Isaiah 38:1-8 10/26/25 a.m.
Next Sunday is a BIG DAY for all of us!!! Do you know why? Because we get an extra hour. That’s right, next Sunday will have 25 hours in it. That’s exciting. If we can do this often enough, we’ll never get old, right?
I heard this story and it may or may not be true but an Old Indian man was told about Daylight Savings Time. And this is what he said, “Only white man think he can cut off end of blanket and sew it on other end to make it longer.”
I think most of us wish they would just leave it all alone. Quit changing it back and forth. But, I guess the powers that be think it’s necessary. So don’t forget next Sunday to set your clocks back or you’ll get here awful early.
Looking into God’s Word we see twice where God performed a miracle with the SUN. In Joshua 10, the SUN STOOD STILL and in Isaiah 38, the SUN MOVED BACKWARDS 10 degrees. So let’s look Verses 1-8 of Isaiah 38.
“In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the Lord,
3 And said, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.
And Hezekiah wept sore.
4 Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying,
5 Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
7 And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken;
8 Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.”
Now that would be a strange sight to behold would it not? The sun coming up in the West. It went down and then started going back up. I’m not the best at math but the sun moves 15 degrees every hour so that would be about 40 minutes extra time added to that day. That’s REAL TIME not just some little trick where you take off time in the SPRING and add it back on in the FALL.
No, GOD ADDED to Hezekiah’s LIFE and to PROVE IT, He added to the DAY.
This morning I want to look at what God’s message was to Hezekiah found there in Verse 5. #1 I have heard thy prayer, #2 I have seen thy tears: behold, #3 I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
But before we get into this message let’s go to the Lord in Prayer. Brother ____, would you lead us?
I’ve always loved this story. Hezekiah, a man who lived a Godly life. A King who did some GREAT THINGS.
He destroyed the idols and high places.
He cleansed and reopened the temple.
He reinstated the Passover.
He also did some wonderful things for the city of Jerusalem
He dammed up the Gihon spring's upper outlet and dug a tunnel to bring the water to the west side of the city.
He built storehouses for grain, wine, oil, and livestock.
And he re-established the Levites. He restored the duties of the Levitical priesthood. You see, they had stopped performing the SACRIFICES unto the Lord. I want us to look at 2 Chronicles 31:1-3, “Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.
2 And Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and the Levites after their courses, every man according to his service, the priests and Levites for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the tents of the Lord.
3 He appointed also the king's portion of his substance for the burnt offerings, to wit, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the Lord.”
Hezekiah was a GOOD MAN. He was a GOOD KING. But yet he wasn’t immune from the TROUBLES of LIFE. Things didn’t always go his way.
A. I talked about this last Sunday evening but Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, had brought his army against Jerusalem and besieged it. There seemed to be NO WAY OUT. The SOLDIERS of the ASSYRIAN ARMY were screaming out against Hezekiah and against God. And in tells us in Verse 20 of Chapter 32 of 2 Chronicles,
“And for this cause Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz, prayed and cried to heaven.”
B. And as we read here in Isaiah 38, Hezekiah got sick. He was DYING. 2 Kings 2o tells us the same story that we find here in Isaiah and it tells us there, that he had a BOIL. Now this was probably INFECTION, BLOOD POISONING or SEPSIS because it was more than just a BIG SORE. He was SICK unto death.
And so even though King Hezekiah was a GOOD KING, a GOOD MAN, he still had to deal with the BURDENS, the TRAGEDIES and the STRUGGLES of LIFE.
And let me just say this. There are a lot of GOOD PEOPLE here in this church. There are a lot of GOOD PEOPLE who are our FAMILY and LOVED ONES. There are a lot of GOOD PEOPLE in this world. But yet there are NONE of US who are IMMUNE from LIFE. We all experience it. It’s GOOD and it’s BAD. It’s TRIUMPHS and it’s FAILURES. This is LIFE. And I want you to know that I see your BURDENS, TRAGEDIES and STRUGGLES. And it HURTS me to see you HURT. And I wish I had all the answers but I don’t. But listen, even without the ANSWERS, I still TRUST in GOD.
