20:1 The prophet Isaiah informs Hezekiah of his imminent death. Hezekiah is unwell; Isaiah is sent by God to have Hezekiah prepare his household for his departure.
20:2-3 As Isaiah leaves, Hezekiah turns over to the wall and prays to God. He asks God to remember the aspects of his life he lived righteously and loyally to God. Hezekiah weeps, pouring his heart out to God as he has this intimate, personal conversation with God about his life.
20:4 Before Isaiah is able to get far at all, God stops the prophet. God redirects Isaiah to return to Hezekiah with an immediate answer to the weeping man's heartfelt prayer. The message from God is: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. God has a deep, unending well of compassion; when one of His children pray to Him, he hears, sees and answers.
20:5 Through Isaiah, God tells Hezekiah to go up to the house of the Lord. He promises to add fifteen years to Hezekiah's life. In his prayer Hezekiah reviewed his life and expressed that he tried to seek first the kingdom of God in his life, and therefore God adds more to the promise: God promises to rescue the king and the city from the Assyrians and to defend them.
In Matthew 6:33 we are told that if we seek God first, all the things we need will be naturally, automatically added to our lives. This is an extraordinary comfort to us because God knows what we need, Romans 8:26. God has decided that humans need love, joy and compassion and we can trust Him to provide them.
20:6 God has compassion on Hezekiah; God also remembers David. David who was described as a man after God's own heart, Acts 13:22. David was imperfect but God continues to remember the fierce and loyal faith and love David had for God. David's love for God drew him back up out of an abyss and God continues that pattern of restoring His children.
20:7 Isaiah instructs Hezekiah to boil figs and the ministrations help to heal Hezekiah. Perhaps Hezekiah is also spiritually sick. We know that in a moment of weak faith, he allowed fear to submit him to his enemy rather than trust in God. Figs are symbolic throughout the Bible; in the Jeremiah 24, we learn about the Parable of the Fig Tree, through which God teaches us about bearing good fruit and being weary of those who produce bad fruit. If Hezekiah, in his prayer, has expressed to God an intention to return to the good fruit bearing trees, his life and spirituality would indeed be revived.
Hezekiah, like many people throughout generations, have allowed fear and stress and anxiety to leach years and health away from our lives. God provides the rest, the hope and the path we need to remain healthy and peaceful in mind and body.
20:8-9 Hezekiah asks for a sign. Before the arrival of the messiah, the people of the Old Testament did not have what we now have: the Spirit of God Himself dwelling within us. Signs were more common and more acceptable because their connection with God was less immediate, less direct. God is therefore compassionate and generous in providing Hezekiah the sign he needs to continue on.
20:8-9 God uses a sun dial to demonstrate his sign. It is impossible that a sun dial would work backward, but God enables one to do so to show Hezekiah that He can and will add time. This is specific to Hezekiah because he also had an impossible request: life added to his own.
20:10-11 And so Isaiah cries out to God for the ability and strength to provide the sign and the sun dial is drawn backward.
20:12-13 Hezekiah is visited by the Babylonians. The Babylonians are flattering Hezekiah in an attempt to align Judah's kingdom with their own. This is unacceptable. Hezekiah should humbly align himself with God only; instead, he entertains the Babylonians whose society is corrupt and worships false idols. Hezekiah tours his visitors all around the kingdom, symbolically leaving spaces wide open for them to infiltrate and corrupt.
20:14-15 Isaiah the prophet is aware of the visit and rhetorically inquires after the Babylonians presence to Hezekiah. Hezekiah responds that he has shown the Babylonians his entire house. Hezekiah has opened his whole self up to their flattery and has again began ingesting bad fruit.
20:16-18 Isaiah prophesies to Hezekiah that because of his allegiance with a corrupt nation, Hezekiah's family will be carried away to Babylon. Every precious the Babylonians have been shown by Hezekiah will become their own. Hezekiah practically invited them to take it all. When we allow corruption into our lives, it grabs and takes everything in sight. Flattery and vanity lures Hezekiah toward his enemies and while he is distracted, they steal from him.
20:20 Hezekiah is not concerned about the warning; as long as it happens after him, he is relieved. Hezekiah wastes the extra time provided to him by God. When we make a request to God, we should fulfill an authentic intention to use the blessing for a good, purposeful reason. Hezekiah squanders his gift from God.
Our lives are a blessed opportunity to serve God in reverence and gratitude, to return and spread the blessing He freely gives us.
Our lives are a blessed opportunity to serve God in reverence and gratitude, to return and spread the blessing He freely gives us.
20:20-21 Hezekiah dies and his son, Manasseh becomes king.
