Moving on from his lamentation in regards to day and night, Hezekiah goes on to pray, “Like a swallow or a thrush I chirp, I coo like a dove; my eyes grow tired from looking up at the sky” (Isaiah 38:14a). How often must we imagine that Jesus, in the midst of groans and grunts and gasps of pain, cast His eyes toward the heavens? Indeed, it must have been a weary cry when, eyes directed heavenward, as He sees the darkness rolling into the daytime sky, that Jesus makes His plaintive cry of “Eli, Elli, lema sabachthani? That is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46b) In correlation, because of his wearisome looking to the sky, Hezekiah says, “O sovereign Master, I am oppressed; help me!” (38:14b) In humble acceptance, Hezekiah concludes, “What can I say? He has decreed and acted” (38:15a), much like Jesus, in the garden before beginning His travailing ordeal, would say “My Father, let this cup pass from Me! Yet not what I will, but what You will” (Matthew 26:39b).
Skipping ahead to the sixteenth verse of this chapter, we read “O sovereign Master, Your decrees can give men life; may years of health be restored to me. Restore my health and preserve my life” (38:16). No doubt, Jesus stood resolute on such a promise. He trusted that His Father, His sovereign Master, could decree life. While Hezekiah would enjoy an addition of fifteen years, the decree of the sovereign Master towards Jesus would result in a Resurrection to an indestructible, eternal life. Hezekiah experienced a restoration of health and a preservation of life, but for him, physical decay would never give up on its relentless march towards the grave. For Jesus, it was so much more than a restoration and a preservation. Jesus’ restoration was a complete renewal of His physical being, as He was given a glorified, Resurrection body, suited for the new creation of God’s eternal kingdom that had begun with His Resurrection. Jesus did not have His life preserved. He was given a new life, an eternal life. On both counts, that of restoration and preservation in the manner experienced and enjoyed by our Lord and Savior, those that are in union with Christ await the same.
Hezekiah exclaims, “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. You delivered me from the Pit of oblivion. For You removed all my sins from Your sight” (38:17). Clearly, Hezekiah was made to be thankful for the sickness and the deliverance. Not only that, but by connecting his sickness with sin, Hezekiah demonstrated that he understood that the sickness that he carried resulted from his violations of the divine covenant. Not only was sickness was a curse that entered into the world with man’s fall, but sickness was also associated with Israel’s failure to keep covenant with their God. God had promised this to His people, while also promising that if they repented from their failure to keep covenant, He would remove the associated curses.
As it applied to the whole of God’s people, so it also applied to the king. Hezekiah, as the representative of the people, linked the removal of his sickness with the removal of sins. Furthermore, because being conquered by a foreign people was part of God’s curse that would be directed toward His people if they were to completely disregard His covenant, and as this recovery from sickness and its attendant prayer follows closely on the heels of the expulsion of Assyria from Judah when it looked as if they were about to suffer the same fate as the northern kingdom of Israel, the removal of his sins, as evidenced by his healing, is also closely linked to God’s removal of the sins of His people, as evidenced by God Himself defeating the Assyrians and sending them away.
Throughout the Old Testament, the kings of Israel and Judah were the representatives of God’s people. When David numbered the people, though this was his action, the people suffered. When Manasseh brought Judah to the pinnacle of its idolatry, it was in conjunction with this that God declared, with no reversal (though the judgment would be briefly stayed), that Judah would be conquered and sent into captivity. In addition, Israel also held to the idea of a vicarious sacrifice for the removal of sins, which we see in the scapegoat of the Day of Atonement. We see the representative principle at work here with Hezekiah, and it is in this light that we can hear these words of Hezekiah’s prayer on Jesus’ lips.
Jesus could quite easily say that “the grief (or illness) I experienced was for My benefit,” as He could reflect on the suffering servant prophecy of Isaiah fifty-three, fully convinced that His suffering would benefit not only His people, but Himself as well. Though He was walking the path of death, it is quite easy to hear Jesus say, with faith like that which was exhibited by Abraham when he confidently declared that both he and Isaac would return from the mountain of sacrifice, that “You delivered Me from the Pit of oblivion.” However, it would only be as Israel’s King, as Israel’s representative, as the representative of all of those that would come to call Him King, in substitution for His people, that Jesus could say “You removed all My sins from Your sight.” This could only occur through God’s King bearing God’s cursing on behalf of God’s people. It is because of this execution of faithfulness that Hezekiah could say, “The living person, the living person, he gives you thanks, as I do today” (38:19a). We that share in the blessed and vital union join with him in such a prayer.
No comments:
Post a Comment