Roger Lewis - The Crisis of Hezekiah - Class 3 - The Sickness and The Shadow

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1. 0:10

   Brothers and sisters, we are ready to begin our third class. Our speaker is Brother Roger Lewis. The theme for Brother Roger’s classes this week is The Crisis of Hezekiah. Today’s class is entitled The Sickness and the Shadow. Brother Roger.

2. 0:45

   Well, thank you, brother Chairman, and good morning, my dear brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ. In our last study. Then you might remember that we left Hezekiah lifted up with confidence in Yahweh’s answer about the letter to Sennacherib, that God had promised Hezekiah that he himself from heaven on high was in complete control, that he would protect Jerusalem, that he would remove the Assyrian from the land. And you can imagine how thankful Hezekiah must have been that God had taken full responsibility for the crisis, because that’s exactly what he had prayed for in his God centered God focused prayer.

3. 1:27

   But the promised removal of Sennacherib had not yet come, and in the meantime another problem had arisen which loomed large in the life of the king. For some time now, he’d been feeling unwell, but instead of the complaint clearing up as he might have hoped, it grew progressively worse. The news of his condition had already spread around the royal household. It was always difficult to keep secrets like that in the palace, and so soon enough the nation itself was buzzing with reports that Hezekiah was in trouble.

4. 2:03

   Another catastrophe was about to burst upon the beleaguered king. And all of that has caught up in our study, which we might describe. Under this idea of the sickness and the shadow, which brings us to Isaiah chapter 38. So do you notice in Isaiah 38 and verse one, the record now goes on to say in those days was Hezekiah second to death?

5. 2:41

   In what days, What days were these? Well, the answer is the days of the Assyrian invasion, the days of the impending siege of of Jerusalem, in the days of the crisis which the king was already grappling with in those days. In those days, was Hezekiah sick? Now he already knew about the sickness that he had, but what he didn’t know until this day, until this moment of time, is that it was a sickness that could take him to the grave. He’d probably been afflicted with his condition for weeks or even months, but he became progressively worse but never realized that at the end his condition would be assessed as life threatening.

6. 3:22

   That was that he was not only ill, but the nation knew about it. And with that perversity that’s so typical of human nature, there were already some critical of the king suggesting that perhaps his sickness might have been an indication of his sinfulness, such as the perversity of human nature. And what it did, is it all added to the immense pressure which Hezekiah felt.

7. 3:42

   And it was an important question. You see, the question was this, Was this sickness a trial of faith or a punishment for sin? Well, the record will be left to unfold the answer for us this morning. So Isaiah 38 and verse one says in those days was Hezekiah succumb to death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos came unto him and said unto him, thus saith Yahweh, set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.

8. 4:12

   Now where it says set thine house in order, the margin says give charge concerning thy house. It’s sort of like the Jewish equivalent to ask the king to make his last will and testament. So Hezekiah was being asked to arrange the disposition of his estate, to confirm the process for royal succession, to finalize all the things that were left undone that now needed his urgent attention. But Can you imagine the sorrow of Isaiah in having to come and make this terrible pronouncement to Hezekiah? Isaiah had laboured with this king. He was a kindred spirit in the truth. Imagine having to go to the royal. Palace to bring this message of imminent death. But bring it He did, because there was no point in hiding from his Akai the true nature of his affliction. It was in the purpose of God that His servant must know that his condition was terminal.

9. 5:08

   For thou shalt die and not live. The literal Hebrew is thou art a dead man. So what was this sickness? Which now had him in its grip, in the King’s grip. Well, we’re told in verse 21 of this chapter that he had a boil. And that word boil shaken signified an ulcer or some other form of serious inflammation. But it’s a word used about abscesses that could turn leprous in Leviticus 13, verses 18 to 23. And it happens to be the same word used to describe the terrible eruptions upon the body of Job in Job chapter 2, verses 7 and 8, the boils that covered Job. And it appears that Job suffered from a particularly virulent form of leprosy that excluded him from the camp, as the law of leprosy required.

10. 6:06

    We believe that Hezekiah Prophet probably suffered from some form of leprosy. The problem was that the type of illness involved often began with blood poisoning, and only when the plague was deep inside did the signs on the outside begin to appear. And by the time they appeared,

11. 6:25

    it already wasn’t good. And if it was a form of leprosy, then Isaiah here takes the place of the inspecting priest to tell the king that he had a sickness unto death, how his heart must have sunk. So verse 2 says Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed unto Yahweh. I don’t think it was so much to turn toward the wall as to turn away from all others, to turn away from all else.

