Judgment, Grace and Shadows. 2 Kings 20:1-11

Chapter twenty does not take place chronologically after chapter nineteen, it actually takes place before that chapter; yet the writer has placed it in this place because he is writing from a different vantage point from what we normally think of as history. This is historical but it Hebrew literature does not follow a historical pattern in the same way that we do, focusing on events from, as it were, from a theologically editorialized view of history. As we look at the events that we are focusing on in the first eleven chapters then focus is on, once again, a prayer of Hezekiah. And we see an example of the principle stated at the end of James 4:2 that prayer changes things. James says “you have not because you ask not.” And often we caught get in o0ur thinking between two polarities, two opposites that are characteristic of pagan thought. One is the view that prayer is not really that important because God is going to do everything according to His will, and so why really pray? James in that one nutshell of a sentence shows that that is not true. But examples in both the Old and New testaments show that prayer changes history. It is because Hezekiah prayed that God answered and gave the Jews a victory over the Assyrians.

In this chapter we are going to see that prayer also changes things, and it changes things personally for Hezekiah, and as a result of his prayer his life is going to be extended another fifteen years. Also there is a miraculous sign given to confirm that answer to Hezekiah, and so again we see the principle restated that prayer does change things. We can’t fall prey to the pagan idea of fatalism: that God is going to do what He is going to do so why take time to pray? Many people do that and it minimizes prayer. On the other hand we have within our culture the evolutionary, Darwinistic worldview that is grounded upon pure random chance: everything that happens is by chance, it is chance that governs and rules the universe and there is really no basis for arguing any kind of unchanging or immutable laws because everything is really in a state of flux. These polarities between something that is unchangeable and that which is always changing are the two polarities that we find present throughout ancient Greek philosophy as well and the whole tension between being, on the one hand which is related to fatalism and becoming on the other hand.

Biblically this conundrum, which is also manifested the debate between free will and determinism and things like that, is resolved within an understanding that the God, the ultimate reality who rules the universe, the God of the Bible, is a Trinitarian unity. So that in unity we have oneness and in the Trinity we have plurality, but both are equally true and are eternally present within the Godhead in a unique way, so that that answers and resolves these problems but not in a way that we fully understand because the unity of God and the plurality of God is being equally true without one dominating the other is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. We tend to always want to talk about this in terms of causation, and that relates to prayer. How can I really pray where God is going to change things and how does God change things? Because that indicates that He causes certain things to happen. How does God do that without violating individual responsibility or individual free will? Where we make the ultimate mistake is we think that the causation we are familiar with at a horizontal plane within creation is identical to causation at the divine creator level. Scripture teaches that both are equally true within the Godhead. The answer is that causation at creator level is not identical to causation at the creature level. So there is ultimately no conflict, it is just that we can’t comprehend how God superintends history without violating human responsibility and human interaction. Therefore the reality is that God is the one who oversees and superintends history and that history includes the history of our lives as microsections of history so that God has a general plan and direction for our life but within that plan there are certain variables that may or may not be enacted on the basis of our decisions.

We see this enacted in this episode with Hezekiah. 2 Kings 20:1 ^NASB “In those days” anchors us to the events of the Assyrian conquest, so the events of chapter 20 take place within the framework of the Assyrian assault and invasion of the southern kingdom. This occurred in 701 BC, so these events take place very close to that time period. “…Hezekiah became mortally ill…” That doesn’t fit anything that we have read so far in chapter 19. We don’t see a sick Hezekiah who is on his death bed. His physical sickness has a spiritual cause, but the only way Hezekiah knows that is because Isaiah the prophet comes and reveals that to him. That means that we have no basis for going home and next week, next year or next decade when we become fatally ill you can’t interpret that as divine blessing or divine judgment because there is no special revelation today to show us that. We can’t look at something negative in our life and say that is divine discipline or something good and say it is special divine blessing because the only way people in the Scripture knew that was when a prophet told them or when there was direct revelation to give them the basis to interpret that. If we are going through difficult times we can evaluate our lives to see if we are out of fellowship or not, disobedient or not; and if we have been disobedient one cause of the suffering in our life might be divine discipline, or it might not. We just have to evaluate that and make sure that we are walking with the Lord and in fellowship. Hezekiah is sick and near death but he only knows the spiritual cause of it when Isaiah comes to him. “… And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, ‘Thus says the LORD…’”

