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Visitors from Babylon See the Wrong Things
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from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for
My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David.’”’”
2 Kings
20:4-6
. Directing that a lump of figs be laid on the diseased part,
Isaiah delivered the message of mercy.
Hezekiah pleaded for some sign that the message was from
heaven. “What is the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall
go up to the house of the Lord the third day?” “This is the sign to
you from the Lord,” the prophet answered, “that the Lord will do the
thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees
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or go backward ten degrees?” “It is an easy thing,” Hezekiah replied,
“for the shadow to go down ten degrees; no, but let the shadow go
backward ten degrees.”
Only by the intervention of God could the shadow on the sundial
be made to turn back ten degrees. So “the prophet cried to the Lord,
and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had
gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.”
Verses 8-11
.
Restored to strength, Hezekiah vowed to spend his remaining
days in willing service to the King of kings:
I said, “In the prime of my life I shall go.”
“But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of
corruption,
For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.”
“We will sing my songs with stringed instruments
All the days of our life, in the house of the Lord.”
Isaiah 38:10, 17, 20
In the fertile valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates lived an
ancient race that was destined to rule the world. Among its people
were wise men who gave attention to astronomy. They noticed the
shadow on the sundial turn back ten degrees. When King Merodach-
Baladan learned that this miracle was a sign to the king of Judah
that the God of heaven had granted him a new lease on life, he
sent ambassadors to Hezekiah to congratulate him and to learn,
if possible, more of the God who was able to perform so great a
wonder.
The visit of these messengers gave Hezekiah an opportunity
to give glory to the living God, the upholder of all created things,