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Isaiah 38 - Hezekiah’s Death Sentence and Song of Life · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Hello and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk.
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  Today we are in Isaiah chapter 38, Isaiah chapter 38, and we're
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  going to see in this particular chapter God do something
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  miraculous. We're going to see a recognition
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  of the fact that God determines our days and our times when we
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  breathe our very last breath. And I believe that this will be
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  a challenging and hopefully encouraging portion of Scripture
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  for us. Let's read together in Isaiah 38
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  and verse #1. In those days, Hezekiah became
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  terminally ill. So this actually takes place, as
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  we'll see, down in verse #6 this would likely take place prior to
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  the events of chapters 36 and 37.
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  So it's, if you will, one way to read that is in the days that
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  Hezekiah became terminally ill, the prophet Isaiah and so on and
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  so forth. So this would happen
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  chronologically prior to chapters 36 and 37.
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  This is looking back at something that occurred in
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  Hezekiah's life. So in those days Hezekiah became
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  terminally ill. The prophet Isaiah, son of Amos,
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  came to him and said, this is what you always says, set your
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  house in order, for you are about to die, you will not
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  recover. So what would you do in that
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  moment? If God says all right, your time
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  is up and so you need to set things in order, you know, write
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  your will. Actually, I'll, I'll toss this
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  in there because I've, I've done a couple of funerals even over
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  the past three weeks or so from the time of recording.
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  If it is at all in your power to do so well before you are on
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  your final moments or death's doorstep, put together the
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  things that your family will need for your funeral or
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  memorial service one day. If you have a song that if it
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  was like your last hurrah, like either your favorite song or the
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  song that maybe communicates to your saved and or unsaved family
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  and friends the thing that they need to know about the Lord or
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  about heaven or about the afterlife or about receiving
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  Jesus. Just like pick that out
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  beforehand. Any portions of scripture that
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  you really want people to know. Maybe it's John 14 and Jesus
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  talking about. I go to prepare a place for you.
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  Maybe it would be First Corinthians 15 that because of
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  Jesus, death is just the seed being planted in the ground and
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  one day we are raised with new bodies that are not just the
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  physical, but our spiritual and physical and so we can have joy
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  and anticipation of the future because of the resurrection that
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  is coming. Maybe Psalm 116 precious in the
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  sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints.
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  One of those things like pick out versus passages, songs,
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  those things that are most important to you.
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  If I could really challenge you either in video recording or in
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  writing, write down what you would want those at your funeral
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  to know about Jesus. Like do that.
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  Do it as soon as possible. I don't know if I will have
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  tomorrow. I hope I have 10,000 tomorrow's.
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  I don't know how long that is. I don't really feel like doing
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  math on Tabernacle talk today. He might be like Brian.
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  That only puts you at like, you know, 40 years old.
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  Not the point. We don't know how much time we
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  have going into the future. And so put your affairs in order
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  now so that one day when it comes time for your service,
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  your loved ones, they aren't having to come up with things
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  out of the blue. And that you have the plan for
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  that day when you get to share the gospel.
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  And it really doesn't matter what people's reactions to it
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  are because you're already gone. You're already with the Lord.
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  And I would encourage strongly every Christian to have that
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  planned out, even as a pastor. That is phenomenally helpful for
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  me because sometimes even as I'm, you know, preparing
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  services and things, funerals, especially for those in our
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  community, they don't really know what was most in the heart
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  of their loved one as it related to their faith.
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  If they're calling me their loved 1 had some sort of faith
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  journey, belief in the Lord, reading of Scripture, church
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  attendance, those types of things, but they don't know what
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  their loved one's personal walk with the Lord was.
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  And so I want to encourage you write those things down because
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  that can be one of the most powerful gospel testimonies that
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  someone will ever experience is at the service of a loved one
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  who has passed. And if you will, from beyond the
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  grave is speaking these wonderful truths of the gospel
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  and of the needed relationship with the Lord to them one last
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  time. So I really want to encourage
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  you to do that. That is a giant rabbit trail.
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  I am so sorry, but it didn't make me think of that.
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  As he says, you know, set your affairs in order because you're
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  going to die. I would encourage you to do the
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  same thing. If you have any questions about
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  that, please reach out to me. My e-mail is pastor at TBCS dot
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  com. Once again, that's pastor at
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  tbces.sex.com. And I would love to walk with
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  you through that process of what a memorial service would look
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  like. Get it set now.
