Isaiah 38: 1 – 22
Let’s Make A Deal
In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’” 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD, 3 and said, “Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years. 6 I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.”’ 7 And this is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing which He has spoken: 8 “Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.” So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down. 9 This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness: 10 I said, “In the prime of my life I shall go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the remainder of my years.” 11 I said, “I shall not see YAH, The LORD in the land of the living; I shall observe man no more among the inhabitants of the world. 12 My life span is gone, taken from me like a shepherd’s tent; I have cut off my life like a weaver. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me. 13 I have considered until morning— Like a lion, So He breaks all my bones; From day until night You make an end of me. 14 Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered; I mourned like a dove; My eyes fail from looking upward. O LORD, I am oppressed; Undertake for me! 15 “What shall I say? He has both spoken to me, and He Himself has done it. I shall walk carefully all my years in the bitterness of my soul. 16 O Lord, by these things men live; And in all these things is the life of my spirit; So You will restore me and make me live. 17 Indeed it was for my own peace that I had great bitterness; But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back. 18 For Sheol cannot thank You, death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth. 19 The living, the living man, he shall praise You, as I do this day; The father shall make known Your truth to the children. 20 “The LORD was ready to save me; Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life, in the house of the LORD.” 21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of figs, and apply it as a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.”22 And Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”
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 and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’
Sometimes where I sit around and think, I am amazed at how frail we all are. I mean there are a lot of things that can do you in. Accidents, diseases, violence, war, etc. can end you life. Even if you think that you can hide yourself in some shelter, a little bug or microbe can kill you. We read here in this chapter that 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 changed is passed over through prayer.
The same was always true of God’s judgments look at what happened with Jonah and the people of Nineveh in chapter 3, “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. 4 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? 10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.”
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD, 3 and said, “Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Outwardly Hezekiah’s concern would appear to be for the situation he found himself in personally. Even though we all desire heaven our earthly control has us resisting the very thought of dying.
Hezekiah 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. 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. We can see this by his reactions to Isaiah’s prophecy - ‘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.
You have heard the comment about how your entire life flashes in front of you. Here Hezekiah 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 recognized his concern, which might be why the next verses speak of deliverance from Sennacherib’s hands.
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.
4 And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years. 6 I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.”’
Hezekiah knew that his behavior 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 neighboring countries. 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.
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.
7 And this is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing which He has spoken: 8 “Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.” So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by 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 as we read in the book of 2 Kings chapter 23 verse 12, “12 The altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king broke down and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the Brook Kidron. 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’ 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 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 do all of this, 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?
Hezekiah was so moved by our Lord’s Mercy that the remainder of these verses are his words of praise to our Great God. This was clearly originally a record on its own, written by Hezekiah. It was then incorporated by the compilers into the book. It stresses that it was Hezekiah who wrote it down. It was his purpose that it be sung in the Temple as we will see in verse 20, and was in gratitude for his deliverance from death.
9 This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness: 10 I said, “In the prime of my life I shall go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the remainder of my years.” 11 I said, “I shall not see YAH, The LORD in the land of the living; I shall observe man no more among the inhabitants of the world. 12 My life span is gone, taken from me like a shepherd’s tent; I have cut off my life like a weaver. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me.
In the first part of the Psalm Hezekiah picturesquely describes his sense that, for him, life is over, and bemoans the fact that he is to be cut off without reaching old age. He was concerned that he would go through the gates of the grave-like world of the dead while still not old, deprived of part of his allotted years; that he would no longer be able to see the activity of God among living people; that he would no longer be able to enjoy life, and watch man about his activities, for he himself would be among the inhabitants of that world where all such activities have ceased.
He sees his life as temporary, as being as transient as the pitching and striking of a shepherd’s tent, and reluctantly consigns himself to death, as someone who would be cut off like a piece of cloth would be cut off from the larger piece on the loom and rolled up. He has woven his life and now it has been prematurely cut off. He is totally despondent.
13 I have considered until morning— Like a lion, So He breaks all my bones; From day until night You make an end of me. 14 Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered; I mourned like a dove; My eyes fail from looking upward. O LORD, I am oppressed; Undertake for me!