12. 6:54

    For this moment of intense privacy, he privacy. The king needed to be alone with his God. It reminds us of Matthew 6 and verse 6 when the Lord said that thou, when thou praised, enter into thy closet. The Greek word to may on means in a chamber. And when thou? Hast shut the door, pray to thy father, which is in secret. And I think that’s exactly what Hezekiah is doing on this occasion.

13. 7:22

    You see, there are times when a crisis comes upon us and the burden’s almost too difficult to bear. You see, here’s a car was already struggling with the weight of all Judah depending upon him. He’s emotionally and spiritually and mentally exhausted. And now a second trial burst upon him in another dimension, the pain of a physical affliction which had grown.

14. 7:45

    Steadily worse, but is now declared to be fatal. And when those two trials came upon him and met together, he felt absolutely crushed by their weight.

15. 8:02

    He didn’t know what to do. We’ve got reason to believe, incidentally, that I think the thing, the thing that Hezekiah struggled with the most, was not death.

16. 8:12

    It was the prospect of a premature death, the sense of being cut off too early in life. In fact, we know that that was his first reaction because, well, this is what he says later on in this very chapter in Isaiah 38 and the writing that he wrote later on after his recovery, he said, I had said.

17. 8:29

    In the middle. Of my life I am to enter the gates of Seoul. I have been deprived of the rest of my. Years, he says. And again in Isaiah 38 verse 12, my lifespan is gone, taken from me, cut off from the loom, he cries. And again in one of the Psalms that we believe Hezekiah wrote Psalm 102, verses 23 and 24, He shortened my days.

18. 8:55

    I said, Oh my God, take me not away. In the midst of my days, yes, I think what he feared most of all was the prospect of premature death, a death far earlier than he expected. And it produced huge anxiety about all the three. Heads of unfinished business. He could see everywhere in his Kingdom and in his reign all the things he wanted to finish and he couldn’t.

19. 9:19

    So there were many reasons, weren’t there, why this man at this time might have prayed for an extension of life. You see, in the first instance he felt the dependence of the nation upon him. At this moment of the Assyrian being at the very door. You see, this nation leaned upon his words. They were desperate for his guidance. They needed the stability of his. Faith.

20. 9:43

    In fact, if there was ever a time that the nation needed their king, it was right now. But I think he also wanted to complete his work of spiritual reformation because he knew that it was unfinished. Hezekiah knew that much of the nation didn’t share his. Faith. They remained in. Idolatry. In fact, it was a crucial moment in the history of the Kingdom of Judah. Because you see, Israel, the northern Kingdom, had already now gone into captivity.

21. 10:11

    And Hezekiah knew that Judah would suffer the same fate if they did not return to the true worship of God, a worship which he had championed. He desperately needed further time to advance that work. And lastly, but certainly not least. He had no ear, The Royal Lion of David. Stood in jeopardy because when Isaiah the prophet said set thine house in order, he didn’t have a house. He had no son.

22. 10:46

    He’d never married and his delay in finding a bride and beginning a son I don’t think was deliberate, but the neglect of his responsibility had now caught up with him. So for many reasons, then, Hezekiah might well have prayed for an extension of life, not so much for himself As for an opportunity to complete all the things that as yet were uncompleted. And yet the surprising thing is, brothers and sisters, in this chapter in Isaiah 38, that after his first initial reaction, in despairing of the prospect of an early death, the true spirit of the king asserted itself.

23. 11:21

    The real faith of this man who trusted in his God and the substance of his prayer, the actual prayer that’s given for us. Written here in scripture in Isaiah 38, the Prairie did offer well, it reads quite differently. So this is what he actually did pray. Isaiah 38 verse three. He said remember. Now, O Yahweh, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.

24. 11:48

    Now incidentally, these were not the words of a boastful man in a time of extremity like this. What he said was the utterance of his heart as to his true state before his God. He prayed in the simple sincerity of who he was. And by the way, his words were an echo of God’s own estimate of His character. The book of Second Chronicles says in chapter 31, verses 20 and 21.

25. 12:13

    Thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah, and wrought that which was good and right and truth with all his heart before Yahweh his God. So his prayer here in Isaiah 38 verse three really claimed no more for himself than what God already thought about him. But do you notice this?

26. 12:34

    His prayer contained no confession of sin. If that had. Been the reason for his smiting. It made no petition for a longer life. It offered no justification of his. Position. How his prayer really reads is as one who had accepted in humility whatever God had laid upon him and who would submit himself to the stroke of God.

