A Bad King's Good Son
(No. 3320)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1912.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S DAY EVENING, JUNE
24, 1866.
"And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of
Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some
good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam." 1
Kings 14:13.
WE must take the text, of course, with definite and full reference to
its historical context. It seems that in the wicked house and family of
Jeroboam, there was one godly child–and death, which very often
mysteriously cuts down the green wheat, while it leaves the hemlock to
ripen–seized upon this one and laid him low. Yet though he must die,
there was this consolatory thought about his death, that it was the
only one of the family that would ever have an honored burial, for all
the others were to be slain by a death so sudden and violent that they
were to be eaten by the fowls of the air or devoured by the dogs! This
child was to be the only one who should have a funeral attended by
mourners because he was the only child of the whole family in whose
heart there was "found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel."
We shall make several remarks upon this text, perhaps too numerous to
call them divisions as a discourse, but they will be illustrations
drawn from the narrative before us. The first remark we shall make is
this–
I. GOD'S ELECTING LOVE SOMETIMES HAS THE OBJECTS OF ITS CHOICE IN
STRANGE PLACES.
Of all the houses of Israel, the palace of Tirzah was, surely, the last
place one would think in which to look for a worshiper of the true God!
The father of the family was a great sinner. He had set up gods of gold
and said, "These are your gods, O Israel." Though much distinguished by
God's Providential goodness and lifted up from the rank of an officer
to that of a monarch, he forgot the God in whose sunshine he had
flourished and must make the men of Israel bow down before an ox that
eats grass! There could be in his palace no toleration for anything
like true religion. There must have been a total neglect of all the
hallowed engagements of the Sabbath and of everything else that looked
like reverence to the unseen, but almighty God of Israel! And yet God's
Sovereign, electing Love was bestowed upon a child of this wicked and
rebellious Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin! God's
everlasting mercy had designed that there should be a break in the line
of sin and that there should be at least one who should be found among
the choristers of Glory who had been nursed and nurtured among the
degraded worship of calves!
What was the case in Jeroboam's family is often seen in many others.
Remember how Paul seems to dwell upon it? "Chiefly they that are of
Caesar's household." Of all the human animals that ever disgraced the
race, the Caesars, as a whole, were the worst. I suppose that three out
of four of them ought to have been kept in the worst ward of a lunatic
asylum, and yet they were lifted up to preside over the vast Roman
empire! Their lives were not only tainted with iniquity, but they
reeked with every form of infamy. And yet, in households of such
wretches as Tiberius and Nero, there were found true and eminent saints
of God! Grace sometime finds its choicest jewels on the worst of refuse
heaps. Sometimes it is impossible to account for it, as it is in this
case. How should the child know anything about God? Was it, do you
think, through his nurse? It certainly was not through his mother, but
might it not have been through his nurse? Does not God sometimes send
to little children in godless families good governesses? If some of you
are in such positions, may you not, instead of running out of the house
because it is too godless, hope that God has sent you there to be an
instrument of good to some tender little heart, to pluck right out of
the fire some brand, to take right away from between the lion's jaws
some precious blood-bought lamb for whom the Savior died? It might have
been so here. I cannot see how else this child could have known about
the God of Israel, but this is certain–electing love had one of its
objects in this strange household and it knew how to find that one out!
I know there are some of you who belong to very strange families, where
the name of God is scarcely ever mentioned, except in profanity, where
Christ is not loved and where His Cross is not reverenced, and yet you
are saved. Perhaps it was curiosity that brought you here to hear that
odd man who says such strange things against the world's popish
church–or for some other reason you dropped in here and God blessed
you. Or else you took up some stray book, or you happened to light on a
torn-out leaf of the Bible and there, Sovereign Grace met with you. Oh,
how should we praise electing love and lift up heart and soul and voice
to say–
"It was not that I chose Thee,
For, Lord, it could not be!
This heart would still refuse Thee
But you have chosen me." Give the Glory, all the Glory, to the
Sovereign, distinguishing, discriminating Grace of God!
My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, there seems much comfort in
this little incident to the Christian minister and to all Believers.
