In Isaiah 38:1 we are told that "In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death." This date ties up with that found in 36:1 which is the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign. This sickness doubtless occurred before the threatened siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib, about which event we studied in installment fourteen of this series, and which is found in chapters 36:1--37:38.

Hezekiah's sickness seems to have been of a fatal nature, for it was "unto death." One can never know what purpose God has in view in permitting even sickness. Let us in this connection always remember that "... to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

In verse 1 of chapter 38 we are told that Isaiah the prophet went to the king and spoke from the Lord the following sentence: "Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live." Hezekiah's sickness would have proved fatal had it not been for the mercy of the Lord in extending his life as we shall presently see.

The king was instructed to "set thy house in order." What is the significance of this expression? Doubtless it involved all that we would call in modern phraseology "making one's will," and making all adjustments and arrangements in personal and governmental affairs. Thus Hezekiah was told to arrange all his affairs and to attend to all the business that was necessary for him to look after. Then he was to make his will so that the affairs of the government might be carried on without any serious disruption after his death.

Hezekiah's reaction was one of disappointment and rebellion against the will of God. This fact is seen in the words: "2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto Jehovah, 3 and said, Remember now, O Jehovah, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore" (38:2,3).

Without doubt he was disappointed. In these words there is echoed a lack of surrender to do the will of God at all costs. Moreover the king seemed to depend, to a certain extent at least, upon his good works in order to win the favor of God. It is true that he was a good man and that he had endeavored to serve God and to rule in the fear of the Lord. Nevertheless, there was seemingly a feeling of smugness and satisfaction over the fact that he had acted as he had.

In answer to the king's prayer the word of God came to Isaiah saying, "4 Then came the word of Jehovah to Isaiah, saying, 5 Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. 6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city" (vss. 4-6).

We are told that prayer changes things, that prayer brings victory. Was it the will of God that Hezekiah die then? Had God decreed that he should die? Or shall we attribute his condition to the sickness which was unto death? If we say that it was God's plan for him to pass away from the scene of action at that time, then Hezekiah did not accept God's first plan and purpose for his life. On the other hand, if his condition was simply the result of what we would call the course of nature, with reference to his sickness, then we can see that Isaiah's statement regarding Hezekiah's dying was simply a straightforward statement of facts, if nature were allowed without the intervention of God to take its course. The general impression that the passage makes upon one's mind, however, is that the time had arrived for the king to be gathered together to his fathers. However on this point we cannot be dogmatic.

The fact that Isaiah was sent to the king to tell him of his critical situation may have been an invitation to him to pray earnestly, because prayer changes things. Everyone who has had personal dealings with God in the most intimate way can testify that prayer does change things and that prayer often brings victory, of one kind or another. God frequently states the case, the outcome of a certain situation when nature is allowed to take its course, in order that the one who is involved might throw himself upon the mercy of God and be delivered. God said to Moses that He would blot out the race of Israel from being a nation and would make of him a great people. This announcement was but an urgent invitation for Moses to rush into the breach by earnest prayer and to beseech the Lord to spare His people. Moses realized the situation and was equal to the occasion. He therefore prayed for the people, and they were spared.

Sometimes people are very insistent upon having their way and continually pray for a given thing just as Israel did with reference to eating flesh during the wilderness wanderings. They were not satisfied with the food which God had prepared for them; they therefore insisted that they have flesh added to their diet. God granted their petition but gave them leanness of soul (Ps. 106:15). This seems to be one of the methods that God has of punishing people when they insist upon having their way and refuse to walk in the paths of the Lord.

It is hard for us, with the scanty data which we have, to determine whether or not it was God's first plan for Hezekiah to pass on to his fathers. This investigation, however, brings up the question as to whether or not God has more than one plan for each individual's life. For instance, we may say that God has a "number one" plan for a certain person. If he accepts it as coming from the Lord and fits into that plan by surrender as he should, then all will be well in the highest degree for this one. On the other hand, if such a one refuses to accept this plan of God and insists on something which is foreign to the original plan, God may give him a "second best"--or even a "third best." Or He may give him a less honorable plan for his life. That such is the teaching of God's Word may be gathered from Proverbs 3:1,2.

"1 My son, forget not my law;
But let thy heart keep my commandments:
2 For length of days, and years of life,
And peace, will they add to thee."

Here we see Solomon urging one to obey the law of the Lord and to keep His commandments, for in the keeping of them life and years and peace are added to the individual. If, on the other hand, one refuses to be obedient to the Lord, then these added years will be subtracted and the life will be shortened. There are other passages which teach this great truth.

