Isaiah 38:2-3

Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall

Hezekiah’s face turned to the wall

The obvious meaning is the wall of the room, towards which he turned, not merely to collect his thoughts, or to conceal his tears, but as a natural expression of strong feeling.

(J. A. Alexander.)

Self-retirement

The sick man turns his face to the wall in order to retire into himself and God. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)

A natural shrinking from death

The voice sounded naturally as it pleaded with the Lord. The old man wants to die; he says, I am living amongst strangers: who is he! and who is she? what are those people? what is their occupation! I do not know where I am: I will live in the sacred past. But the young man in middle life does not want to die. The child does not want to go to rest at nine o’clock in the morning. We feel as if we had a call to work. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Hezekiah’s face turned to the wall

The place of honour in an Eastern room is an angle of the apartment, so that whichever side Hezekiah turned upon, his face would be to a wall, and screened from observation. (E. W.Shalders, B. A.)

A good man’s plea

1. Holy men did sometimes make mention of their good deeds before the Lord, in their prayer to Him (Nehemiah 13:14; Jeremiah 15:15).

2. When they did make mention of their good deeds before the Lord, they did it, for the most part, when they were in trouble.

3. They did not mention them as meritorious causes of whet they prayed Nehemiah 13:22).

4. The reason why they mention their good deeds at such time is--

(1) That they might the more incline the Lord to mercy; for the Lord is more ready to show mercy to those who endeavour to live according to His laws than to those who neglect them.

(2) That they might sustain themselves against the faint-heartedness which might assail them, being prone by nature thereto; for the testimony of a good conscience produceth boldness towards God (2 Corinthians 1:12; 1 Peter 3:21). Besides, Hezekiah might have a special reason to move him to mention his good deeds, and it is this, because the Lord had made a promise to David (1 Kings 2:4). At this time Hezekiah had not a child to succeed him in the throne. (W. Day, M. A.)

And Hezekiah wept sore

Hezekiah’s tears

In these tears we can discover--

I. A DREAD OF DEATH COMMON TO HUMAN NATURE.

1. This dread of death has a moral cause. What is the cause? A consciousness of sin, and an apprehension of its consequences. On the assumption that man would have died, had he not sinned, his death, we presume, in that case, would have been free from all that is terrible.

2. This dread of death has a moral antidote. “O death, where is thy sting?” &c. Those who apply this remedy hail rather than dread mortality; they “desire to depart,” &c.

II. THE INABILITY OF THE WORLD TO RELIEVE HUMAN NATURE. Hezekiah was a monarch. His home was a palace, and the great men of the nation were his willing attendants. Whatever wealth could procure, he could get at his bidding; and yet with so much of the world, what could it do for him? Could it raise him from his suffering couch? Nay! Could it hush one sigh, or wipe one tear away? No! In truth, the probability is that his earthly possessions and splendour added to the awfulness of the idea of death. The world has no power to help the soul in its deepest griefs and wants. The soul weeps in palaces.

III. THE POWER OF PRAYER TO HELP HUMAN NATURE. These tears were the tears of prayer as well as of fear, and his fear stimulated his prayer. And what was the result of this prayer? “I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.” This is a remarkable instance of the power of prayer, and is recorded here to encourage our suffering nature to direct its cries to heaven. (Homilist)

Hezekiah’s distress and prayer

Hezekiah had tried to serve God faithfully, and had been taught to expect length of days as his reward. The very consciousness of his integrity, and of his desire to honour the Lord in the presence of his people, must have added to his distress. What had been the fatal flaw in his service that had brought upon him this unexpected doom? Life and immortality had not been brought to fight. Death, for him, seemed banishment from the presence of the Lord. In the grave he could not praise Him; dead, he could not celebrate His glory (Isaiah 38:11; Isaiah 38:18). Twice he says, “Thou wilt make an end of me.” We seldom realise how much we owe to that resurrection which lifted the veil that was spread over all nations. But Hezekiah teaches us how much strength, consolation, and joy may be found in communion with God in this life. His earthly experience, which he thought was to come to an end, was, after all, part of the life eternal. The Hebrew’s vivid sense of God’s presence with him in this life, were it more generally ours, would make our fear more reverent, our obedience and submission more complete, and would put an end to much of that practical atheism which prevails in the world of to-day. Let us not miss the consolation of the message Isaiah brought to his king, “I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears.” Our prayers may be ignorant and shortsighted, we may not know what to pray for as we ought, but our tears are not overlooked. When our sadness is speechless, the scalding tears that tell our heart’s woe, move the Divine pity, and plead for us more eloquently than any words we can put into frame. “In all our afflictions, He is afflicted”--to believe this is to be consoled. (E. W. Shalders, B. A.)

Hezekiah’s prayer in affliction

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT LED TO THE UTTERANCE OF THIS PRAYER.

1. Hezekiah was sorely afflicted. The exact nature of his disease may be difficult to determine. There is no ground for the vague supposition that he was afflicted with the plague which destroyed the Assyrians. The malady was probably “a fever boil” (Ewald), or “a single carbuncle formed under the back of the head” (Thenius), or “fever terminating in abscess” (Meade). The word shechin, translated boil, means strictly inflammation. The crude state of medical science then would make many diseases fatal which are now easily removed. The body is subject to multifarious maladies. Few have perfect health. Doubtless better health would come from wiser habits and simpler faith. But many causes of disease are indefinable. A sick body often ministers to the growth of the soul. It casts the shadow of eternity over the fife. It awakens prayer in the most callous. It brings the prayerful nearer God.

