When the temptation of despair on the left is overcome, the temptation of pride on the right tends to follow, which is exceedingly difficult. For the human mind cannot but be puffed up by prosperity; but it commits fornication, and hangs on to the gifts of God. But there is no case more terrible than when one boasts of spiritual things and is presumptuous about them. For this is the case of Lucifer, by whom we fall suddenly from heaven. In order that God may counter this inherent fault of ours, He is compelled to hang a weight on our necks, as it were, which is to press us, so that we will not be presumptuous and hopeful because of the spiritual gifts of God. Therefore David, who was full of the Spirit, fell into shameful adultery so that he would not be worthy of hope. And Peter would have exalted himself above all angels if he had not denied Christ. Thus Paul was given a stake in the flesh, that is, Satan's angel, lest he exalt himself above high revelations [2 Cor. 12:7]. Even the holy virgin would not have been safe from this plague if the sword of Simeon had not passed through her heart [Luc. 2, 35.]. Thus, all Christians are burdened with the cross, so that they do not rebel against God in hope and security.
2 Thus, in this text, the very pious king Hezekiah, after being severely challenged with mistrust, is restored to health. Therefore, he is cheerful and feels the gift of God; he sees that everything is going his way, therefore he is puffed up. But in order that God may withdraw him from this security again, he afflicts him with the plague (for I believe that it was such a disease).
(3) Even the hopeful spirits of today, who boldly spread new and dangerous doctrines among the people, lack nothing but such a disease as Hezekiah had here. For the presumption and the
Arrogance is in truth a podagra, which mocks all physicians. Other sins, such as murder, adultery, fornication, theft, etc., are felt; but this presumption is a diabolical challenge in the spirit, which is not felt, and cannot be taken away except by the sword of Simeon, or by adultery with a Bathsheba, or by the denial of Peter, or by the angel of Satan; otherwise it is an incurable disease.
4 Therefore we should walk in the holy scriptures with the highest humility, and ask that Christ will give us the spirit of humility; otherwise it is done for us. For if Paul, Peter, David and other great people have not been safe from this monster, how will it be with us wretched people, to whom this pitch clings so tightly that we have no hope of being cleansed and delivered from it as long as we live here.
V. 2. 3. Remember, O Lord.
5 Here it is asked: Did Hezekiah boast with a clear conscience that he walked before God in truth and with a perfect heart? But it can be answered in a twofold way: First, in regard to the word and his office, that the king was quite assured in his conscience that he did that which he did according to the word of GOD, and by divine command, by which he was called to the kingdom; as Peter saith [1 Ep. 4:11.], "If any man speak, that he speak it as the word of GOD." Thus one who is in the teaching office can say that the office, as far as the word is concerned, is holy before God. For we must be certain of our state and profession that it is approved in God's word. As far as the word and the office are concerned, Hezekiah boasts that what he did was done according to the word of God and according to the power given by God. For he who follows the word of God and his calling,
He walks on the right path, and even though he limps or stumbles for himself, the path is nevertheless right. So also the state and the life is holy, although the person is not yet holy. Therefore we answer that the consecration of life is blameless as far as the word is concerned, but as far as the use is concerned, the weak stumble.
(6) Secondly, it may be answered, Hezekiah suffered the affliction which afflicts all who are afflicted, and sought help in works. And in this way he does not boast with truth. However, I like the former opinion better, that he had his mind set on his ministry and on his kingdom, which was commanded to him by God, when he says: he walked with a perfect heart 2c.
V. 4. 5. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your days.
The prayer is immediately answered. Although it is weak in all the saints, and does not know what or how much it asks, yet the Spirit represents us with his groaning, and obtains more than has been asked. For God does not give according to our measure, but according to His; and this measure is divine, and inestimable, and ineffable. But such examples should establish our hearts and our faith, so that we pray the more diligently and with the greater zeal. The king asks to be saved from the apparent danger of death, and behold, he is promised fifteen years.