You think, sometimes, that the Church is getting to a low ebb and that
there is a lack of bold, brave men. But we do not know where God may
yet find such men. Years ago we said, and you believed, that God would
find some of the best preachers of the Gospel among the very humblest
classes of society–and did not that come true? Have there not been
found some men with whose names the ears of England have been made to
tingle, who were taken from the coalpit and other similar places to
preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, He can do the same again and
what will be stranger, still–it may be that before many years or even
months are over, He will find courtiers and men of noble blood and
rank, after the world's way of talking, who will be down, or rather up
to the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus! My Brothers and Sisters, we
need never despair! The mighty arm of God can get into courts and
houses of lords and reach the mightiest, the proudest, the most
priest-ridden of men and lay them down at the foot of the Cross,
saying, "I intended from before the foundation of the world to make you
a vessel of mercy to bear My name to the Gentiles, and you shall do
it–arise and go your way." Never despair for the Church! Out of the
house of Jeroboam, God will bring His Ahijahs, and out of the worst and
most unpromising of places, where God is most forgotten, and His Truth
least known and despised, the Lord will bring testifiers to the Truth
of God as it is in Jesus! Have hope, then! Have hope in God and look up
and expect His blessing!
We shall now turn to a second remark, namely, that according to the
text–
II. IT IS NOT ALWAYS, OR EVEN COMMONLY, THAT SOME GOOD THING TOWARDS
THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL IS FOUND IN THE MINDS AND HEARTS OF CHILDREN.
It is mentioned, you observe, that in this child alone of all the race
there was found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel. It has
grown to be a common notion that there is a very great deal that is
good in children–and this by unaided nature. Well, there are many
traits in the character of childhood, as childhood, which are very
beautiful and naturally and, according to the judgment of the natural
man there is much about a child to be admired and imitated. But indulge
no idea, parents, that your child is born with a perfectly balanced
mind! Do not fall into the delusion that your infant will naturally
choose the right and abhor the wrong, for before many days are past it
is probable, if you are at all a watchful parent, that the delusion
will be dispelled! You will discover, either in stubbornness, or in
temper, or as soon as speech comes in, a constant tendency to
untruthfulness and disobedience, or other forms of little childish sins
that will prove the heart of the child to be far other than the sheet
of white, unsoiled paper which some like to represent it to be! Alas,
long before we can write upon it, the pen of evil tendency has traced
lines on it which only the Grace of God will ever be able to erase!
Cowper sings–
"True, you are young, but there's a stone, Within the youngest breast"
A child soon finds this out for himself, if God enlightens him. Though
reared in a godly home, and brought up by godly parents and carefully
shielded from everything like evil society or influence, I was very
conscious of early feeling myself to be inclined to all sorts of evil,
to have found it difficult to be and do that which was right, and easy
to be and do that which was wrong. And so far as your memories will
serve you, if you have any spiritual enlightenment, you will have found
the same thing in relation to yourselves. How could it be otherwise?
"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one!" "Behold,"
said David, and we cannot expect that we are better than he was,
"Behold, I was born in sin and shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my
mother conceive me." To find good, then, in a child should be to us a
subject for
deep thankfulness to God! And we should always look upon it as being
His work. We should not wonder to see it, for God often puts it there,
but we should never look upon true goodness in a child as something
from human nature–
"Grace is a plant, wherever it blooms,
Of a celestial birth"
and if there is a desire towards Jesus Christ. If there is a tenderness
of heart concerning sin. If there is simple prayer for pardon and
childlike trust in the Savior, it is as much a work of Grace in the
youngest child as in the oldest convert–let us always remember that it
is so!
"Well," says one, "one does not like to think of one's children as
being fallen." My dear Friend! One does not like to think of one's self
as being fallen! But it is not because the Doctrine is unpleasant that
it is therefore untrue, for, unhappily, the most of true things about
our spiritual state when unregenerate are unpleasant. That we are
fallen by sin is a sad fact, but none the less a fact because sad! We
know we are fallen short of the Glory of God. It is apparent and
undeniable to ourselves and, therefore, we discover that "the whole
head is sick, and the whole heart faint." It is as much a matter
confirmed by human experience when it is honest with itself, as it is a
Divine Revelation!
