Anyhow, with the Assyrian army out
of the picture for the time being, the narrative stays with Hezekiah. The next
event discussed is Hezekiah suffering from a deadly illness, during which
Isaiah comes to visit and basically tells him that God says he should make out
his will ‘cause he gonna die. This is not welcome news to the king, who bursts
into tears and prays to God to spare him. So God sends Isaiah back to tell
Hezekiah that he’s changed his mind and will add another fifteen years to his
life.
Now the timeline here is weird. First,
all of this is written about after the Assyrian army has returned home and
we’re told that sometime later the Assyrian king had been assassinated. But
along with the promise to extend Hezekiah’s life, God was also promising to
defend him from the Assyrians, implying that this event was taking place during
the invasion. Secondly, in Isaiah 38:7, God (unprompted) turns the shadow on
the sundial back ten steps as a sign that he really will do what he promised.
Almost the whole rest of Chapter 38 is then dedicated to some prayer supposedly
written by Hezekiah as thanks to God for saving him. And then, at the very end
of Chapter 38 we get:
“Isa 38:21 Now Isaiah had said, ‘Let them take a cake of figs and
apply it to the boil, that he may recover.’ 22 Hezekiah also had said ‘What is the sign that I shall go up to
the house of Yahweh?’”
And that’s just a weird place for
it. It’s like the author forgot to mention it back when he was describing
Hezekiah’s recovery, then remembered later and couldn’t be bothered to rewrite
that section. So he just tacked it onto the end. It’s also weird because this
is a retelling of a story from Second Kings, and in that version the bits about
making the cake of figs and Hezekiah asking for a sign were placed in the sensible
order with the rest of the story. I guess the author of Isaiah was just kinda
crap with storytelling.
The next little bit tells us about a
visit from officials sent by the king of Babylon to wish Hezekiah well after
his illness. He decides that the best way to demonstrate his hospitality is to
show off to them everything in the treasury along with everything else in the
realm that he owns. When Isaiah hears about this, he “prophesizes” that God has told him that after Hezekiah's death the Babylonians are going to come
sack Jerusalem and carry off Hezekiah’s own sons to be servants and palace
eunuchs to their king. Hezekiah’s response is… surprising.
“Isa 39:8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, ‘The word of Yahweh that you
have spoken is good,’ for he thought ‘There will be peace and security in my
days.’”
Yeah… I could have thought of many
responses to Isaiah’s claim, but “Fuck my kids; at least things will be good
while I’m alive,” would not have entered my mind. This guy who begged and wept
for his own life to be spared (and had that request granted) just a chapter ago
couldn’t be assed to offer even a token prayer on behalf of his children and
kingdom for after he dies? Is this supposed to be demonstrating how good he is
for accepting God’s decree? Because he sure as fuck didn’t accept it when it
was his own ass on the line. Altogether, it makes Hezekiah out to be one
selfish, heartless dick. And maybe he was; I guess I can’t just assume that every
story is meant to give us some kind of a moral lesson. Maybe it’s just talking
about what the guy was really like. Who knows?
Anyway, that’s the last we hear of
the life and times Hezekiah for now. And the last we hear of narrative structure
for awhile, too – the next bit is really just worship poetry and prayers. The
vast majority of Chapter 40 is just going on ad nauseum about how wonderful God
is. Which, I suppose, might be taken as inspirational poetry if you happen to
already believe it. But if you don’t, it’s kind of tedious and overblown. But
there’s something in this section that might be worth commenting on before
bringing today’s entry to a close.
“Isa 40:22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its
inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in.”
This is one of those passages
Christians like to point out to claim as evidence that the Bible contains
miraculous knowledge that the people of the time could not have gotten on their
own. Specifically, that the earth is round (based on “circle of the earth,”
above) and that the universe is expanding (based on “stretches out the heavens”).
I would have to say that’s a bullshit interpretation. That passage is very
clearly (if somewhat poetically) describing a flat, circular earth over which
the sky is placed and stretched taught like a tent canvas. In fact, a tent is
the exact metaphor the text uses. Nobody who actually knew the earth to be a
spherical object moving through a vast and expanding universe would ever use that metaphor to describe its
structure. And nobody reading that description who didn’t already know those
facts would ever glean them from that description. This does not describe
divine knowledge, but rather all-too-human ignorance, and the apologetics that
claim otherwise are simply pathetic.
Anyway, that’s it for today. Much of
the rest of Isaiah continues without a lot of storytelling. I’m not sure
whether that will mean I can knock out the rest in a single post next time –
there are still twenty-six more chapters to go, after all, and surely some of
it will bear comment. But while we wait to find out, I hope you all remain
happy and well.