8. and not only this, but also peace is promised to him before the Assyrian, who at that time seemed to want to come again to devastate Judah. Thus, when the church asks that the name of God be sanctified, it asks far more than it thinks or hopes, which is evident when the prayer is answered. However, one must not abstain from naming something certain because of this; but the place, time and person, what, when, how, through whom it is to be given to GOD, that must be left to Him alone.
V. 6-8: And I will deliver thee with this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria.
(9) This promise is not to be taken from the past victory, but that after this there would be no danger from the Assyrian as long as Hezekiah lived.
V. 9. This is the writing of Hezekiah.
10 The prophet adds the song of Hezekiah, which I cannot reach for the sake of the exceedingly high emotions of the heart; and it can be understood, even if explained in many words, only by those who have been in great trials.
But it has two parts. First, he tells the movements of his heart, in which he was, since death was placed before his eyes. Second, he gives thanks for salvation. But no passage in Scripture contains such a detailed description of death as this one. We see many who die laughing and despise death, just as those who are possessed by Satan do not respect death. We have seen this in the Donatists before, and we see it now in the Anabaptists. But Hezekiah, a man of such great faith, fell into the greatest sadness when he saw death. Christ also asked in the garden that the cup he had to drink might be taken from him, and sweated a bloody sweat with pain [Luc. 22:44].
V. 10. I said, "Now I must go to the gates of hell, because my time was up.
The Hebrews call the grave "hell". Because, the holy scripture does not determine a certain place, where the dead go. [According to the Vulgate it reads: Ego dixi, in dimidio dierum meorum vadam ad portas inferni. Quaesivi residuum annorum meorum. "I said: In the half of my days I must go to the Hollow Gate; I sought the rest of my years."] But there is a violent movement in these words: In dimidio dierum meorum ["in the half of my days"]. Namely, when I was at my most tranquil, living in secure peace, having been delivered from a very great danger, when I was hoping to restore the kingdom devastated by the Assyrians, and to restore religion, behold, I die.
in the middle of the run. These are words of an unprepared heart.
Furthermore, the monks have written much about the preparation for death, but it has all come down to this: one should leave the world, that is, go to a desert or a monastery, and there think about I don't know what. But these are all vain antics. For the true preparation for death is the practice of faith, that one knows that death, sin, hell, Satan have been overcome and thrown to the ground by Christ crucified, that we do not look at death as it is in and of itself, or as it appears to us, but as it is in Christ. This beholding of the serpent of brass is preserved for us [Mos. 21, 9. Joh. 3, 14]. And there can be no other hope or way of salvation anywhere than by looking to Christ, the conqueror, in whom death is trodden to the ground, sin is conquered, Satan is laid low. On his cross hang the signs of victory of our conquered enemies and tyrants. In this way, the heart can safely look at death, and it is not frightened by the image of terror. Otherwise, to look at death apart from Christ and to argue with it is like swimming in the middle of the sea. Rather, get into the ship and stay on this mast on which the signs of victory are hung. And look not to thyself, or to thy merits, lest thou be drowned; but go out from thee, and go unto Christ, who is the Lamb of God, and the sacrifice for our sins, who took upon himself the sins of us all, and in his body overcame them, in whom the devil and death were crucified. This is the true and only way to despise death. For those who comfort the dying that death will put an end to all the tribulations and perils of this life: this comfort is not strong, and cannot lift up the heart in the struggle, because it seems to them that there are still greater evils left after death.
Since I thought to live longer.
14. I could have stayed alive for many more years, but suddenly I perish by an untimely death.
V. 11. Now I no longer have to see the Lord, yes, the Lord in the land of the living.
The sadness increases more and more. Others, when they are to die, lament because of what they possess, that they must leave their wealth, their glory, their wives and children. But this holy king is pained that he is torn away from the service of God and from the word of God. Thus we see that he had his highest pleasure in the service of God, namely in a thing that is not respected in the world, even the most despised.