Let each one of us who knows God in Christ Jesus be satisfied with His first plan, which is always the best thing for us. At the time being we may not be able to see and understand the situation; but, when that which is perfect is come, we shall then know even as we are fully known and will see that at all times all things were working out for our good.

When the Lord announced that He would add fifteen years to the life of Hezekiah, He gave a sign whereby the king could be assured that the prophecy would be fulfilled. The sign was the going back of the shadow on the steps or dial of Ahaz. This seems to have been a sundial, which had been erected by Ahaz. It may have been a Syrian one, similar to the altar which Ahaz had seen in Damascus and which he had copied and set up at the Temple in Jerusalem.

The Lord offered Hezekiah the choice of alternatives: Either He would cause the shadow to go forward ten steps, or cause it to go backward ten degrees. Hezekiah chose the latter. In accordance with this decision the Lord performed a miracle and caused the shadow to turn back ten steps. The going backward of the shadow was indeed a miracle. How can we explain this? Was there a refraction of the rays of the sun? Or did God throw the machinery of the universe in reverse, figuratively speaking, and cause the shadow to go backward? Is there some loss of time in the great chronological scheme of the centuries? These are most difficult questions. There are some who think that there is evidence that this occurrence, together with that of the sun's standing still in the days of Joshua (Josh., chap. 10), can account for a lost day in the calendar. Some competent scholars are convinced of that fact. Knowing little of astronomy, although I took a brief course in that subject, I am unable to say.

If we are to take II Chronicles 32:31 and understand that the wonder which was wrought in the land of Palestine was a local affair and not one that affected the entire solar system, then the contention to which I have just referred cannot be maintained. It appears from the statement in Chronicles that the miracle was confined to the land of Palestine. Moreover, it may possibly have affected only the immediate region of the sundial since the statement in Chronicles confines the miracle to "the wonder that was done in the land."

Here is a case of miraculous intervention in the course of nature as it pertains to the recession of the shadow on the dial of Ahaz. We may reasonably believe that the phenomenon causing this going back of the shadow on the dial was known by the people in the land in order that they might be influenced by it.

As to how the Lord accomplished this wonder, no one can say. He is the author of the so-called laws of nature, a few of which we have a little knowledge. There doubtless are many and higher laws than those which we know and which the Lord could bring into action and produce that which to us is supernatural. If men who have studied the materials which enter into the construction, for instance, of an airplane can utilize, combine the various principles involved, and can bring about a result which nature unaided cannot accomplish, namely, the flying of a plane with a heavy cargo, then most certainly God, who is infinite and all-powerful, could take the various laws which He himself instituted, combine them, and bring about this marvel. To the one who recognizes the omniscience and omnipotence of God Almighty, such a miracle is as possible as anything that mortals may do. The infallibly inspired Word of God asserts that the miracle was performed; we believe it. Thus far we have examined the attitude that Hezekiah took, before God gave him the assurance that He would prolong his life for fifteen years.

The only writing which we have from Hezekiah is the poem found in verses 10-20 of our chapter. He wrote this upon his being restored to health. His restoration was the result of divine intervention.

In this poem he gives us his outlook upon the world when the Lord announced to him that his time to depart this life had drawn near. These reminiscences are found in verses 10-14. But in verses 15-20 he presented by the Spirit to us the great lessons of life, which he had learned by this experience.

In verse 10 he tells us that upon receipt of Isaiah's message he said that he was cut off out of the land of the living and that he would go down to the gates of Sheol in the noontide of his years. He began to rule when he was twenty-five years old and had reigned fourteen years; hence he was thirty-nine at the time when he was sick and the Lord restored him. The span of life was reduced in Moses' day from one hundred and twenty years to seventy or eighty (Ps. 90:10). Hezekiah could well say that he was being cut off in the noontide of his life and that he was being deprived of the residue of his years.

He spoke of going down into the gates of Sheol. Sheol is the place to which all departed spirits, righteous and unrighteous, went upon death, prior to the victory which our Lord won at the time of His death, burial, and resurrection. Since Christ won the victory, the righteous go immediately into His presence; but the wicked continue to go to Sheol, which seems to be in the center of the earth.

