Hezekiah's Illness and The Great Sign (Isaiah 38:1-8).
The centrality and importance of this chapter must not be overlooked. It was God's final attempt to woo over the reigning house of David to a life of obedience and trust. From this chapter onwards (along with its consequence in chapter 39) attention turns to the coming Servant of Yahweh Who will accomplish what the current house of David has proved itself incapable of doing.
‘In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death. And Isaiah, the prophet the son of Amoz, came to him and said, “Thus says Yahweh, Set your house in order for you will die and not live.” '
‘In those days.' An indeterminate phrase, the plural of ‘in that day' Here it simply loosely connects what is to happen with the days of which Isaiah is speaking.
Hezekiah is declared to be very ill, indeed dying. He has a mortal illness. He was ‘sick unto death.' And the prophet comes to him with confirmation from Yahweh. ‘Thus says Yahweh --- you will die.' He must prepare for death and do all that is necessary for a king to do to ensure that affairs of state are passed to his successor smoothly. God is concerned for the future of his people.
This verse with its subsequent narrative is quite remarkable. It demonstrates that even the word of Yahweh can be reversed by repentance. For here is a prophetic word which will be so altered. What seems to be a situation which cannot be altered, is altered through prayer. The same was always true of God's judgments (compare Jonah and Nineveh).
‘Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Remember now O Yahweh I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept grievously.'
Outwardly Hezekiah's concern would appear to be for the situation he found himself in personally. There is nothing sacrificially noble about his prayer. It is presented as outwardly purely selfish, as Isaiah 39:6-8 also reveals him to be. He was a good king, a godly king, and yet his perspective was limited and selfish. It was not stated to be the future of the kingdom or the purposes of God that concerned him. What concerned him was his own survival. How many there are of God's people who are like this. When it comes down to it they are the godly selfish, (what a contradiction in terms, and yet how true of so many) and that is why they will achieve little. Outwardly it would appear that Hezekiah was successful, but he failed deeply in the purposes of God because his own ambitions took precedence. He presided over an almost catastrophe.
Nevertheless here part of his problem was also that he saw his premature death as resulting from sin. So he was not only crying out for life, he was crying out for forgiveness. One reason why he wanted to live was because in his eyes it would prove that he had become right with God. So his personal concern is to some extent understandable.
‘Turned his face to the wall.' He could not get to the privacy of the Temple so this was second best. He wanted to be alone with God.
He summed up his life to God a little idealistically, and yet it was basically true. He had sought truth, he had sought to do what was right, he had sought to please God. He had lived a godly life. But we are intended also to see that his life was flawed, as we will learn in the next chapter. For he was unable to get away from his own selfish ambitions.
Yet having said all that we may well see hidden under his tears a concern for his people. While it was not prominent in the way his thoughts were expressed, he would know that in losing him his people were losing one who could strongly affect their future, for he had no grown sons. It may well be therefore that we are to see this thought as included in his prayer. And it may possibly be that God recognised his concern, which might be why the next verses speak of deliverance from Sennacherib's hands.
‘And Hezekiah wept grievously.' He did not want to die. He was fighting for life.
Given all this we can sum up Hezekiah's prayer as indicating,
1) That he was horrified at the thought of premature death.
2) That this was at least partly because he saw it as indicating that God saw him as having sinned grievously so that he was being punished for it, and was thus unforgiven.
3) That underneath, unstated but known by God, was his concern for his people in the trying days that lay ahead of them, and in the face of the threat of invasion.
Yet we cannot hide from the fact that he did not articulate all these thoughts in his prayers. His prime concern is presented as being for his own deliverance. It was God Whose major concern was for His people.
‘Then came the word of Yahweh to Isaiah, saying, “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says Yahweh, the God of your father David, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Look, I will add to your life fifteen years. And I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.”'
Hezekiah knew that his behaviour in the religious and political field had angered the king of Assyria. He had purified the temple, removing the Assyrian gods; he had refused to pay tribute; he had had discussions with his neighbours (2 Kings 18:7). He could hardly doubt that this had been noted and that the detail was known to Sennacherib's spies. Thus he could have had little doubt that he would at some stage be called to account. This must surely have been part of the reason for his distress, that he was dying when his country needed him.