And the same thing rest assured, is true of those who spring from our
loins and inherit our nature! We cannot expect to be the parents of
perfect children, being ourselves imperfect–but when we find in the
heart of a child some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel, we see
great cause for devout thankfulness to God. We observe now–
III. SOME GOOD THING TOWARDS THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL, THOUGH IT COMES
NOT FROM NATURE, IS OFTEN SEEN IN VERY YOUNG PEOPLE. You will say I am
preaching a "sermon to the young" without giving notice of it, but it
is also a sermon to parents. There is a supposition abroad that there
cannot be anything really good in people who are not adults. There is,
at any rate, a difficulty among some people as to child-like piety. And
with some, if a lad or a girl is under 12 years of age or thereabouts,
it really is a matter of grave suspicion as to whether piety can be
genuine. I have not a shadow of sympathy with such people! I cannot see
any more reason for suspecting the sincerity of children than for
suspecting the sincerity of those who are far better acquainted with
the arts of deception than little children are likely to be! It is not
difficult to acquire the pretence of religion so as to impose upon some
church officers. It is not difficult to adopt the religious jargon
which most people use, and to get it off by rote. But children do not
find this to be so easy–besides, they have not been long enough in
association with Christian people to have caught the thing up–and when
a child says, tearfully and carefully, "I have repented of my sins, and
I do trust in the Lord Jesus Christ"–I believe that that child is as
much entitled to be believed as I am, or as you are! That you have a
small quantity of gray sprinkled in your hair is, no doubt, an index of
older years and, perhaps, maturer judgment, but I am not certain that
it is an indication of a more sincere nature! The child has, I think,
at any rate, as much reason to be believed as an older person. And,
after all, why not? Do years help the Holy Spirit? Do we grow better as
we grow older?
Is it easier to convert an old sinner than it is a child fresh from its
mother's knee? Omnipotence is needed in the one case–and cannot
Omnipotence suffice for the other? If there are difficulties in either
case, I believe there is none when Omnipotence puts itself to work.
Certainly there are no difficulties in the case of a child which are
not aggravated in the case of an older person. Some of the most
excellent Christians are those who were converted when they were very
young. You shall find your ablest preachers, with few exceptions, to
have been young converts. You shall look for your Timothies among those
who have learned the Scriptures from their youth up!
If I might venture to do it, I would say to our elder Brothers and
Sisters–Do let us get rid of the idea that we ought to suspect the
young folk. Let us be jealous with a holy jealousy, lest they make a
profession of what they do not understand. Let us be earnest with them
to see that they really receive spiritual things and do not fall into
hypocritical or deceiving habits–but do not let us be constantly
suspecting children and be looking upon them as if they could not be of
the right kind. "Nothing but a parcel of boys and girls!" says
somebody. And what would you have them, Sir? A company of boys and
girls may glorify God in every way as well as a company of even the
oldest people you could find! They have their faults, but people of
other ages have theirs, too, and, at any rate, it is written, "out of
the mouths of babes and sucklings has God ordained strength because of
His enemies."
We will now go a step further and remark–
IV. THAT A TRULY GOOD THING, IN THE DIVINE SENSE, IS ALWAYS TOWARDS THE
LORD.
This is the tendency and the strong direction of the current. You
observe it says not merely that "there is found some good thing," but,
"some good things toward the Lord God of Israel" Here, then, is a test
by which we may try religion, both in the old and in the young! There
are many men who have some good thing in them politically. I can admire
the man who stands up for the Constitution and who, although he may be
called one of the stupid party, yet really believing that it is
necessary that things should stand forever where they now are, can
readily encounter disgrace for the matter. I can admire even more and
with greater intensity the man who goes ahead and who desires to change
everything that is wrong, even though it is venerable with years! I can
admire him standing in the midst of storm and quietly enduring it,
bearing all manner of rebuke for the sake of reform. Yet I can quite
imagine all this existing without any "good thing toward the Lord God
of Israel." Though one appreciates all this, yet he is compelled to
lament if there is not something more. In daily life it is a noble
thing to see some good thing in business. There are some of you who
would as soon bleed to death as cheat others–to whom it would be the
most tremendous misfortune to know deep poverty–but who would sooner
be beggars than bankrupt, if bankruptcy meant in your case what it
often means today! Now, I can admire this fine noble honesty.
Admire it! Ah, and wish that it were as common as daisies in the field!
Admire it! Would God it might spread all over the land! But all this
can exist without any good thing toward the Lord God of Israel, for the
Lord God of Israel may be forgotten with it all! I can admire in the
family the earnest mother bringing up her children with sedulous care,
and the excellent daughter, amiable and kind, making everyone happy
wherever she goes. And the hardworking father denying himself much that
he may bring up his children properly. I can admire all these domestic
virtues, but I fear that they often exist where there is no good thing
toward the Lord God of Israel! This is the great point–goodness
towards God. Perhaps I may have in this congregation some who have in
them everything that is good except anything good towards God, Himself.