27. 13:02

    He surrendered to whatever the will of Yahweh might be. And he did. So because his deepest instinct born of a spiritual mind is that he was always seek to trust his God. It was an amazing spirit. His only request was that God remember him. But there was such pathos in that cry as he committed himself to the divine will. And there was a man later on, but the sisters who had Hezekiah as his hero, Hezekiah as his role model. And that man’s name was Nehemiah. And Nehemiah would utter these words in Nehemiah 13, verse 14. Remember Me, Oh my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I’ve done for the House of my God. He took his prayer from Nehemiah from from Hezekiah Brothers. Sisters and Nehemiah wasn’t asking for an extension of life. He was asking God to remember him in the day of account, and so was Hezekiah.

28. 13:59

    Hezekiah didn’t pray, O Yahweh, spare me. He prayed, O Yahweh, Remember Me. And Hezekiah wept sore, it says at the end of the verse. Martin says with great weeping, because they were the tears of a man whose spirit was broken, who had no resources left to fight with, but who cast his burden upon the Lord in submission to his will. And verse 4 says, Then came the word of Yahweh to Isaiah, saying, go and say to Hezekiah.

29. 14:34

    Now, interestingly enough, the book of Isaiah doesn’t tell us. How long it? Was after Hezekiah’s prayer. Before Yahweh’s answer came. But the Book of Kings does. So if you come with me to the Second of Kings and chapter 20, we pick up now the parallel record in the Book of Kings, which offers surprisingly rich material, adding to the details of the prophet Isaiah at this crucial moment, as it turns out, in the matter of the sickness of the king, and we’re told this in the Second of Kings chapter 20 and verse 4, he is now the King’s record of the same moment he’s prayed.

30. 15:15

    Verse 3, Remember now how I’ve walked before thee? And it came to pass, says verse 4A4. Isaiah was gone out into the middle court that the word of Yahweh came to him saying, turn again and tell Hezekiah. Now it’s not certain, brothers and sisters, whether the phrase middle court in this verse answers to the central court of the palace itself. Or whether it’s a reference to the section of Jerusalem between the upper and lower city of Jerusalem. But whichever one it was, whether in the palace or in the city, it’s what we’re being told is that before Isaiah even got to that place, he’s asked to turn around and go straight back to the inner Chamber of the king with a message of reprieve. And it can only have been a matter of minutes. Now there’s something peculiar here, don’t you think? So why was the edict that he would die revoked almost immediately?

31. 16:12

    The short space between the two, the sentence of death verse one and the proclamation of. Healing, verse 5 at least suggests that this was a test, not a punishment, a test of his faith. And it also suggests that the prayer of Hezekiah in verse 3 must have been of such a contrite and genuine spirit as to delight as God.

32. 16:38

    And the words which follow, I think, lead us to that conclusion, because the message that Isaiah was asked to take back to the king was verse 10, turn again, sorry. Verse 5, turn again and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people. And that’s an interesting expression. The captain, the norgeed, the leader, or the commander? Brown driver.

33. 16:59

    Briggs says that the proper meaning of norgeed is the one who goes in front, but it was a title especially associated with David. Samuel calls David the norgeed in first of Samuel 13, verse 14. Abigail called some the norgeed in first of Samuel 25 and verse 30. Nathan calls him the norgeed in second of Samuel Chapter 7, verse 8. David was the norgeed of his people. So when God addressed Hezekiah in this way, he was comforting him with the assurance that he regarded him in the same light as David of old.

34. 17:38

    And I think Hezekiah deserved the epithet the captain of my people, because or because of these words. Second Kings 18, verse 3. Hezekiah did that which was right in the sight of Yahweh, according to. All that David, his father did you see he was the true heir of David’s spirit, David’s work, and for that reason God would be merciful unto him and and the. Words that follow confirm.

35. 18:02

    Thus says Yahweh. This says Yahweh, the God of David thy father. It says so. He was the divine recognition that placed his a car in the same category as his predecessor. He was a leader and a commander of his people in the same way that David was. And then came these wonderful words. Say these words.

36. 18:26

    I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears. And don’t you think those expressions tell us, incidentally, that God must have been close at hand? His presence, as it were, had hovered over the royal palace all this time. But the words. That came were actually in response to Hezekiah’s prayer offered not for himself but for the nation because hadn’t he prayed in Isaiah 37 verse 17 O Yahweh incline thineer and here O Yahweh open thine eyes and see and now comes back these words I have heard thy prayer I have seen thy tears so that which he.

