Well, I'm finally to the book of Isaiah. It is definitely one of my favorite books of the Bible. Lots of really good verses. Actually several of my favorites.
Isa. 40:11; 40:28-31; 42:16; 43:1-5; 46:3-4; 55:11 .....just to name a few.
In the past year I have grappled with the concept of "Why Pray".... now, now, before you start yelling at your screen, let me explain. Since I believe God is sovereign, and He already knows everything that is going to happen, what good does a prayer from little ole' measly me do?
In all my research on prayer over the past year, I have come to realize that we pray because God wants us to! We are being obedient to Him when we pray. Prayer is our communication with Him. Two good acronyms I've learned are P.U.S.H: Pray Until Something Happens and P.R.A.Y: Praise, Repent, Ask, and Yield.
I've learned you can pray for BIG things, minor things, specific things, and just about EVERYTHING. In fact, He wants us to!
So, sorry to have rambled here, but back to Isaiah. This is what I read a couple of mornings ago and it just showed me why I should pray. In ch. 38, Hezekiah, King of Judah, "became ill and was at the point of death..." The Lord tells Isaiah to go tell him to get everything in order because Ole' hezzy is going to die. Vs. 2: "Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 'Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.' And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: 'Go and tell Hezekiah, This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life."
So, this is pretty insightful for us, don't you think? Several things struck me about this.
1. God heard him and saw him. If he heard and saw Ole' Hezzy, then he must see and hear us!
2. Hezekiah prayed earnestly and fervently - this was not just a close your eyes and quickly whisper a rote "bless me Lord" prayer....this says that Hezzy reminded God of his faithfulness and devotion...and he "wept bitterly" which obviously showed God that he was sincere in his plea.
3. God will change the outcome based on our prayers. Now, this part gets tricky for me. Obviously God really does know the final outcome. He is God. He knows everything. So, does that mean He has a whole lot of different endings. For instance, is He sittin' up there saying, "well, if susie chooses option A then her ending will be outcome B, but..... if Susie chooses option B then her outcome will be option C"..? But He already knows what option I will choose. And He gives us free will. HMMMMM..... Is anyone following me on this, or is it just me?
All of this makes me wonder what blessings would be in my life if I would just pray for them. Earnestly and fervently. I've actually been reading the "Prayer of Jabez" and the author gives an illustration about a man that goes to Heaven and is being given the grand tour by Peter. There is one building Peter won't take him in, but the man keeps persisting and finally Peter takes him in. In this building are rows of containers with people's names on them. The man finds his container and upon opening it finds all the blessings that God had wanted to send to him on earth, but for which he had never asked....... Makes you think, huh?
Prayer is quite possibly the MOST IMPORTANT action of our whole day, but which we probably dedicate the smallest amount of time. Even when I have good intentions of praying it seems like something (could be satan?) happens to distract me. Well, if praying is our communication with God, then of course satan would want to stop that from happening. Makes total sense.
So, there you go. My random musings on prayer. I have actually just caused my own head to ache.
Expectations for 2012
14 years ago
I enjoyed this post a lot because I spent some time on this passage myself.
ReplyDeleteI am finishing Jeremiah right now but was in Isaiah a little while ago.
This time when I read that part about Hezekiah's illness I imagined me in his place.
One thing I wondered was if this were the situation where Hezekiah was sick and really the warning was more "look if you don't do some serious praying buddy you're going to die."
I know there have been and are situations like that where the Lord has to take drastic action to get me to pray. But the text doesn't really support that idea.
Another thing I wondered was whether this was an example of the efficacy of prayer. I've seen that, too. I mean the case of someone of little or new faith (me) praying and seeing that prayer answered and my faith increasing.
Honestly this time around to me though Hezekiah does not seem to be much a man of faith. He should be given what has already transpired in his life. He asks for a sign for one thing. I can kind of understand I guess but then again the death of 185,000 Assyrians should have counted for something don't you think? And then wanting the shadow to go backwards seems a bit much. What's that about? Seems kind of presumptuous to me.
I do wonder what Hezekiah thought about the coincidence of the great defeat of the 185,000 Assyrians and his illness. I wonder about it right now. Although it is true that often true that a great deliverance is accompanied by an equally great trauma.
Then I wondered was it really good Hezekiah lived 15 more years. For one thing had he not Manasseh would have been avoided. But I have no idea if that is worse or better ultimately. Just have to trust the Lord to work it out.
I guess I will not know for certain until I come to that time myself. But I am inclined to think I would be pretty excited about going to be with the Lord if I got the news.
Maybe that's because we are on the other side of the resurrection.
I would certainly want to get my affairs in order but that's kind of a good thing to do anyway. I would anticipate missing my family and friends and work and all that life has including the hard. I would worry a little about not being there to help out but then I know the Lord is a better protector and provider than ever I could be anyway. He'd be the one really doing all that even if I were there.
That's another thing, too, that upsets me a bit about Hezekiah is where he is told in Chapter 39 that everything is going to be hauled off to Babylon and he thinks to himself that's okay because during his own life things will be peaceful.
What a selfish attitude! That's when he should have gotten on his face before Godpraying for his kids and grandkids and the people of his nation! Just can't imagine that.
Enjoyed reading your post. Love you.
And looking forward to another lunch soon, too.
After reading your Dallas Seminary commentary on this story, their opinion, based on Ch. 38 vs. 6, is that Hezekiah's illness preceded the whole 'Assyrian army being killed' event. 38:6 "I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city." They say that although chs. 38-39 precede chs.36-37 chronologically, they follow here because Hezekiah's folly (prideful tour)led to the prophecy of the Babylonian captivity and prepared the way for chs. 40-66. So that means the reversal of the sun's shadow on the staircase was a sign that actually preceded the 185,000 Assyrians' deaths. Interestingly, that was the same staircase that was named for Ahaz, Hezekiah's father. Whereas, Ahaz had rejected a sign from the Lord (7:10-12), his son was given a sign on the very staircase named for his father. Next, was the visit from the Babylonians where Hezekiah pridefully shows them all of his wealth.....the sin here was that he acted as if all that wealth belonged to him and not God. Pretty amazing he would act like this right after God healed him and gave him 15 more years of life! And, yes, then he is happy that it won't be during his lifetime that his people serve the Babylonians! That is a pretty amazing turn around. 'Man of faith' to selfish 'man of pride'.......But we are all guilty of that, huh? One minute thanking the Lord for a blessing and turning right around and patting ourselves on the back for something we've done great!?
ReplyDeleteI should have read 39:6 more closely. I see now the issue on the timing.
ReplyDeleteRegardless though at the end of 39 what he is thinking is just astounding to me.
Make that 38:6. I am walking around in a fog for some reason.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about whether he should have asked for more time or not?
Well, I just think that is a typical human reaction. To not want to die, I mean. Especially, like you said, pre-Resurrection. Even though I think I would be happy to go be with our Lord and Savior, I also would be filled with not wanting to leave my family (esp. kids), friends, and all the things I hadn't gotten to yet! Now, take everything important away from me, like Job, and then I'm quite sure I would be begging for death!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what I enjoyed most, your post or this exchange between you two. :) I do find it rather interesting that God changed His mind. That intrigues me more than anything that Hezekiah did. I think it was an act of compassion.
ReplyDeletegood stuff, suz!
ReplyDeletealso loved your teenage list...so did everyone else who commented after you!
xoxo