of Yahweh and we know what the spirit of of Seneca was. Do not allow your God to deceive you into thinking that Jerusalem will not fall.

35. 18:57

    Came the threat of the Assyrian king. And the response of God at the other side of the story was, you have reproached and blasphemed me, the Holy one of Israel in those words. In the first story, the king in effect said, your God cannot deliver you from the might of Assyria. In the second the answer comes back, I will defend the city and I will overthrow the might of Assyria. It’s a kiastic structure.

36. 19:23

    And that leaves us with that section in the middle. So let me just put all that together again on the same a similar slide, but just just condense the the information. So we’ve got the ambassador’s, we’ve got the first crisis and the second crisis. We’ve got the blasphemous words of Sennacherib. We’ve got the powerful response of Yahweh. And he is now our chaistic structure, which leaves us with the six in the middle.

37. 19:50

    And without even turning it up, brothers and sisters, you will know or should know, that the very center of this story turns out to be the prayer of Hezekiah to his God.

38. 20:06

    And there’s got to be a reason why the center of the chasmus is the prayer of Hezekiah to his God. And we will come back to that shortly. But we’re going to come to another question first. That should claim our attention, and that’s this, because there was a distress in the matter of the invasion, and there’s a distress in the matter of the sickness of the king.

39. 20:25

    So here’s the question why? Why were there twin crises brought upon the Kingdom the same year of his life? What special lessons were found in the second crisis? Sickness that couldn’t be found in the first crisis invasion? The king was already suffering from enough, was he not? With the invasion of Sennacherib? Why did he need the grip of death to come upon him at the same time as well? An almost impossible burden to be? How did the two crises match and counterbalance each other? Well, part of the answer is that the first crisis involved the entire nation.

40. 21:12

    There wasn’t a person in the land that wasn’t threatened by the invasion of Snacker. But the second crisis affected just one man, the sickness of the King.

41. 21:28

    But the interesting thing is that the crisis concerning the nation couldn’t be resolved until after the conclusion of the second crisis concerning the sickness of the king. So the first was national, the second was personal, but they were inextricably intertwined AS2 parts of the whole. So not only were there two crises, but there was a distinct order to those twin crises, was there not, in terms of what we saw in our studies, Because what we have is the national crisis, which starts with the matter of invasion and subjugation and ends with the promise of overthrow and deliverance.

42. 22:06

    But the interesting thing is that the resolution of that national crisis could not occur until the personal crisis had arrived, of sickness unto death, followed by recovery unto life.

43. 22:23

    And in both the King’s sickness unto death and his recovery unto life, until both of those were accomplished, the national crisis couldn’t be resolved. The national crisis waited for the first, the personal, to be resolved. And the interesting thing is that in both cases God provided evidence that those crises would be successfully overcome because He made special sign with regard to them both.

44. 22:45

    Now, have you got your hands in the book of Isaiah waiting faithfully in the hope that the brother might ask us to turn up our Bibles as he always should in the middle of his studies? Well, the moment has come, because do you notice what it says in Isaiah 37 and verse 30? And this shall be a sign unto thee. Ye shall eat this year such as growth of itself, and in the second year, that which springeth of the same. And in the third year sow ye and reap and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.

45. 23:15

    So there was in. Let me get that right. Oh, that doesn’t look good, does it? I have got it. So 2 crises and two signs. So in the 1st in Isaiah 37 verse 30, what we really have is a national sign. A sign to the nation of a fruitful season miraculously prolonged. Do not worry says God, the nation will be fed until the Assyrian host has been removed from the land.

46. 23:51

    I promise you there there will be food enough for all to eat. But doesn’t it say in chapter 38 and verse 7, And this shall be a sign unto thee from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing, that He has spoken? Behold, I’ll bring again the shadow of the degrees. So we’ve got a second sign in Isaiah 38, verse 7. Ah, but this time the sign not a national sign, is it? It’s a personal sign to the king of the falling shadow that is miraculously reversed.

47. 24:26

    So this sign was the promise that just as time could be reversed, so the King’s reign could be fully restored. SO2 crises and two signs, because the nation had to learn that their salvation was bound up in the King’s own sickness and the King’s own recovery. Only then could the nation be delivered. And now we understand why the center of the chiasmus was perhaps at the prayer of Hezekiah. Because you remember what Hezekiah had prayed. Save us so that all the earth may know that thou art Yahweh, even thou.

48. 25:11

    Only He prayed the prayer which showed the correct basis for our understanding of the Atonement. Not save us so that we might be saved, but save us so that we might manifest and glorify Thee. God. Manifestation, not human salvation, was the great purpose of the Eternal Spirit. And this man, this king understood that message.

