Readings for today: Isaiah 38-39, 2 Kings 20:1-21, 2 Chronicles 32:24-33
One of the things that’s difficult to keep in mind when we read the Bible is that we are looking at things through the lens of resurrection. We know the end of the story. We know the Person to whom all prophecies point. We know the fulfillment of the salvation story. We know Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God, took on flesh and dwelt among us. We know He suffered, died, and was buried for our sins. We know He was raised bodily and physically on the third day to new life to defeat the powers of sin and death and the devil once and for all and to open the way to the heavenly dimension of life. We know all these things. Hezekiah did not. Isaiah did not. All the Old Testament saints did not. For them, death represented the end. They had no hope of heaven. They had no well-developed theology of the afterlife. That comes much later in their history.
I think about the people I know who do not believe. They too have no hope of heaven. They too have no expectation of an eternal life with God in glory. They have no hope of reunion with those they love or seeing Christ face to face. I found myself thinking about them this morning as I read. Grieving for them. Praying for them. Hezekiah’s words about his own death reflect their utter lack of hope in the face of death...“In the very prime of life I have to leave. Whatever time I have left is spent in death’s waiting room. No more glimpses of God in the land of the living, No more meetings with my neighbors, no more rubbing shoulders with friends. This body I inhabit is taken down and packed away like a camper’s tent. Like a weaver, I’ve rolled up the carpet of my life as God cuts me free of the loom And at day’s end sweeps up the scraps and pieces. I cry for help until morning. Like a lion, God pummels and pounds me, relentlessly finishing me off. I squawk like a doomed hen, moan like a dove. My eyes ache from looking up for help: “Master, I’m in trouble! Get me out of this!” But what’s the use? God himself gave me the word. He’s done it to me. I can’t sleep— I’m that upset, that troubled. O Master, these are the conditions in which people live, and yes, in these very conditions my spirit is still alive— fully recovered with a fresh infusion of life! It seems it was good for me to go through all those troubles. Throughout them all you held tight to my lifeline. You never let me tumble over the edge into nothing. But my sins you let go of, threw them over your shoulder—good riddance! The dead don’t thank you, and choirs don’t sing praises from the morgue. Those buried six feet under don’t witness to your faithful ways. It’s the living—live men, live women—who thank you, just as I’m doing right now. Parents give their children full reports on your faithful ways.” (Isaiah 38:9-19 MSG)
The dead don’t thank you. Choirs don’t sing from morgues. The buried don’t bear witness. One can almost hear King Solomon from Ecclesiastes saying, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” Such is life without Christ. Yes, you may enjoy the days you’ve been given on this earth. You may find great success and some measure of joy. You may find love with your family and enjoy great friendships. You may make your mark on society and history but to what end? It is Job who describes human life as “sparks that fly upwards from a campfire.” We are given such brief moments in this world. Thankfully, God has created us for so much more! He has given us the opportunity to spend eternity with Him in a new heavens and new earth! He has given us a foretaste of that glorious dimension to life in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Strangely enough, Hezekiah foreshadows this when he says in Isaiah 38:20, “God saves and will save me. As fiddles and mandolins strike up the tunes, we’ll sing! Oh we’ll sing, sing, for the rest of our lives in the Sanctuary of God.” Hezekiah was talking about the fifteen additional years he’d been given but the Spirit of God speaking through Hezekiah was promising something even deeper. Something more enduring. A life of praise that will last forever in the presence of God.
Readings for tomorrow: Isaiah 40-42, Psalm 46