How many times have we read that phrase in the last couple of chapters? Again we see that this isn’t something that Isaiah generated from within his own soul, some existential experience that he had with God; but that he is claiming that the eternal God, the creator God of the universe has spoken objectively to him to communicate something to Hezekiah. The principle that we see throughout the Old Testament on this is that whenever God does something in private He will always authenticate it in public. That is why in Deuteronomy chapters 13 and 18 there are tests to evaluate the claim that God has spoken to me. We can’t just run around like some people do and say, well God spoke to me in a dream last night and God told me this or God told me that. The Scriptures do not allow us to talk that way, to make those claims unless we can validate it objectively through these tests that are given within the Scripture. The only way we can say God spoke to me is if I say it and then what comes next is a verse of Scripture, and that is the only objective revelation that there is today. So the Bible claims to not be the word of man about God but the Word of God directed to man, and it always has qualifying evidence that shows that this indeed took place.

“Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.” In some sense there is an application there for all of us, that we ought to have our household affairs in order—wills, insurance, documentation of everything—because there is going to be a time when we are absent from the body and face to face with the Lord, and at that moment we need to make sure that everything is ready for those who are left behind so that they can take care of all of the legal issues related to our death. That is what God is telling Hezekiah here, but he gives him a little warning. This is very unusual and is a unique situation among the kings in the Old Testament. What is Hezekiah’s response? It is neither just give up in terms of some sort of fatalistic response or just act as if everything is random, he doesn’t think within pagan worldview concepts; he turns to the wall and prays to the Lord. He is going to, in effect, confess his sins. 2 Kings 20:3 ^NASB “‘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.” He entreats the Lord to remember his past and how he walked before Him in truth and with a loyal heart. This tells us that Hezekiah understood that his lifestyle in the past was different from what it had become and that he had previously “walked in truth.” This indicates an external absolute framework that is absolutely true at all times for all people, it is not a relative truth, what was true for Hezekiah or what was true for Isaiah, but it was true for everyone. That is what the Bible claims, and if the Bible is wrong then it is a book of lies.

So the first thing Hezekiah emphasizes in his prayer is that in his previous life of obedience to God he walked on the basis of truth, meaning on the basis of the Torah, on the basis of the instruction of God with a loyal heart. He was faithful. His weeping is a sign if his remorse and the fact that he is turning back to God after a period of disobedience to God. It implies that he also admitted his sin to God, confessed his sin. So the punishment of death that God had announced to him (sin unto death) is going to be rescinded rapidly. When we pray sometimes God changes things in a slow manner and sometimes He changes things instantly. This happened so fast that Isaiah didn’t even have time to get out of the palace yet. 2 Kings 20:4 ^NASB “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.’” Notice: “My people.” The descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are God’s people; they are the distinct nation in all of history. “…the God of your father David.” Why is the Lord saying that? Because Hezekiah is a direct descendant of David, and God entered into a covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7 where God had promised David that a descendant of David would always sit on the throne of David, the throne of Jerusalem, and rule God’s people. This is the answer to prayer and God is structuring this on the basis of a reminder of the Davidic covenant.

God listens to us and He responds. Sometimes He says no, sometimes He says wait a while, but He always answers prayer. The tears of Hezekiah are not what moves God. We may feel bad about sin and have profound remorse about our failures in life but that is not what moves God. What moves God is the recognition or admission of sin, not the consequence of that emotionally. There is nothing wrong with feeling remorse about sin but that is not what moves God.

In verse five we see the emphasis on three days that we see often in Scripture. We see it in the resurrection. “On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD.” We studied something similar with Uzziah, Hezekiah’s grandfather. Uzziah disobeyed God and was struck with leprosy. Because of the physical disease it made him ritually unclean and he was never allowed to go into the temple again, but here the Lord tells Hezekiah that on the third day he would go up to the house of the Lord. There is the implication here that he will be cleansed physically of this skin disease so that he would be qualified to go back into the temple.

2 Kings 20:6 ^NASB “I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria…” Didn’t we just read about His deliverance of the city from the hand of the Assyrians at the end of the 19^th chapter? Yes, we did. This is one reason we know that the events of chapter twenty preceded the events of chapter nineteen. In fact, it was necessary for the Lord to discipline Hezekiah, to get his attention back upon the Lord and on serving the Lord before the Assyrian crisis reached the intensity of the assault and the siege on Jerusalem so that Hezekiah would have his thinking back on the promise of God. “… and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.” This gives us a chronological point for handling the timing of this. Hezekiah dies in 686 BC. Fifteen years earlier would be 701, and so this would be earlier in the year before the siege was broken. This fits with what is coming up in the latter part of the chapter because having heard of this disease that Hezekiah had the king of Babylon, Merodach-baladan, will come and send emissaries to Jerusalem on his behalf. That also has to precede the events of the destruction of Jerusalem because Hezekiah still has to have some wealth to show off to the Babylonians.