49. 25:36

    And because Yahweh delighted in the understanding of His A cause view of the atonement as it was, He set forth in him in his life the true basis of salvation. See, God had promised to destroy the enemy, promised to deliver His people, but their salvation required something more than the pleadings of their righteous king. It required the death of a covenant victim. And the king was told that he would be that man. Thou shalt die and not live.

50. 26:18

    Now we know that the shadow institution of the Law taught that the ritual of sacrifice said to every Israelite that they were under divine condemnation and had no right to life. But the blood of animals could never declare the righteousness of God. Yahweh required the smiting and healing of a righteous man. He required the obedient submission of that man to His holy ordinance, a confession that the sentence of death must be upheld, that sin needed to be condemned in its own flesh as the foundation of all goodness to follow.

51. 26:55

    Yahweh desired and always has desired His righteousness in condemning sin to be acknowledged as the first priority, and only then could there be a basis for the exercise of God’s forbearance. But when His righteousness and supremacy were upheld, he would be pleased to extend the blessing of forgiveness, and through that gift comes the hope of salvation unto eternal life. Now all that was known of old to Israel, but never before, until this man, never before had there been an exhibition of these principles, this fully in the life of a man. Only now, only at this moment, and uniquely in this man would it finally be seen.

52. 27:49

    And in his A car, Yahweh set forth the drama of the redemption of mankind, a drama that would necessitate both the death and the resurrection of a man for the salvation of His people. And with that understanding, we now take up the secret of the cipher, because now perhaps we can understand the true meaning of the crisis of Hezekiah.

53. 28:16

    This wasn’t history. This was a prophecy, a prophecy of the atoning work of Christ. And when we look at the life of Hezekiah, we need to see in his crisis the siege that we’re all under from the effects of human nature upon us. And like the king, we need to come before our God, an earnest prayer and ask him to deal with our enemy and to confess that is beyond our power to deal with, with such an enemy who’s come against us. So let’s have a look just briefly by the sisters by way of illustration and by way of understanding at some of the aspects of the parable of Hezekiah’s crisis. I think there’s many more things. I just want to whet your appetite as to the possibilities.

54. 29:08

    So here it is. You see, King Sin promised liberty but demanded total surrender and submission to the bondage of his control. So that’s what that’s what Reb Shaker had said on Sennacherib’s behalf in Isaiah 36 verses 16 and 17. Make an agreement with me and come out to me. Ye everyone was vine until I come to take you away. You see, Sennacherib was a type of the power of sin who comes upon us as a strong man to conquer and to rule all. He invites us subjects to enjoy benefits, but they all come at the price of surrender.

55. 29:50

    The challenge of Sennacherib lay in his demand for his submission and also his power to compel that submission. But here’s a car and the nation. At that moment, they must have both felt the hopeless inevitability of knowing that there was no natural means of deliverance from the King’s power. But that’s what sins like, isn’t it? It enforces our submission to the bondage of its control. We all have Sennacherib at the door. Brothers and sisters, every day of our lives we’re threatened by the invasion of king sin.

56. 30:27

    You know it says in Romans 8 verse 21, the creation itself shall one day be delivered from the bondage of corruption unto the glorious liberty of the children of God. And that word bondage reminds us of what it was like when a foreign power came into the land as Sennacherib did it promised.

57. 30:44

    He promised bondage only. And that’s the reality of sin in our lives. But the sisters and, and this is what it says in second Peter 2 verse 19, because while they promised them liberty, in reality they’re the servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought in bondage. And that’s the reality for all of us brothers and sisters. We’re brought into bondage because sin makes us the servants of corruption.

58. 31:11

    And that’s what Christ came to do battle with. He came to deliver from the bondage of sin. He came to overthrow the power of sinacred. And that’s what it says in Hebrews 2, does it not? Verses 14 and 15, that He might destroy him that had the power of death and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

59. 31:34

    That’s the reality of Christ’s deliverance in all their lives. It’s a matter of bondage of the sisters to the power of Sidon, the crisis of a nation under the threat of sin. Ericsson Akram was a parable of the threat of king sin in all our lives and the need for one who might come forth to do battle on our behalf. And perhaps in that context, we also understand that Hezekiah’s spirit in the onslaught of that taunting speech of Reb Shaker suddenly now assumes a new significance, does it not? Because you see what the what the king had said was to his deputies.

60. 32:15

    They held their peace and answered them. Not a word for the King’s commandment was answer him not. That was the spirit of Hezekiah. And isn’t that what the Lord did, Brothers and sisters? Matthew 26 verses 62 to 63, the high priest car for said, What is that? That which these witness against thee?

