Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 273
2K
| 20:4-18
SAMUEL–KINGS
261
you and have served you single-mindedly, always doing what pleases you.”
Then he broke down and wept bitterly.
But before Isaiah had left the middle courtyard, this message came to
him from the Lord: “Go back to Hezekiah, the leader of my people. Tell
him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have
heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you, and three days from
now you will get out of bed and go to the Temple of the Lord. I will add
fifteen years to your life, and I will rescue you and this city from the king
of Assyria. I will defend this city for my own honor and for the sake of my
servant David.’”
Then Isaiah said, “Make an ointment from figs.” So Hezekiah’s servants
spread the ointment over the boil, and Hezekiah recovered!
Meanwhile, Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, “What sign will the Lord give
to prove that he will heal me and that I will go to the Temple of the Lord
three days from now?”
Isaiah replied, “This is the sign from the Lord to prove that he will do
as he promised. Would you like the shadow on the sundial to go forward
ten steps or backward ten steps?”
“The shadow always moves forward,” Hezekiah replied, “so that would
be easy. Make it go ten steps backward instead.” So Isaiah the prophet
asked the Lord to do this, and he caused the shadow to move ten steps
backward on the sundial of Ahaz!
Soon after this, Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent
Hezekiah his best wishes and a gift, for he had heard that Hezekiah had
been very sick. Hezekiah received the Babylonian envoys and showed
them everything in his treasure-houses—the silver, the gold, the spices,
and the aromatic oils. He also took them to see his armory and showed
them everything in his royal treasuries! There was nothing in his palace or
kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.
Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What
did those men want? Where were they from?”
Hezekiah replied, “They came from the distant land of Babylon.”
“What did they see in your palace?” Isaiah asked.
“They saw everything,” Hezekiah replied. “I showed them everything I
own—all my royal treasuries.”
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to this message from the Lord:
The time is coming when everything in your palace—all the treasures
stored up by your ancestors until now—will be carried off to Babylon.
Nothing will be left, says the Lord. Some of your very own sons will be
taken away into exile. They will become eunuchs who will serve in the
palace of Babylon’s king.”