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Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, Book 5, part 25

Isaiah 38:1-3 says,

¹ In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live’.” ² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ³ and said, “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.

We are not given a specific time in which this event occurred, but it probably happened while Jerusalem was yet in danger. Isaiah 38:6 says, “I will deliver you and this city” as if both were yet future. At the same time, it occurred after Isaiah was on speaking terms with the king, which did not occur until the city had been surrounded and threatened with destruction (Isaiah 37:1, 2). Hence, we are to understand the close connection and near simultaneous timing.

In Isaiah 37 Jerusalem was in mortal danger; in Isaiah 38 Hezekiah was in mortal danger. The two chapters are closely connected, as we will see. Jerusalem had been condemned to destruction in Isaiah 29:3, 6 but then had been given a temporary reprieve in Isaiah 37:36. Likewise, Hezekiah too was to “die and not live,” but he too was given a temporary reprieve so that he could bring forth an heir to the throne.

Deliverance Promised

Isaiah 38:4-6 says,

⁴ Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. ⁶ I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city’.”

Perhaps this word is to be connected to the same promise of deliverance that was given just before the Assyrian army was destroyed in Isaiah 37:35, 36,

³⁵ For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake, and for My servant David’s sake. ³⁶ Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians…

We see that the terminology is the same in both passages and in both cases God cites His promise to David. So God gave Hezekiah an extra fifteen years of life and also postponed the utter destruction of Jerusalem up to the present day (2020).

The Sign of Deliverance

Isaiah 38:7, 8 says,

⁷ “This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He has spoken: ⁸ Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.

The “stairway” (mahala) was part of the famous sundial that Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz, had built. Each step marked an hour of time that could be read as the sun rose or fell. The Hebrew word mahala literally means “a journey to a higher place, an ascent.”

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H4609&t=NASB

In commemoration of this event, we see the “Song of Degrees” (KJV) or “Song of Ascents” (NASB) which are the fifteen songs from Psalm 120-134. The fifteen psalms give us the spiritual meaning of the fifteen years added to Hezekiah’s life and spiritual journey.

A poultice of figs was applied to “the boil” (2 Kings 20:7; Isaiah 38:21), whereupon the king recovered. It was an infection of some sort. Likewise, 2 Kings 20:8-11 tells us that the prophet gave the king a choice as to which direction the shadow on the sundial would go. 2 Kings 20:8 says,

⁸ 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?”

Compare this with Isaiah 38:22, which says,

²² Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”

Notice that the account in 2 Kings 20 says that the king was to be healed on “the third day,” allowing him to “go up to the house of the Lord.” For this reason, the third “Song of Ascents” begins, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord” (Psalm 122:1).

These three days also apply to Jerusalem as a whole when we relate this prophecy to the Jubilee prophecy in 2 Kings 19:29, 30,

³⁰ … in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹ The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

Hezekiah himself became the sign of this prophecy, for he went up to the house of the Lord on the third day, and by recovering from his mortal illness, he was able to “take root downward and bear fruit upward.” That is, he produced an heir (Manasseh), who was the “fruit” in this case. Manasseh was born three years later, for at the end of the fifteen years, when Hezekiah died, his son was twelve (2 Kings 21:1).

All of those short-term fulfillments were but signs of long-term prophecy. The end of the story will be the final destruction of Jerusalem but also will see the prophetic “birth” of the overcoming remnant of grace. Like Hezekiah himself, this remnant will go up to the house of the Lord on “the third day,” dating from the time that Christ’s death and resurrection healed us.

The true poultice of figs prophesied of the coming of the Messiah-King of Judah (“fig tree”). Just as a poultice grinds the figs into a mash, so also did Christ have to die in order to apply His healing power to us and ultimately to all of creation. From the standpoint of prophetic timing, the healing began with Jesus’ third-day resurrection, but it is not completed until the third millennium, for a day is as a thousand years (Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8).

When we apply Isaiah’s prophecy to the feast of Tabernacles, we see that going up to the house of the Lord on the third day refers to the presentation of the sons of God on the eighth day of the feast, according to the law of the presentation of firstborn sons (Exodus 22:29, 30).

The story of Hezekiah seems to be simple until we see its long-term prophetic significance.

Hezekiah’s Writing

Isaiah 38:9 says,

⁹ A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

What follows in verses 10-20 is what Hezekiah himself wrote after he recovered from his illness.

Isaiah 38:10-14 begins,

¹⁰ I said, “In the middle of my life I am to enter the gates of Sheol; I am to be deprived of the rest of my years.” ¹¹ I said, “I will not see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living; I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world. ¹² 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 You make an end of me. ¹³ I composed my soul until morning. Like a lion—so He breaks all my bones. From day until night You make an end of me. ¹⁴ Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter; I moan like a dove; my eyes look wistfully to the heights; O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.”

So far, this reads like a funeral dirge, expressing Hezekiah’s feelings when he faced death and when Isaiah gave him no hope of recovery (Isaiah 38:1). These thoughts were behind Hezekiah’s tears as he prayed to God for mercy (Isaiah 38:2, 3).

Isaiah 38:15, 16 continues,

¹⁵ “What shall I say? For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it. I will wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul. ¹⁶ O Lord, by these [thoughts and beliefs] men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit; O restore me to health and let me live!”

It is clear that the king was writing about his state of mind when he despaired for his life. He compared his situation with the general condition of men whose mortal condition is the root of “bitterness.”

Isaiah 38:17 says,

¹⁷ “Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness; it is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

It appears that Hezekiah believed that his illness was divine judgment for his sins, perhaps his sin of depending on Egypt and Ethiopia for deliverance instead of turning to God until the city was surrounded by the Assyrian army.

Isaiah 38:18-20 concludes,

¹⁸ For Sheol cannot thank You, death cannot praise You; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness. ¹⁹ It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today; a father tells his sons about Your faithfulness. ²⁰ The Lord will surely save me; so we will play my songs on stringed instruments all the days of our life at the house of the Lord.”

This commentary on the nature of death applies to the mortal souls of men, for “the soul who sins will die” (Ezekiel 18:4). The “old man” of flesh is the soul, even as Adam was made a living soul (Genesis 2:7 KJV), whereas the “new man” is spiritual, even as Christ Himself (1 Corinthians 15:45). The soul man has been mortal since the original sin, but the spirit man, being begotten by our heavenly Father, is immortal.

Hezekiah’s writing was an expression of despair and bitterness that is common to all men. As such, his soul describes the hopelessness of the souls of all men. The soul has been condemned to death, and this cannot be changed. However, God has provided another way, for when God begets a new creature in our spirit, we are able to transfer our identity from the mortal soul to the immortal spirit and thus find true healing and salvation. See my pamphlet, How death affects your Body, Soul, and Spirit.

At the conclusion of Hezekiah’s writing, Isaiah 38:21, 22 concludes the story:

²¹ Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” ²² Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”

The answer to this question was given before the question. Thus, we read, “Isaiah had said” and “Hezekiah had said.”