That also explains why God sends to him and promises him, not only an extension of life, but also deliverance for him and Jerusalem out of Sennacherib's hand. He promises that He will give Hezekiah a further fifteen years, and will successfully defend Jerusalem. This met his major concerns. But it is also clearly implied that it would not be because of his own worthiness but because of God's promises to David - it is to be from ‘the God of your father David'.
The figure of ‘fifteen years' is probably significant. Five is the number of covenant, and threefold five is covenant completeness. Thus it implies that God is acting within the covenant and for covenant reasons. Hezekiah will be living on borrowed time so that he can further the application of that covenant. (Fifteen and other multiples of five were a regular measurement in the Tabernacle. Compare also the twofold ‘five words' of the commandments, and the five books of the Law and of the Psalms, all aspects of the covenant).
By these promises God is revealed as the giver of life and as the Great Defender of His people, and Hezekiah as the great beneficiary. Surely now he will be dedicated to Yahweh with all his heart and lean wholly on Him. And in order to seek to ensure this, God in His graciousness goes further. He adds to this an even greater wonder.
“And this will be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken. Behold, I will cause the shadow on the steps, which has gone down on the steps of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps.” So the sun returned ten steps on the steps on which it had gone down.'
It is futile to seek to speculate on how this happened apart from the fact that we know that it was Yahweh's doing. The steps of Ahaz are not said to be a sundial, although it is often assumed by commentators. They are rather chosen here as a reminder of the person of Ahaz, the one who refused God's sign, the one who would not listen to Yahweh. They are possibly the steps that had led up to Ahaz's house of idolatry (2 Kings 23:12). But as that may have been designed for the worship of the sun god, it may well be that the steps had also been designed to follow the sun's shadow, thus linking it with the passing of time. But the point is that what faithless Ahaz set up was to be used as the conveyor of a sign from God to his successor who was now being given the same great opportunity as he had had, the opportunity to see God producing a miracle enabling him to trust in God alone and reject all earthly support.
The sign will be indicated by the movement of the shadow caused by the sun on these steps. The advancing shadow will retreat ten steps. Those ten steps which had come into the shade will become once more open to the sun. This was too great a degree of change to be mistakable. Only an act of God could produce this phenomenon. And it was clearly witnessed, probably by Isaiah himself, for he asserts that it happened.
It is possible that the retreating of the shadow was intended to be an indication that God would remove the shadow which was hanging over Hezekiah, and the shadow which was hanging over Jerusalem, the ten indicating covenant witness and certainty (twice five). It was certainly in order to indicate that the Creator could do whatever He would on the earth. And if the shadow of the sun could be controlled how much more Sennacherib, and the ‘host of heaven' (2 Kings 17:16; 2 Kings 21:3-5) whom he worshipped.
It may also indicate that God was giving the house of David a second chance. Time was, as it were retreating, thus eliminating the failure of Ahaz.
(How God did it is not a question we can look at scientifically for we do not have all the facts. We are not told that the phenomenon achieved a permanent change in the position of the sun. Nor indeed is the sun said to have been observed as moving. It was the shadow caused by the sun that was observed as moving, and that only on the steps of Ahaz. We can only look on and wonder, as they no doubt did).
The greater detail in 2 Kings at this point is against 2 Kings being just an expansion of Isaiah here, unless they had further material from a more detailed written record of Isaiah to go on. Perhaps there was an original detailed record from which he extracted what is written here, selecting the salient points for what he wanted to convey. In 2 Kings the great sign is more closely related to Hezekiah's healing.
The significance of all this must not be lost. God's purpose in Hezekiah's illness was to establish his faith and to give him the opportunity of reversing what Ahaz had done in bringing about the rejection of the earthly house of David. In the same way as the shadow of the sun had reversed, God could reverse that rejection. Indeed He gave him multiple evidence that he would if only Hezekiah would believe. He demonstrated that He had control over life and death, and over the movements and effects of the sun. And He guaranteed the deliverance of Jerusalem by His own hand. What more could He do? We are at the ultimate climax. Surely this Davidic king will now fully do His will? Chapter 39 will be the anti-climax, and will give a negative answer.