This service is pointing to one thing. The Lord wants us to know what Hezekiah learned the hard way. God is ready for you. I’ve heard people say “I would get saved today…..I would return to the Lord today….but I don’t think he’s ready for me.” We can’t pin this on God and say he’s not ready.
Hezekiah was sick. Isaiah went to him and gave him the news to prepare himself because he was going to die. It really was going to happen. Hezekiah didn’t know what to do. He turned away from his riches to the wall and prayed to the Lord. It occurred to him he wasn’t ready for this; he wasn’t where he used to be with God. He then realized God was ready to deliver. The not-being-ready-part was Hezekiah’s, not God’s. Listen to his prayer and see who ready God is. Are we willing to come to him?
Isaiah 38:10 I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. 11 I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. 12 Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. 13 I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. 14 Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me. 15 What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. 16 O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live. 17 Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. 18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. 19 The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth. 20 The Lord was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. 21 For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover. 22 Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?
Hezekiah prayed and shared his testimony on how the Lord responded to his prayer. The need of his spirit, soul, and body was great. King Hezekiah opened his heart to God and wept. He said mine eyes fail with looking upward: O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me. Do you know what undertake means? It’s not talking about Bradley’s or Seaver Brown Funeral Homes. He was so burdened he felt squashed. He asked for the Lord to ease his load, to undertake it.
If you’re lost or away from God and feel the load is hard, if you feel the future is unsure, there is a prayer to pray. “Lord, I can’t do this. I realize you’re ready to help me.” That means we have to let him. He’s ready to ease the load; he’s ready to save; he ready to recover and make you completely whole. Hezekiah asked what is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD? This kind of leaves us hanging, but it really just tells us that God is ready. Are you ready for God to do it for you?
Adwolfe Freewill Baptist Church 