What Happened to Hezekiah?

December 6, 2010

This past weekend God was feeding us spiritually and answering our prayers in unique ways.  Mark was tired, but there are other signs that treatments are doing what they are intended to do.  Thank you God for this encouragement.  I was the one that got the cold. Thank you God that it wasn’t Mark, at least yet.  We are all washing our hands regularly, and after some additional rest, I feel better too.  God also fed us spiritually at church yesterday with a marvelous speaker whose sermon was clearly and providentially designed just for us!  Wow he was good.  More on this later…..

I had thought that I would need to continue with my Job study but all weekend long, I had this nagging question in my mind about what really became of Hezekiah after his sign from God.  Did He live exactly 15 years?  What did he do for God after he was allowed to live?  Will Mark live just 15 more years?  What does God have in store for him? The questioning in my mind has its roots in a meeting Mark and I had with one of our medical coordinators a few weeks ago.   In the meeting, we were describing our clock story, and Mark said, “If I had rested in the message of Isaiah 38, however, I would have missed the encouraging words that God has for us in Isaiah 40.”  After the meeting I went home to read what Mark was referring to. 

 “27 Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, 
’My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God?’ 
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard?  The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. 
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 
31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. 
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”  Isaiah 40:27-21

God was speaking to Mark in the days that followed his diagnosis with powerful encouragement.  Thank you Lord for Mark’s faithfulness to your word and for your encouragement to him.

But this did not answer my nagging questions about what happened to Hezekiah…was this the Holy Spirit trying to tell me more about what will happen to Mark OR just leading me to His word again?  Does God have more to say to me?  Surely he does but where is He going with this?  I wouldn’t want to make light of what God reveals in the rest of Isaiah – God constantly presents His love to Israel (and us) and promises to establish a glorious kingdom in which peace and righteousness will flourish.  We can be a part of that! 

But, it doesn’t answer my question about Hezekiah!  Alas, there is more about Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20 and 2 Chronicles!  I love how God gives us everything we need to know in His Word.  So I read these chapters along with a Bible commentary to help me understand what God was doing through Hezekiah.  I even read beyond Hezekiah about how God dealt with the mostly unrighteous kings that followed.  It seemed there was only one king besides Hezekiah during this time that really tried to do what God wanted – Josiah. 

Although neither was perfect, God did show His mercy and grace to both Hezekiah and Josiah.  To Hezekiah, God gave 15 more years (as He had promised) and he prospered. God may choose to save Mark from this cancer so he can do many more things for His kingdom on earth.

“20 This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God. 21 In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered.”  2 Chronicles 31:20

Josiah, unlike kings before and after him, did amazing things to cleanup the messes of his predecessors and bring his people back to God’s plan for them.  God showed mercy to Josiah by actually allowing him to die not having to see the demise of his people.  God may choose to take Mark’s life and bless him with heaven early.

“19 Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people—that they would become a curse and be laid waste—and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the LORD. 20 Therefore I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place.’” 2 Kings 22:19-20.

I know that even today, God can allow a death to spare a righteous follower of His from having to endure the pain and effects of sin on this earth.  Thank you God that our hope is in your eternity and not what this world offers us.  Thank you for your promise that we will all live together with you in heaven if we trust in your son Jesus Christ as our savior.  I can endure life on earth with or without my husband because I know you have promised me so much more in eternity.  You will renew my strength!  Amen.