“Living Longer” is a sermon preached by Pastor Pamela on Sunday 23rd April 2023. Job 14:5 says, “A man’s days are numbered…”. Can we negotiate that number, or do we settle for when our number is ‘called’ it is ‘called’?
Sermon Transcript
Jeanne Calment, a French woman, achieved an incredible feat of living to age 122, thus earning the honor of being the world’s oldest person on record (obviously the Biblical record is not included in this).
[Image of Jeanne Calment displayed on the screen]
But before her passing, Calment met and discussed her life with Jean-Marie Robine, an expert demographer who studies the links between health and longevity. As a disclaimer, Robine says: “We have to keep in mind that a big part of the longevity of Jeanne Calment (Calmo) is due to just chance because it’s just so exceptional.” However, there are some aspects of her life that likely contributed to her ability to live so long, he says.
1. She was wealthy
2. She had a great social life
3. And she didn’t smoke cigarettes until much later in life
Until marriage, Calment was not allowed to smoke, says Robine. “We have to remember where we were, at the end of the nineteenth century in a little town in the South of France,” he says. “Of course, it was absolutely forbidden, and impossible, for a girl, and specifically in a bourgeois family, to do that.”
Yet just after getting married, Calment’s husband offered her a cigarette. And though she was extremely happy to do something that she wasn’t allowed to do before, “when she was smoking for the first time, she did not find it nice, and she quit smoking.” Interestingly enough, Calment didn’t smoke for most of her life, but picked up the habit at around age of 112 while living in a nursing home! Go figure!!! Why? Why would she do that? She may have made it to 130 if she hadn’t taken up smoking!
Job 14:5 says, ‘A man’s days are numbered…’
I have an acquaintance in England, who when I was there in 2015 happened to voice her opinion concerning the time the LORD has allotted us as individuals on the earth. Because of scriptures like the one I just read ‘A man’s days are numbered…’ she believes that God has allotted us all a set time on this earth which is (more or less) nonnegotiable. If He gives you 20 years then 20 years it will be. If He gives you 100 years then 100 years it will be. Out of respect for my friends age and hospitality towards me, I didn’t rebut her, but it really made me think about what I believe concerning this matter (based on the Word of course).
Let us pray,
LORD it is with anticipation we study Your precious Word today. Open the eyes of our hearts that we may see everything You want us to see. May this Word feed our souls that we may grow in Your grace for the better of Your kingdom. Amen
Let us turn to 2 Kings 20:1
1 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’”
That’s relaying a horrible message twice in the one sentence isn’t it? “you shall die” and just in case you didn’t understand those three words “and not live!” That’s called a tautology when you say the same thing twice, just in a different way! “…you shall die and not live.”
What a horrible message for the prophet Isaiah to deliver to his friend Hezekiah! And what an awful message to receive particularly when you’re in serious pain.
The king is writhing in agony in his bed with a menacing boil that’s taken a turn for the worst… Now if anyone here has had a boil you know how painful they can be! A boil is a pus-filled bump under the skin caused by infected, inflamed hair follicles. Boils form under the skin when bacteria infect and inflame one or more hair follicles. They start as red, tender lumps that fill with pus, grow, then rupture and drain. Could we see that picture please?
[Image displayed on screen of a person’s neck with a large boil on it]
Isn’t that awful? This is more than one boil; it is a cluster of boils called a carbuncle. On the very odd occasion, bacteria from a boil or carbuncle can enter your bloodstream and travel to other parts of your body. And this spreading infection, commonly known as blood poisoning (sepsis), can lead to infections deep within your body, such as your heart and bone. Which may result in death.
It would appear that this was about to happen to King Hezekiah. Because this boil seems to have infected King Hezekiah’s whole body and he’s now painfully dying from a grim bacterial infection. Consequently, he has a visit from his friend – the prophet Isaiah. When King Hezekiah first laid eyes on Isaiah I’m sure he was hoping for some good news from God; I would be! But the face of the prophet was grave it wasn’t going to be good news at all,
The news was,
‘Set your house in order, for you’re going to die and not live!!’
