2 Kings 20:1-11

III. HEZEKIAH'S PERSONAL CRISIS 20:1-19

The chronological placement of the episode related in chapter 20 is problematic. That the events of this chapter are earlier than the crushing defeat of Sennacherib's army is suggested by 2 Kings 20:6. Since fifteen years were added to the life of Hezekiah and since that king died in 686 B.C., his miraculous healing must have taken place in 701 B.C. the very year of the Assyrian invasion. Another chronological clue is found in the fact that in this chapter Hezekiah still is in possession of his treasure (2 Kings 20:13-17), i.e., these treasures had not yet been carried off to Nineveh. The chapter relates (1) Hezekiah's serious illness and miraculous recovery (2 Kings 20:1-11); and (2) his foolish mistake and subsequent rebuke (2 Kings 20:12-19).

A. HEZEKIAH'S SERIOUS SICKNESS AND MIRACULOUS RECOVERY 20:1-11

TRANSLATION

(1) In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death. And Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet came unto him, and said unto him, Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. (2) And he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, (3) I beseech You, O LORD, Remember, I pray You, how I have walked before You in truth and in perfect heart, and have done that which is good In Your eyes. And Hezekiah wept with great weeping. (4) And it came to pass before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, (S) 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 weeping. Behold I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD. (6) And I will add to your days fifteen years, and from the hand of the king of Assyria I will deliver you and this city; and I will defend this city for My sake and for the sake of My servant David. (7) And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs; and they took it, and put it upon the boil, and he recovered. (8) And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What is a sign that the LORD will heal me and that I may go up on the third day to the house of the LORD? (9) And Isaiah said, This is the sign for you from the LORD that the LORD has done the thing which He has spoken: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps or backward ten steps? (10) And Hezekiah said, It is a light thing for the shadow to move ten steps forward; no, but let the shadow go backward ten steps. (11) And Isaiah the prophet called unto the LORD, and the shadow went backward ten steps by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz.

COMMENTS

In those crucial days just prior to the Assyrian invasion, Hezekiah was smitten with a malady which in the ordinary course of nature would have proved to be fatal. To the royal chambers, Isaiah the prophet was dispatched with a message of warning: Set your house in order,[623] for you shall die and not live! (2 Kings 20:1). In the face of this shocking announcement the king turned on his bed away from his numerous attendants and faced the wall so that he might pray to his God with more concentration and earnestness. Hezekiah was a great man of prayer, and in this crisis it was perfectly natural for him to cast his burden upon the Lord (2 Kings 20:2).

[623] Gray (OTL, p. 697) renders: Give last injunctions to your family.

The king's prayer is a model for those who are afflicted with serious illness. He first of all called upon the Lord to remember how he had tried his very best to walk throughout life so as to meet the approval of the Lord. This is not presumptuous self-righteousness. Hezekiah knew that he had honestly endeavored to serve God and do His will. Whatever had been his shortcomings, his heart had always been right towards God. Under the old covenant, length of days was promised to the righteous (Proverbs 3:2; Proverbs 9:11; Proverbs 10:27). Hezekiah could not comprehend why he should be cut off in middle agehe would have been thirty-ninewhen kings far less righteous had lived two and more decades longer.[624] The king's opening statement is thus a form of expostulation and laying hold on divine promises.

[624] Uzziah lived to be sixty-eight, Rehoboam to be fifty-eight.

The earnestness of the king was manifested in the tears which accompanied his prayer. Besides the natural fear of deathdeath for the Old Testament saint being a somewhat shadowy and uncertain existencethere were other good reasons for Hezekiah's earnest petition. For one thing, it would appear from 2 Kings 21:1 that at this point in his life Hezekiah had no male offspring to succeed him on the throne. This of course would be of grave concern to any citizen of the Old Testament world and particularly to the king. Furthermore, Hezekiah knew that his early reformation efforts would most surely bring upon Judah the wrath of the mighty Sennacherib. He wished to live to see his country through this crisis (2 Kings 20:3).

