Hezekiah, the great and mighty king, was dying. The prophet Isaiah confirmed it and told him to get his affairs in order.
Hezekiah was distraught. He prayed to the Lord for more years. God heard his prayer and answered. He let him know that Hezekiah would live 15 more years. Not only that, but Israel would be delivered from the power of the king of Assyria.
Additionally he said to Hezekiah that he would prove by having the sun’s shadow move back 10 steps. This was a sun dial by which someone could tell time. It always went forward as the earth rotated later in the day and the sun shone in a different place.
He wrote a poem during his sickness about being threatened by death in the prime of his youth. And that when he recovered he would praise the Lord.
Isaiah then told him to apply pressed figs and apply to his infected skin so that he would recover. Then Hezekiah asked what the sign would be that he would go to the Lord’s temple. Not sure if this was before or after the sun moved.
So was it a good thing Hezekiah got 15 more years? It might have been but something changed in Hezekiah and it wasn’t pretty. He was about to make some very foolish decisions and say things that were unthinkable to his previous character.
