‘I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz, to return back ten steps.’ So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down. Isaiah 38:8

Isaiah 37-38

Isaiah 37

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help

¹ When king Hezekiah heard the report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord.

² He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³ They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of trouble, rebuke, and rejection, for children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them. ⁴ It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.”

⁵ So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master that this is what the Lord says: ‘Do not be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. ⁷ I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear a rumor and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.’ ”

Rabshakeh’s Blasphemous Letter

⁸ So Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria waging war against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.

⁹ He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” When he heard this, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying,

‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹ You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all other lands, by destroying them utterly. Do you think you will be rescued?

¹² Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the Edenites who were in Telassar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’ ”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

¹⁴ Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. ¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying,

¹⁶ “Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth: you alone. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷ Turn your ear, Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, Lord and hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God.

¹⁸ Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries and their land, ¹⁹ and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them.

²⁰ Now therefore, Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are God–you only.”

The Fall of Sennacherib

²¹ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “The Lord, the God of Israel says, ‘Because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,  ²² this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him.

The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you.
The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
²³ Whom have you defied and blasphemed?
Against whom have you exalted your voice
and lifted up your eyes on high?
Against the Holy One of Israel.

²⁴ By your servants, you have defied the Lord,
and you have said,
“With the multitude of my chariots
I have ascended to the height of the mountains,
to the innermost parts of Lebanon.
I will cut down its tall cedars
and its choice cypress trees.
I will enter into its farthest height,
the forest of its fruitful field.
²⁵ I have dug and drunk water,
and with the sole of my feet
I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.

²⁶ Have you not heard
how I have done it long ago
and formed it in ancient times?
Now I have brought it to pass,
that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities,
turning them into ruinous heaps.

²⁷ Therefore their inhabitants had little power.
They were dismayed and confounded.
They were like the grass of the field,
and like the green herb,
like the grass on the housetops,
and like a field before its crop has grown.

²⁸ But I know your sitting down,
your going out and your coming in,
and your raging against me.

²⁹ Because of your raging against me
and because your arrogance has come up into my ears,
therefore I will put my hook in your nose
and my bridle in your lips,
and I will turn you back
by the way by which you came.

³⁰ This shall be the sign to you, Hezekiah:
You will eat this year
that which grows of itself,
and in the second year
that which springs from it.
In the third year sow and reap;
you will and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
³¹ The remnant that escaped,
of the house of Judah,
will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
³² For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out,
and survivors will escape from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.’

³³ Therefore the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria,
‘He will not come to this city,
nor shoot an arrow there,
nor will he come before it with shield,
nor cast up a mound against it.
³⁴ He will return the way that he came,
and he will not come to this city,’ says the Lord.
³⁵ ‘For I will defend this city to save it,
for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.’ ”

The Assyrian Camp Destroyed

³⁶ Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people arose early in the morning, there were all the dead bodies. ³⁷ So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, returned to Nineveh, and stayed there. ³⁸ As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.

Isaiah 38

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

¹ In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “The Lord says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die and not live.’ ”

² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ³ and said, “Remember now, Lord, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.”

Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ Then the Word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, ⁵ “Go, and tell Hezekiah that this is what the Lord, the God of David your father, says: “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life. ⁶ I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. ⁷ This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he has spoken. ⁸ I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz, to return back ten steps.’ ” So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.

Hezekiah’s Song of Thanksgiving

⁹ The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

¹⁰ I said, “In the middle of my life
I am going into the gates of the grave.
I am deprived of the rest of my years.”
¹¹ I said, “I will never again see the Lord,
in the land of the living.
I will no longer look upon man,
the inhabitants of the world.
¹² My dwelling is removed
and is carried away from me
like a shepherd’s tent.
I have rolled up my life like a weaver.
He will cut me off from the loom.
From day to night you make an end of me.
¹³ I waited patiently until morning.
He breaks all my bones like a lion.
From day to night you make an end of me.
¹⁴ I chattered like a swallow or a crane.
I moaned like a dove.
My eyes weaken looking upward.
Lord, I am oppressed.
Be my security.”

¹⁵ What will I say?
He has spoken to me,
and he himself has done it.
I will walk carefully all my years
because of the anguish of my soul.
¹⁶ Lord, men live by these things,
and my spirit finds life in all of them.
You have restored me and caused me to live.
¹⁷ For my own welfare,
I had great anguish,
but out of love for me,
you have delivered me from the pit of corruption;
for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
¹⁸ For the grave cannot praise you.
Death cannot celebrate you.
Those who go down into the pit
cannot hope for your truth.
¹⁹ The living, the living,
he shall praise you, as I do today.
The father shall make known
your truth to the children.
²⁰ The Lord will save me.
Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments
all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.

²¹ Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.” ²² Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the Lord?”

Galatians 6

Bear One Another’s Burdens

Brothers, if a man is caught in some sin, you who are spiritual must restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness, and watch yourself so that you are not also tempted. ² Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

³ For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴ But let each man examine his own work, and then he will have reason to boast in himself, and not in someone else. ⁵ For each man will bear his own burden.

⁶ Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. ⁷ Do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. ⁸ For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

⁹ Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we do not give up. ¹⁰ So then, as we have opportunity, let us do what is good toward all men, and especially toward those who are of the household of the faith.

Paul’s Final Warning

¹¹ See with what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand.

¹² The ones who are concerned about making a good impression are compelling you to be circumcised, just so they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³ For they who receive circumcision do not keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh.

¹⁴ But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world, for me, has been crucified, and I to the world. ¹⁵ For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision mean anything, but what matters is being a new creation.

Benediction

¹⁶ As many as walk by this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and on God’s Israel.

¹⁷ From now on, let no one cause me any trouble, for I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus branded on my body.

¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

Psalm 65

Praise Waits for You God, in Zion

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. A song.

¹ Praise waits for you, God, in Zion.
Vows to you shall be fulfilled.
² You who hear prayer,
all men will come to you.
³ Sins overwhelmed me,
but you atoned for our transgressions.
⁴ Blessed is the one whom you choose
and cause to come near,
that he may live in your courts.
We will be filled with the goodness of your house,
the holiness of your temple.

⁵ By awesome deeds of righteousness, you answer us,
God of our salvation.
You who are the hope of all the ends of the earth,
of those who are far away on the sea.
⁶ By your power, you form the mountains,
having armed yourself with strength.
⁷ You still the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the turmoil of the nations.
⁸ They also who dwell in faraway places
are afraid at your wonders.
You call the morning’s dawn
and the evening with songs of joy.

⁹ You visit the earth, and water it.
You greatly enrich it.
The river of God is full of water.
You provide them grain,
for so you have ordained it.
¹⁰ You drench its furrows.
You level its ridges.
You soften it with showers.
You bless it with a crop.
¹¹ You crown the year with your bounty.
Your ways overflow with abundance.
¹² The wilderness grasslands overflow.
The hills are clothed with gladness.
¹³ The pastures are covered with flocks.
The valleys also are clothed with grain.
They shout for joy!
They also sing.

Proverbs 23:24

²⁴ The father of the righteous has great joy.
Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.

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