37. 19:05

    Pleaded for others. The Father returned upon himself. Behold, I will heal thee, it says. On the third day thou shalt go up into the House of God. Now that was surprising because whatever the malady was. Yahweh promised a full recovery within a very short space of time and much shorter than the provision of the law. Now you might recall that Hezekiah’s great grandfather Azar had been smitten with leprosy. He’d been obliged to spend the years of his life, the remaining years of his life, in permanent isolation. He could never, ever go up again to the House of God. And even the law for the cleansing of the leper said that even if they had been declared clean, they still had to remain out of the camp for a further 7 days. And.

38. 19:51

    Only on the 8th. Day could they approach to the House of God. Leviticus 14 verses 8:00 to 11:00. So if it has a card to be healed and restored so quickly, that must have been a mark of divine favor. And so it was, brothers and sisters, and there was more to come, because verse six goes on to say, I’ll add unto thy days, 15.

39. 20:11

    Years. So why 15 years? Why not ten? Why not 20? Well, may I suggest, because Hezekiah’s greatest sorrow was the feeling that he’d been cut off, as it were, in the very middle of his life, in the very middle of his work. And at the time that the sickness came upon him, he was in the 14th year of his reign. And I think that God’s answer here, I’ll add unto thy days, 15 years.

40. 20:41

    God’s answer was to double it by adding as many years again as He’s already had upon the throne. Or, if I put it another way, God offered to credit his Akai’s account with the same length of rain he’d already completed so he could use it all over again. Could there be any better proof that God’s heard his prayer? So you think this is the midst of your time? You’ve lost 14 to 15 years.

41. 21:00

    I’ll give it all back to you. I’ll give all that time. Back to you again, he says. But you see what’s interesting about all this? Remember his Akai hadn’t asked for an extension of time, verse 3. He’d asked for God to remember him. This was God’s response to Hezekiah, spirit of committing himself. This was God’s decree.

42. 21:19

    I will add unto thy days. That’s God’s own decision, not Hezekiah’s request. I’ll add 15 years. I’ll give back everything you’ve got and a little more besides. And and notice what it is, what how significant these words are, and says verse 6, I will deliver thee and the city out of the hand of the king of Assyria. So here’s the proof for the timing of this episode. Hezekiah’s sickness happened after the Assyrians had invaded chapter 37, but before they were overthrown. His sickness had come right in the middle of this whole crisis, right in the very middle.

43. 22:00

    The the Syrians have arrived, but God has not yet dealt with them. And now he’s sick. And the king promises therefore deliverance for the king and his people, both for his own name’s sake. And notice that comes first, and also for David’s sake.

44. 22:15

    So as I said, verse 7, take a lump of figs. And they took him, laid it on the boil, and he recovered. Now we’re not going to comment on that this morning, brother sisters, because we hope, God willing at a later time to consider those words, perhaps in the proper setting based on the Isaiah record itself. So verse 8 says Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that Yahweh will heal me, that I shall go up to the House of Yahweh?

45. 22:41

    The third day Hezekiah believed that he would be blessed, but he asked for a sign. But that was a good thing, not a bad thing. And the answer of his of Isaiah. Came back verse 9 Yahweh Isaiah said This sign shalt thou have of Yahweh, that Yahweh will do the thing that he has spoken.

46. 22:57

    Shall the shadow go forward 10° or go back 10°? So Hezekiah had asked for a sign. Verse 8. But it is Isaiah who determines what the sign shall be. And Isaiah says the sign will be the sign of the moving shadow. So notice the keyword verse 9 shall the shadow go forward? Verse 10 for the shadow to go down. Verse 10 again let the shadow.

47. 23:23

    Return backward verse. 11 He brought the. Shadow backward. Now, brothers and sisters, I don’t think that Isaiah chose that sign of his own accord. I think that sign was given him by Yahweh.

48. 23:39

    Now that word shadow cell in the Hebrew TSEL is a word that’s used to illustrate the ephemeral and transient aspects of life, the life, our life that is both impermanent and uncertain. Just have a look at these passages and see how the use of the word shadow teaches that lesson that life is transient.

49. 24:02

    It is but a shadow. Here it is in Job 14, verse 2. Man cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down. He fleeth also as a shadow to sell. Or again in Psalm 102, Hezekiah’s Psalm. One of them, Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down. My days are like a shadow to sell.

50. 24:24

    And. Again, in Psalm 144, verses 3 and 4, Yahweh, What is man that thou art, that thou takest knowledge of Him? Man is like to vanity as days are as. A shadow, it says. And Ecclesiastes 6, verse 12. Who knows what’s good for man in this life, all the days of his vain, vain life, which he spendeth as a shadow. Life is transient.