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  If you want to make any changes in the next 40 to 50 years,
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  wonderful, let's do it. But I would rather you be able
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  to have something and know for sure that what you are looking
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  for in your home going is, is, is what would take place.
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  So let me get back on track. Now we are with Hezekiah.
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  He's been told by God that he's going to die.
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  Verse #2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed
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  to Yahweh. He said, please Yahweh, remember
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  how I have walked before you faithfully and wholeheartedly
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  and have done what pleases you. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
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  Hezekiah doesn't want to go. And so he asked if God would
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  remember his walk that he's had with him.
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  And he's crying. Verse #4 Then the word of Yahweh
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  came to Isaiah. Go and tell Hezekiah, this is
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  what Yahweh, God of your ancestor David says.
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  I've heard your prayer. I've seen your tears.
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  Look, I'm going to add 15 years to your life and I will rescue
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  you and this city from the grasp of the king of Assyria.
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  I will defend this city. So God says, all right, not only
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  are you not going to, you know, die eminently, you're actually
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  going to live an additional 15 years.
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  This is the sign to you from Yahweh that he will do what he
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  has promised. I'm going to make the sun's
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  shadow that goes down on the stairway.
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  They has go back by 10 steps. So the sun went back the 10
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  steps it had descended. So here, I've mentioned this
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  before on the podcast. I want to make sure that I
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  mention it again because I've heard some kooky things through
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  the years. We recognize with the gifts that
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  we have now of satellites, cameras, etcetera, that the sun
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  going backwards wouldn't actually do anything to the
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  shadow. Here God is utilizing the
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  understanding, verbiage and language that these people would
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  have known and used to express truth.
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  So here though, this is not, if you will, scientifically
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  accurate that the sun going back, that wouldn't make any
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  change on the shadow by understanding of the people of
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  the time, this is what they would have perceived to have
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  been the case. So God's word is inerrant, it's
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  infallible, it's true in everything that it speaks to,
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  and it uses language that was attainable and understood by the
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  people of the time. That's about what I'll say
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  there. At that moment in Joshua, I
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  think it's Joshua 10 is the other location in which we see
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  the same type of thing described.
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  And so I want to make sure that I encourage you guys to think
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  rightly about the word and think rightly about the authors and
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  the times in which they lived. It would be somewhat
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  hypocritical for us to judge knowing everything that we know
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  now them for what they did not know.
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  Also, we fully believe that Scripture very rarely only in
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  the moments that God specifically says like hey, this
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  is what the Lord says blank. It would be or the Holy Spirit
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  did not dictate into the ears or minds of the writers of
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  Scripture what they were to write.
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  And so they wrote in their grammar, their vocabulary, their
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  personality, such that what they wrote was exactly what God
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  wanted communicated, but God did not, if you will, overwhelm or
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  possess them so that they were not understanding what was being
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  written. Sometimes they saw things that
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  were difficult to understand, and so they wrote those.
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  And you can look even at Daniel's prophecies and John's
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  prophecies, and they specifically say that they're
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  like, hey, I saw some stuff and here's the best I can do in
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  describing what that looked like.
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  And so have a, if you will, a hospitality to the scriptural
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  writers that you take them at their particular stage of
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  understanding. And so I want to say that if you
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  have any questions on that, please let me know.
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  I know that some people have taken those types of statements
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  and truths and extrapolated them out way too far so that
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  Scripture is not believable at all or truthful in any of the
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  miraculous things that it states, even extending to the
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  virgin birth, the flood, different things like that.
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  I would hold to Scripture as being true in those moments when
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  it would seem that there's a disconnect between, if you will,
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  science and Scripture here, the location and rotation of the
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  sun. I know that God's word is true
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  and I know that Scripture does not speak things that are false,
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  so it would it would follow either I do not understand
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  science enough yet or the people that are writing this are
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  writing based on their understanding of what is taking
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  place. And because the Holy Spirit
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  inspired it, then that means that I can believe in it as
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  trustworthy, and that He deals with humans in their
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  imperfection to bring about what is actually true.
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  So going to go from there. Verse #9 A poem by King Hezekiah
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  of Judah after he had been sick and had recovered from his
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  illness. I said in the prime of my life,
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  I must go to the gates of the grave.
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  I'm deprived of the rest of my years.
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  I said I will never see Yahweh, Yahweh in the land of the
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  living. I will not look on humanity any
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  longer with the inhabitants of what is passing away.
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  My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a
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  shepherd's tent. I've rolled up my life like a
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  Weaver. He cuts me off from the loom.
