Isaiah 38 Devotional

A Song from Death's Edge

“Surely for my own welfare I had such great anguish; but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.”Isaiah 38:17 (BSB)

Isaiah brings Hezekiah a blunt message: he will not recover (38:1). Hezekiah turns his face to the wall, prays, and weeps bitterly. Then God gives Isaiah a new message. He has heard the prayer and seen the tears, and he will add fifteen years, confirming it by moving the shadow on the stairway back ten steps (38:2-8).

Afterward Hezekiah writes down what he went through, and it is not tidy. He felt his life being cut off like cloth from a loom, and he moaned like a dove, pleading with God to be his security (38:12-14). Yet he came to see that even the anguish served his good, because God's love pulled him back from the pit and put all his sins out of sight (38:17). Healing and forgiveness arrive together. Micah pictures God hurling sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19). Hezekiah ends by saying parents will tell their children of God's faithfulness (38:19). Healing from God is meant to be retold, and your own story of rescue is worth telling.

To think about: What has God carried you through that you have not yet told anyone about, and who might need to hear it?