Isaiah 38:10-20 is the writing of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, when he was sick and had recovered from his sickness. In verse 21 Isaiah said, "Let them take a lump of figs and rub it upon the boil, and he will live."
As revealed in his writing, Hezekiah's prayer concerning his sickness was commendable. Nevertheless, to pray is one thing, but the way we are in our being may be quite a different thing. For example, in 38:15 Hezekiah said, "I will walk deliberately all my years." The word deliberately in Hebrew means slowly, softly, and humbly, with much consideration. Hezekiah's use of this word indicates that he had learned some lessons from the Assyrians' invasion and from his sufferings in his illness. He realized that he had been too hasty in the past and that his walk had not been so proper in the sight of God. Thus, in his prayer he said that he would walk deliberately all his years. But when the Babylonian visitors came (39:1-2), he did not walk in the way that he had prayed. Instead of walking in a deliberate way, he walked in a hasty way. From this we see that to pray is one thing, but to walk is another thing. Quite often we too pray a good, spiritual, and heavenly prayer. But after our prayer, when the test comes, we do not walk in the way that we prayed.
Hezekiah was for God, but in a selfish way. He prayed a good prayer, but his prayer had the taste of selfishness. In 38:18 and 19 he said, "For Sheol cannot thank You....The living, the living, he will praise You, as I do today." Here Hezekiah asked Jehovah in a selfish way to put him among the living so that he could praise Him. This indicates that he was for God in a selfish way, not in a proper way. This is what we taste in Hezekiah's prayer.
Isaiah 39 shows Hezekiah's failure in the enjoyment of the peaceful situation and sound health.
After he gained the victory in the Lord's healing, Hezekiah faced the test, the temptation, of people's gift. At that time the king of Babylon sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah because he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and had recovered. Verse 2 says, "Hezekiah was glad for them and showed them his treasury, the silver and the gold, and the spices and the precious oil, and his whole armory and everything which was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them." Although Hezekiah had victoriously passed through the sufferings of the other tests, here he became a failure. He failed in the matters of gifts and self-glorification. It is not easy to overcome the temptation of a gift. It is also not easy to overcome self-glorification. We need to be careful concerning receiving gifts and also concerning self-glorification.