How is it, now, that you can live as God's creatures and think of
everybody else but not of the God who made you? The God who preserves
you in life you forget! You would be dishonest to no one except to
God–and you would be ungenerous to none except to Him who has the
greatest claims upon you. Oh, the inconsistency of our evil nature,
that the best Being in all the world is the least thought of! You would
not keep a dog if it did not fawn upon you, or acknowledge you as
master, and yet you never acknowledge God to whom you belong! You would
not keep a horse if it rendered you no service, and yet you have been
kept by God's goodness for 40 years and have persistently not thought
ofHim!
You expect when you have been kind to the poor that they will
acknowledge your kindness and feel some gratitude for it. And yet you
would have been naked, and poor, and miserable, and sick, and
dying–no, you would be in Hell at this very moment if it had not been
for the goodness of God! And have you no gratitude towards Him, no good
thing towards the Lord God of Israel? Now let me tell you, with deepest
affection, what it is you need, and what you must have, my dear Hearer,
or else you will never reach Heaven. You must have a sense of the
sinfulness of all this! You must begin to feel that all this is wrong!
That you have turned things upside down, that you have lived for
trifles and forgotten realities! That you have remembered father, and
mother, and country, and trade, and much else, but you have forgotten
the God to whom you owe everything! I pray God to help you to repent,
for that is one of the best and first good things towards the Lord God
of Israel! But better still is this–God, the Gracious One, has
provided a way of pardon. He tells you that if you trust His dear Son,
who for eternal love of man became a Man, and for love of souls did die
upon the tree, He will save you–that "there is life for a look at the
Crucified One"–that if you want to please Him, faith in Jesus is the
way to please Him! That if you must do works, the greatest work you can
do is to believe in Jesus Christ whom He has sent! He tells you that
there is nothing needed on your part, but that all is found in
Christ–and He says to you in wooing terms, "Come unto Me! Come, now,
and let us reason together. Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall
be as wool; though they are red like crimson, they shall be whiter than
snow." Before you can get to Heaven you must have something in your
heart which says, "Lord, I come, I come. I trust Your Son. I believe in
Your mercy and rely upon His blood. I trust myself in those dear
pierced hands." If you can say this, you have a good thing towards the
Lord God of Israel and God sees it and accepts you!
We must not tarry, but advance a step farther and say–
V. THAT WHERE THERE IS THIS GOOD THING TOWARD THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL,
GOD ALWAYS SEES IT.
You will notice the text says, "There is found some good thing." The
original Hebrew word used here means sometimes–a thing found without
looking for it. But it sometimes means a thing found after long and
loving search. And again, it also signifies a thing found after
thorough enquiry to be more efficient and adequate–a thing which has
been tested and found to endure. Now, wherever there is anything like a
good thing toward the Lord God of Israel, God sees it, finds it out,
tests it, finds it sufficient and accepts it because of the Savior!
You have not told anybody you are afraid. Mary, you have not even told
your mother and you dare not! Many young people do not speak to their
parents about their soul's deepest feelings and desires. They can
sooner speak to strangers. But you do pray–you cannot help praying,
and when you got home tonight you will not venture to go to sleep
without earnestly crying to God, "Lord, save me, or I perish!" Your
mother knows it not, but your heavenly Father does. You, John, have not
got so far as praying yet, but a Sunday or two ago the sermon pricked
your conscience and you have not been easy since. You could find no
peace in yourself. You are not quite so far awakened as to be able to
pray, but still there is a wish in your heart towards the right. You
sometimes think it will come to that pass, that you must say with the
prodigal, "I will arise and go to my father, and say to him, Father, I
have sinned." Well, John, you are a great way off, it is true, but your
Father's eyes can see you! And while you are coming to Him, creeping,
He is coming to you running! And I do not doubt that before long you
will be in His arms, receiving the kiss of His pardon.
Some of you live in strange places, perhaps. The Gospel light does not
shine down that court and does not get into the neighborhood where you
are generally found. Ah, but God can see you! And He has noticed with
delight the good thing that is in you towards Himself. Yes, my young
Sister, it is indeed a strange place where you live, where your father
curses God and your mother laughs at and ridicules religion–and your
sisters, since they know you go to a place of worship, have begun to
hate you! Ah, but my dear Friend, your Shepherd shall be with you even
then! And though your path is a solitary one, and you have no friend
into whose bosom to pour your griefs, yet go upstairs into the little
room, or even in the crowded street as you walk along–make a
prayer-chamber for your heart and get in there with Christ, and tell
Him you are alone–and you shall not be alone any longer, for He shall
be with you! "Blessed are you, when they shall persecute you, and say
all manner of evil against you falsely for His name's sake: for so
persecuted they the Prophets which were before you." You shall be
blessed in this particular that He will be with you–your Salvation,
your Strength, and your Stay! The fish are in the salt sea, and yet
their flesh is as fresh as if there were no salt, and so you may live
in an ungodly family and yet be as gracious as though you never came
into contact with even one unpardoned sinner!
