Hezekiah was very ill – to the point of death. The prophet, Isaiah, came with a message from God telling him to set his house in order for he was to die. Hezekiah, being only human, dreaded the veil of death and greatly desired to recover from his sickness. So turning his face to the wall, he poured his heart's longings and words out to the Lord with great weeping. The king of Judah, crying like a baby and pleading to his God – the God who was able to do all things – for his life.
Before Isaiah could exit the palace God spoke to him again as His messenger. He was to go back and tell Hezekiah that his prayer had been heard and his tears had been seen; God would add another fifteen years to his lifespan. He would also deliver him and Jerusalem from the fierce king of Assyria along with his army of the most dreaded and vicious warriors. (See II Kings 20)
According to Isaiah 38, Hezekiah later wrote about his near-death experience, his sorrowful thoughts while facing death, and of his deliverance:
...In the middle of my life...I am deprived of the rest of my years...
I shall look on man no more...From day unto night Thou dost make an end of me...
My eyes look wistfully to the heights...I am oppressed...
O restore me to health, and let me live...Death cannot praise Thee...
It is the living who give thanks to Thee...A father tells his sons about Thy faithfulness
...the Lord will surely save me...
So we will play my songs (of praise) all the days of my life...
(Isaiah 38)
In Psalm 90 Moses speaks of the morning grass which sprouts anew and flourishes, yet by evening it fades and withers. James assures us of the same truth in James 1:10-11. A thousand years past is like yesterday in God's sight because He is eternal. But not so for us! Our present bodies are ever so temporary – seventy, even eighty-plus years – yet our days are fraught with labor and sorrow and all too soon, as a vapor, we have vanished from our earthly place (James 4:14). Job likened our passing days as being “swifter than a weaver's shuttle” and but a breath when compared to eternity. Unless we are 'in Christ' they come to an end without hope (Job 7:6-7).
Occasionally, something from our ever-enclosing secular world seizes my attention and forces me to contemplate what my flesh by nature prefers to avoid – the reality of the inevitable death of our physical bodies. Few people in this society have not heard the familiar lyrics sung by Tim McGraw.
I was in my early forties...a lot of life before me...when a moment came that stopped me on a dime... spent most of the next days - looking at the x-rays, talking about options and talking about sweet time...I was finally the husband that most the time I wasn't. I became a friend a friend would like to have...I finally read the Good Book and I took a long hard look at what I'd do if if I could do it all again...Like tomorrow was a gift and you had eternity to think about...What would you do with it?
...Sky diving, Rocky Mountain climbing...I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter...I gave forgiveness I'd been denying...I watched an eagle as it was flying. (Hezekiah 'looked wistfully to the heights.) Someday I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying.
We are all dying even from our birth. Why do we need to be stopped on a dime with sad and tragic news to be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10) and know what truly matters in life? May our merciful Creator presently teach us to number our days – to recognize the shortness of our time here so that we may present to Him a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12) while we yet live without the shadow of death hovering about us and that we might be able to recognize the pastures of rest for his weary sheep when we need them most (Psalm 23).
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