ILLUS: Neil deGrasse Tyson is someone you see debating the ISSUES quite often. He’s pretty well known. He has a Doctorate degree in Astrophysics and this is what he said about God. “How can an all-powerful and all-good God allow suffering from natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis. This leads me to question whether such a God is truly all-powerful, all-good, or both.”
Well let me say this. I’m NOT an Astrophysicist. I know that surprises you all. I’m not as intelligent as Neil deGrasse Tyson. But I do know this. I’M NOT GOD. And I will never truly understand God. But I do SEE GOD in CREATION. I FEEL His Spirit. And I do know that according to Isaiah 55, His WAYS are higher than my ways. And His THOUGHTS are higher than my thoughts. He IS an ALL POWERFUL GOD and He IS an ALL GOOD GOD. And someday, He will make ALL THINGS RIGHT. But until then, we have to experience LIFE.
And so let’s look at what King Hezekiah did when LIFE came CRASHING IN on HIM.
I. First of all, HE PRAYED. Look there at Verse 2.
“Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the Lord.”
He put the WORLD BEHIND HIM and He prayed to the GOD of this UNIVERSE. Think about that for a minute. When it came down to the wire, King Hezekiah knew where to turn. NOT to a FALSE GOD. NOT to a DOCTOR. NOT to ANYONE ELSE. He TURNED to GOD.
I’ve said this many times but it’s TRUTH. GOD always has the last say. Things may look really BLEAK. Things may seem HOPELESS. Doctors may say there’s NOTHING ELSE they can do. But GOD always has the LAST SAY!!!
The Old Prophet Job said this in Job 1:21,
“Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
GOD is still in CONTROL. And sometimes I think we forget about this GREAT RESOURCE that we have. PRAYER. We can talk to the GOD of this UNIVERSE. The One who created all of this. The last part of James 5:16 tells us,
“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
PRAYER MATTERS. PRAYER CHANGES THINGS.
So King Hezekiah PRAYED. And what does it tell us in Verse 5? GOD SAID ... “I have heard thy prayer”
NO MATTER WHAT IS GOING ON IN LIFE, GOD HEARS OUR PRAYERS.
II. What else did he do? Well, HE CRIED. Look there at the end of Verse 3.
“And Hezekiah wept sore.”
You know, I was thinking about this. The fact that King Hezekiah CRIED tells me that he had FAITH in GOD. God’s PROPHET ISAIAH comes in and says, “YOU ARE GONNA DIE” and King Hezekiah begins to cry. That tells me that King Hezekiah believed God. He didn’t doubt it for a SECOND.
Now I don’t know why he cried. I don’t know if he had UNFINISHED BUSINESS. Maybe he didn’t want to LEAVE his family behind. He may felt like there was MORE he needed to do. Maybe the ASSYRIANS setting outside the city weighed heavy on him. I don’t know, but he CRIED.
Can I say something here? There is POWER in TEARS.
ILLUS: I’ll never forget 33 years ago Rachel and I had just gotten married and we took a little weekend trip down to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Most of us here have probably been there. It’s nothing but up and down HILLS.
Anyway, when we got there we were walking along the street in the downtown area and a bus pulled up and let a load of tourists off. One by one they got off and toward the end, a young lady got off and she was walking on crutches. Throughout the day we saw her as we stopped at different shops. She was by herself walking up and down those hills on her crutches. And towards the end of the day we were worn out and I know she had to be too. Anyway, there she was still going, and she went to step off of the curve and she fell right there in front of us. She was laying there in the road, her leg was bleeding, she was hurt and she started crying. Not WAILING or SCREAMING. She just quietly began to WEEP. Like I said, I’ll never forget this and when I think about this it still moves my heart. When I see children cry or ladies cry it does something to me. Not you GUYS. You GUYS can CRY all you want to.
And listen, I believe, our TEARS and our CRIES move the HEART of God. Even when us GUYS CRY ... God hears.
Psalms 34:17, “The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.”
And, in fact, we see in Verse 5 that God HEARD King Hezekiah’s PRAYER and look what else He says there.
“I have seen thy tears”
God HEARS US when we PRAY and He SEES US when we CRY. Think about that. Not only does the God of this UNIVERSE HEAR US, HE SEES US!!! And He knows what’s going on in our lives. That gives me PEACE.
