In our study of Isaiah chapter thirty eight, we look at Hezekiah's plea for extra time to be added to his life and the faithfulness of God in granting it.
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Around this time Hizkiyahu became ill to the point of death. Yesha'yahu the prophet, the son of Amotz, came and said to him, "Here is what ADONAI says: 'Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not live.'"
In the last chapter, we saw that King Hezekiah had trusted in the Lord to deliver Judah from the hands of the king of Assyria and the fact that it was because of the will and purposes of God that it was done. Now, we see that this man of God receives word from God, through Isaiah the prophet, that he is going to die. At this point, he is again faced with a choice which is to either be grateful and praise the Lord for the time that you had or to reject that word and struggle to live longer.
Hizkiyahu turned his face toward the wall and prayed to ADONAI: "I plead with you, ADONAI, remember now how I have lived before you truly and wholeheartedly, and how I have done what you see as good." And he cried bitter tears.
We see that Hezekiah's choice was to beg God for more time based on the fact that he had been committed to following the Lord.
Then the word of ADONAI came to Yesha'yahu: "Go and tell Hizkiyahu that this is what ADONAI, the God of David your ancestor, says: 'I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; therefore I will add fifteen years to your life. Also I will rescue you and this city from the power of the king of Ashur; I will defend this city.
Isaiah delivers the word from God in answer to Hezekiah's prayer and we see that he is told that the word is from the God of David your father which is very significant. Towards the end of his life, King David wanted to build a temple for the Lord in Jerusalem but God said no because of the bloodshed that David had committed in his many battles. David had accepted the word of the Lord and made all of the preparations so that his son, Solomon, could build the temple. Isaiah goes on to tell Hezekiah that God is giving him 15 more years of life and that, during those 15 years, he would not have to worry about Assyria attacking Jerusalem again. In Hebrew the letters that are associated with the number 15 spell out an abbreviated form of the name of God which is Yah and, in giving Hezekiah this extra amount of time, this was to be a time that was devoted to the Lord.
The sign for you from ADONAI that ADONAI will do what he said is that I will cause the shadow of the sundial, which has started going down on the sundial of Achaz, to go backward ten intervals.'" So the sun went back ten intervals of the distance it had already gone down.
Hezekiah is given a sign to confirm that this is the will of God as the sun was going to go back ten degrees which is nothing that any man could do and there was no physical explanation of how this could happen other than the hand of God.
After Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah had been ill and had recovered, he wrote the following: "I once said: 'In the prime of life I am going off to the gates of Sh'ol. I am being deprived of living out the full span of my life.' "I said, 'I will never again see Yah, Yah in the land of the living; I will look on human beings no more or be with those who live in this world. My home is uprooted and taken away from me like a shepherd's tent. Like a weaver, I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom. Between day and night you could finish me off. I try to be strong like a lion till morning, but still my illness breaks all my bones - between day and night you could finish me off. I make little chattering sounds like a swallow, I moan aloud like a dove, My eyes are weary with looking upward. Adonai, I am overwhelmed; guarantee my life!'
Now, we see what Hezekiah wrote down as he was going through this situation. He wrote of how his life was being cut short and how he cried out to the Lord and mourned.
"What is there that I can say? He has spoken to me and acted! I will go humbly all my years, remembering how bitter I was. Adonai, by these things people live; in all these is the life of my spirit. You're restoring my health and giving me life though instead of peace, I felt very bitter. You desired my life and preserved it from the nothingness pit; for you threw all my sins behind your back. "Sh'ol cannot thank you, death cannot praise you; those descending to the pit cannot hope for your truth. The living, the living - they can thank you, as I do today; fathers will make their children know about your faithfulness. ADONAI is ready to save me; hence we will make our stringed instruments sound all the days of our life in the house of ADONAI."
Hezekiah describes how he became bitter at the news that he was facing death and the fact that he was not ready to die. Hezekiah believed in a coming redeemer that would establish the kingdom of God but he also knew that the redeemer had not came yet and so he did not want to die. He had forgotten the paradise part of Sh'ol which Yeshua referred to as paradise which was the place where the faithful went to wait on the Messiah. Hezekiah was negotiating with God and saying he would praise God and teach the next generation about the faithfulness of God if his life was extended. In effect, Hezekiah was saying that he would devote the extra time to the Lord if he was allowed to live.
Then Yesha'yahu said, "Have them take a fig-plaster and apply it to the inflammation, and he will recover." Hizkiyahu asked, "What sign will there be that I will be able to go up to the house of ADONAI?"
At this time, Hezekiah had boils on his body and Isaiah told him to have sort of a fig jelly applied to the boils and he would live. We see that, when he wrote this letter, Hezekiah did not know that God was going to give him the sign of the sun going backwards ten degrees.
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