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  By nightfall you make an end of me.
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  I thought. Until the morning He will break
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  all my bones like a lion. By nightfall you make an end of
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  me. I chirp like a swallow or a
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  crane. I I moan like a dove.
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  My eyes grow weak, looking upward.
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  Lord, I am oppressed. Support me.
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  So here there's this description of going down to death, of being
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  in pain, of feeling like your body is wasting away and leaving
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  you behind, that you are going to the grave.
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  Verse #15 What can I say? He's spoken to me, and He
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  himself has done it. I walk along slowly all my years
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  because of the bitterness of my soul.
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  Lord, by such things people live, and in every one of them
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  my spirit finds life. You've restored me to health and
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  let me live. Indeed, it was for my own
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  well-being that I had such intense bitterness.
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  But your love has delivered me from the pit of destruction.
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  For you thrown all my sins behind your back.
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  For the grave can't thank you. Death cannot praise you.
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  Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your
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  faithfulness. The living, only the living can
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  thank you. As I do today.
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  A father will make your faithfulness known to children.
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  Yahweh is ready to save me. We will play stringed
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  instruments all the days of our lives at the House of Yahweh.
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  Here. As I've mentioned before, even
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  in the Psalms there is not the same understanding of the grave
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  and what would take place after death.
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  Hear from Hezekiah or even as I've been going through Job,
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  there wasn't the same understanding of what happens at
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  death as then Jesus comes and He communicates the truth to us so
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  that Paul would tell us to be absent from the body is to be
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  present with the Lord. Or as Jesus tells us, He
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  ascended to the Father so that where He is, we would be also.
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  And what a joy that that is. So even here are some of the
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  statements of like, oh, those that are dead can't praise you,
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  and they can't thank you unless they're alive.
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  We would read from the rest of the Scripture.
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  No, we are gathered to the Lord and we surround his throne and
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  we worship Him and His Holiness and for the redemption that He
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  has provided for us. And what a joy that that is.
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  Verse #21 And 22 at the conclusion of this chapter,
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  saying, now Isaiah had said, let them take a lump of pressed figs
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  and apply it to his infected skin so that he may recover.
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  And Hezekiah had asked, what's the sign that I will go up to
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  Yahweh's temple? Basically that I'm going to get
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  better and that I can go worship the Lord.
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  And so Isaiah here, it's not just that he prays, it's prayer
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  matched with a actual physical remedy here, the pressed figs
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  applied to the infected skin. As I have encouraged you guys
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  before, I think it was even from First Timothy chapter 5, maybe
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  don't be afraid of medicine. Don't be afraid of doctors.
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  They will not always get it right.
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  Sometimes they will get it wrong, and that's OK.
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  You and I get things wrong at our job all the time.
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  I'm a pastor, so hopefully I get it.
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  I, I get some aspects of my job wrong less than other aspects.
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  Hopefully I'm theologically true, but where was I headed
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  with that? Oh, so be open to receiving and
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  pairing medical assistance with your prayers here.
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  God used both of these within the life of Hezekiah.
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  What do we make from this chapter #1 God can answer prayer
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  and you can pray for healing and sometimes God will grant it.
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  Notice Hezekiah is not still around.
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  So God didn't grant him immortality, but he granted him
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  a little more time. And so I encourage you to pray
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  to the Lord. Do set your affairs in order.
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  Strongly encourage that. If you have any questions about
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  that comment DM e-mail me pastor at tbces.sex.com.
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  I would love to help with that. God's word is trustworthy and it
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  is true and God cares about and even speaks through some of our
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  imperfections or misunderstandings sometimes as a
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  pastor, it'll often happen. Pastor will preach a message and
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  someone afterwards will be like man, it was so encouraging as I
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  was thinking about blank and you're like, I didn't preach on
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  blank at all. I like, I didn't say anything
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  like that, but the Spirit was speaking to that person even
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  through our own imperfections. And may we spend all the days
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  that we do live in thankfulness, praising the Lord for who he is,
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  worshipping him even as Hezekiah says in verse #20 you always
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  ready to save me. We'll play stringed instruments
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  all the days of our lives at the House of Yahweh.
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  Thank you for tuning into this episode.
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  So always, if you have any questions, let me know, like
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  comment, share, subscribe, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or
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  Spotify podcasts. You can comment the word sun,
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  SUN comment sun. And I'll give you some
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  Tabernacle talk points for making it all the way to the end
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  of the episode. God bless.
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  Have a wonderful day.