51. 24:48

    Life is uncertain. That look at these keywords in these 4 passages. The shadow that flees, the shadow that declines, the shadow that passes, the shadow that’s spent. Yes, this is all about the sense of the brevity and fleeting nature of life, and that’s no doubt how Hezekiah felt at this very moment. But you see, the lesson of the story of the shadow in this chapter, in this episode, brothers and sisters, is that.

52. 25:24

    Yahweh has the power to control the shadow. God can lengthen or shorten the shadow of life. And perhaps with that understanding of its significance, Hezekiah responded in the way that he did, because he gave a very good answer to Isaiah’s question, Shall the shadow go forward or backwards? Isaiah had asked verse 9.

53. 25:45

    And the answer of the king comes back verse 10. Hezekiah said, it is a light thing for the shadow to go down 10°. Nay, but let the shadow return backward 10°. So you see, Hezekiah reasoned this way that the shadow moving forward would simply mean that time was advancing as it normally does.

54. 26:06

    Might be at a faster rate, but that would just be the acceleration of time. But for the shadow to return backward, that would mean that time hadn’t just been slowed.

55. 26:18

    That would mean that time had been reversed, that as the shadow retreated, time had been redeemed. Now that would be a miracle indeed. And in that request, Hezekiah was really asking for evidence that he would be granted the opportunity to reuse the time to accomplish all the things that he’d wept at earlier that remained undone, the things that were needed for the spiritual.

56. 26:45

    Good of the nation. So verse 11 says Isaiah the prophet cried unto Yahweh, and he brought the shadow 10° backwards, by which it was gone down in the dial of Ahaz. Can you imagine, brothers and sisters, how Isaiah offered that prayer that day? He was in the King’s bed chamber. He says which Which way would you like it to go, forwards or backwards?

57. 27:04

    The king said I could go backwards. And Isaiah prayed right there in the Chamber of the king, with Hezekiah listening. Isaiah asked Yahweh to move that shadow, and he must have prayed with all the fervency of his being. And the shadow did move, says the record on the dial of Ahai’s. Now why would we need to know that it’s the sundial of Ahai’s?

58. 27:30

    Well, I think because of Isaiah Chapter 7, if you come to the prophecy of Isaiah Chapter 7 many years before. Isaiah the prophet had had a meeting with Hezekiah’s father. Hezekiah’s father was none other than Ahaz and in that meeting. He’d offered Ahaz a sign, and this is what the record says in Isaiah Chapter 7 verse 10. Moreover, Yahweh, but it’s through the mouth of Isaiah the prophet Yahweh.

59. 28:02

    Spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of Yahweh, thy God. Ask it either in the depth or in the height above. But A has said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt Yahweh. So A has was offered a sign, either from heaven or from earth, from the height or from the depth. But because of his lack of faith, he refused. He didn’t want to know the divine intentions. I don’t want to know anything that God might want to teach me, so I will not tempt the Lord my God, he says with a righteous show of piety.

60. 28:33

    But he was a man actually, who in his apostasy introduced foreign objects. Into both the royal palace and the House of God. But now his son, who’s a man of implicit faith. Eagerly. Asks for a sign, nothing, doubting that he will recover as God had promised. And God gave him him this man Hezekiah, A sign from the heights involving the sun and its shadow. As it cast on its skywards journey, Hezekiah was a very different man.

61. 29:03

    And his father, well, that brings us back to the record now of Isaiah chapter 38 as we take up the passage again, I think incidentally, brothers and sisters, there’s an interesting point here because those conversations between the two men that Isaac, that Isaiah. Obviously had with Hezekiah and that are recorded in the second of Kings chapter 20 are not there in Isaiah’s chapter 38. Why would that be the case?

62. 29:30

    Why would all those special pleadings of Isaiah be removed? But you see, I think the prophets account removed anything that drew attention to himself. So the part that Isaiah plays in this is discreetly edited out. In Isaiah’s account, Oh yes, he would speak, but the focus of of Isaiah was Isaiah 38 verse 7. This will be the sign unto thee from Yahweh that Yahweh will do this thing.

63. 29:58

    And that’s what Isaiah was focused on, is the. Work of God, and that whatever the sign was, it would give proof that Yahweh was the source of the miracle. And so it would prove to be because only God could have wrought what happened in Jerusalem on that day as events were to make very plain. So it says verse 8.

64. 30:18

    Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees which has gone down in the sundial of Ahaz 10° backward. So the sun returned 10°, by which degrees it was gone down. So when it says incidentally verse 8, behold, I will bring again. The eye, of course, is God Himself. After all, that’s what happened in the King’s record. Isaiah cried unto Yahweh, and he Yahweh brought the shadow 10° backwards.

