Haha :D
I'm here subbing at the high school just reading the word and was struck by the abundant power and love of our Creator in this chapter of scripture. The setting is Hezekiah has been told by God that he does not have long to live (presumably because of disease or something) so he cries out for God's mercy and guess what...
He has mercy on him
In a pretty fantastic way as well! This is Hezekiah's response to God's favor:
“I once said: ‘In the prime of life
I am going off to the gates of Sh’ol.
I am being deprived of living out
the full span of my life.’
“I said, ‘I will never again see Yah,
Yah in the land of the living;
I will look on human beings no more
or be with those who live in this world.
My home is uprooted and taken away
from me like a shepherd’s tent.
Like a weaver, I have rolled up my life;
he cuts me off from the loom.
Between day and night you could finish me off.
I try to be strong like a lion till morning,
but still my illness breaks all my bones —
between day and night you could finish me off.
I make little chattering sounds like a swallow,
I moan aloud like a dove,
My eyes are weary with looking upward.
Adonai, I am overwhelmed; guarantee my life!’
“What is there that I can say?
He has spoken to me and acted!
I will go humbly all my years,
remembering how bitter I was.
Adonai, by these things people live;
in all these is the life of my spirit.
You’re restoring my health and giving me life —
though instead of peace, I felt very bitter.
You desired my life and preserved it
from the nothingness pit;
for you threw all my sins behind your back.
“Sh’ol cannot thank you, death cannot praise you;
those descending to the pit cannot hope for your truth.
The living, the living — they can thank you,
as I do today;
fathers will make their children know
about your faithfulness.
Adonai is ready to save me;
hence we will make our stringed instruments sound
all the days of our life
in the house of Adonai.”
