Isaiah 38 - Introduction

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 38

This chapter gives an account of Hezekiah's sickness, recovery, and thanksgiving on that account. His sickness, and the nature of it, and his preparation for it, as directed to by the prophet, Isaiah 38:1, his prayer to God upon it, Isaiah 38:2 the answer returned unto it, by which he is assured of living fifteen years more, and of the deliverance and protection of the city of Jerusalem from the Assyrians, Isaiah 38:4, the token of his recovery, the sun going back ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz,

Isaiah 38:7, a writing of Hezekiah's upon his recovery, in commemoration of it, Isaiah 38:9, in which he represents the deplorable condition he had been in, the terrible apprehensions he had of things, especially of the wrath and fury of the Almighty, and his sorrowful and mournful complaints,

Isaiah 38:10, he observes his deliverance according to the word of God; expresses his faith in it; promises to retain a cheerful sense of it; owning that it was by the promises of God that he had lived as other saints did; and ascribes his preservation from the grave to the love of God to him, of which the forgiveness of his sins was an evidence,

Isaiah 38:15, the end of which salvation was, that he might praise the Lord, which he determined to do, on stringed instruments, Isaiah 38:18, and the chapter is closed with observing the means of curing him of his boil; and that it was at his request that the sign of his recovery was given him, Isaiah 38:21.