According to verse 11 Hezekiah declared that he, since he thought that he was going to die immediately, would not see Jehovah in the land of the living and that he would behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. These statements are clearly an echo of the hope which the Old Testament saints entertained with reference to the coming of Jehovah in person to rule and reign upon the earth. In the nineteenth chapter of the Book of Job the ancient patriarch expressed his conviction regarding his knowing that his Redeemer lived and that He would stand upon this earth. But Job did not expect to see Him in his own natural lifetime, for he said that, after his skin, that is, his body, was destroyed, then without his flesh he would see God. The hope then that Job entertained was that he would see Messiah here upon this earth, but that he would not see Him in his own natural lifetime. Hezekiah was expecting the Messiah to appear in his own time; David, in various psalms, expressed the hope that God in the person of the Messiah would appear in his lifetime. Isaiah urged the people to wait patiently for Jehovah.

Just as the devout saints of the Old Testament hoped that God would come in the person of Messiah at any time and establish His reign upon the earth, so we of the Christian Dispensation are looking forward to the possibility of the Lord's descent from heaven to the air to raise the dead in Christ and catch up the living saints to be with Him from that time forth and forevermore. God did not tell the Old Testament saints that the Messiah definitely would come in their lifetime, but He left the question open in order that it might be a stimulant to them to live godly, consecrated lives. Finally, in the days of Daniel, the Lord specified in chapter 9 the time when Messiah would be cut off; and thus the Jews who believed his statement and understood the prophecy did not then expect the Messiah to appear in their lifetime, but to appear in time to be cut off at the end of the period of sixty-nine weeks (of years)--483 years.

When Hezekiah thought that he was going to die according to Isaiah's announcement--and before the Lord assured him that he would live fifteen years more, he compared himself to a shepherd's tent that is very easily removed and taken away. Then he likened his life to that of a piece of cloth on the weaver's beam which could be cut off at any time, even before it was completed. Life, so far as we know, is very uncertain. We are in good health today. We do not know when our summons may come. It is therefore wise for us to be prepared for the exchange of worlds.

According to verse 13 Hezekiah quieted himself during the night until morning with the thought that his situation was hopeless, that fate was against him, and that there was nothing which he could do. Then he expressed the conviction that with one fell stroke of God's judgment the end for him would come. Thus when he was in this frame of mind, he declared that he was like a swallow or a crane which did chatter, and that he mourned as a dove while his eyes failed looking upward. Then in the hour of desperation he called upon the Lord to be his surety, to be his Redeemer (vs. 14).

With verse 15, as stated above, Hezekiah now shows us the value of this wonderful experience to his soul. He therefore said:

"15 What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul."

In these words Hezekiah declared that God had spoken and that He had carried out that which He had promised. In other words, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God (Deut. 8:3). The Lord had promised to lengthen his life and had done it. By this action Hezekiah was really living. He had come to the point where he had surrendered all and was trusting God to be surety. Because of this experience which he had had, he declared that he would go the rest of his life walking softly before God. When the Lord deals with a man in the interest of his soul--and He always does this--and when He puts him through some grueling experience, he should take these matters seriously and walk softly before God from that time on.

In verse 16 Hezekiah declared, "O Lord, by these things men live; And wholly therein is the life of my spirit." These words interpret the trying experience through which he had just passed as a means whereby God had brought him into a new spiritual life; but he was not satisfied with remaining where he was at the end of this experience, for he wanted God to restore him fully and make him live the abundant spiritual life. This should be the desire of every heart and soul. Everyone should have the experience mentioned by the Apostle Paul in II Corinthians 4:1, "Though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day."

In looking back over this special incident in his life, Hezekiah declared that it was for his peace that God had brought this experience to him. Moreover he realized that it was an act of love on the part of God in order that He might deliver him from the pit of corruption. Having his spiritual eyes opened, Hezekiah could see the love, mercy, and kindness of God in the entire experience. He realized that it had spiritual and eternal values connected with it. He had come to know God as his personal Redeemer and to be conscious of having all his sins forgiven. Thus he was granted perfect assurance. The same thing is true with reference to everyone who comes to know God in Christ Jesus. All who have accepted Him as personal Saviour have been regenerated, have been forgiven their sins, and the Holy Spirit has taken up His abode in them. It is indeed a wonderful thing to be saved and to be conscious of the completed transaction. To be saved and to know it is the source of the greatest satisfaction and encouragement to anyone.

Hezekiah appreciated the extension of his life by fifteen years, for then he could labor in the Master's cause as He had never done before. He could do this in the light of all eternity. Every day that God permits us to live is an extension of our life in a way, and we should appreciate this and live for God and for eternity. Life is very brief at the most. What we shall have in eternity depends upon what we are and do here. We are saved by the grace of God but are rewarded according to our works, and according to the spirit in which we serve.

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