He then recognizes the finality of death, and feels that his life is being wrenched from him. He feels that he will be like the prey of a lion, leaped upon and crunched to pieces almost immediately. He will no more experience day and night, for God will have made an end of him. That is why he does nothing but can only chatter on, uselessly and nervously, like the birds, mourning like a dove with downcast eyes. But then he takes hold of himself and calls on Yahweh to act as his surety, the One Who stands up for him, and all is then changed.
15 “What shall I say? He has both spoken to me, and He Himself has done it. I shall walk carefully all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
God has spoken to him and answered him directly by His action. Thus he is not to die, but will have many years ahead - ‘all my years’. But he will treasure them and use them carefully because of the bitterness of what he has endured. He has learned through suffering to make the most of life, walking in obedience to God’s ways.
In Psalm 90 verse ten I believe king David had similar thoughts which we all need to apply to our thoughts, “So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
16 O Lord, by these things men live; And in all these things is the life of my spirit; So You will restore me and make me live.
‘These things’ are the bitter experiences he has gone through, learning the lessons of life. It is such things as these that tend to make men seek and find life, and his own spirit has now been inspired by them. Compare Deuteronomy 8.3 where we read, ‘And He humbled you and made you suffer hunger, -- that He might make you to know that man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds from the mouth of God does man live.’ Such suffering, says the writer, is in the end what makes men seek true life through the word of God. And so, having experienced suffering, he prays that God might now make him recover so that he can live that life in His will.
17 Indeed it was for my own peace that I had great bitterness; But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
He acknowledges that it was for his own good that he has gone through these experiences. He has learned from them the importance of life as we have seen in verse 15, ‘I will go carefully’. But he also rejoices because he now knows that God has in love for him cancelled out the effect of his sin, the sin which would have produced premature death, and He has done it by casting his sins behind His back. That is why he has been allowed to live. That is why God has delivered him from the pit where he would have become a rotting corpse. He recognizes that had it not been for the suffering he had undergone he would never have experienced this forgiveness so fully. So overall he acknowledges that the experience has been good.
Israel at its best recognized clearly the connection between sin and death as it is described here. The man who sinned would die which we find in the book of Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 4, ““Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die. Thus death resulted from sin, and premature death was a pointer to sin. The corollary was that death could be delayed by true repentance and looking to God, and finding forgiveness for sins committed. This was their simple faith. What lay beyond they did not know, unless they had read Isaiah’s earlier revelations.
18 For Sheol cannot thank You, death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth. 19 The living, the living man, he shall praise You, as I do this day; The father shall make known Your truth to the children.
The idea is that once a man has died, it is too late for him, either to seek to praise God, or to celebrate Him. It is too late to look for truth. That is only available to the living. And it is the living who will praise God as Hezekiah was doing this very day, it is the living that teach and pass on truth. The father teaching the children was the main way in Israel of them growing up in the truth about Yahweh and His covenant as we understand from verse 19 of chapter 11 of the book of Deuteronomy, “You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” So death is to be avoided if at all possible, and it is good that Yahweh is restoring him to life.
Hezekiah is not commenting on the afterlife as we know of it. He is speaking of the certainties that he knew of. What he says positively is true. What lay on the other side he did not know for sure. Indeed, as far as he was aware there was nothingness, a shadowy world of the grave. Thus a man should seek to live by following the word of Yahweh.
20 “The LORD was ready to save me; Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life, in the house of the LORD.”
As a result of Hezekiah’s experience he now knows that each man can know that God is ready to save him, if he turns to Him, as Hezekiah, had done in repentance. Each can say, ‘Yahweh is ready to save me.’ That is why they come to the house of Yahweh and sing with stringed instruments all their days. This ending reveals that Hezekiah expected his Psalm to be used in worship in the Temple. It was his public testimony to God. Alternatively it may have been added once the Psalm was presented to the Temple for such use.
