Today's TRC Daily Bread ISA 38 w/ Lena's Journalin'

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.

Isaiah 38:1-22
Hezekiah's Sickness and Recovery
1About that time Hezekiah became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to visit him. He gave the king this message: "This is what the LORD says: Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will not recover from this illness."
2When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3"Remember, O LORD, how I have always tried to be faithful to you and do what is pleasing in your sight." Then he broke down and wept bitterly.
4Then this message came to Isaiah from the LORD: 5"Go back to Hezekiah and tell him, 'This is what the LORD, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life, 6and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. Yes, I will defend this city.
7"'And this is the sign that the LORD will give you to prove he will do as he promised: 8I will cause the sun's shadow to move ten steps backward on the sundial of Ahaz!'" So the shadow on the sundial moved backward ten steps.
Hezekiah's Poem of Praise
9When King Hezekiah was well again, he wrote this poem about his experience: 10 I said, "In the prime of my life, must I now enter the place of the dead? Am I to be robbed of my normal years?"
11 I said, "Never again will I see the LORD GOD while still in the land of the living. Never again will I see my friends or laugh with those who live in this world.
12 My life has been blown away like a shepherd's tent in a storm. It has been cut short, as when a weaver cuts cloth from a loom. Suddenly, my life was over.
13 I waited patiently all night, but I was torn apart as though by lions. Suddenly, my life was over.
14 Delirious, I chattered like a swallow or a crane, and then I moaned like a mourning dove. My eyes grew tired of looking to heaven for help. I am in trouble, Lord. Help me!"
15 But what could I say? For he himself had sent this sickness. Now I will walk humbly throughout my years because of this anguish I have felt.
16 Lord, your discipline is good, for it leads to life and health. You have restored my health and have allowed me to live!
17 Yes, it was good for me to suffer this anguish, for you have rescued me from death and have forgiven all my sins.
18 For the dead cannot praise you; they cannot raise their voices in praise. Those who go down to destruction can no longer hope in your faithfulness.
19 Only the living can praise you as I do today. Each generation can make known your faithfulness to the next.
20 Think of it—the LORD has healed me! I will sing his praises with instruments every day of my life in the Temple of the LORD.
21Isaiah had said to Hezekiah's servants, "Make an ointment from figs and spread it over the boil, and Hezekiah will recover."
22And Hezekiah had asked, "What sign will prove that I will go to the Temple of the LORD three days from now?"
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.


~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
This passage is very serious in its message. The word of God is eternal, and even though it was written and lived out oh so long ago in another day and time, we are found inside of this word, and can hear God’s voice speaking to us through it, if we will just listen to it, hearing the Spirit in and of the Word.

About that time, the one whose strength was meant to be in Jehovah (the One who is ultimately the Lord and should be our personal Master), made himself sick and weakness came to his body, soul and spirit. He was tired, sore, depressed, diseased, sorry and sick, all self inflicted!
[This is literally what the Hebrew words “deathly ill” mean!]…..All of this was bringing the effects of premature death on him…a death sentence which was not from God, but from the effects of the curse in the earth, in which he’d become a participant by default and passivity. Yes, at one time he’d torn down idols, he’d been heavily involved in what God said, but faith must be maintained and pursued at all times, there is only so much earth time to live it out loud.
The Lord told him to set his household in order, this means, charge or command your inwards to come together (for a greater purpose), (if you do not) you will die, you will perish, prematurely.
This word is for all of us. God has been speaking to each of us since we were children and He will continue to speak to us until we die or perish.
Job 33:14 says, For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.
The Lord Jehovah, the Master of all, has been speaking one and twice and again, and will speak until. Will we hear exactly what He’s saying, what will it take? An edict of death? If only an edict, Praise God.
When Hezekiah (one whose strength was meant to be found in Jehovah, inside of allowing Jesus to be the only Lord and Master of his life) heard the edict, he changed, made a complete turn around. He changed. This was not a man in horrid abominable sin, this was a man who’d known and done a few things for the Lord, but was maybe tired or wearied and was just hanging out these days. The word turning, as in turning to the wall, means change. Pretty simple, yet an excruciatingly hard word to a self life filled flesh natured man- Change.
Hezekiah’s weeping was no longer self centered, he was grieved for the Lord’s will. He was humbled, meaning submitting one’s self to another. It was not God’s will that he perish, it is not God’s will for anyone to die before his time is over here on earth. It was an edict, not a last word on the matter.
What edicts have come your way? Do they move you to face and turn towards change? Do you accept their words or seek God’s eternal mandate for your life? Which word stands in your life?
So he faces himself, he faces God’s words and he changes and God, the Lord, adds to his life 15 years. 15 is a combined numeral of 10 + 5 equaling 15. 10 is the number of sanctification, the tithe is symbolic of the giving of the first part, which represents the giving of all. Someone said, 1-0, #1 God, # 0 of me, all of God and none of me (my flesh nature alive and demanding it’s ways). 5 = grace. So I give all of my life to Him and He gives me the grace to live out my days doing His will. Living like that can take one a lot further than only 15 natural earth years, but that person must always continue in that sanctification and grace. It is a lifestyle, not a one time magic formula, or great experience.
I find it so awesome that as soon as Hezekiah makes his decision of change God tells Him what God wants done. He wants to save the city from enemy power and rule.
All change comes by a decision to do so. We will never be able to say to God, “I couldn’t do such and such or so and so”…there is no excuse. We decide and we tap into Jehovah’s strength. It is not everything coming together if it all just fits or just happens. No, it is putting your house in order. Who does that? You do. This passage’s meaning says that means set the inner man in order, give him a charge, command him to live for God. Can you imagine yourself saying to the Lord when face to face, “Oh, I didn’t read and get to know Your words much because I was really tired”, or “I didn’t have time”, or “I was too busy”, or “I had things to do”?
We have to imagine ourselves in His presence like that without excuse. I tell you when I think that way, I go ahead and move some stuff out of the way in the here and now. I tell things to step aside, not allow them to tell me to put the things of God on dusty shelves. In all actuality, if we truly believe in and walk with Him, we are in that presence now. I’ve heard a song or something that says if I pay what I have vowed now, I will owe nothing later on. If I stand before Him each day, why would I wait for judgment to give an account of my day to day life, go ahead and check in here, today, face to face with God.
What do we “owe” God, but love, reciprocal responsive love which gives life as He gave life?
To a man who gives all, no matter what life tries to say about it. For that man, time is turned back and redeemed. This is so peculiar, but the root meanings of the sundial of Ahaz means, his thoughts have grasped a brilliance, “I saw the light”! The sign is seeing the light and the light guides my days, turns the days “wasted” into days spent for Him.
When the man whose strength was found in God saw this light all else came into perspective clearly, he realized where he’d been and where he was headed on that pathway, he’d been taken off of the eternally minded pathway, the pathway of reproductive blessings and life for ones other than him alone. He realized what life on earth is for and about.
The days of our lives are way to short to spend them on misery, pain, depression, self, or even making our own peace. We are here to live for Jesus, as He’s now living and interceding for us. There’s so much left for us all to do, before we leave we’ve got to leave the work in the hand of others whom have watched us live for Jesus, so the work of God will appear unto our children and our children’s children, etc.
Today is the day of salvation of our own souls, so we will be a whole offering to this world. There’s no time to waste. No time at all.

Daily Repetitive Verse(s):
John 3:17
You know these things – now do them! That is the path of blessing.