Before Isaiah had reached the second of the three courtyards which surrounded the royal palace, he was arrested by the reception of a new divine communication (2 Kings 20:4). The prophet was ordered to retrace his steps, enter the king's bedchamber, and reverse the thrust of the oracle he had delivered only moments before. Hezekiah is here called by the somewhat unusual title nagid, a title which means leader, one who goes in front.[625] The Lord here refers to Himself as God of David your father. These two titles, the one given to Hezekiah and the one assumed by God, suggest that Hezekiah was spared from his ailment because he was the leader of God's people and because he was David's son, both biologically and spiritually.

[625] Saul was called nagid (1 Samuel 9:16; 1 Samuel 10:1) as was David also (1 Samuel 13:14; 2 Samuel 5:2-16

Hezekiah's fervent prayer was effectual; God heard it and was mindful to grant the petition of His servant. God promised the king complete healing. Within three days Hezekiah would be able to be up and about and able to worship the Lord in the appointed place (2 Kings 20:5). But God did more than the king had asked or even dreamed. He had asked for nothing more than immediate escape from death. God granted him fifteen additional years of life which, in effect, would more than double the length of his reign. Furthermore, God promised to deliver Hezekiah and Jerusalem from the hand of the king of Assyria. The inclusion of this promise in the divine answer suggests that part of the motivation for Hezekiah's prayer petition was concern over the forthcoming and inescapable reprisals of the Assyrian king. For the sake of His reputation both in Judah and among the heathen, and for the sake of His commitment to David, Almighty God pledged Himself to be Jerusalem's defender (2 Kings 20:6).

Isaiah directed those present in the room to place a lump of figs on the malignant boil. Figs were used as a remedy for such boils.[626] However, neither Isaiah nor those present thought that the figs alone could effect the cure. The prophetic order seems to have been more in the nature of a symbolic act such as prophets were wont to perform. The figs symbolized that from that moment forward God would gradually heal the king of his terminal malady. The servants complied with Isaiah's instructions, and the king recovered by degrees after the manner of natural remedies. It was three days before he was well enough to leave his quarters and offer thanks in the Temple for his miraculous recovery (2 Kings 20:7).

[626] So attested by Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXII, 7 and also in the Ras Shamra texts. See Gray, OTL,p.698.

Even the prophet's symbolic act did not fully set the mind of Hezekiah at ease with regard to his healing. Under the old covenant God frequently offered miraculous signs to substantiate promises which He made to people in desperate straits. It was well known that Isaiah had instructed Ahaz to ask for a sign to substantiate the promise that God would deliver Jerusalem from the Syro-Ephraimitic armies which invaded the land about 735 B.C. Hezekiah therefore assumed that such a sign would be granted to him and simply asked his prophetic friend what the sign was to be. Three days would be a long weary wait and the king craved some more immediate evidence that his prayer had been favorably answered. Neither God nor the prophet was angry with this request (2 Kings 20:8). It would be faithless now for Christians to demand signs; but in an age of miracles, when there were prophets upon the earth empowered to give signs, faithful men might request them without incurring God's displeasure.

Isaiah indicated that God would use the sundial of Ahaz, perhaps clearly visible from the window of Hezekiah's bedchamber, to give his faithful king a sign. The king could pick his sign: Shall the shadow go forward or backward ten steps? (2 Kings 20:9). Hezekiah viewed it as a comparatively easy matter for the shadow which was already descending the steps to accelerate its pace and rapidly descend ten steps. For this reason the king requested that the shadow change its direction and ascend the steps. Hezekiah's request was natural, if not strictly logical (2 Kings 20:10). Isaiah then cried out fervently in intercessory prayer to the Lord, and God brought the shadow ten steps backward. This miracle would not necessarily involve the temporary reversal in the rotation of the earth. It is clear from 2 Chronicles 32:31 that the miracle was local, done in the land of Judah and hence not visible elsewhere. Probably a very abnormal refraction of the rays of the sun caused the retreat of the shadow on the sundial (2 Kings 20:11).