16 He calls "the Lord" that which concerns the Lord, that is, the service of God. For as I have already reminded above [Cap. 37, 16.], we are not to speculate about the divine majesty, but to gather our fluttering and tossing thoughts into the word, as into a bundle. For he who wants to catch the clouds by his speculation plunges into an abyss. Therefore we are to keep to the simple word, as we see here in Hezekiah that he desires such.
Now I no longer have to look at the people at those who live their time.
17 [Cum habitatore aetatis,] that is, with those who live their time, who reach their goal in life. This comparison also makes the pain greater. Others live safely in peace, and come to the right age; I am carried away in the middle of the race. Just as he was grieved before that he would have to leave the service of God, so he complains here that he would have to leave the worldly regiment that he wanted to improve.
V. 12. My time is gone.
18, Generatio here means the age or duration of time. But the simile is taken from the Arabs, who live in huts, which they always move from one place to another. My life, he says, which I thought was fixed, is moved from its place as if it were an Arab's hut.
19. therefore Paul [2 Cor. 5, 1.] and Peter [2 Ep. 1, 13. 14.] call our bodies
"Tents." For just as the tents do not remain in one place, but are moved further and further away from their place, so also our life is uncertain. And just as shepherds are forced to change their place when they least want to, namely, when the storm drives them to do so, so too our life is, as it were, a daily shifting. It may seem to be fixed and permanent, just as a hut is very similar to a permanent house, and yet it is moved from its place because of the storm; so too our life is ruined by a single plague, by a small sore, by the stone, by a small fever. 2c.
You make it an end with me, the day before evening.
20. this is a great movement of the heart, which is taken from the 28th chapter of the fifth book of Moses [v. 66. 67.]: In the morning I thought that I would not live to see the evening; so in the evening I thought that I would die before night 2c.
V. 13 But he broke all my bones like a lion.
2l. I cannot obtain this verse. For the fear and the trials of the heart produce such dullness that no sensation remains in the body, as I have heard of one who, having already been led to the place of judgment, was set at liberty against all hope by Duke Frederick of Saxony. When the others asked him how he had felt or what he had thought when he was led to certain death, he answered: he had thought nothing, but it had seemed to him as if he had had to wade through a deep mud, in which he could hardly have made any progress under the greatest fear, hardly having been able to drag his feet and to work his way through with the greatest effort.
V. 14. I whined like a crane and swallow.
22. I have not been able to speak a word for fear, as we see in the dying.
My eyes wanted to break.
This is the last thing, that the dying turn their eyes, as it were. Furthermore, these three pieces, the breaking of the bones, the breaking of the eyes, and the failure of the voice, hit the body not through the violent illness, but through the sorrow of the heart.
Lord, I am in distress, soothe me.
In the greatest distress, he turns to prayer. n) Furthermore, whoever can take his refuge in God in the time of distress, so that he does not despair of grief, but sighs and prays, has overcome. He does not speak much either, but whimpers like a crane, and is like a little smoldering spark. Paul calls it "inexpressible sighs" [Rom. 8, 26.].
V. 15. O, how will I speak yet that he hath promised me, and doeth it.
25. for so it must be translated [instead of: Quid dicam, aut quid respondebit mihi, cum ipse fecerit? in the Vulgate]. But it is a thanksgiving for redemption. For he sets himself up with the promise that what God has promised will certainly come to pass.
I will shun such affliction of my soul all my days.
I will never forget this danger from which the Lord has saved me. The papists have misused this passage for confession, how one has to collect the past sins again. But the unskilful people show the greatest ignorance in the holy scripture with such citations.
V. 16: Lord, this is how you live.
That is, only when you promise life through your word do you live. Your word is the true medicine by which this gland and disease is healed. Not as if the medicine contributed nothing to the healing of the disease, but because the healing itself lies not in the medicine and the remedies, but in the word. For the word
n) Instead of the preceding words, the 1532 edition has: This is the prayer.
works through the creatures and in the creatures. Thus the bread that we eat and the wine that we drink are transformed into flesh and bones in a short time, not by the power of these creatures or our heat, otherwise they would also be so transformed in an oven, but because these things are so created and ordered by the Word [Acts 17:28]. For by the word we live and are preserved. But I do not want this to be understood as if the creatures of God were nothing or should be despised, but that the power to live is not in them, but in the Word. For that we take breath and live, that happens through the word.