2. Hezekiah believed that his affliction would be “unto death.” He probably encouraged a hope of recovery until Isaiah came; though, as Josephus informs us, “the physicians despaired of him, and expected no good issue from his sickness; as neither did his friends.” Hope dies hard in a sick man’s breast. Isaiah, perhaps, did what, none of Hezekiah’s physicians or courtiers were prepared to do. He faithfully delivered the Divine message. It was a painful duty. The dying should be warned. Not to do so is an unkindness and a sin. All have some preparations to make when death comes unexpectedly. The house of the soul needs to be set in order as well as the estate.

3. Hezekiah met death with great reluctance. Men generally shrink from death at its first approach. Dr. Johnson held that no man met death willingly. Many doubtless have. But to meet death without reluctance is no direct proof of meetness for eternity. Remember Bunyan’s “Weary of the World.” The good may be unwilling to die. Hezekiah was not spiritually unprepared. He was reluctant to die--

(1) From the natural disinclination which men feel towards death. He was in the prime of life. His hold of all earthly things was firm. Age loosens the grasp. He saws time of quiet and prosperity dawning upon his kingdom, and he desired to live to enjoy it.

(2) He had no heir. It is certain that Manasseh who succeeded him was not then horn, for twenty years later he was but twelve years old; and the land had not yet begun to recover from the late ravages, so that his death would have left the nation in a distracted condition, and would probably have exposed it to many new calamities” (Kitto).

(3) He had not that clear revelation of immortality which we as Christians possess. He would look upon death as being “cut off from the land of the living,” as going down into silence. Christ had not opened the kingdom of immortality to the eyes of men. This life was all to him, and he clung to it.

II. HEZEKIAH’S PRAYER.

1. He does not utter the desire that was uppermost in his mind. We may not have recorded all that he prayed: probably his prayer was broken off abruptly in weeping. He knew God could interpret his broken words, his sighs, his tears. Many prayers are too elaborately expressed. They prove their shallowness by the smooth elegance of the language in which they are uttered. Strong feeling makes the tongue falter. Much in prayer may be left to God’s omniscience, justice, wisdom, tenderness, and love. Like a father He interprets the heart of His child.

2. Hezekiah appeals to his past life as a reason why his life should be prolonged. Few can do this. Most lives are so marred, so imperfect, so sinful, that they can furnish no argument before God. But, it has been asked, was there not in this prayer a spirit of self-commendation contrary to the spirit of the Gospel? Not a conscious self-clothing of deceit, but a pernicious self-ignorance? We think not. Hezekiah lived under a dispensation of religious thought that led him to believe that a man’s character and conduct were the grounds upon which God’s favour or displeasure was bestowed. And this is true under a dispensation of grace; though we, under that dispensation, realise as Hezekiah could not that all our virtue is by the help of God’s Spirit, and can merit little in His sight. The modern habit of self-analysis and eagerness to find some evil to condemn at every turn, so as to describe ourselves as the vilest of the vile, was unknown to him. Many merely attempt to descend to some imaginary standard of vileness which they suppose is the proper depth of self-humiliation to reach to secure God’s favour. Much of this confession of being miserable sinners is but miserable cant. Sick-bed confessions are exposed to this danger. Such lip-service may be, as Lynch says, “most suspicious and affrighting.” What God desires is an honest expression of our heart’s convictions.

This Hezekiah gave. This prayer was uttered with true humility. Whatever had been his sins--and he recognised them (verse 17)--he could claim--

1. Sincerity. He had walked before God in truth. He was conscious of no deceit, no inward angularities, no warping of conscience, no sophistical coverings, no histrionic attitudes. He lived out the verities of his soul.

2. Simplicity of purpose. His heart was perfect in its consecration to the Divine glory. He had no double aims. In building up the religious life of the nation he had not sought his own honour but God’s.

3. That his acts had been regulated as in God’s sight, and had been to increase goodness in the earth. His life was indeed his prayer. Life will have to be reviewed. A life of sin makes a death-bed terrible.

III. THE EMOTIONS WITH WHICH THIS PRAYER WAS OFFERED.

1. Hezekiah was filled with grief. But while grief prostrates the mental and physical energies it often gives great potency to prayer. The gaze of Hezekiah’s almost speechless soul was fixed on God with beseeching earnestness, and the poignancy of his grief arrested the Divine arm.

2. There was in Hezekiah’s mind a feeling of bitter disappointment. He expected to live, and his expectation rested upon his religious belief. In his day, under the incompleted revelation of t he Divine purposes, centering in human life and destiny, which was then possessed, longevity was regarded as one of the peculiar rewards of piety (Psalms 90:16). Hezekiah had fulfilled the conditions and he now looked for the reward. He was disappointed in God. To be disappointed in God is the direst disappointment that can fill a man’s soul with bitterness. If God fail him, what is there in the universe that is firm? God sometimes permits men to think that He has not been faithful to them. This is, perhaps, the severest test that the human heart can bear. Christ descended to that “profundity of woe” when He uttered His agonising cry upon the cross. Many fail in such hours. But true faith can enable us to triumph even then. It will enable us to lie weeping before God, waiting for the explanation that it assures us God can and will give; clinging to His garments even when His face seems turned away, and His form, once so near and trusted, has changed, and seems moving steadily away from us. Thus Hezekiah waited, weeping Sore.

3. There was also within him the feeling of utter helplessness. All earthly resources had failed him. When he turned his face to the wall, he felt that no power on earth could help him. His physicians, his attendants, his most trusted counsellors, could render no assistance. He had only God.

Hezekiah, even in such circumstances, found God nigh to help and to save. Isaiah was speedily sent back to comfort him with the Divine message: “I have heard thy prayers, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.” Learn--

1. That true piety will enable us to seek and find God m life’s most painful extremities.

2. That in our hours of bitterest grief prayer will reach God’s ear and bring us relief and deliverance. (Homiletic Magazine.)