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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 3 of 5
Isaiah 38:17-22; ; Isaiah 39:1-8
"The writing of Hezekiah" concludes with thanksgiving. He prayed in order to be saved from death; now he prays in order to thank the One who has answered him.
The lot of the unconverted on this earth is summed up by one expression: "bitterness upon bitterness" (v. 17, JND translation; cf. Ecclesiastes 2:23). Even when everything is successful for them, they cannot shake off a secret anxiety. The redeemed, however, can say to his Saviour, "But thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back". "The LORD was ready to save me". If that is our story, let us not fail to enter into the meaning of v. 19: "the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day".
In a more general way this is the story of Israel who will come to life again as the people of God at the last day, after all their sins have been forgiven.
Ch. 39 relates the subtle temptation to which Hezekiah is subjected by the king of Babylon’s ambassadors. He succumbs . . . as we do every time we use for our own glory what God has entrusted to us for His. "What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" — asks 1 Corinthians 4:7 — "now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory?" The claim of Laodicea, "I am rich, and increased with goods" is quite intolerable. (Revelation 3:17).
