Isaiah 38:17
"Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all
my sins behind your back." (NIV)
Can anguish be beneficial? I think everyone can agree that yes, many times anguish does bring about good in the end. The King James Version translates this as: "Behold, for peace I had great bitterness". For peace? How can anguish and/or bitterness lead to peace?
King Hezekiah is writing this after a deadly illness he had, which the Lord had healed him from, granting him an extra fifteen years to live. Not only this, but God also promised to deliver Hezekiah and Israel from the hands of Assyria and vowed to defend the city.
Hezekiah's only hope to live during this illness was God. He cried out to the Lord and the Lord responded by healing him. Clearly, this was a humbling experience for him, to which he says in verse 15, "But what can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this. I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul."
It's strangely wonderful to be humbled by the Lord through distressing and harsh circumstances. They are quick and heavy reminders that we are powerless and futile when it comes to being masters of our own lives. In the end, regardless of how powerful you are, God is the one who can destroy or save you. And I think it is this very concept that Hezekiah realized on his death bed, and that caused him to say that it was for his benefit, for his peace, that he suffered such anguish and bitterness. For now he knows that God and God alone is the Almighty One who holds his life in his hands, and seeing how gracious and merciful he was in this one matter, Hezekiah had all the reason in the world to find peace, living in God's wonderful promise.
What caught my eye in this verse was the second half. It was not out of mockery, pity, or self-seeking pride that God saved Hezekiah from the grips of death, but out of love. When you consider carefully who Hezekiah was in relation to God (i.e. nothing) this is quite a big idea.
Oh, oh, oh, but did you catch it? Did you?
"you have put all my sins behind your back."
Once again, the Old Testament gives us a foreshadowing of what is yet to come.
In His love, the Lord kept Hezekiah from destruction, and in so doing was required to do something about all of his sins. Could he just overlook them? Could he just let them pass? Absolutely not. God's justice and wrath will not allow it. It's in His very character, His uncompromising essence. Something must be done about Hezekiah's sins...but what?
The Lord puts them behind Him.
When someone wrongs us, especially someone who is dear to us, what is the only way we can forgive them and move on? By "putting it behind you", by leaving it in the past, by turning your back and pardoning that one instance of hurt and harm. God puts Hezekiah's sins behind Him...both in this figurative and also in a very literal sense.
Jesus Christ bore a heavy cross that was laden with all of our sins. Absolutely all of them...small or great, open or hidden, known or unknown, they are all put on that cross. And what does Jesus do with that cross?
He puts it behind His back.
He puts all our sins behind His back.
In that one act of love, justice, and grace, God shows us that our sins are forgiven, that He no longer sees them, because His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, has cast them all behind His back.
The next time you look at a picture or movie depicting Christ's death on that cross, or the next time you think about it and picture it in your head, think about this as you see Jesus hanging on that tree, with His arms opened to you, and notice the fullness and significance of the fact that He is not facing the cross He is nailed to.
And it was all in His love...
And just like Hezekiah, we can proclaim that our lives lived in anguish and bitterness before we met Christ were for our benefit, for our peace, because we now live in the promise of the very God who has saved us from the pit of destruction. The contrast between our former and our present states is immeasurable and should invoke humility and eternal praise.
Can anguish be beneficial? I think everyone can agree that yes, many times anguish does bring about good in the end. The King James Version translates this as: "Behold, for peace I had great bitterness". For peace? How can anguish and/or bitterness lead to peace?
King Hezekiah is writing this after a deadly illness he had, which the Lord had healed him from, granting him an extra fifteen years to live. Not only this, but God also promised to deliver Hezekiah and Israel from the hands of Assyria and vowed to defend the city.
Hezekiah's only hope to live during this illness was God. He cried out to the Lord and the Lord responded by healing him. Clearly, this was a humbling experience for him, to which he says in verse 15, "But what can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this. I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul."
It's strangely wonderful to be humbled by the Lord through distressing and harsh circumstances. They are quick and heavy reminders that we are powerless and futile when it comes to being masters of our own lives. In the end, regardless of how powerful you are, God is the one who can destroy or save you. And I think it is this very concept that Hezekiah realized on his death bed, and that caused him to say that it was for his benefit, for his peace, that he suffered such anguish and bitterness. For now he knows that God and God alone is the Almighty One who holds his life in his hands, and seeing how gracious and merciful he was in this one matter, Hezekiah had all the reason in the world to find peace, living in God's wonderful promise.
What caught my eye in this verse was the second half. It was not out of mockery, pity, or self-seeking pride that God saved Hezekiah from the grips of death, but out of love. When you consider carefully who Hezekiah was in relation to God (i.e. nothing) this is quite a big idea.
Oh, oh, oh, but did you catch it? Did you?
"you have put all my sins behind your back."
Once again, the Old Testament gives us a foreshadowing of what is yet to come.
In His love, the Lord kept Hezekiah from destruction, and in so doing was required to do something about all of his sins. Could he just overlook them? Could he just let them pass? Absolutely not. God's justice and wrath will not allow it. It's in His very character, His uncompromising essence. Something must be done about Hezekiah's sins...but what?
The Lord puts them behind Him.
When someone wrongs us, especially someone who is dear to us, what is the only way we can forgive them and move on? By "putting it behind you", by leaving it in the past, by turning your back and pardoning that one instance of hurt and harm. God puts Hezekiah's sins behind Him...both in this figurative and also in a very literal sense.
Jesus Christ bore a heavy cross that was laden with all of our sins. Absolutely all of them...small or great, open or hidden, known or unknown, they are all put on that cross. And what does Jesus do with that cross?
He puts it behind His back.
He puts all our sins behind His back.
In that one act of love, justice, and grace, God shows us that our sins are forgiven, that He no longer sees them, because His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, has cast them all behind His back.
The next time you look at a picture or movie depicting Christ's death on that cross, or the next time you think about it and picture it in your head, think about this as you see Jesus hanging on that tree, with His arms opened to you, and notice the fullness and significance of the fact that He is not facing the cross He is nailed to.
And it was all in His love...
And just like Hezekiah, we can proclaim that our lives lived in anguish and bitterness before we met Christ were for our benefit, for our peace, because we now live in the promise of the very God who has saved us from the pit of destruction. The contrast between our former and our present states is immeasurable and should invoke humility and eternal praise.
Praise be to the One who put all of our sins behind Him.
Amen.
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