And that was ALL there was – short, harsh and straight to the point!
Now Hezekiah was only 38-39. He had every reason to live, He wasn’t at all ready for death! Hey Judah needed him as they faced the impending Assyrian onslaught.
But the prophet Isaiah delivered a death sentence from God. “Set your house in order you’re going to die!!!” That would’ve been a hard pill to swallow for anyone. Once Isaiah had delivered the short, nasty diagnosis, Isaiah appears to make a quick exist leaving Hezekiah to deal with the tragic news on his own. Isaiah was definitely lacking in pastoral care😊.
The Bible tells us that,
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,
He rolls over in his bed with his face to the wall and prays… Without a doubt Hezekiah was a man of prayer, If we can learn anything from the story of his life, in the Bible, it is that he was a man of prayer. In this circumstance, he was obviously too sick to get up and go to the temple to pray as he’d done on other critical occasions. He wasn’t even able to call for the high priest to come and pray on his behalf. But he prayed where he was… on his death bed! He obviously had faith to believe that God would hear him no matter where he was.
God hears you no matter where you are. You don’t have to go to a specific place. You don’t have to be with a particular person. You don’t have to use religious words or religious jargon. God hears YOU speak. God hears YOU think. God hears you pray. God understands YOU. God wants you to pray. He wants you to acknowledge Him in your situation. He wants you to be real with Him.
If there’s one thing you can learn about the character of God, when reading about Jesus in the New Testament, is that He always met people at their point of need. Because whenever someone was in need Jesus was there to perform a miracle! God meets people at their point of need. Hezekiah had a serious need.And so, for privacy from his tending servants, the bed ridden Hezekiah agonizingly turns to the wall to pray.
I find it very interesting to read what he prays; he obviously wants God to heal him so in order to receive that divine touch he reminds God of four of his own personal characteristics that he felt deserved the Lord’s attention. He pleads.
3 “Remember now, O LORD, I beg, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.”
3 “Remember now, LORD, I beg You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.” And then Hezekiah wept bitterly… as you would in such a desperate situation!!!
I would imagine that his servants in attendance would have felt very uncomfortable that day seeing and hearing their great king humbly sobbing and weeping. So, what did Hezekiah really pray?
(1) Number ONE, Hezekiah had reminded God that he had walked before God. This was the same trait with which the Bible describes men like Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, David, and others. To walk before God means that you are in agreement with God concerning your life. You’re living within His will for you. Hezekiah had walked before God; he knew it and more importantly he knew that God knew it.
(2) Secondly, he had been faithful, or true. Hezekiah’s relationship with God had been one of genuine sincerity and reliability. He knew it and he knew that God knew it.
(3) Number three, he had served God “with a loyal heart,” literally “with a whole heart.” There was no duplicity or deceit in Hezekiah’s faith. He knew it and he knew that God knew it.
(4) And number 4, put simply he had done what was good. Those four personal characteristics clearly showed that Hezekiah had kept his part of the old agreement that Israel had with God.
He was reminding God of the agreement that He had with His chosen people.
Deuteronomy 28 talks about the blessings for obedience to God’s agreement. 1 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: and God lists the many blessings…
Well Hezekiah desperately, and I mean desperately reminded God that he had been obedient to the agreement, he was king of Judah, and he had been obedient to the Mosaic covenant and with that obedience comes promised blessing.
The wonderful thing is (and I guess it should really come as no surprise) that God heard his desperate prayer and immediately responded accordingly for the Bible says that,
4 Before Isaiah (the prophet) had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 5 “Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people,
I like that, God is now calling Hezekiah the leader of My people – something is different, one gets the feeling that a blessing is about to happen… Hezekiah has touched the heart of God with his prayer. It wasn’t a whimsical, soppy prayer. It was a desperate prayer, revealing his faith in the agreement that God has provided out of love for His chosen people.
God said to Isaiah…
“Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.”’”
