Anguish for Benefit
A Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick
The year was 727 B.C. when a man by the name of Hezekiah became King of Judah - he was only 25 years old at the time. He was considered to be a good king, even to the point of being compared favorably with the most famous of all, King David. Listen to these summary statements concerning this king; certainly they are statements we all would be pleased to have said about us.
He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him. He kept the commands the LORD had given Moses. The LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. (II Kings 18:5-7) The fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign was traumatic. The Assyrians were attacking the cities of Judah and were poised to take Jerusalem when God, as foretold by the prophet Isaiah, miraculously defeated the Assyrian army. That same year, when Hezekiah was 39 years old, he became deathly sick - the prophet went to the king and told him, "Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover." However, he didn't die; well, not then anyway. When the prophet left the room, King Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and, with bitter tears, prayed that God would spare his life. The prophet hadn't even reached the outer court of the palace when God spoke to him, telling him to go back and tell the king his prayer was heard and he would be given 15 more years to live and rule. (Imagine the headlines in the next day's opposition party's newspaper, "Fifteen More Years!") When Isaiah delivered his message, he also instructed the servants to prepare a paste from ground up figs and place it on Hezekiah's infected boil. Immediately the king began to recover, and in order to give him further proof that the prophecy of his full recovery was valid, Isaiah prayed for a miraculous sign. God honored this prayer and made the sun's shadow go back ten steps on the palace stairway.
It was after this miraculous healing that Hezekiah wrote the poem found in Isaiah 38. It starts out with his recognition of the terrible plight he was in, at the very "gates of death." In this desperate state, he likened himself to a piece of thread cut off from the loom, and like a lion whose bones had all been broken. The poem then refers briefly to Hezekiah's mournful prayer and closes with a lengthy section which includes praise to the Lord for the answer, and a commitment to walk humbly before the Lord for the rest of his life. Tucked away in this poem is a verse that is often overlooked: "Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back." (v.17) This echoes the words of the Psalmist, "It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees." (Psalms 119:71) These words represent a message we would rather avoid hearing. The problems of life are designed to benefit us. For us, this makes little sense, as we would expect good things to bring benefit, and bad things to bring loss. However, when we recite the New Testament verse given by Paul, "all things work together for good to them that love God," we should know that the "all things" certainly must mean "all the bad things." It doesn't take a theologian to understand that good things bring about good. Our problem is understanding how bad things bring about benefit - things like, sicknesses, breakdowns, shortages, calamities, losses, hardships, dashed hopes - or in the words of Hezekiah, suffering and anguish. Hezekiah understood it correctly when he said, "All these bad things were for my benefit." One hundred and fifty years ago, Elizabeth Payson, a school teacher and the daughter of a famous Congregational pastor, married a New School Presbyterian minister by the name of George Lewis Prentiss. Eleven years into their marriage, Elizabeth was suffering from poor health and chronic insomnia. Her two children had died and she was nearly overcome with anxiety. On that day in 1856, inspired by the hymn “Nearer My God, To Thee,” Elizabeth worked on a poem which was a kind of prayer to the Lord. The words came easily at first, but by the end her creative energy evaporated, and she left the poem unfinished. Thirteen years later, while going through a stack of old papers, Elizabeth found this unfinished poem. As she re-read it, it didn’t impress her as being very good. But after her husband read it, he insisted that she finish it, and she scribbled an ending in pencil. George printed a few copies, one of which landed on the desk of musician William Howard Doane in Cincinnati, who set the verses to music and published it in his hymnbook, Songs of Devotion. Here's the poem she wrote, called, "More Love to Thee."
Hear Thou the prayer I make on bended knee. This is my earnest plea: more love, O Christ, to Thee, More love to Thee, more love to Thee!
2. Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;
3. Then shall my latest breath whisper Thy praise;
That Elizabeth could write such a beautiful poem during her time of suffering and sorrow is a certain testimony to her strong faith, and bears witness to the truth of Hezekiah's comment, "Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish." The same year Elizabeth Prentiss finished writing this poem, she also published a book which, by the close of the 19th century, had sold over 200,000 copies, and since its reprinting in 1992 has sold over 100,000 more copies. The title of the book is "Stepping Heavenward," and has been recommended by such people as Joni Eareckson Tada, and is one of the favorite books of Elisabeth Elliot, who said, "This book is a treasure of both godly and womanly wisdom told with disarming candor and humility, yet revealing a deep heart's desire to know God." One can only surmise that Elizabeth's faith was no doubt nurtured by sitting under her own father's ministry in the Congregational Church of Portland Maine where he served as pastor during the Second Great Awakening. In one of his sermons, "God's Ways Above Men's", Edward Payson preached,
Whatever the source of her strong faith, evidently Elizabeth understood the message penned by King Hezekiah two and a half millennia earlier, "Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish." What about us? Is this the fabric of our own faith? Any spiritual pygmy can sing in the sunshine, but it takes strong faith to rejoice in the raging storm. Even an unbeliever can be thankful in their season of success, but it takes strong faith to identify the blessings of poverty. A pagan can praise their gods when life is a party, only a true believer can sing Psalms in the silent solitude of a starless night.
Anguish for Benefit - Isaiah 38:17 1. What previous king of Israel was Hezekiah likened to, and what are some of the compliments given him? 2. What two traumatic events took place during Hezekiah's 14th year as king? 3. What instruction was Hezekiah given by the prophet when he was told he was going to die? 4. Instead of following this instruction, what did Hezekiah do in response to the prophetic word of Isaiah? 5. What is the relationship between the ideas presented in the two parts of Hezekiah's statement, "In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back." (Isaiah 38:17) 6. Why is it difficult for us to include the words "benefit" and "anguish" in the same sentence? 7. What is stated in Romans 8:28, and how does this relate to Hezekiah's statement, "Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish." 8. What hardships had been endured by Elizabeth Prentiss, the author of the hymn "More Love to Thee"? 9. Two contemporary women, Joni Eareckson Tada and Elisabeth Elliot were cited as recommending a book written by Elizabeth Prentiss. How are they also examples of Hezekiah's statement? 10. Can you give personal testimony to the truth of these words?  - - Return to Top of this Page
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