65. 30:45

    Now that word. Degrees. We need to notice that because it’s a keyword here. It’s used five times in this one verse. It’s the feminine active participle of Allah which means to take a journey to a higher place. And in the Hebrew here this word degrees is ma Allah, MA apostrophe ALAH ma Allah. And it literally means a stairway or steps. Now let me show you the use of that term in other places so that you see what that word degrees here really means. In Exodus chapter 20, we’re told in verses 25 and 26. If that won’t make me an altar, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, neither shalt thou go.

66. 31:32

    Up Allah by steps, ma Allah. That’s the word for degrees in Isaiah 38, verse 8. Ma Allah steps or again in Nehemiah chapter 12 verse 37, at the fountain gate which was over against them, they went up Allah by the stairs. Ma Allah of the city of David, or again in Ezekiel 40, verse 49, he brought me up by the steps, Ma Allah, whereby they went up Allah to it and there were pillars by the posts.

67. 32:08

    And now this one here in Isaiah 38, behold, I’ll bring again the shadow of the degrees, Ma Allah, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway. Ma Allah of Ahaz, this is all about the shadow on the staircase and whatever the sun was about. Brothers and sisters, it’s about. The movement of the shadow on this particular staircase, in fact the literal rendering of the text in Isaiah 38 verse 8 is this.

68. 32:39

    This is how it should read based on the. Use of that word, Behold, I will turn the shadow of the steps which the sun has gone down on the steps of a has backward 10 steps, and the sun turned back 10 steps on the steps which it had gone down. It was a staircase.

69. 33:02

    The shadow on the staircase and whatever the sun dial of a has was, it must have involved a gnomon, a column or a block at the top of the staircase that would cast a shadow from the sun as it traveled around. The shadow would come across that block and. Down the staircase. So the question is, as we see from this record, how many steps did the shadow return? Why 10?

70. 33:24

    Now we don’t know what length of time these steps measured. So we probably can’t determine the specific time involved, but we can certainly suggest the possibility because I believe that the steps most likely were the measurements of an hour. That’s what most sundials measured. Even in those ancient times, they measured time in increments of hours. So if each step was an hour, and the shadow began to move backwards between 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon, then the shadow went back from 4:00 in the afternoon all the way back to. 6:00 in the morning, which was the official start of the day.

71. 34:05

    It was as if the day was to start right from its beginning again. Now 10 is the number of fingers on a man’s hand, and a woman’s hand for that matter, but it symbolized, you see, the aggregate of the whole. Job 19 verse three Job said these 10 times he have approached me. Daniel one verse 20 and all matters of wisdom. He found them 10 times better than all the magicians. Zechariah 8 verse 2010 Men shall take hold out of all nations. 10 was the sum of the whole.

72. 34:40

    And as the number as an aggregate, it represented that which was total or complete. So when the shadow returned by 10°, it symbolized the complete reversal of time. So here’s a car was going to have his answer the time he. Stood to lose would be totally returned back to him back to 6:00. So in some way, the shadow moving up by 10° or steps became the proof that his life would be extended by 15 years. The problem is, how do you reconcile those two seemingly different measurements?

73. 35:11

    Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if there was 15° matching 15 years? Isn’t that all what we secretly want? But you couldn’t have 15. Degrees, you see, because if they’re measuring hours. There were never 15 hours of daylight to cast shadows. The car they’ve ever been 15 stairs. So with regard to the 10°, if each step measured an hour and the sign took place at around 4:00 in the afternoon, then there are two important facts that emerge.

74. 35:40

    The 1st of this is the. Time of day? Well, that’s the time in the afternoon when the shadows would descend the stairs with increasing speed, because that’s the time, scripturally, when the shadows are at their fastest as they lengthen. Remember this passage in Psalm 102 again, the Psalm of Hezekiah. My days are like a shadow that declineth.

75. 36:04

    The Hebrew word means to stretch out, and the new King James Version says like a shadow that lengthens. That’s the afternoon sun, that as it sinks, the shadows grow longer and faster. The Song of Solomon chapter 2, verse 17. This is a translation from a brother until the day breathed and the shadows be lengthened.

76. 36:25

    And brother Roy Wood dupe in his book on Song of Songs says in the late afternoon, as if a breeze cools the air, as the shadows lengthen and vanish, as the dusk of the evening heralds a speedy change. Tonight the growing longer shadows of the afternoon. And in our reading, daily reading yesterday, Jeremiah 6 verse 4 says, Woe unto us, for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. So when you think about that, you see. The shadows of the afternoon.

