Hezekiah
2
Kings 20:1-11
1 In those days Hezekiah became sick and
was at the point of death. 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; you shall not recover.’ ”
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the
wall and prayed to the Lord, saying,
3 “Now, O Lord, please remember how I
have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done
what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 And before Isaiah had gone out of the
middle court, the word of the Lord came to him:
5 “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the
leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: 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 and I will add fifteen years to your
life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria,
and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.”
7 And Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of
figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover.”
8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What
shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the
house of the Lord on the third day?”
9 And Isaiah said, “This shall be the
sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he has
promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?”
10 And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy
thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. Rather let the shadow go back ten
steps.”
11 And Isaiah the prophet called to the Lord,
and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the
steps of Ahaz.
Nestled within Hezekiah’s story is this little miracle
where Hezekiah is healed of a life threatening infection and the sun goes the opposite
direction (just for a bit). A man is healed from an illness – not that uncommon
when it comes to Biblical miracles. But for the sun to move differently than
normal, that’s a fairly unique event.
Three events in the Scriptures describe the sun moving
outside of what is its normal path through the sky. In Joshua 10:6-15, God
stops the sun for an entire day as Joshua and the Children of Israel fight
against the Amorites at Gilgal. Here in the story of Hezekiah we see the sun
move in the opposite direction (albeit briefly) to show Hezekiah that his
miracle was certain. And finally, when Jesus died, the sky went black for 3
hours, although this was not a movement of the sun in the wrong direction or a
stopping of the sun in its path. But clearly, God has sovereign control over
something as huge and constant at the sun! Of course He does – He created it!
One would think that Hezekiah would live out those 15
extra years filled with gratitude to God for such a gift. But sadly, that isn’t
quite the way it turned out. Read 2 Chronicles 32:25–26. Here we see how
Hezekiah messes it up.
“But
Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his
heart was proud. Therefore wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem. But
Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.”
Even after receiving an amazing miracle, Hezekiah slips away
from the Lord due to his pride. We
are never immune to the ravages of pride. It will take us down every time.
Fortunately, God loved Hezekiah enough to discipline him for that pride and he
turns back to God in repentance. It would appear, based on this story and on
others in the Bible, that when we are the recipients of God’s grace in the form
of a miracle, we tend to stumble into the sin of pride and take credit for
ourselves. Perhaps it is good to remember that pride is never far from us and
always seeks to drag us away from God.
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