For you let me fall asleep and made me live.
28 [Instead of: Corripies me, et vivificabis me] translate: Me dormiente vivificasti me [By falling asleep, you have made me alive]. This is a general saying: By sleeping, by doing nothing, you make me alive. For so it goes with us in the whole life, by sleeping, being quiet, being safe, everything is given to us. Nothing is given to those who worry and grieve; as it is said in the 127th Psalm, v. 2: "He gives it to his friends sleeping." So we also live, not by virtue of our worry, but by casting away our worry.
V. 17. But you have warmly accepted my soul.
(29) I myself wanted to be my physician and seek comfort and peace apart from words, but the affliction of my soul has only become more bitter; that is, I have only made the affliction worse with my attacks until you came and embraced me, that is, until you announced the word of life to me. Thus nothing else is accomplished by worrying, but that we only toil the more. For help is based on God alone. Bernard interprets this saying by a forcible explanation to the effect that peace in the Church is a twofold persecution. For when the church is at peace, the word is not heeded, and safe souls lose the spirit. But this is not the real opinion of this passage.
For you throw all my sin behind you.
(30) With all bodily affliction there is also this misery, that it troubles the conscience. For Satan is not content with afflicting the body, but also wants to destroy the soul. When we fall into some misfortune, the conscience accepts this as a punishment of sin, so that body and soul are sick at the same time. For the body is severely attacked by the disease or other evil, whatever it may be; but the soul fights against conscience, sin, eternal death and hell, which is the most serious. For the voice of conscience is a pool (lerna) of evils, a Jlias of evils. It is a Cacus, a Cerberus, 1) a Furie, an Erinnie, and what more such poetic monsters are. Overcome by this, we immediately conclude also in bodily temptations: God is ungracious. This is an appendage that cannot be separated from the temptations, however small they may be. But the greater the evil with which we are burdened, the more our conscience is afraid and the more it fears. Thus we learn at the hour of death that hell has innumerable open gates, since otherwise it has hardly a single gate. The good Hezekiah also complains about this here. Therefore, the highest benefit that God can bestow is that one feels that one's sins are forgiven. And they must be people like Hercules and Christophorus, who keep the victory in this fight of the conscience.
V. 18. For hell does not praise you.
This is taken from the sixth Psalm, v. 6. You do well to make me alive, for if you did not, there would be no religion, no worship. If you did not do this, there would be no more religion, no more worship. Now if your praise and worship are to continue, you must have mercy, forgive, save 2c.
V. 19. But only those who live.
That is, those who rely on the divine promise without worry, without their doing, and
1) Erlanger: Oaeus Oerderu".
are saved, they praise you, as I am doing now. Thus, nothing can be repaid to God for service except gratitude, praise and adulation. For these are our sacrifices.
V. 20. Lord, help me, so we will sing my songs.
The preservation of truth and worship is a gift of God. For human activity is far too weak to preserve and protect religion. Therefore, this song of Hezekiah is most perfect in all its parts, in which he has summarized so many and so important things.
V. 21. And Isaiah said to take a plaster of figs.
These words contain a great praise and defense of the art of medicine. For God does not want us to disrespect or despise the use of creatures. Only the
He rejects trust in the creatures. Although it would have been easy to heal Hezekiah with a word, he still wants to use the medicine. So he could create the children in another way in the human body, but he uses the women for it. Therefore, we should use things with thanksgiving, as God created them, and only not put trust in them.
V.22. And Hezekiah said, What a sign is this, that I should go up to the house of the LORD!
35 This is the word of one who rejoices greatly. What a glorious sign this is! The divine promise has restored me to health and given me a sign to go out to the house of the Lord, that is, to come again to worship, to hear the word of God 2c.