Isaiah 38
God once did a great wonder for a sick king; just before, He had sent Isaiah to tell King Hezekiah to set his house in order because he would soon die. Those were sad words to the king, and he turned his head toward the wall and wept; but he also prayed.
Isaiah had started away from the king’s home, when God told him to go back and tell the king that He had heard his prayer and that he should live longer, and in three days should go to the Temple, or House of God, which was on another hill of the city.
The king felt so ill, he could not bieve that he would, be well, and to go there, so he asked for a sign of God’s power.
In those days, the hours of the day were counted by an instrument called a sun dial, which we cannot well describe; but it is thought, there was a pole or ball set up, on which the sun shone, and the shadow was cast on steps or some marked surface. This king’s father had a sun dial, which must have been large, so the king could see it from his bed, for Isaiah said the king might choose for the shadows on this dial to go either backward or forward. The king thought it would be more wonderful for the shadows to go back, so Isaiah asked God for that to be done. God said,
“This shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He has spoken: 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.” Is. 38:7, 8.
For the shadow on the son dial to move over the spaces a second time, would make that day longer, but we do not know how much longer as we do not know how long a time their “degree” was. All the people must have greatly wondered at this change in the shadows, and there, is no record of such a change since. Isaiah told those with the king, to put crushed figs on the king’s sore, and he became well. That was also by God’s power.
At that same time, a great army was outside the city to destroy it, and the king must have been very troubled about that, but God told Isaiah to tell him that He would keep the city, and it was saved without fighting (Is. 37:33). All this happened in the 14th year of the king’s rule; he ruled 29 years, so he lived fifteen years longer, as God said he should. The king knew God had done all this for him, saved his city, changed the shadows, and cured his sore; when well, he wrote,
“He hath both spoken unto me, and Himself hath done it.” Is. 38:15.
He told also of another wonder God had done for him:
“Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit...for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.” Is. 33:17.
This king had honored God, and been good to the people, but he knew he had sins, yet he knew that God had a way to save his soul. That was the greatest wonder of all, because it would last forever.
ML 12/07/1941