21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of figs, and apply it as a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.”22 And Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”
It would be a mistake to see these as comments as words casually added on with no real significance, and to pass over them too quickly. The first states how his healing was brought about, by a laying of a poultice on his eruption of the flesh, bringing out that it was indeed God Who had restored him. The second was even more significant, for it leads on into what follows and stresses that it is to be seen in the light of the fact that Hezekiah had asked for and received a God-given miraculous sign.
At first sight both seem to be equally pious comments. Isaiah confident that Yahweh would heal him, Hezekiah eager to go up to the house of Yahweh, But what a difference in attitude. One was eager that God’s power might be revealed, the other simply concerned about the certainty of his own healing.
The boil and the seriousness of the illness possibly indicate some kind of plague illness. The method of using a poultice to draw the boil was clearly known. And it equally clearly worked. If it was a miracle no emphasis is laid on the fact that it was so. The emphasis is rather on the fact that it was God’s doing. Once the boil was drawn healing could go on apace. But Hezekiah certainly saw it as a miracle of forgiveness and healing.
Hezekiah’s main concern was whether the healing would occur as quickly as Yahweh had promised. ‘The sign’ here must be the one described in verse 7, for it is the only one mentioned in the passage. Here in Isaiah that sign was stated as having a twofold purpose, ‘Look,’ had promised Yahweh, ‘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. And this will be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that He has spoken’ (verse 5-6). Thus the sign was intended to point both to his healing and the certainty of the coming miraculous deliverance.
But we read in the book of 2 Kings chapter 20 explains that the sign that was given to Hezekiah had in fact been asked for by him as evidence that he would be healed so that he could go up to the house of Yahweh within three days.
“In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.’” 2 Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD, saying, 3 “Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 5 “Return and tell 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; surely 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. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David.”’” 7 Then Isaiah said, “Take a lump of figs.” So they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. 8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD the third day?” 9 Then Isaiah said, “This is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees?” 10 And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.” 11 So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the LORD, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.
And it is made clear here that that is his main concern, his own healing, and progression from it. While God had wanted it also to be the greater sign of His power to deliver and His promise of future deliverance as we read in verse 6, Hezekiah only thought in terms of his own healing. So Hezekiah, instead of being taken up with, and excited about, the promise of future deliverance, expresses concern lest he be unable to go up to the house of Yahweh on the third day. This again brings out Hezekiah’s selfish concentration on his own need rather than on his people’s needs. It sounded pious enough, but it was proof of his mediocrity.
No doubt he also saw himself as being restrained from going up to the house of Yahweh because the eruption rendered him unclean, and it suggests that he longed to do so as soon as appropriate. He wanted to be ‘clean’ again. Such an ambition was not to be despised. It was good that he wanted to go up to the house of Yahweh. But why did he want to do it? Are we to see this as because he longed to carry out his intercessory prayer as the priest after the order of Melchizedek? But that was no longer necessary. The sign had been God’s guarantee of deliverance. Or are we to see it as in order that he might give thanks for his recovery? That he saw it as putting the cap on any delay in his recovery? The context suggests the latter.
In other words his mind was concentrated on the wrong thing. While God had tried to direct his thoughts to the great deliverance, all Hezekiah could think of was his own restoration. There could be no greater contrast than that between this current representative of the house of David, whose only desire was to survive and to whom the coming deliverance was secondary, and the coming Servant whom Isaiah will shortly describe, Whose whole concern will be to do the will of God and Whose whole attention will be on the final deliverance, even though He would have to face death in order to bring it about. The Hezekiah revealed here fits well with the reason that later on we will find his son Manasseh to be such and evil king.
There was a movie with Burt Renolds called “The End’. It is a funny movie. In the movie Burtt was to kill himself and is unsuccessful. He finally comes up with the idea is that he will swim out as far as he can in the ocean and then from lack of energy he will drown. Once he is out far he comes to his senses and realizes that he wants to live, so he cries out a proposal to God. He promises God that he will change his life for the better. You see though in a way which is humorous that like Hezekiah and us all, the closer he gets to land the adjustment in his promises to God. Our Precious Holy Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High – in His Mercy and Grace does His Great Miracle, yet over time it is forgotten by Hezekiah which is sadly the same things we do. Please forgive us our Righteous Master.