61. 32:38

    But Jesus held his peace. Or again in Luke 23 verses 8 and 9. And when Herod saw Jesus, he was glad and questioned him, but he answered him nothing. In John 19 verses 8:00 and 9:00, when Pilot heard that saying, he said unto Jesus, Whence out there? But Jesus gave him no answer. So the silence of the Lord in the face of severe provocation was a testimony to his faith in God. Where did he get that from?

62. 33:09

    Brothers, sisters, where did our Lord find that? But at least in part in the inspiring example of Hezekiah of old, that’s what the Lord did when dealing with the Champions of sin in his own day. He said nothing because he committed his cause to God. And I think he did it because, well, he knew the story of Hezekiah and because He knew, because our Lord knew the story of Hezekiah, He knew, thankfully with absolute certainty, what the final outcome of his trial would be. Because you can just imagine how our Lord must have seized on these words, or at least this idea that His healing and restoration from certain death would be accomplished. On the third day.

63. 34:00

    I’ve heard thy prayer, I’ve seen thy tears. I will heal thee. On the third day, Thou shalt go up into the House of God. Oh, Can you imagine our Lord Jesus Christ reading the story of the crisis of Izakar and finding comfort in those words? He must have known, don’t you think? Because you see what the Lord says. And Luke 24, verses 45 to 46 then opened he their understanding.

64. 34:25

    Thus it is written. And thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day. Thus it is written, said the Lord. Where was it written that the Lord should save us? Well, at least one of the places that the Lord might have been referring to was the story of His a car in the crisis of His a car in the chapters that we’ve investigated.

65. 34:47

    And does it not say in Acts 10, verse 40 and 41, by the mouth of the Lord’s apostles him God raised up the third day and showed him openly not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God. And again in the first of Corinthians, chapter 15, verse four, that he, Christ was buried and that he rose again the third day according to according to the Scriptures. One of those scriptures, don’t you think, is this story of the crisis of Hezekiah and the king who was permitted to go up again into the House of God.

66. 35:24

    Can you imagine what wonderful encouragement that that must have been for our Lord Jesus Christ? And the fact that he must rise again as the basis of deliverance for both himself and his people was something that Hezekiah knew from the something that the Lord knew from his knowledge of the story of Hezekiah, that the deliverance of the king was the precursor and basis for the salvation of the nation. I think Christ understood the significance of that in the story of Hezekiah because, well, here it is. You see Isaiah 38 verses 5 and 6 says, I’ve heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears, and I will deliver thee, Here’s a car, and this city, Jerusalem, out of the hand of king. 7 you see the order by the scissors.

67. 36:24

    I’ll deliver the king first. And only when the king has been delivered might the city be saved. And the city was saved because the king was delivered. So the appearance of the king having been delivered and recovered from the sickness of death was the precursor to the salvation of the nation that might follow.

68. 36:42

    And isn’t that what it says in Second Chronicles chapter 32 verse 22? Thus Yahweh saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, first the king, then the nation.

69. 36:59

    Isaiah 53 verse 5 says he was wounded for our transgressions. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with with his stripes we are healed and the initial fulfillment of course of the words of Isaiah 53 very much had their basis in the life experience of good king Hezekiah of Judah. The whole nation was to realize that their success, their deliverance was completely dependent on the deliverance of their king and you’ll all know these words in John 3 verse 17.

70. 37:34

    God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. One man for the many, the King for his people, the Son of God for the world. And it would be in the King’s typical death and in the King’s typical resurrection that the salvation of the nation would be made possible through the forgiveness of their iniquity. So let me show you a piece of passage which is helpful to our next thought.

71. 38:16

    If you come back to Isaiah 22, to the words of the prophet Isaiah, he has an interesting expression in which he castigates the nation for their unfaithfulness at this very time of the crisis of of Sennacherib having come into the land and the king being under threat himself. And this is what the prophet said concerning the spirit of the nation and how very much different it was to the spirit of their king. Isaiah 22 and reading from verse 12. And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, into mourning, into baldness, and to girding with sackcloth. That’s what he wanted.

72. 38:57

    That’s what he asked for. But what did the nation do? How did the nation respond? Verse 13 Behold instead joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep and eating flesh and drinking wine and saying, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die completely unfaithful. And the prophet says, it was revealed in mine ears by Yahweh of hosts. Surely this iniquity in you, this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die, saith the Lord God of hosts. That was a terribly serious indictment upon the nation. So unfaithful was their spirit that they had no trust whatsoever in their God.

73. 39:36

    The king was righteous, but certainly not the nation. And yet, and yet, as it turned out, their iniquity would be forgiven by God, but not because they died, but because typically their king would. So in the parable of Hezekiah, the iniquity of the nation would be forgiven through the typical death and resurrection of the king.

