Trinity 21
Dear friends in Christ. Our text today brings us back to the days of the OT prophet Isaiah—about 700 years before Jesus was born—and we meet the godly king of Judah, Hezekiah. The Holy Spirit tells us in the Bible that Hezekiah trusted in the Lord and that neither before nor after him were any of the kings of Judah like him. They didn’t have that certainty of faith and the trust in the Lord like he did.
Hezekiah showed his faith by rooting out all traces of idolatry—even destroying the bronze serpent that Moses had made in the desert but, which in the course of time, became an object of idolatrous worship. Hezekiah also sanctified the temple and reestablished the true worship in it. He also arranged a great Passover festival. The Lord was with godly King Hezekiah and blessed him with success—for example in driving the enemies of the Jews, the Philistines, back to their own land. Hezekiah served the Lord and was blessed by the Lord.
But not everything was smooth for the pious God-fearing king. The Assyrian king came with a mighty army into Hezekiah’s land and captured all the fortified cities. And now Jerusalem was in the crosshairs of the Assyrian king to destroy it. Godly King Hezekiah went to the Lord in prayer for help and deliverance. After allowing him to sweat it out for a while, the Lord sent the prophet Isaiah to Hezekiah assuring him that his prayer would be answered. That night the angel of the Lord came and slew 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. The Assyrian king escaped with the remains of his army to his capital city and later was murdered by his sons.
As if having a huge enemy army threatening your city was not enough, at this time godly king Hezekiah received also another blow: he got sick and was near death. The prophet Isaiah came to him and said [Is 38.1], “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.” Hezekiah goes to the Lord in prayer and wept. And the Lord’s response? He sends the prophet Isaiah with the message [Isaiah 38.4]: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; and I will add to your days 15 years.” The Lord delivered Hezekiah from his illness leading to death and from the Assyrian army. Our text is the part Hezekiah’s prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord for rescuing him.
As we examine our text, we will focus in particular on Hezekiah’s words: for you have cast all my sins behind your back. As we do so, we will see that the forgiveness of sins is an accomplished fact. And because the forgiveness of sins is an accomplished fact, God can/does show us mercy; and we are at all times and in every situation to hold on to that accomplished fact that our sins are forgiven.
1. Notice Hezekiah’s words in our text: in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back. He realizes that great truth of Scripture—that sin is the cause of death. Here he calls death the pit of destruction. What Hezekiah says here is the same thing Holy Scripture says elsewhere [Rm. 6.23; Ez. 18.4]: The wages of sin is death; and, The soul who sins is the one who will die. Death is the just punishment for sin. That’s how it was from the very beginning—as God gave Adam and Eve [Gn. 2.17] that one command so that they could show Him their love: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat—also came the result of disobeying, the result/ consequence of going/sinning against it: for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. No matter what the “official cause of death” for us will one day be, the real/ ultimate cause of our death is sin. That’s what Hezekiah realizes and confesses in our text.
How vital it is that we realize this as well—our sin is a serious matter. It results ultimately in our death. Even a godly/ righteous king like Hezekiah, the likes of which were never seen before or after him, who had all kinds of good deeds and faithfulness to boast of before the Lord--even he recognized his sin and that his sin was the cause of his death, his going into the pit of destruction. Yes, from our perspective, the Lord granted him an additional 15 years; but in the end death claimed its victim for the wages of sin is death.
Sin—the sin we commit day in and day out—is no small/ insignificant matter. There is no such thing as a “small sin;” there is no such thing as a sin on which God will “give us a pass”; or that He has bigger fish to fry than our self-proclaimed “insignificant” sin. Just because society may be increasingly godless and we may think we shine in comparison—the fact remains we are still sinners and by our sins we earn/ deserve death. Just because we may be able to rationalize away our sin or convince ourselves we are not sinners, we are! St. John tells us [1 John 1.8] in no uncertain terms: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves!
But just as godly King Hezekiah realized his sins were the cause of his death, just as we, too, recognize this Scriptural truth, we must be on guard here because the devil wants to twist that truth to his advantage so that it leads us into despair and away from the Lord. The devil says, “Very well! You recognize that your sins cause you death. So that means that if you are a sinner—which you say you are—then you are also condemned eternally in hell for your sin.”
Notice what the devil tries to convince us of: our salvation is uncertain. And then because we, even as Christians, still have our old sinful nature with us, the devil tries to lead us to find our peace—but apart from the Lord. He tries to get us to think if we do all sorts of good things, God will look kindly on us and let us into heaven; he tries to get us to rely on ourselves and our efforts. But in the end, when we rely on self and our own efforts—we are ultimately only left with more uncertainty and despair.
