Isaiah 38 HEZEKIAH’S SICKNESS AND RECOVERY When and why Hezekiah’s sickness came on him so severely is not mentioned in this text. Perhaps it was the result of an emotional response to the threat of the invasion of the Assyrians, or for some other reason, but the result was a boil that was so septic that Isaiah told him he was going to die and not live. It seems like in the human condition, our emotions and physical well-being or lack of it, are linked. When one is told there is no hope of recovery; body, soul and spirit are all affected. Before that happens, we need to make sure that all the affairs of our lives are in good order so we can die in good conscience whenever death-day comes for us. A regular review of life including friendships, relationships, commitments made and vows left to be fulfilled needs to be a practice upon which we act.
Hezekiah made a good summation of the qualities of a holy life. One commits to walking in the truth. That would mean “walking in the light, as He is in the light’ and would mean we have unbroken fellowship with the Lord and His people. To be loyal in our heart to the Lord, indicates a person is not going to follow every strange “wind of doctrine” or read every book that “gives new insight and perspective” to something that the scripture has already opened up to us if we will read it in context, and practice it as the Holy Spirit leads us. Doing what is right and good before the Lord is the way to live a full and meaningful life without confusion and constant questioning.
Hezekiah considered himself to be walking in the truth and loyalty of heart toward the Lord, but at the age of thirty- nine he may have felt that God was being unfair to him. So, he “wept bitterly.” When people are comparatively young, as was the case of Hezekiah at thirty-nine, it seems like God is doing wrong to allow fatal sickness and death. Hezekiah was devastated that his life was going to end in the prime of life. That was one reason why his sorrow was so profound and his prayer so insistent. Mothers with young children, fathers who are the support of families are not considered expendable in the human mind when cancer, car accidents or even war take their lives. Resentment often takes the place of faith. As we get older, we are more conscious of the sovereign will of God being worked out in and through the lives of God’s people.
Earnest fervent prayer is not just a casual stroll up to the throne of grace, or a habitual bowing of the knees before the Lord night and morning, but it is the humbling of our hearts and will before a just and holy God who knows what He is doing and allowing to be done by people. It should be the sincere expression of confession of sin, of our specific needs, of our faith in God and our confidence in Him. He knows us, He knows what is ahead, He knows what is right and He does what His sovereign choice is.
Fervent prayer to God may change things in our lives and the lives of other people. The prayer of Elijah and the prayer of Hezekiah didn’t only change their lives, but that of thousands of other people. In both cases, it changed the nation. When we ask in faith for changes to be made, we do not need to fear the results if the changes for which we ask will honor the Lord. The problem may come later if we think we made the change happen. The attitude of a person depends on whether a sign requested expresses doubt and unbelief, or faith and trust in God.
Hezekiah’s request brought him fifteen more years of life. It may have been more of an appeal to the promise of God to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David, than only a desire for a longer life himself. He had no heir at the time of his sickness and as the king, he would have been aware of the covenant promise of God to David that his throne would remain. Manasseh, Hezekiah’s son, became king at twelve years old, and he was a very evil and wicked man. In the mercy and grace of God, when he was fifty years old, he came to his senses and faith in God.
When Isaiah brough the king God’s reply, He said, “The Lord, the God of David,” and so Hezekiah was assured that the covenant promise was still intact. The remarkable sign of the sundial, and the shadow going backward instead of forward, would have left no doubt in his mind that the answer was from God. The reverse of the shadow of the dial was unique in all of history. Hezekiah had appreciated the proverbs of Solomon, and had also instructed the Levities to worship the Lord with the psalms of David and Asaph. His song of praise following Isaiah’s assurance of being heard and answered by God, is similar to the psalms.
Hezekiah understood the value of his prayer, and that deliverance and forgiveness came as good out of the bad of his bitter experience. When prayers are definitely answered, we will usually find ourselves closer to God than before the trial came. God’s forgiveness comes to us because of God’s love for us. Hezekiah realized that God had cast his sins behind His back. If a person dies unforgiven, they have no hope. But when we are conscious of divine forgiveness and love, and deliverance from hell, there is relief and praise to God. Those are things that we must tell to our children and to generations following us. The experience of God acting on our behalf in miraculous ways needs to be told over and over.
Hezekiah perhaps was not clear in his understanding of life after death, “the grave cannot praise Thee,” but he did realize that there was great benefit that resulted from his troubles. That is the same for us. We may not know now why “Bad things happen to good people,” but we know God does. Therefore, in faith we pass through the trials of life and recognize them as being allowed to happen to us by our God, who for His own reasons does what needs to be done. We have been blessed because of the heritage passed on to us from many generations of the past who lived and learned before us. Now it is our responsibility and privilege to pass on the blessings of our heritage to those coming behind us. Our relationship with the Lord, and all it means to us, is probably the best and greatest thing we can leave behind us.
The lump of figs forming the poultice and put on the infected boil on Hezekiah, was to give physical evidence of God’s work on behalf of Hezekiah. Unfortunately, all of this experience may have been a partial cause of pride in Hezekiah later when he showed all the riches of his house and the house of the Lord to the Babylonians. The miracle God did in healing him and delivering the people of Judah from the Assyrians may have gone to his head. It was only after his pride and that of the people was humbled, that God put the judgment that would come from Babylon off for a few generations, and a later time. It is possible that the very things that have been a blessing can become a point of failure if we take any credit ourselves for what God has done.