In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. So he prayed to the LORD, who spoke to him and gave him a sign. Sermons
I. THE INCALCULABLE ELEMENT IN OUR TRIALS. This is large. 1. We cannot guess when they will come. What little reason had Hezekiah to anticipate that "sickness unto death"! It sprang upon him unawares. So does our affliction. We are reckoning on prosperity, health, friendship; and, behold! immediately in front of us is trouble, sickness, loneliness. A few hours may make all the difference to us in the colour and complexion of our life. 2. We cannot calculate how far they will go. We expect the little ailment to pass away in a day or two, and it becomes a very grave and threatening illness; we think we are stricken with a mortal blow, and we find that we have nothing that need seriously disturb us. And so with other troubles beside bodily disorder. We cannot measure their magnitude or their gravity. 3. We cannot understand why they have come, or what they mean. Is it that we have sinned? or that others have erred, and we are "carrying their infirmity "? Is it a mark of Divine displeasure? or is it a sign of our Father's interest in us and care for our deeper and truer well-being? 4. We cannot enter, except in a very slight degree, into the seriousness of others sorrow. A very special gift of the grace and power of sympathy will enable some men (and women) to understand and feel much with others; but those who have ordinary human faculties very imperfectly understand what other souls are suffering, how much other hearts are bleeding. II. OUR REFUGE IN GOD. Hezekiah "prayed unto the Lord." We know, from the account in 2 Kings 20., how the afflicted man "poured out his heart" unto God. and how earnestly he besought the Divine compassion. In the clay of our trouble - especially in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow" - there is nothing we can do that approaches the wisdom or that supplies half the relief of seeking and finding a refuge in God. Even if we do not expectantly ask for deliverance from our adversity, we appeal (and never vainly) for Divine sympathy and succour in it. This, we are sure, can never be denied us. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him" (Psalm 103:13). We have in Jesus Christ the "High Priest... touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews 4:15). Our affliction tries us; it proves, not only to God, but to ourselves and to others, what is the spirit we are of; whether ours is, or is not, the spirit of filial trustfulness, of quiet acquiescence, of genuine piety, of openness of heart to learn, and of readiness of will to do, his holy will. But there is another trial, which perhaps strikes deeper and proves us more thoroughly. III. THE TRIAL OF RESTORATION. Hezekiah bore well the trial of sickness; it drew, or drove, him to the Rock of his salvation. He did not stand well the trial which came with his restoration. Then came congratulatory embassage, and then the uplifted heart showed itself, and the unbecoming ostentation came forth; and with it came the displeasure of the Lord. The king "rendered not again according to the benefit done;" he did not respond to God's especial grace (ver. 24) with corresponding gratitude, losing sight of self and keeping God's pitiful and powerful intervention in view. His heart was unchastened and "lifted up." How do we bear ourselves when the cloud has departed and the sun shines again? What is our spiritual attitude when we are strong again, or rich again, or again surrounded with friends? That is the trial-hour. Then God proves us; then we show to him and to our neighbours what mind we are of - whether our affliction has permanently purified, or only temporarily touched us. Let those who have been cast clown to the ground in any kind of affliction, and who have been raised up again by the good hand of their God upon them, ask themselves the main question - Have they proved themselves to be docile children of their heavenly Father, apt disciples of the Lord of their life? Have they learned humility, self-distrust, unworldliness, consecration? Or are they lapsing into that which is selfish, earthly, proud? God has been proving them; let them examine their own hearts. "Let every man prove his own" heart. If he can, let him "have rejoicing in himself,' in his spiritual integrity; if he cannot, let him consider well and act wisely before God, "lest a worse thing happen unto him." - C.
