Set Your House In Order

The stress of the entire situation with Assyria and the failed envoy to Egypt got to King Hezekiah. His body and soul could not handle it any more and he became mortally ill. Isaiah the prophet came to him with a message, ‘Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’’ The armies of Assyria had not even properly left the land of Judah, and Hezekiah had just been informed he was about to meet his Maker. It seemed to go from bad to worse for the king of Judah. 

Isaiah left. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD all night long. He cried out to God that He would remember how he walked before God in truth and a whole heart. He begged God to remember the good that he had done in the sight of the LORD. ‘In the middle of my life, I am about to enter the gates of Sheol,’ he wrote. ‘I am to be deprived of the rest of my years. I shall not see the LORD in the land of the living. I shall look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world. Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me; as a weaver I rolled up my life, He cuts me off from the loom, from day until night Thou dost make and end of my soul.’

All night long he wept before the LORD on his bed. He feared Death would come that very next moment and usher him out of life. So he composed his soul and slowly began to accept the Word of the LORD that had been given to him. It was difficult to accept an early death. Hezekiah was only 39 at the time, in the prime of his life. He had restored the Passover and removed high places where Israel and Judah played the harlot while engaging in idolatry. He had built up Jerusalem. He had brought the true worship of the One True God back to the forefront of the life of his people. God had spared Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib because Hezekiah had prayed for mercy. And now he was sick and about to die. What a terrible end for this king who was trying to be faithful to his God. 

Hezekiah wept. His moaning came up before the LORD. He gathered his remaining strength and accepted his fate like a man should. ‘What shall I say? For He has spoken to me and He Himself has done it. I shall wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul. O LORD, by these things men live! And in all these things is the life of my spirit. O restore me to health and let me live! Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness; it is Thou who hast kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back. For Sheol cannot thank Thee, Death cannot praise Thee; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Thy faithfulness. It is the living who give thanks to Thee, as I do today; a father tells his sons about Thy faithfulness. The LORD will surely save me; so we will play my songs in stringed instruments all the days of our life as the house of the LORD.’

Hezekiah’s grief over this bad news of his impending death traveled the full range of weeping, to bargaining, to acceptance, to literally begging God for his life, to hope beyond hope, and to promising God he would be the best kind of person he could be if God would just let him live a little longer. Then he played the only card he could. He reminded God that he had no son to carrying on the lineage of David. He reminded God of the covenant God had made with David, that David would never fail to have a son sitting on the throne of Judah.

The Word of the LORD came to Isaiah once again and told him to return to King Hezekiah and inform him that his prayers had been heard and that 15 years would be added to his life. The LORD, the God of his father David, had heard his prayer and seen his tears. He definitely was going to die, just not today. Isaiah instructed those who attended him to take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil that he might recover. Hezekiah received the news with gladness and asked what the sign would be that he would live and then be able to go up to the Temple so that he could thank God personally and fulfill the words he prayed as he begged for his life. 

Isaiah responded, ‘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?’ He was referring to a set of stairs built and used for a clock, like a sundial. Hezekiah thought for a moment and decided. Then he answered, ‘It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps.’ He wanted time to reverse itself as proof that he would live and not die. 

Hearing that request, Isaiah cried the the LORD and He went into action. The answer from the LORD was so powerful it literally changed time and space. God had already foresaw this event, having planned it long before. Unbeknownst to Hezekiah, Isaiah, or even Sennachrib himself, God had appointed a large heavenly body that was to pass near the orbit of the earth. Assyria would see a great eclipse, an omen concerning the impending death of their king. Judah would see the rotation of the earth move backwards. The whole fabric of time would change as the earth was pushed a little further out by the gravitational forces of this large heavenly body coming near. Other parts of the earth would face fires, floods, and catastrophic events. Ancient records from other lands reveal a long day, others recall a day the sun set, rose again, and then set again. Still more record a day the sun arose, then set again, only to later arise as if nothing had changed. And all around the globe, every culture would change their calendar from 360 days per year with a standard 30 day month, to an irregular 365.25 day year and odd length months. 

God had indeed heard the words of Hezekiah. And He moved heaven and earth as a sign that His Word would come to pass. He controls life and death. He controls heaven and earth. He controls time itself. Fifteen years had been added to the life of King Hezekiah. Jerusalem had been spared. God was fulfilling the covenant He made with David. He would defend Jerusalem and deliver Hezekiah from the king of Assyria.