It is beautiful to sometimes see a fair flower growing in the hedge, or
among range herbage or wild plants. In one's boyish days one has
sometimes been out in the woods hunting nuts and all on a sudden one
has come upon a fruit tree. How did it get there? A tree with fruit
among the oaks, elms and underbrush! How did it get there? And truly
when a Christian is found in ungodly places he does not escape God's
attention, for He who looks for fruit is delighted to find an apple
tree among the trees of the forest! That being your portion, my dear
Friend, God will see you and see you none the less because of your
surroundings. Be you, then, of good courage!
And now, to close.
VI. WHEN GOD SEES THIS GENUINE PIETY IN SUCH PLACES, HE WILL BE SURE TO
REWARD IT. He may not reward it by giving long life, for these young
people sometimes die early.
But even the death of young people who have some good thing toward the
Lord God of Israel, has a voice to us–
"When blooming youth is snatched away By Death's resistless hand,"
there is a voice from God speaking to each of us, especially if the
youth is converted. What a comfort, what a blessing, to the son of
Jeroboam to be taken away! You will say, perhaps, it was a pity, for he
might have come to the throne. He was the heir-apparent and might have
been king, so why was he taken away? You do not know what he might have
been had he been spared. God knew it was best for that child not to be
subjected to the contamination of such a wicked court– and so He took
him Home, as the gardener towards the end of the flowering season gets
his flowers out of the open borders because he knows the frosty nights
are coming. So does the Master often take some of the young people Home
while they are yet young, lest the frosts of the world should nip them.
But it is a very solemn thing when young people are taken out of the
family by death.
It is something like clearing a ship because she is going down.
Jeroboam's boat was now to go down to total destruction–and God brings
the heavenly lifeboat and takes the last living soul out–and then He
lets the whole house of the son of Nebat come to ruin!
Yes, my good woman, you came here tonight because your child is dead.
You could not bear to stay at home. The poor dear thing is just buried.
Take heed my good woman, lest a worse thing happen to you! It is a
dreadful thing to have lost so dear a child whose little beaming eyes
were like stars in the house, and whose little voice had learned to
sing–
"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, Look upon a little child."
You will sorely miss the patter of those little feet and the sound of
those sweet revival hymns that she learned at school. You will not
forget what she said when she was going, "Mother, follow me to Heaven!"
But I warn you, even as Ahijah did the wife of Jeroboam, I warn
you–take heed lest that child of yours has been taken away because the
father and the mother and the household are to be swept away! It is the
omen of a blessing when Lord sends a godly servant or a child into a
family–it looks as if God had a purpose of love towards that house.
But it is a token of mischief and of evil when a godly child, having
been sent in such a household, is speedily taken away! That child of
yours was God's little Prophet to you. It is true it was not, like
little Samuel, clothed with an ephod, but when you go upstairs and look
at the little pinafore or the little frock, you may almost fancy that
those were priestly garments, for the child was God's messenger to your
heart! Have you listened to this message from the skies? If not,
perhaps I may refresh your memory. Perhaps you think I speak harshly. I
mean not to do so–I mean in all tenderness to your soul to say, once
again to put it plainly, that perhaps God sent that young Ahijah to
your house to tell you to make your escape from the wrath to come. And
that the message being neglected, He took back the child. But I would
gladly hope that His judgment still lingers and that His mercy still
waits! Let me speak to you mothers, especially for your hearts are most
tender. God gave up His only Son for your sakes–He will understand
your sorrow. Come to the Cross and look up and trust. Trust! Trust!
Trust! That word, "trust," is the grandest word in the language of
mankind! Trust! Trust Jesus! Trust only Him and you are saved! There is
life in trusting, but there is death in everything else.
I saw an illustration somewhere the other day–I do not know now from
where it came. It is not mine, but I must give it to you and then
conclude.
A gentleman wishing to illustrate faith and to show what it really
is–that it is trusting–says that he attended a lecture upon chemistry
and the lecturer was trying to prove the spheroidal properties of
liquids.