III. And so what did God do? HE ANSWERED. Look at Verses 4 and 5.
“Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying,
5 Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.”
“I will add unto thy days fifteen years!!!”
You know, when I think of the Old Testament Prophets we think of very STOIC MEN who would PROPHESY GOD’S MESSAGE to the people. Somehow, I don’t think that’s the way Isaiah spoke. Now I don’t have Bible for this but I would imagine Isaiah came running back into Hezekiah’s room there and said,
“King Hezekiah, God has changed HIS MIND!!! He has spoken to me. You’re not gonna die. You are gonna live. You’ve got 15 more years!!!”
Remember how I mentioned that the TEARS PROVED that King Hezekiah trusted in God. I believe he may have started shouting when Isaiah told him this. “I’m gonna LIVE!!!! I’m NOT gonna DIE!!! WOO HOO.” There was reason to celebrate. God HEARD, God SAW and God ANSWERED.
Listen folks, even when LIFE gets hard, we have reason to CELEBRATE. Why, because God HEARS US. He SEES US and HE ANSWERS US.
As most of you all know, Brother Clarence has a lot going on in his life. He’s been battling CANCER for a long time. He doesn’t FEEL GOOD, he’s WEAK and he’s TIRED. But you know what, God has ANSWERED HIS PRAYERS and OUR PRAYERS. He still has the opportunity to stand up here and TELL YOU that Jesus loves you.
You see, God didn’t tell King Hezekiah that he would get to live here forever. No, He gave him 15 more years. And God HAS NOT promised us that we’ll get to live here forever.
Hebrews 9:27, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”
We’re all gonna die. Just like King Hezekiah did.
2 Kings 20:21, “And Hezekiah slept with his fathers: and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.”
Listen,God’s WORD is TRUE. King Hezekiah believed it and you and I better believe it too.
IV. And lastly, in closing, God delivered King Hezekiah and the City of Jerusalem from the Assyrians. Look at Verse 6.
“And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.”
Remember, I mentioned that during this mess with King Hezekiah being sick, the Assyrians and King Sennacherib had surrounded Jerusalem. And so King Hezekiah would survive this SICKNESS but would Jerusalem survive the Assyrians? And the answer was YES. God would deliver them.
God moved upon the Assyrians and destroyed them along with Sennacherib. Look at 2 Kings 19, Verses 32-37.
“Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.
34 For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.”
God HEARD Hezekiah’s prayers. He SAW his tears. He gave him 15 more years of LIFE and now he DELIVERS them from the Assyrians. 185,000 Assyrians died that day.
I said earlier that God never promises us ETERNAL LIFE here in this world. But He has promised to DELIVER US. He has PROMISED to take us on HOME on the OTHER SIDE.
ILLUS: I didn’t finish my story about Eureka Springs. Like I said, we were standing there. The light turned RED and this young lady on crutches stepped off the CURB and FELL. Her leg was bleeding, she was hurting and she began to WEEP. Tears were running down her cheeks. But about that time, a great big old fellow stepped forward and he gently bent down and picked her up and carried her on across the street. I picked up her crutches and Rachel and I made our way across. And then this big old fellow gently set her down and folks began to help her and take care of her.
And I have to tell you, that’s a PICTURE of this LIFE. It’s a PICTURE of the BURDENS, TRAGEDIES, STRUGGLES, PAIN and HEARTACHE we sometimes have to face. But then, our MIGHTY GOD picks us up and carries us to HEAVEN on the other side.
Listen, that same God who delivered King Hezekiah and the Nation of Judah, wants to deliver YOU today. He wants to be YOUR GOD. He wants to be YOUR FATHER. He LOVES YOU and CARES about you. And if you’ll CRY OUT to Him today, HE WILL HEAR YOU. When TROUBLES and TRIALS COME that may bring you to TEARS, He will SEE YOU. And He will HELP YOU with the burdens of this LIFE and SOMEDAY, He will DELIVER YOU SAFE to the OTHER SIDE.
Yes, we’re gaining an hour next week. But with Jesus, we can gain eternity in Heaven with Him. Will YOU put your TRUST in HIM today? Let’s Pray
