Fifteen More Years

The Story

King Hezekiah of Judah became deathly ill. The prophet Isaiah came to see him with a hard message: “Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.”

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed. “Remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart.” And he wept bitterly.

Isaiah had barely left. He hadn’t even made it out of the middle courtyard of the palace when the word of the Lord came to him: turn around and go back. “I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee.” God would add fifteen years to Hezekiah’s life.

Isaiah told the servants to prepare a lump of figs and lay it on the king’s boil, and Hezekiah recovered.

Hezekiah asked for a sign that he would really be healed. Isaiah gave him a choice: should the shadow on the sundial go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?

Shadows going forward was easy, Hezekiah said. Let it go back. So Isaiah cried out to the Lord, and the shadow moved backward ten steps on the stairway of Ahaz.

Reflection