I do not mean to try to prove it, myself, but he showed that water put
upon a bar of iron at a certain heat scattered itself over the iron or
turned to steam. But the drops of water poured upon intensely hot iron
would turn into spheroids and nothing else, and then roll off the hot
iron. In order to prove the various qualities of the spheroids, a man
who assisted the lecturer dipped his hand in some water which was
standing by–and then plunged it into a vessel of molted lead and took
up some of the lead without being hurt–the spheroidal property of the
water being such that a man might do that without injury! The person
listening to the lecture said, "Now, I quite believe what the lecturer
said. He convinced me. He put it so plainly that I could not but see
that it was so. Then he invited the audience to come and put their
hands into the molten lead! I went up to the lead. I believed that it
would not hurt me. I saw the man sitting there who had just put his
hand in, but I did not dare to do it–and I found there is a good deal
of difference between believing and trusting! But I thought–now either
it is true, or it is not, and I am sure it is true. Very well, then,
why don't I believe it? I dipped my hand in the water and having hardly
courage enough to venture my whole hand, I put one finger in the lead
and found that that one finger, after, was colder than it had been
before, so then I put in my whole hand–and there were a number of
others who were willing to follow my example."
Now, that is a very good illustration of what believing in Jesus Christ
is, only there is something repulsive about putting one's hand into
molten lead, and there should not be anything like that in believing in
Jesus Christ! You believe that Jesus Christ can save. You believe that
He has saved a great many and that the only way in which they were
saved was by trusting in Him. But it is quite possible for you to
believe this and yet not to be saved. If you trust Him, you will try
Him, and that will be the true proof. You will come to the foot of His
Cross and cast yourself entirely, wholly and simply upon the merits of
His atoning Sacrifice. Then there will be some good thing in you toward
the Lord God of
Israel–and then I think the mention of the little dead Ahijah, though
it may have been painful, will have been made a blessing! God grant
that it may be so!
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 2 KINGS20:1-7.
Verse 1. In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the Prophet
Isaiah, the son of Amoz, came to him and said unto him, Thus says the
LORD, Set your house in order; for you shall die, and not live. That is
to say, in the common course of Providence, without a miracle, Hezekiah
must die. God did by no means change when afterwards He permitted him
to live. This time He spoke after the order of Nature–the next time He
spoke according to the extraordinary work of His marvelous power.
2. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,
saying. What did he do that for? Well, as he could not rise from his
bed through weakness, he gets the greatest privacy he can, and the God
who accepted Carmel as Elijah's prayer shrine, would accept Hezekiah's
prayer when he turned his face to the wall.
3. I beseech You, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before You in
truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in
Your sight And Hezekiah wept sorely. I do not think this was intended
to be a self-righteous prayer, though it reads like one, or else the
Lord would not have heard it. He meant to say, "Lord, You have been
good enough to make me what I am, be pleased to spare me." In fact, the
probability is that at this time Sennacherib had not been routed and
Hezekiah could not bear to die while the nation was in danger.
Certainly there was no son born to Heze-kiah at this time, for Manasseh
was only twelve years old when he began to reign at his father's
death–and Hezekiah thought it would be a sad thing to leave a troubled
kingdom without a prince to be his successor. It may be, too, that
seeing he had just commenced the reformation and the casting down of
the false gods, he trembled for the cause of God, and could not bear to
be so soon taken away. "Hezekiah wept sorely." Ah, these are the things
that prevail with God, these tears of His people–
"Prayer is the burden of a sigh, The falling of a tear! The upward
glancing of an eye, When none but God is near!"
4-7. And it came to pass, before Isaiah was gone out into the middle
court, that the Word of the LORD came to him, saying, Turn again, and
tell Hezekiah, the captain of My people, Thus says the LORD, the God of
David, your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears:
behold, I will heal you: on the third day you shall go up unto the
house of the LORD. And I will add unto your days fifteen years, and I
will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria;
and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for My servant David's
sake. And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it
on the boil, and he recovered. This, of course, was not a sufficient
means to cure the boil, but God made the means efficacious. Why were
the means used? Why, to teach us that we are to expect God's blessing,
not in neglecting means, but in using them! See how simple was the
remedy–just a thick poultice of figs laid on the wound! Perhaps the
physicians had tried expensive medicines without avail. What a mercy it
is for us that the good medicine of the Gospel is as cheap as it is
good, that it is to be had for nothing! While some ransack the world
for expensive ceremonies and for gaudy shows, we have Christ, like the
lump of figs, ready to heal the wound and make us strong again!
Again I say Hezekiah was a man of like passions with us–and he prayed
earnestly that his life might be spared and God delivered him from the
jaws of death. Let us, therefore, not be afraid to pray!