Hezekiah's Prayer (part 1 of 2)

This is the prayer of Hezekiah of Judah when he was sick and then recovered from his illness – Isaiah 38:9  (NET)

As it is possible to find correspondence between the lives of King David and Jesus, and King Solomon and Jesus, which makes complete sense because they all share the title of King of Israel, so too is it possible to find a Scriptural linking of King Hezekiah and Jesus.  In his prayer, and as all of Scripture is viewed through the lens of the Christ-event, this link becomes quite explicit.  Hezekiah can be heard saying, “I thought, ‘In the middle of my life I must walk through the gates of Sheol, I am deprived of the rest of my years’.” (38:10) 

Like Hezekiah, Jesus, in the middle of His life and ministry, walked through the gates of Sheol, into death.  The Gospel narratives insist that this was something that Jesus anticipated throughout the duration of His ministry, as He frequently spoke of the expectation of the premature cutting off of His natural life.  This was part and parcel of revolutionary activity and His positioning Himself as King.  Though Jesus’ revolutionary actions were different from that of others, and took a different form than what many expected from a revolution, that does not make Him any less revolutionary.  In fact, the uniqueness in the face of pressure to travel a different path may make it even more revolutionary.   

Hezekiah is said to have thought, “I will no longer see the Lord in the land of the living, I will no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the world” (38:11).  When he was sick, Hezekiah expected death to come.  Jesus, as was said, also expected death to come.  Because he had been sick and expecting death, but was allowed to recover and continue, Hezekiah figuratively experienced a death and resurrection.  However, not only did Jesus expect a Resurrection, but He received one as well. 

At the same time, Jesus could certainly agree with Hezekiah that He would no longer see the Lord in the land of the living either.  How can that be?  It is because the world into which Jesus was resurrected was a changed world, now subject to Him as its King.  It would no longer merely be the land of the living, but the land of eternal life that is had through union with Him that springs from a believing allegiance in that kingly position.  The Scriptural emphasis is that Jesus came forth from the grave into a new creation that had been inaugurated with His Resurrection. 

Jesus Himself had been given a transformed, resurrected body, that was understood to be animated by the very power of God.  Because of that, He could no longer look out upon humankind from the position of being merely another one of the inhabitants of the old world that had now been fundamentally changed.  He was radically different in a way that was difficult for His followers to understand or express.  He had received a glorified body, which was the long-held hope of His people. 

It is not the case that He would no longer look upon man as an inhabitant of the world because He was going to stay in the grave.  Rather, He would look upon man with a pair of renewed eyes, as the first of a different form of humanity---as the true divine image-bearer, unspoiled by the corruption that had been foisted upon creation by the failure of the original divine image-bearer.  With His Resurrection, Jesus now inhabited a different world.  Through belief in Him, by faith, His disciples would come to inhabit that same world, though without a glorified body, with a down payment of Resurrection power that would allow them to look upon humankind, not as one of its inhabitants, but as new creations, viewing man with the compassion and love that comes as a gift from God, desirous to tell forth the Gospel of Jesus (He is Lord) that is an invitation to share in this inaugurated new creation. 

Treaty Dissolved (part 1 of 2)

Your treaty with death will be dissolved; your agreement with Sheol will not last.  When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by, you will be overrun by it. – Isaiah 28:18  (NET)

With these words, Isaiah is delivering a message to the people of covenant God.  It is a people that have been given covenant responsibilities, but have failed to live up to the obligations of that covenant (their God seems particularly incensed at the oppression and lack of care for orphans and widows), and are now experiencing the sweep of curses that were to accompany such violations, though they do not want to connect the judgment of which Isaiah speaks with those failures. 

The words of the text are Isaiah’s answer to the attitude of the people of Jerusalem, who say, “We have made a treaty with death, with Sheol we have made an agreement.  When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by it will not reach us” (28:15a).  It is quite interesting to find out why they would say such a thing.  Isaiah reports the people’s words: “For we have made a lie our refuge, we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word” (28:15b).  However, Isaiah insists that the “sovereign Master, the Lord” (28:16a) has a response to such words.  It is that response which provides the context for the dissolution of the treaty with death and the agreement with Sheol.  Isaiah reports the words of the Creator God of Israel, which are, “Look, I am laying in Zion an approved stone, set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation” (28:16b). 

For those that live in the post-Christ-event world, in which it is proper to view the Hebrew Scriptures through the lens of Jesus and the cross, any talk of cornerstones should immediately force the directing of attention to the One Who is referred to as “the Cornerstone.”  In Acts, Peter stands before the “rulers, elders, and experts in the law” (4:5), and declares that “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, that has become the cornerstone” (4:11).  As one understands Jesus, the Messiah, as “the cornerstone,” it is not difficult to comprehend why a treaty with death would be dissolved in connection with the laying of that cornerstone. 

Because the messiah, among other things, was thought to be the one that would reverse not only Israel’s cursing, but also the cursing of the entire creation, it is always appropriate to consider the entire arc of Scripture, by which the work of Jesus as Messiah can be understood, and which also provided a portion of the context for Israel’s self-understanding.  Isaiah’s worldview then, of course, would be shaped by this narrative.   Thus, if one was to look back to the events of Eden and the fall of man, could it not be said that man, in effect, made an agreement, a treaty, with death? 

As Genesis insists, Adam knew the Creator God’s promise to him.  That God had said, “You may eat freely from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will die” (Genesis 2:16b-17).  Everywhere it is made abundantly clear, and Scripture never argues the point, that Adam knew the consequences for disobedience, unfaithfulness, and rebellion, but still he chose to eat of the fruit.