Chapter xxxviii.—“ In those days ” (that is, in his fourteenth year) " was Hezekiah sick unto death.” And Isaiah was sent from God to say: ' Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and
not live.” And Hezekiah did not want to die. He turned his face to the wall and wept and prayed. He was a righteous king, and according to clerical theology, would have gone to heaven at death. But God said nothing about going to heaven, and Hezekiah was loth “ to depart. ’ The Bible does not fit clerical theology.
Hezekiah’s prayer on this occasion is on record—brief, simple and touching. “ Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done good in thy sight.” That is all. But that is much in few words ; for as an apostle afterwards said : “ God is not unrighteous, to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed towards his name ” (Heb. vi. 10). God “ remembered ’ Hezekiah’s " work and labour of love,” and by Isaiah the prophet said, “ I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears, behold I will add unto thy days fifteen yeais.” And, it was added, God would deliver Jerusalem, and give Hezekiah the sign of the returning shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz.
This was a unique case of a literal and formal new lease of life.” It was granted to the King on his appeal to the divine memory of his righteousness. How suggestive is this. Where would he have been if he had had no such righteousness to remember ? Ahaz his father could not have prayed so, nor Manasseh his son, though he did pray and obtain some favour of the Lord. It was a matter of personal “ works.” " I will give every man,” says Jesus, “ according as his work shall be.” Hezekiah is a type of the accepted in the day of his coming. His case is a great incentive to those who come after to “ walk before the Lord in truth and with a perfect heart.”
And it is a type, as it were, of that lengthening of the days of Messiah himself which is the subject of the prophetic psalm. “ He asked life of thee and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.” Why ? Because “ the King ” did always the things that pleased the Father ”—“ walked before Him in truth and with a perfect heart,” doing good. But this was life eternal, reached through death and resurrection.
Hezekiah, on recovery, wrote the beautiful psalm of praise recorded in ch. xxxviii. 10-20. It is out of harmony with the ideas of clerical theology, but in harmony with “ the word ” in its doctrine of life and death. Clerical theology sends the righteous to heaven at death. Hezekiah said, “ I shall go to the gates of sheol, the grave.” Hezekiah contemplated death as being “ made an end of ” (verses 12-13). Clerical theology says this is a mere sentiment of infidelity, and that no “ immortal soul ” can possibly be “ made an end of.” Clerical theology says that the “ souls ” of the righteous are not related to “ the pit of corruption,” and that none of the righteous “ go down into the pit ; ” it is only their bodies that so go down as " a worn-out fetter that the soul had broken and thrown away ” ! Hezekiah says just the opposite of all this. Clerical theology says that the grave and death can and do praise the Lord—yea, “ When my voice is lost in death, praise shall my nobler powers employ.”—Dr. Watts. Hezekiah, however, restricts praise to “ the living,” in harmony with scripture and common sense. But it is a profanation of his beautiful psalm to compare it with the fables of the apostasy. Yahweh as good as resurrected him, and he rejoiced before him accordingly, saying, Yahweh 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 Yahweh.”
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