Monday, Sept 26 - Jody

Today's reading from the Chronological OT/NT Reading Plan is: Isaiah 39-40, Romans 6
Happy Monday Everyone!

There's a lot to talk about here today. I want to start by looking at Hezekiah. I wanted to look a little deeper into the statement Hezekiah makes in Isaiah 39:8 “The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.” 
In order to do that, I found a bit of insight into this situation with Hezekiah and the Babylonian visitors from John Schultz' Bible Commentaries. According to his commentaries here, "Merodach-Baladan that he was “a king of the Chaldeans of the house of Yakin, and was the most dangerous and inveterate foe of Sargon and his son Sennecherib, kings of Assyria, with whom he long and bitterly contested the possession of Babylon and the surrounding provinces."

To summarize the commentary further on, these men of Babylon most likely presented themselves as potential allies and were proposing rebellion together with Hezekiah. Proposing that the Babylonians unite with the Israelites to do great things. 

"No embassy, on the other hand,could be more welcome to the Jewish monarch who had the common enemy in his neighborhood, and who would be glad to see a division made in his favor by a rebellion in the very heart of that enemy’s kingdom. Hence arose that excessive attention which he paid to the envoys of the usurper, and which so offended Isaiah, or rather God, who, as a consequence, threatened the Babylonian captivity.”

This is where Hezekiah's pride came in along with God's frustration. Hezikiah was caught up in the power of man and forgot his greatest Ally - God. Isaiah approached him boldly to warn him of the dangers with his plan.

"But he was zealous of God’s honor, and anxious that Hezekiah should rely on no ‘arm of flesh,’ whether it were Egypt or Babylon. Such dependence would straiten God’s arm, and prevent him from giving the aid that he was otherwise prepared to give. The desire of the prophet is to warn the king of the danger which he runs by coquetting with human helpers.”

God's rebuke on Hezekiah for relying on the strong arm of man is to allow his people to fall victim to the Babylonians, the very people who presented as Allies. However, because Hezekiah repented of the pride of his heart, God's wrath did not come in the days of Hezekiah. And so he says "The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.” 

The John Schulz commentary goes on to say, "The message of this chapter seems to be that, more than anyone else, Hezekiah was responsible for the tragedy of the Babylonian captivity that would be the end of the house of David in a physical sense. His repentance may have postponed the disaster, but it did not stop it."

So what can we learn from this? The decisions we make have long reaching effects. The choices we make in our own abilities have the potential to reach beyond our lifetime and into future generations. And, like Hezekiah - we can be relieved when we won't live out the effects, or we can prayerfully accept our consequences and pray protection on the future generations living out our consequenes.

And there are many more passages in this reading that could be quoted. A couple of my favorites:
Isaiah 40:8
 ⁸ The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God stands forever.”

Isaiah 40:29-31
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Romans 6:5-7
⁵ If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,^[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Tomorrow's passage: Isaiah 41-42, Romans 7