So God is going to add fifteen years. This is something that is positive. Some have thought that Manasseh, Hezekiah’s son, was born after this but when we work through the chronological issues related to this (and they’re not easy) the numbers don’t work. Most scholars in the area of chronology put Manasseh beginning to reign as a co-regent with Hezekiah at about 695-6. This is a positive thing that happens here because God wants to use Hezekiah who will pray the prayers of chapter nineteen to bring about the deliverance of the nation from the Assyrians. God promises that he will deliver the city “for His own sake” and for the sake of His servant David. Once again He is grounding the deliverance of the city and Judah on the basis of the Davidic covenant.

Isaiah now gives him instruction. This is not what we should do if we have a boil or a skin disease or something like that. This is not a recipe for healing, it is a divine recipe which is going to indicate something that is important. 2 Kings 20:7 ^NASB “Then Isaiah said, ‘Take a cake of figs.’ And they took and laid {it} on the boil, and he recovered.” There is no healing property in a cake of figs. God is signifying something here that is important. Boils were considered part of the plagues that came upon Egypt, Exodus 9:8-12. They were among the curses that God promised that would come upon Israel for their disobedience to Him. Hezekiah in his position of being under the sin unto death also is a picture of the carnality and the idolatry that is still present under the surface in Judah. Even though God has blessed them and they’ve cleaned everything up externally it is not an internal change in the life of the nation. When Manasseh becomes king and immediately rebuilds all of the idolatrous worship centers and everything else the people go right along with him immediately. It shows that the reformation that has occurred under Hezekiah was a reformation that was only skin deep. So Hezekiah’s boil represents divine discipline that God has also promised would come upon the nation, and boils were seen as part of the divine judgment on Israel based on Deuteronomy 28:27.

But we are also reminded within the Law in Exodus 15:26 that God had promised that if the Israelites were obedient to God, ^NASB “I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer.” This is restated in Deuteronomy 7:15. This is a reminder again that the nation is in a state of being spiritually backslidden and in spiritual rebellion against God, and that God is bringing this kind of a judgment on them but there is a solution. The solution that Isaiah brings is to take a cake of figs because what happens as a result of Hezekiah’s turning back to God is, first of all, deliverance from the Assyrian threat. Secondly, there is going to be a restoration and recovery of the economy (19:29-31). We also see that in the last part of Hezekiah’s reign the nation has tremendous prosperity that is indicated by the fact that there will be a great production of figs and vineyards.

But then Hezekiah asks for a sign. This is in contrast to his father Ahaz who refused to respond to God’s request for him to ask for a sign. The sign was the sign of the virgin (Isaiah 7:14). But here Hezekiah asks for a sign and it is not considered to be something presumptuous. One of the reasons he is asking for a sign is for clarification that he is going to be healed. 2 Kings 20:8 ^NASB “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?’” He wants clarification and certainty that he will be cleansed ritually and spiritually so that he can enter the house of the Lord and worship the Lord there. [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.’” They had a circular staircase that had been built in the time of Ahaz that was something like a sundial. As the sun moved across the heavens and the shadows changed on the staircase they could tell time. As the sun moved the shadows would go down the staircase, which was the normal procedure, but what Hezekiah is saying is that it was pretty normal to go down the staircase, I want the shadow to reverse itself and go back up. That could only happen as a result of divine intervention.

Many people, when they read this, connect it to the events when the Israelites were fighting the Gibeonites in Joshua chapter ten when God allowed the light of the sun to extend the daytime period so that the Israelites would have time to completely defeat the Gibeonites. Both events happened as miracles, they were not something that happened universally throughout the earth. We don’t see God stopping the normal rotation of the earth upon its axis. This happens only in Israel. God just caused the shadow to go back up. 2 Kings 20:11 ^NASB “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.” This is the miraculous confirmation given in the, presence of witnesses who hear about this and know about this, and word of this spread throughout the ancient world. It was verified; God does nothing in private that He doesn’t validate in public. We can rely on this as having been validated even though it happened 1700 years ago.

The point that we learn from this is that God answers prayer; He changes things.