In response to Isaiah’s prayer to God to do so, the shadow in an instant of time fell back ten steps instead of forward. — Reading between the lines again, we see God granting a request Hezekiah hadn’t made: the protection of Jerusalem. — Hezekiah had been miserably ill, but it seems that he was not resigned to death until the prophet came to him with the words, “You will not recover.”. — And he pleads with the LORD. Isaiah had advised Hezekiah to trust God to handle this force that was much too powerful for the armies of Jerusalem. Let no one deceive themselves in thinking you can be saved still without any care and prayer to live sanctified godly lives before God and our neighbor. Look, I will heal you. There is something important that we need to consider before we look at Hezekiah’s sickness, and that is, when did this actually happen in his life? All praise and glory and thanksgiving be to our God Triune, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Literally the text reads, “Hezekiah wept with great or much weeping”. — This amazing sign in the heavens must have awed everyone who observed it! It is unbelievable; it is tremendous! What shall God do for a sign for Hezekiah? At least if we will live faithfully and fruitfully unto the Lord in our generation and for the generations following. How instructive to read this response of Hezekiah to this sad news! 20 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. Not one arrow was shot; not one of God’s people was lost! And what a trial that was again. This is a common theme in Isaiah’s writings. The passage in II Kings suggests and implies, however, it wasn’t too long a time. We are told that upon Hezekiah’s prayer and plea before the LORD, God again sends Isaiah back to him. Hezekiah had in mind so much more work to be done in bringing the kingdom of Judah back to God and the true worship of Him and living for Him. Doesn’t it help bring out how God will stop at nothing to be the helper and comforter of His people, and He is mighty to save and ready to help all who trust and follow Him? Then people try to explain if it is okay to test God based on examples so far removed from scripture, I had no idea how their explanations had any relationship to the story about Hezekiah. The chapter before was telling about the defeat of Sennacherib and his army with the 185,000 soldiers killed by one angel of the Lord. 6 And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. To help answer that question let us move to our third and last main point. I will defend this city.”’”. Three years later Manasseh would be born, whom we know became king after Hezekiah. How does Hezekiah respond? 20 The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign and all his accomplishments, including how he built a pool and conduit to bring[z] water into the city, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. And the issue here was not first for Hezekiah to have a son, but thinking of the promise of God that always there would be kings from the house of David on the throne. You may ask, why would the LORD have let him go through such a trial even unto death, and then upon prayer turn around and spare his life, giving him another 15 years of life? Is this your response for all the mercies and benefits and multitude of loving-kindnesses shown to you? There we read, “Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them.” So what is most likely the case then is that right after the great God-given victory over the Assyrians, suddenly King Hezekiah becomes very sick. — Although maybe we can read between the lines – and the fact that Isaiah had written no prophecies after the victory over the Assyrians.