74. 40:09

    Now here it is in Isaiah 33 verse 24. If you’ve ever wondered what these words are about, and this in a chapter which incidentally rejoices over the fact that the Assyrian is no longer in the land because the Assyrians been overthrown, the prophet says and Isaiah 33 verse 24, and the inhabitants will not say I am sick.

75. 40:30

    Now who would the inhabitant singular be in the city of Jerusalem, who one day would be able to declare that he was no longer sick? That’s the king by the sisters recovered from his sickness unto death to Wellness again. That’s the king recovered. And as a result of the recovery of the king, what are the inhabitants of the city say?

76. 40:50

    The people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. So you see, that’s that’s saying that the people were going to be forgiven their iniquity consequent upon the sickness and the healing of their king. He had been their sin bearer and through him their salvation would come. And if we were to ask, brothers, sisters, what does the prophet say to us?

77. 41:20

    The answer is yes. Isaiah I thought he verse to speak he comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that a warfare is accomplished, the Assyrian is finished, and also that her iniquity is pardoned. And if we were to ask, how was her iniquity to be pardoned? The prophet himself replies, and Isaiah 53, verse 6. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, but Yahweh hath laid on him the iniquity of us all that was outworked in the first instance in the life of the king with whom they had to do it, that precise moment in their history.

78. 42:03

    Brother, sisters, good king Hezekiah, and it says this of the Lord, and Titus chapter 2, verses 13 and 14. Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people. So the very work of our Lord Jesus Christ was going to be captured in the thrilling story of the crisis of Hezekiah, where the nation’s own destiny was bound up in the King’s circumstances.

79. 42:45

    How wonderful to have such a clear parable that, as it turns out, is hiding in plain sight. And we read the record of Isaiah 36 to 39 afresh, and we suddenly see in it not the story of Hezekiah, about the story of our Lord Jesus Christ and his atoning work on behalf of others.

80. 43:11

    There’s an interesting, interesting comment in the Jewish Targum which taught that Hezekiah’s godliness alone was responsible for the destruction of the army and the deliverance of the nation when Sennacherib came against Jerusalem. And we agree with that thought, not because the Jewish Targum says so, but because we got the warrant of what Isaiah 36 to 39 we believe is in reality telling us and teaching us.

81. 43:38

    In fact, one of their most famous rabbis, Rabbi Heliol, had this rather interesting expression when he said this. The Jews shall have no more Messiah, he said, for they have already had him in the days of Hezekiah.

82. 43:58

    Now he didn’t mean that Hezekiah really was the Messiah of the nation. But what he did mean was that the work which Hezekiah accomplished was unique in this respect, that no greater type of the sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of others would be found anywhere in Scripture.

83. 44:20

    In Hezekiah, the spirit of Christ’s sacrificial work on behalf of his people found its greatest expression. What the life of this man shows and has shown us is that when the crises of life come upon us, there’s great wisdom and remembering those principles that will help us to face those moments wisely and well. Taking time for careful assessment, praying with God centered focus, revealing the spirit of resignation, offering thanks by faithful service, and showing humility to confess fault.

84. 45:07

    And in the end, the king was greatly blessed because of a spirit before his God. In fact, Isaiah 53 would say this. When thou shalt make his soul and offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand. And in a very real sense, don’t you think God did make Hezekiah soul an offering for sin on behalf of his nation? And everything that Isaiah said in that servant Song prophecy came to pass in measure in Hezekiah’s own life as a forerunner of the Lord.

85. 45:39

    They’re all spoken of the Lord in the end. We know that. But they all had their beginning in the Life and Times of Hezekiah. He did see his seed because Manasseh his son was born in good time to preserve the royal line of David. And he did prolong his days. Because God said, I will land unto thy days, 15 years. And the pleasure of Yahweh did prosper in his hand. Because the summary of Hezekiah’s life was. And every work that he began, he did it with all his heart and prospered, says the Second of Chronicles 31 and verse 21. So perhaps the best way for us to honor the example of so great a man is to try and behave in the same way when the difficulties of life come upon us. And if we do, if we can, then maybe our lives as well might become a parable of Christ in the things where we’ve sought to display His Spirit.

86. 46:43

    As it says in one of our hymns. How few receive with cordial faith the tidings which we bring. How few have seen the arm revealed of heaven’s anointed king. Yet, saith the Lord, my pleasure still shall prosper in his hand. His shall a numerous offspring be, and still his honour stand. Brother Roger, on behalf of your brothers and sisters and the young people here at the Bible School, we’d like to extend our thanks for the time and effort of this week and the studies that have gone on before here.

87. 47:48

    Obviously, the hours of Bible study that you’ve been able to share with us the power of God’s Word and the crisis of Hezekiah and how it leads right into the salvation that has been provided through Christ. So we’d like to thank you and Sister Pauline Guy will be with you and your continued journeys.

88. 48:04

    Thank. You.