Now Isaiah had said, "Prepare a lump of pressed figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover." Sermons
I. THE READINESS OF GOD. "All things are now ready," said Christ; and in view of the Redeemer's great work in all the ages, God was a Saviour. God makes affirmation concerning this. "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live" (Ezekiel 33:11). This reveals the gracious disposition of God. We must ever remember that it is the beautiful nature of God that is revealed in the parables and in the passion of our Lord. Like the fountain ever ready to leap forth, he is ready to forgive. II. THE MINSTRELSY OF THE CHURCH. Music has accompanied devotion in all ages. It awakens the slumbering sensibilities of the soul. It is not only an expression of feeling, it is a quickener of it. "Therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments." These songs are the glorious heritage of the Church. They are heard every sabbath day in cathedral and church, in city, village, and hamlet. The great revelation of God is one, alike in the old and the new dispensations. In all ages God is a Saviour. Therefore there is nothing out of date in the inspired psalms. They belong to all ages of history, all eras of time. When we have passed away, our children will still lift up to God their praises and thanksgivings in the strains of the sweet singers of Israel. III. THE PERPETUITY OF PRAISE. "All the days of our life." For that would be a strange day on which there was nothing to praise God for - no new mercy, no fresh deliverance, no special bounty. "Every day will I bless thee, and praise thy Name for ever and ever." Yes; on life's last day it may be like the venerable Dr. Guthrie, as he lay a-dying, we shall say, "Sing me a bairn's hymn." The days of our life may be few or many, but in them all we shall have occasion to realize the fatherhood of God, and the redemption which is in Jesus Christ. IV. THE PLACE OF DEVOTION. "In the house of the Lord." This will ever be sacred to the true Christian. What memories of sacred vision and of spiritual emotion are connected with the sanctuary! What fellowship we have had there with each other and with God! The best part of our nature has been developed there - the part which, like God himself, "no man hath seen at any time, or indeed can see." For, apart from the associations of place, there is the inspiration of mutual faith, mutual hope, mutual service, and mutual love. Thus we meet and mingle in the house of the Lord, till, clothed with white robes and with palms in our hands, we join the victors who utter their hallelujahs around the throne of the Lamb, in the "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." - W.M.S.
He shall recover. I. The Holy Ghost shows us a king and ruler of men, a dweller in palaces, a possessor of all that money can obtain, a good man, a friend of God, laid low by disease like the poorest man in the kingdom.1. This is the old story. After all there is nothing wonderful in this. The tabernacle in which our soul lives is a most frail and complicated machine. I do not wonder so much that we die as that we live so long. 2. But whence comes this liability to sickness, disease, and death? There is only one book that supplies an answer to this question. That book is the Bible, The fall of man at the beginning has brought sin into the world, and sin has brought with it the curse of sickness, suffering, and pain. Here lies one among many proofs that the Bible is given by inspiration of God. It accounts for many things which the Deist cannot explain. II. Learn from this chapter that sickness is not an unmixed evil. Hezekiah received spiritual benefit from his illness. Sickness ought to do us good. And God sends it in order to do us good. 1. Sickness is meant to make us think, to remind us that we have an immortal soul; and that if this soul is not saved we had better never have been born. 2. Sickness is meant to teach us that there is a world beyond the grave, and that the world we now live in is only a training-place for another dwelling, where there will be no decay, no sorrow, no tears, no misery, and no sin. 3. Sickness is meant to make us look at our past lives honestly, fairly, and conscientiously. 4. Sickness is meant to make us see the emptiness of the world, and its utter inability to satisfy the highest and deepest wants of the soul. 5. Sickness is meant to send us to our Bibles. 6. Sickness is meant to make us pray. 7. Sickness is meant to make us repent and break off our sins. 8. Sickness is meant to draw us to Christ. 9. Sickness is meant to make us sympathising towards others. (Anon.) (bubon) or a carbuncle (charbon) is to be supposed. Figs were a popular emolliens or maturans; they were used to hasten the rising of the swelling, and therefore the mattering-process. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.) People Ahaz, Amoz, David, Hezekiah, IsaiahPlaces AssyriaTopics Apply, Boil, Bunch, Cake, Diseased, Figs, Isaiah, Lay, Lump, Plaister, Plaster, Poultice, Prepare, Recover, UlcerOutline 1. Hezekiah, having received a message of death, by prayer has his life lengthened8. The sun goes ten degrees backward, for a sign of that promise 9. His song of thanksgiving. Dictionary of Bible Themes Isaiah 38:21 4440 fig-tree Library The Life of the Spirit(First Sunday after Christmas.) Isaiah xxxviii. 16. O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit. These words are the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah; and they are true words, words from God. But, if they are true words, they are true words for every one--for you and me, for every one here in this church this day: for they do not say, By these things certain men live, one man here and another man there; but all men. Whosoever is really alive, that is, has … Charles Kingsley—Town and Country Sermons No Man Cometh to the Father but by Me. Epistle ii. To Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch. Sign Seekers, and the Enthusiast Reproved. Letter Xliv Concerning the Maccabees but to whom Written is Unknown. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: Meditations for the Sick. Assurance The Power of God I Will Pray with the Spirit and with the Understanding Also- Isaiah Links Isaiah 38:21 NIVIsaiah 38:21 NLT Isaiah 38:21 ESV Isaiah 38:21 NASB Isaiah 38:21 KJV Isaiah 38:21 Bible Apps Isaiah 38:21 Parallel Isaiah 38:21 Biblia Paralela Isaiah 38:21 Chinese Bible Isaiah 38:21 French Bible Isaiah 38:21 German Bible Isaiah 38:21 Commentaries Bible Hub |