77. 36:58

    For this shadow to be reversed and to ascend the stairs at a time when the shadows are rapidly lengthening was an even more remarkable miracle. But moving the shadow back back by 10° took the time, as we said, back to 6:00 in the morning. That was the Lord who said John 11 verse 9. Are there not 12 hours?

78. 37:20

    In the day. So even measuring ten of those hours still allows us to take the time back to the start of the day. And if the number 10, taking it back to 6:00 represented the complete reversal of time back to the beginning of the day, There is a connection with the 15 years. Because you see, when it came to see that same sign of bringing it back to the start in the context of Hezekiah’s kingship, we must.

79. 37:45

    Move from the measurement of time in hours degrees to the measurement of a reign in years. And since he has a car was already in his 14th year, the addition of another 15 years took his reign right back to its beginning so that he could start it all over again. His kingship was returned to 6:00 in the morning, and the 15 years were the perfect counterpart to the 10°, the marvellous Bill and Sisters.

80. 38:16

    And the next thing to notice in that verse, Isaiah 38, verse 8, do you notice twice it mentions the word gone down, and the Hebrew word literally means to descend. It had descended because it was moving down the steps of the staircase. And the sign that Hezekiah had asked for was to see a reversal of the direction of that shadow.

81. 38:35

    So how do you think the miracle was performed? Well, it didn’t need the cosmic forcing of the sun into a different trajectory. That would have been somewhat catastrophic. There was a much simpler way for this moving of the shadow to be accomplished. You see, all that was required was a source of light stronger than the sun that could reverse the shadow it cast and cause it to retreat. And the scripture tells us of such a source of light. It’s the Shekinah glory of Yahweh that was manifested in His angels.

82. 39:14

    Daniel 10 verses 5 and 6 says behold a certain man clothed in linen, his face as the appearance of lightning. Matthew 28 verses 2 and three says the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and his countenance was like lightning. So here’s the incredible. Brilliance of the Shekinah glory, but the interesting thing is that the angels could reveal or conceal that glory when they conversed with mortals.

83. 39:43

    That’s an ability that Christ and the Saints will share, Habakkuk chapter 3, verse 4 says. And his brightness was as the light. He had bright beams out of his side, and there was the hiding. Of. His power Zechariah chapter 14 verses 5 and 6 is translated by brother Thomas reads And Yahweh, my God shall come, and all the holy ones with thee.

84. 40:07

    And it shall be in that day there shall be no brightness. The splendid ones drawing in. So those that possess the Shekinah glory have the power to reveal only so much of it as they wish their onlookers to see.

85. 40:25

    And lastly, ponder this passage when the risen and glorified Christ spoke with. Paul on the road to Damascus. Paul described their meeting this way in acts 26 verse 13. He said at midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from. Heaven. Above the brightness of the sun. Above the brightness of the sun. And now picture the scene in Jerusalem on that fateful day when the king lay upon his bed, and the prophet of God prayed with all his might that Yahweh would move the shadow. I think God sent an Angel, one that could make himself invisible.

86. 41:07

    If he pleased. And to permit only so much of his brilliance as he wished to show. And now imagine that Angel at the foot of the of the staircase, right at the very bottom, down which ran the deepest, darkest shadow cast by the sun. And as the Angel climbed the stairs, he allowed each step to be illuminated as he trod. But all that could be seen by others looking was the Shekinah light itself moving up the staircase one step at a time, so that the shadow moved and the shadow retreated up the stairs. It had to be that way, didn’t it? Because if the shadow had gone down the steps, the sign had to be in the same sense of the shadow going up the stairs. And that’s what the Septuagint says, The Septuagint says. So the sun reascended the 10 steps by which the shadow had gone down.

87. 41:55

    I think that’s exactly what happened, except I don’t think it was the sun that ascended the steps. Mother and sisters, I think it was an Angel that trod their treads as he walked up the stairs. And the shadow, step by step, retreated before the Shekinah glory, which was a brilliance more powerful than the sun, which had cast the shadow to start with.

88. 42:18

    What do you think the king thought as he saw the shadow moving? It was a visual graphic display of his recovery. He watched the shadow as seen the stairs and was not a little comforted.

89. 42:35

    And there’s another interesting thought here, because you see in the second. Of the Kings. When Hezekiah had asked for the sign, he said this. What shall be the sign? That I will go up to the House of Yahweh? And the word is, go up Allah. But it so happened that between the King’s palace and the House of Yahweh there was a set of steps.

90. 42:58

    Now hold your hand in Isaiah 38 and come back to the Second of Chronicles Chapter 9, because in the Second of Chronicles Chapter 9. We’ve got a reference to those steps. This is the visit of the queen of Sheba to Solomon, and we’re told this in Second Chronicles 9. Perhaps reading from verse 3 for connection. Second Chronicles 9 verse 3, when the Queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon.