In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death. I.II. III. IV. (James Wolfendale.) But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him I. AN UNDOUBTED TRUTH; THAT SINS OF THE RULERS AND THE PEOPLE RULED, ARE SO INTIMATELY CONNECTED, THAT ONE INVARIABLY INVOLVES THE OTHER (Zechariah 10:3).II. THE INTELLIGIBLE MOTIVE. God gives us in the present order of things a large share in one another's punishments, that He may make us take a deeper interest in one another's duties. All are deeply interested in all. The government of every Christian country is intimately connected with the transgressions of the people; and the governed are closely involved in the sins of the government; so that each has an important duty to perform to the other. The government, apart from all political considerations, to curb and repress the immoralities and the wickedness of the people; and the people, firmly though mildly, to warn and caution and speak plainly to the government, lest by partaking silently and voluntarily of other men's sins, they become partakers in other men's pains. (H. Blunt.) 1. His personal character. 2. His peculiar necessities. II. THE DISPENSATION HERE DESCRIBED. 1. The suspension of grace. 2. The withdrawment of comfort. III. THE PURPOSE OF THAT DISPENSATION. 1. To discover sin, with a view to its cure. 2. To conduct to greater happiness and honour. IV. THE ISSUE OF THE TRIAL — he sinned. 1. Wherein was the sin? He neglected an opportunity of proclaiming the true God, and indulged in a vain self-seeking. 2. How small in comparison with the sins of others — of ourselves. 3. How soon repented of. 4. How severely visited. (J. C. Gray.) Among the many vices that are at once universally decried and universally practised in the world, there is none more base or more common than ingratitude; ingratitude is the sin of individuals, of families, of Churches, of kingdoms. None of us can flatter ourselves that we are in little or no danger of this sin when even so good and great a man as Hezekiah did not escape the infection. In order to make you the more sensible of your ingratitude towards your Divine Benefactor, I shall —I. GIVE A BRIEF VIEW OF HIS MERCIES TOWARDS YOU. II. EXPOSE THE AGGRAVATED BASENESS OF INGRATITUDE UNDER THE RECEPTION OF SO MANY MERCIES. (S. Davies, M.A.) I. THAT THOSE THAT HAVE RECEIVED MERCIES MUST BE CAREFUL TO GIVE IN ANSWERABLE RETURNS OR RENDER ACCORDING TO WHAT THEY HAVE RECEIVED.1. There must be a rendering. There is a reflection upon God from all His works. Hell-fire casts back the reflection of the lustre of His justice and the power of His wrath. The world is round, and the motion of all things circular; they begin in God, and end in God (Romans 11:36).(1) We must be effected with the mercies.(2) Solemnly praise God for them.(3) Renew the remembrance of them (Psalm 111:4).(4) Improve them to some good use. We must improve them to — (a) (b) (c) (d) 2. This rendering must be proportionate.(1) Real mercies require real acknowledgments.(2) The acknowledgment must answer the proportion of the mercy. (a) (b) 3. This reproves —(1) Those that instead of rendering according, render the quite contrary; who the more God hath blessed them, grow unthankful, proud, sensual, dead formal in prayer, less in communion with God, more licentious in their actions. They are like tops never well but when they are scourged; abuse their mercies to the contempt of God, as the Israelites took the earrings of gold and silver, which were the spoils of the Egyptians, and made a golden calf of them. As the sea turneth all the sweet dews and influences of heaven into salt water, so they turn all their mercies into occasions of sin.(2) Those that do not render ought at all. There was a law in (Ezekiel 46:9). He that went in at one gate was not to go out at the same gate, but an opposite; some say, lest he should turn his back upon the mercy-seat.(3) Those that render something but not suitable. (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) II. THAT IT IS A SIGN WE ARE UNTHANKFUL UNDER MERCIES WHEN THE HEART IS LIFTED UP UPON THE ENJOYMENT OF THEM. 1. Because God can never be rightly praised or exalted while the heart is proud (Isaiah 2:17). God is exalted in the creature's self-abasement. 2. A proud heart cannot be rightly conversant about blessings. It doth not give them their — (1) (2) (3) 3. How shall we know when the heart is lifted up? It is mainly shown —(1) In security. Men live as if they were above changes. God is neglected, or but coldly owned, as if we now had no more need of Him (Lamentations 1:9).(2) In insolency. This is manifested — (a) (b) (c) 4. Use. (1) (2) 3. Take heed of the pride of self-dependence.Conclusion: 1. A special recognition and recalling of sins is not unseasonable (Ezekiel 36:30, 31). 2. Meditate upon the changes of providence (Psalm 39:5). Belisarius, a famous general to-day, and within a little while forced to beg for a halfpenny. Things and persons are as the spokes of a wheel, sometimes in the dirt and sometimes out. (S. Manton, D.D.) 1449 signs, purposes 5932 response Some Buildings in Acra. Bezeiha. Millo. The Power of Assyria at Its Zenith; Esarhaddon and Assur-Bani-Pal Temporal Advantages. Gihon, the Same with the Fountain of Siloam. The Girdle of the City. Nehemiah 3 Chronicles |
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