ISAIAH
CHAPTER 39
OBSERVATION
STAGE
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
The purpose of
the observation stage is to maintain focus on the text at hand within the
normative rules of language, context and logic 
.
.This
limits the observer to the content offered by the book of Isaiah. This
will serve to avoid going on unnecessary tangents elsewhere; and more
importantly, it will provide the framework for a proper and objective
comparison with passages located elsewhere in Scripture.
Remember that
something elsewhere may be true, but in the text at hand it may not be in
view.
Chapter 38
provides the timeframe for chapter 39:
****** EXCERPT
FROM CHAPTER 38 ******
Or
skip to the beginning of chapter 39:
(Isa
38:1) KING HEZEKIAH BECAME TERMINALLY ILL AT THE HAND OF THE LORD JUST
AFTER THE KING PLEADED FOR MERCY AND PAID A HUGE RANSOM TO ASSYRIA
LARGELY BY STRIPPING GOLD FROM THE HOUSE OF THE LORD - AN ACTION WHICH
EXEMPLIFIED HEZEKIAH'S ESTRANGEMENT FROM THE LORD. HEZEKIAH'S ILLNESS
PRECEDED THE TIME WHEN JERUSALEM WAS PUT IN IMMINENT DANGER OF
DESTRUCTION WHEN KING SENNACHERIB HAD HIS ARMY SURROUND THE CITY AND
DEMANDED SURRENDER OR DESTRUCTION
****** END
OF EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 38 ******
I)
[Isa 39:1-8]:
A)
(Isa 39:1) THE ARRIVAL OF A DELEGATION AT JERUSALEM CARRYING LETTERS AND
A PRESENT FOR KING HEZEKIAH FROM MERODACH-BALADAN, KING OF BABYLON
CORROBORATES THE TIME WHEN KING HEZEKIAH WAS TERMINALLY ILL AND
RECOVERED - BOTH BY THE HAND OF THE LORD
B)
(Isa 39:2-8) AT THE TIME OF HEZEKIAH'S RECOVERY FROM TERMINAL ILLNESS
AND THE RECENT DEFEAT OF THE ASSYRIANS AT THE GATES OF JERUSALEM;
MERODACH-BALADAN, KING OF BABYLON, SENT A DELEGATION WITH LETTERS AND A
PRESENT TO HEZEKIAH WITH THE INTENT TO FORM AN ALLIANCE WITH HIM AGAINST
ASSYRIAN RULE. WHEREUPON HEZEKIAH SHOWED THEM ALL OF HIS TREASURES AND
ARMORY - EVERYTHING. WHEN ISAIAH DISCOVERED WHAT HEZEKIAH HAD DONE, HE
CONVEYED TO THE KING THE WORDS OF THE LORD THAT ALL THE WEALTH
ACCUMULATED BY HEZEKIAH AND PREVIOUS KINGS WOULD BE CARRIED OFF AS A
RESULT OF THEIR UNFAITHFULNESS. EVEN SOME OF HEZEKIAH'S SONS WOULD BE
CASTRATED TO SERVE AS EUNUCHS IN THE PALACE OF BABYLON. IN A WHOLLY
SELF-CENTERED MANNER - ACKNOWLEDGING THAT THIS WOULD NOT COME WITHIN HIS
OWN LIFESPAN, HEZEKIAH CALLOUSLY RESPONDED, "THE WORD OF THE LORD
WHICH YOU HAVE SPOKEN IS GOOD! AT LEAST THERE WILL BE PEACE AND TRUTH IN
MY DAYS!"
CONTINUE TO ISAIAH
CHAPTER 40
