As we move on into our next portion of Scripture we find Hezekiah contracting an illness that's serious enough to take his life. For a time it looks like it is going to take his life.
"In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, 'This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover." (2 Kings 20:1) When the author of 2 Kings says "in those days" he means during the era of the Assyrian invasion. We are actually backing up a bit in time in Chapter 20 from where we were in Chapter 19. At the end of Chapter 19 we found the Lord miraculously delivering Jerusalem from the army of King Sennacherib of Assyria but later in Chapter 20 we learn that Hezekiah's illness occurred before the city had been delivered.
I think it's likely that Hezekiah sent for Isaiah because he understood that his illness was life-threatening. He wanted the prophet to inquire of God for him to find out whether he will survive or not. This is not the first time in the Bible where a king has inquired of a prophet regarding his own illness or the illness of a family member. King Jeroboam I of Israel, for example, sent his wife to inquire of a prophet when their firstborn son fell ill. For another example, King Ahaziah of Israel suffered a very serious injury when he fell through a balcony railing at his palace. He sent his officials to ask a prophet if he would recover or not. In both of those cases, the answer was no---the person was not going to survive. I think if Jeroboam I or Ahaziah had repented at this bad news, the Lord would have reversed His answer. But neither of these men responded appropriately to the word of God. Hezekiah also gets bad news when he inquires of a prophet. In tomorrow's study session we will learn that Hezekiah had become prideful and that he repented of his pride and that the Lord was gracious to him. So Hezekiah, unlike Jeroboam I and Ahaziah, did respond appropriately to the word of God.
We don't know why Hezekiah became prideful or what form his pride took. We also don't know the nature of the illness but will find out that it involved a boil, perhaps a skin ulcer that had become infected to the point of turning septic. The mention of a boil has led many scholars and physicians and historians to conclude that Hezekiah had come down with the bubonic plague. The fact that 185,000 soldiers of the Assyrian army perish at around the same time is a clue that a plague may have been at work in the region.
Upon hearing the bad news from Isaiah, Hezekiah cries out to the Lord for mercy. He knows the Lord is fully capable of doing anything He says He will do (such as saying He will allow Hezekiah to die) but he also knows the Lord often relents from allowing disaster when the person under His chastisement responds in sorrow and repentance. "Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 'Remember, Lord, how I have walked faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in Your eyes.' And Hezekiah wept bitterly." (2 Kings 20:2-3)
King David, like King Hezekiah, understood that the Lord often relents from allowing disaster. The first child that David conceived with Bathsheba (in an act of adultery) fell ill just as the prophet Nathan told him he would. Nathan said the child would die but while the child was sick David wept and fasted and prayed. He said he did this because, "I thought, 'Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.'" (2 Samuel 12:23a) David's child did not recover, and when we studied the book of 2 Samuel we talked about the likely reasons why the Lord could not relent in that situation, but in today's text I think Hezekiah is saying to himself, "Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let me live."
King Hezekiah sin of pride does not require as much discipline as David's sins of adultery and murder. The Lord hears his prayer and relents of allowing this disaster to occur. Hezekiah's death would be a disaster not only to the king himself but to the nation as well, for Hezekiah has brought about many religious reforms in Judah. Hezekiah has not lived a sinless life but he speaks the truth when he says he has always been faithful to the Lord. He has never turned from the Lord to idolatry as so many kings of Israel and Judah did. In our next study session we will find the Lord accepting a prayer of repentance from Hezekiah and telling Isaiah---before Isaiah even gets all the way off the palace grounds!---to return to the king's room with good news.
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