Difficult News
2 Kings 20
Are you guaranteed healing? I don’t believe so but some argue about it.
Isaiah 53:5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
James 5:14-16 14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; 15 and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
So do your prayers ALONE do anything or have any power in itself? No.
It is God who does one thing or another if He wants to. Your prayer is to try to convince Him or change His mind and then to do what you ask.
Does God have to do what you ask? Of course not. God is not your ATM or candy machine where you enter your coin and get a gumball out.
So how can or how does your prayer work? Go humbly before the Lord. Be genuine.
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom!
Come before the King with supplications knowing that He is a fearful and awesome God!
Hezekiah was a good king in Judah (Southern Kingdom). He was not perfect and he did have some faults that caused problems later but for the most part, he was the best and he offers some great lessons for us.
2 Kings 18:5 - He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.
When Hezekiah became king, he began reforming everything. He threw out the various shrines and gods, destroyed idols, He restored temple worship, and brought Israel back to God.
King Scennecerib of Assyria was attacking surrounding cities and those cities fell.
Finally, they came to Jerusalem and started to besiege it. Sieges work by the army camping around the city and preventing people from coming or going to the city - basically they try to starve the city to death to weaken it before attacking it that way they can just easily walk in.
In Isaiah 36, Sennacherib comes and tells the people how bad a king Hezekiah was for destroying the high places and shrines to all of the other gods. He says that they decimated all of the other countries so how will stand against Assyrian army. He tried to undermine Hezekiah with the people and tried to cause them to doubt.
Isa 36:18-20 18 'Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying, "The LORD will deliver us." Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 'Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 20 'Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the LORD would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?' "
When Hezekiah got news, he went and prayed to the Lord. The Lord responded through Isaiah that Hezekiah need not worry.
Isaiah 37:36-38
36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 * * * in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were dead *. 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. 38 It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.
If that weren’t bad enough, during that time… (in those days - Theologians say this chapter likely occurs during the siege of the Assyrian army - before this above deliverance - the chronology of the Bible does not always follow the chapter order)
2 Kings 20:1-11 (also happens in Isaiah 38 and 2 Chronicles 32)
1 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. 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 and not live.' "
This was likely very hard news at the worst time.
It was surely hard news for Isaiah to deliver also.
Some of you have received difficult news and you know how it takes you down a notch or two or a 1000.
Even now, things that are seared in my mind trigger tears when I read this verse.
2 Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, 3 "Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly *.
What is the best thing to do when you hear difficult news? Go directly to the Lord!
Some people say they can’t forgive the Lord when they hear difficult news and walk away from Him? To me that’s just the opposite of what you do. You draw near God in the times of trouble.
4 Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 5 "Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, "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. 6 "I will add fifteen * years to your life, and 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 My servant David's sake.""'
Wow, good news and talk about speedy delivery!
7 Then Isaiah said, "Take a cake of figs." And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.
Why does it have to be figs? I hate figs!!!!
Does God need medicine at all? Nope.
Why did He do it this way? I don’t know.
In other places God prescribes the people do this or that such as wash in the water 7 times to be healed or Jesus putting mud and spit on someone’s eyes. Why does He do that if He could just as easily snap His fingers and it happens or with a word do it.
8 Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD the third day?" 9 Isaiah said, "This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?" 10 So Hezekiah answered, "It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps." 11 Isaiah the prophet cried to the LORD, and He brought the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
The sun goes forward anyway so the shadow going down would happen anyway, but going backwards is something special so He chose that. Wouldn’t that be weird to know how many years you had left? Wouldn’t you be counting the days?
So Hezekiah was healed and recovered and imagine up and in the House of the Lord in three days. And the Assyrian was defeated, etc. He had a proud heart which caused problems. He showed all his stuff to Babylon envoys which caused problem also but then he repented and avoided wrath
What happened after Hezekiah. It went downhill quickly after Him. His son Manassa was the worst king pretty much ever - worse than Ahab - a very “spiritual man” - not a Godly man, tho - he brought back all of the other gods. Eventually, a few generations later Israel was carried off to Babylon. Daniel 1:1-2
