Moving Heaven and Earth

As soon as Sennacherib left Judah to return to Assyria, Hezekiah got sick. Stress may have taken hold and the near death experience with the King of Assyria may have stressed him out to the point of great illness. Whatever the cause, he was at the point of death. Isaiah the prophet went to him with a message from the LORD, ‘Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.’ Then Isaiah walked out to return home.

As any man would do when receiving such a grim diagnosis, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, ‘Remember, LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.’ Then he began weeping bitterly. He was only 39, still young and full of life and vision for the present and future. God had saved him and spared Judah, only for him to get ill and now to face certain death. His prayer was a plea for mercy and grace.

Isaiah was walking out of the court when he heard the LORD tell him to return to Hezekiah with another message. So he returned. ‘This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your orayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the Temple of the LORD. I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for My sake and for the sake of my servant David.’

A poultice of figs was prepared for Hezekiah’s sickness. It was applied to the boil and he recovered. Hezekiah was naturally curious, asking Isaiah, ‘What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me and that I will go up to the Temple of the LORD on the third day from now?’ Isaiah responded with a choice, ‘This is the LORD’s sign to you that the LORD will do what He promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?’ Hezekiah said, ‘It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps, rather have it go back ten steps.’

In the highest heavens, God heard the words of Hezekiah. A plan set in motion from creation itself would bring an answer in that moment. A large heavenly body was moving through the solar system that would move the earth off its foundation and reset the length of the day and year. Isaiah called out to the LORD and the LORD made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz, a sundial built by King Ahaz. 

This heavenly body would cause an eclipse, then would push the earth out a little further and slow the length of the year from 360 days to 365.35 days. It came close enough to the earth to slow the rotation of the earth down and move its relative position to the sun backwards by that ten steps angle. Then the body passed, releasing earth from its gravitational pull, and the earth resumed its spin, albeit off axis some, with a slower spin and longer year.

The original year was calculated at 360 days. Many cataclysmic events have occurred which have altered this length and the tilt of the earth. The Flood of Noah, the Parting of the Red Sea during the Exodus and Joshua’s long day - very close in time to each other, the eclipse of Jonah over Nineveh, this event in 701 BC and the loss of Sennacherib’s army which happened close in time to each other, the solar Eclipse during a lunar eclipse at the crucifixion of Jesus, and several recorded events from other cultures since then. God moved heaven and earth to protect the city He chose for His Name to Dwell in - Jerusalem. 

When Jesus returns, Heaven and earth will be moved once more. Revelation and other prophecies foretell of cosmic events including incoming asteroids that wipe out 1/3 of the ships in the sea and the loss of all sea life. Only God has power over the heavens. The recent NASA mission to the moon revealed numerous massive craters on the backside of the moon, all from meteors that hit it instead of the earth. The surface of the earth itself shows damage from these types of events, many of these craters being extremely large. God is sovereign over life and death, and as He showed Hezekiah, He controls the heavens and earth too.