What does Hezekiah do in our text? Does he rely on all the good that he did as king that was pleasing to the Lord? Hardly! What does he say? Our text: but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back. Hezekiah recognizes and holds to the simple truth: God deals with us in forgiveness. Hezekiah, the pious king and the great reformer, realized that his sin was the cause of his death, but what? He also recognized that in love [God] delivered [his] life from the pit of destruction, and why? For [He has] cast all my sins behind [His] back. The forgiveness of sins stands as the basis/ foundation of how God deals with us. Again St. John, in the NT, writes the same thing Hezekiah here does, as he writes in his epistle [1 John 1.8-9]: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God does not deal with us as we deserve. Instead, He deals with us in forgiveness: for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
Now He deals with us in mercy. As Hezekiah puts it, but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction; literally—You have loved my soul out of the pit of destruction. The foundation/ basis of God’s dealing with us is the work of Jesus for us on the cross. That’s why He could show mercy and love to Hezekiah and to us; that’s why He didn’t immediately strike down Adam and Eve the second they took of the forbidden fruit—because He was looking forward and seeing the death of Jesus on the cross for the sins of the world. Hezekiah was looking forward in faith to the coming Savior, Jesus Christ and that He would suffer and die for his sins and reconcile him to the holy God. At the time that Hezekiah received his death sentence—that the disease he was suffering from would kill him—he went to the Lord in prayer, trusting in/ certain of the Lord’s mercy on him for the sake of the coming Savior, trusting in/ certain of the forgiveness and reconciliation that Jesus would bring about: for you have cast all my sins behind your back. What glorious words that also hold true for us: for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
2. With our sins cast behind the Lord’s back, that is, their price/ consequence totally paid for, that means that God does not want to know and be reminded of them—He cast them behind Him! That’s how thorough the Lord’s forgiveness is. The righteousness that He expects and demands of us in His law—Jesus has given for us, in our place; the punishment that we deserve for our sins, Jesus has endured for us on the cross. God’s holiness and righteousness has been satisfied. By His raising Jesus from the dead Easter Sunday there is His pronouncement on the world, “Forgiven!” Hezekiah looked forward to it in faith; and we look back on it in faith. As was Hezekiah then, we, today, can be certain that we are reconciled with God and that He deals with us in love and forgiveness because in the Savior Christ Jesus you have cast all my sins behind your back.
Dear Christian, it is absolutely vital that we hold to this forgiveness as an accomplished fact—just as Hezekiah did. We still have our old sinful nature that works together with the devil to get us to think that when things we judge to be bad happen to us that somehow God is our enemy, or that He is angry at us or wants to get us and punish us for something. If we ever think that God is our enemy or out to get us, may we then repent because we are rejecting or regarding as a lie the work of Jesus—that He reconciled us sinners; we are saying that His suffering and death on the cross wasn’t enough to appease God’s wrath over our sin; we are rejecting the absolution that Christ pronounces upon us through His servants: In the stead of and by the command of Jesus, I forgive you all your sins... It is a terrible trick/ deception of the devil—and one that we fall prey to so easily because we know we are sinners and our guilty conscience all too readily reminds us of—that what we go through a time of trial or suffering that God is punishing us for some sin. Dear Christian, that’s why you hold to God’s forgiveness to you in Christ as an accomplished fact—no matter what your conscience or thoughts may be telling you. Hold to the absolution pronounced on you and given you in the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus’ work is an accomplished fact; your sins are forgiven you and you are reconciled to God. That fact stands because it is based on the work of Christ Jesus—the very God Himself—and given you!
That means that in whatever way God is dealing with you—even if He is allowing you to suffer and leading you through great trial—He is dealing with you in love. As we pray our collect today we will be reminded of a blessing of baptism: that we, the Church, our Lord’s Christians, are God’s household. Faithful, pious Hezekiah who had done so much for the Lord, whose faith was brilliantly evident by his works, not only had his country threatened and devastated by the Assyrians but he himself became sick unto death. One terrible suffering upon another! But what? The Lord’s forgiveness stood! And He was dealing with Hezekiah in love! When all was said and done, when Hezekiah was brought through these trials—the time that God seemed to be unmerciful—the great distress and trial made his rescue stand out all the more brightly! It was, as Hezekiah confesses in our text: Behold, it was for my peace that I had great bitterness. This seemingly terrible time was changed into blessing, hope and help—because the forgiveness of sins in Christ stands as an accomplished fact and now God deals with us in mercy.
At all times may we hold to that forgiveness! It is certain and sure and therefore we can do as Hezekiah did—go to the Lord in prayer in every time of trial. He is our dear loving heavenly Father; we are in Christ reconciled to Him; and He is always dealing with us in love and mercy—no matter how things appear. INJ