Hezekiah's Illness and Recovery

 

November 7, 2021

 

2 Kings 20:1-11

 

Hezekiah's Illness and Recovery

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.’ ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’”   Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying,   “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.  And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him:   “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,  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.”   And Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, so that he may recover.”

 

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?”   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?”  And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. Rather let the shadow go back ten steps.”   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.

We live in a time of bad news but can you picture yourself becoming sick, and at the point of death, a person to who you know is God’s spokesman comes with a word from God for you.  How you've been praying, begging to get better, and you just know the person is going to say you're going to get better soon that this sickness is not unto death.  But that is not the message they come with; no, it is “Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.”  

 

Folks, it is a good word for each of us, and especially true for husbands, God has numbered our day before one of them was and in my short life of 79 years, I saw men of all ages be taken out into eternity.  So often what we are putting off till later is foolishness, and the most important is having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  King Hezekiah was a king who had walked before God in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and had done what is good in God’s sight.”  Most of us could not make that claim. Still, my prayer would have to be Lord, I was a real mess before you came to me in a hotel room in Victory, Texas, and Father I have often gone with the worldly ways and not been obedient, Im still a mess, but You have forgiven me because of the blood of Jesus Christ that covers my sins.  Yes many of us have broken fellowship with the Father, but it is impossible to brake our relationship that is sealed, we are in Christ, and Christ is in us, and Christ is in the Father.

 

God allowed Hezekiah to live 15 more years, how did that go, we will find out in the verses next week.

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice