Hezekiah’s Life Extended

II Kings 20:1–11
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It is probable that the events of this chapter occurred right before or during the invasion of Jerusalem by Sennacherib. God sent Isaiah to announce to Hezekiah that he was gong to die and should arrange for the handling of his personal affairs (v. l). Hezekiah did not want to die before completing his moral reform and so he responded to this bad news by praying earnestly to the Lord. It says that Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord (v. 2). He asked Him to remember how he had walked faithfully with whole hearted devotion as His servant (v. 3) Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. The Lord not only heard his prayers but he saw his tears (v. 5). The king’s prayer brought a quick response and before Isaiah left the palace the Lord gave him a message for Hezekiah that he would be given 15 additional years to live (vv. 5-6). And Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover” (v. 7).

Hezekiah requested a sign to confirm the spoken promise that he would be healed (v. 8). God gave him a choice of whether the shadow would go forward as it normally would, or backward (v. 9). He chose what he thought to be the most difficult and that was for the sun’s shadow to be moved backward 10 degrees (v. 10). At this point God did the seemingly impossible by making the shadow go backward (v. 11). This implies that the rotation of the earth was reversed at this point but God could have simply bent the shadow. Regardless of how He did it, this was a miracle.

Application

God responded to the tears of Hezekiah and I believe he will do the same for us today if they are for the right reason. Lord, give me a broken heart for the souls of men!