Week 30 Day 214 (2 Kings 20-21,) July 31, 2020
God’s message to me today and verse (s) to memorize:
And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. 8 And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the third day? 9 And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? 10 And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. 11 And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.2 Kings 20:7-11 (KJV)
What does this teach me about God?
I am totally blown away by God’s patience and his willingness to accommodate our doubts. Here we have a direct word from God to Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah that God would heal the king. God was gracious enough to answer the king’s prayer and extended his life by 15 years. Yet he still wanted a sign. And to boot he even gave him a choice of 1 of 2 signs. The sun going going forward by 10 degrees or backwards by 10 degrees. Hezikiah picked what he thought was the hardest one, going backward by 10 degrees as he said going forward was too easy. And look at my God doing it at the request of the prayer of Isaiah after he cried unto the Lord.
Another observation is that even though God declared he would heal him, he used natural means. Isaiah in verse 7 told them to take a lump of figs and put on his boil and he recovered. So, it shows that God sometimes works through natural means like figs, tea, and today modern medicine to accomplish his purposes.