Hallelujah! Do you know that I believe that had Hezekiah not prayed and asked God for his healing, he would have died. He would!
Why? Because he had some sort of bacterial infection… he was going the way of the earth….
God wasn’t causing it to happen… it was happening because that’s what happens on this fallen earth. People get sick, people die. Some die early, some die late… We see it around us all the time. But Hezekiah called upon the Salvation of God. He called for God’s intervention. Just like the woman with the issue of blood in the New Testament. If she hadn’t have pressed in to touch the hem of Jesus, she would not have been healed. But she desperately invited Jesus with her faith to heal her. ‘If I just touch the hem of his garment I will be healed’. She knew God’s healing touch was for her.
Judah would have been mourning the death of a very good king hadn’t Hezekiah appealed to the mercy of God. This whole story is very interesting theologically. Think about.
God knew Hezekiah was dying, so He told him through Isaiah. ‘Put things in order, you’re going to die!’ Was God lying? No God does not lie. God was telling Hezekiah a fact. “You are dying!” “You are dying, put things in order!” Great advice for a king actually. “Was God killing Hezekiah?” No. It was a bacterial infection that was ravaging his body. And God was letting Him know that he was dying. It was going to happen.
It was Hezekiah’s choice to invite God’s wonderful intervention. And what a great choice. Prayer is very powerful. Some of you don’t put much effort into prayer because you think – ♬♫Que Sera, Sera whatever will be will be, the future’s not ours to see Que Sera Sera… My prayers won’t make a difference… God does whatever He wants. Lah di dah di dah! But that is rubbish theology.
This is not what Jesus said, Jesus said to pray and believe for God’s good will on earth.
But how do we know God’s will on earth?
Go to the covenant like Hezekiah did, What’s within the agreement we have with Jesus as Christians? Hezekiah knew the covenant, he knew his rights within the covenant, and he prayed a desperate prayer, not a whimsical prayer, a desperate prayer of belief in God’s grace and commitment to that covenant. And God heard his prayer, said yes to his prayer and called Hezekiah the king of His people. Do you know that as Christians we now have a better agreement or covenant with God than Hezekiah ever did?
The Old Testament covenant (or agreement) was pretty good, but nowhere near as good as the New Covenant/new agreement of GRACE.
John 15:7 Jesus says,
If you abide in Me, and I abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.
WOW. That’s amazing.
Let me read that again, John 15:7 Jesus says,
If you abide in Me, and I abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.
Now have I personally experienced the fulness of this Scripture in my life?
My answer? – There are many occasions where I have received His healing touch or had amazing answers to prayer, but then there are other times I haven’t. But for all the times I haven’t, I’m not going to let it put me off pursuing God for a much-needed miracle. In fact, I’m going to spend the rest of my life getting better and better at abiding in Him. That’s what Christianity is all about, abiding in Him. Being close to Him, we can actually get better and better at it as we grow in His grace and wisdom. John 15:7 is a promise or a new agreement from the mouth of God for you!
If you abide in Me, and I abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.
Make it your experience.
You can read for yourself and see that God graciously gave Hezekiah a sign that day that healing was his and he didn’t have to lie in bed worrying as to whether God had really answered him or not. He could now recuperate with full assurance of his healing. And the finale scripture to finish off the account,
7 Then Isaiah, the prophet, said, “Take a cake of figs.” And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.
Interestingly, they did something physical, medicinal which appeared to stimulate the healing process…
They took some figs and laid it on the boil…
Do not discount medicine as a means of God’s healing touch. God’s healing touch comes in many different forms.
Our awesome God knows all things. He knows the future as well as the past because He exists outside of time, He is not restricted by time. So, He knows how many years you have.
But it is also very clear in the Word that we make choices (both good and bad) which determine our longevity.
A really good choice for healthy longevity on earth is a healthy prayer life as you abide in Jesus.
I challenge everyone to get closer to Jesus in prayer. Come before Him with believing hearts as you pray. You will be amazed at what God can do for you.