91. 43:27

    And the house that he had built, and the meat of his tabled, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel, and his cupbearers and their apparel, and. His ascent by which he went up into the House of Yahweh. So there was a special staircase between the King’s palace and the Temple Mount, which was for the exclusive use of the king and going up to the House of God. And that phrase, his ascent aliyah, by which he went up Allah.

92. 43:57

    Uses words formed from the same root. Is Ma Allah the staircase or the degrees? And that staircase built in Solomon’s time would have been used by all the kings that followed. They have their own private entrance into the temple courts. Hezekiah had asked for a sign that he would again be permitted to ascend those stairs. And the sign of the shadow climbing the steps was the perfect answer that he would.

93. 44:26

    So verse 8 says at the end of the. Verse. So the sun returned 10°, by which degrees it was gone down, and since the sign was visible to the king on his sick bed through a window in the royal bedchamber. Perhaps the very staircase on which the miracle was performed was the steps that he would climb in just a few days to visit the House of God where he worshipped and served. And now perhaps we know why the whole story was to revolve around the sign of the shadow on the stairs. So he was a moment in his Hezekiah’s life. And in the moment of his crisis, when he was taken from the depths of despair to the heights of happiness, he tasted an indescribable sense of relief and joy that must have filled him with wonder at the ways of God. But he learned a lesson as well.

94. 45:20

    And there was a lesson for. Us, and He is the lesson for us in terms of how we might go about facing moments of crisis.

95. 45:34

    And the lesson from our consideration this morning is learning to reveal the spirit of resignation before our God when such things come upon us. Do you remember the spirit of Job when a series of catastrophes rained down upon him and left him disconsolate? Job 121 And what was the response of the King? Where was his focus?

96. 46:02

    Yahweh gave, Yahweh hath taken. Blessed be the name of Yahweh, He surrendered completely to the sovereign will of God. He remained resolute in declaring God’s supremacy. That’s the spirit of resignation. Do. You remember when David fled from Jerusalem as Absalom’s rebellion threatened to overwhelm his reign. And these were his words in the second of Samuel chapter 15 and verses 25 and 26.

97. 46:37

    David prayed with these words when he said, I, If I find favour, he God will bring me again. But if he say, I have no delight in the Behold, here am I, Let him do to me, as seemeth good unto him. You see, it brings you to tears to see David’s despair on this occasion as his own son rebelled against him.

98. 46:54

    But where was David’s focus? Let him do to me as seemeth good to him. He left his destiny in the hands of his God, and he did so in the spirit of complete submission to his will. That’s the spirit of resignation. Paul wrote these words in second of Timothy, chapter one, verse 12.

99. 47:21

    I know whom I have believed, and I’m persuaded that he’s able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him. But the full verse reads as follows. For the which ’cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless I’m not ashamed. For I know whom I’ve believed, and I’m persuaded that he’s able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

100. 47:41

     You see, Paul was under suffering when he wrote these words. But what was his focus? His focus was. That he truly believed in God’s power to watch over him through to the day of judgement, whatever might happen to him. That that which he committed unto God was his spirit, just as our Lord Jesus Christ head.

101. 47:59

     That’s the spirit of resignation. And now look at the spirit of Hezekiah in our story today he says, Remember now, O Yahweh, I beseech thee, how I’ve walked before thee in truth, with a perfect heart, done that which is good. And I sight. You can feel his Akar’s anguish, you can almost touch the witness of his tears, but where’s his focus?

102. 48:28

     Remember now, O Yahweh, I beseech thee, I’ve walked before thee, I’ve walked before thee. I’ve done good in thy sight. And what his Akar was really saying is, I am your man. I always have been. So I resign my life into your keeping, and I commit myself unto you as the arbiter of my ultimate destiny. There’s nothing more I can do but to plead that thou wilt Remember Me in the day of account. That’s the spirit of resignation. It’s that moment, brothers and sisters, when we finally surrender to the will of God and leave our crises in His hands. It’s when we ask Him to work a work which we cannot accomplish, and to take control of those things that lie beyond our control.

103. 49:24

     And that’s the spirit of resignation, that it’s one of the greatest lessons for how best we might face the trials in the crises of life. As it says in one of our hymns,

104. 49:39

     Lord, uphold me day by day. Shed a light upon my way. Guide me through perplexing snares. Care for me in all my cares. Should thy wisdom, Lord, decree trials long and sharp for me. Pain or sorrow, care or shame, Father glorified thy name.