Bible Lesson: Answered Prayer:
Hezekiah Prays For A Miracle.
Subject Of Prayer: Hezekiah
Prays For Healing From Illness.
Bible Text: II Kings 20:
II Kings 20:1-11 NLT (See also:
Isaiah 38:1-8 NLT)
20 About that time Hezekiah became
deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to visit him. He
gave the king this message: “This is what The Lord says: Set your
affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will not recover from
this illness.”
2 When Hezekiah heard this, he
turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,
3 “Remember, O Lord, how I have
always been faithful to you and have served you single-mindedly,
always doing what pleases you.” Then he broke down and wept
bitterly.
4 But before Isaiah had left the
middle courtyard, this message came to him from The Lord:
5 “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.
6 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.’”
7 Then Isaiah said, “Make an
ointment from figs.” So Hezekiah’s servants spread the ointment
over the boil, and Hezekiah recovered!
8 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?”
9 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?”
10 “The shadow always moves
forward,” Hezekiah replied, “so that would be easy. Make it go
ten steps backward instead.”
11 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!
Isaiah 38:7,8 NLT
7 “‘And this is the sign from
The Lord to prove that He will do as He promised:
8 I will cause the sun’s shadow to
move ten steps backward on the sundial of Ahaz!’” So the shadow
on the sundial moved backward ten steps.
Having been healed, due to King
Hezekiah's incessant prayer, he then went on to do two significant
things.
1)
Entertained Babylonian Envoys,
Boasting Of His Great Wealth.
II Kings 20:12-21 NLT
Envoys from Babylon (See also: Isaiah
39:1-8 NLT)
12 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.
13 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.
14 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.”
15 “What did they see in your
palace?” Isaiah asked. “They saw everything,” Hezekiah replied.
“I showed them everything I own—all my royal treasuries.”
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah,
“Listen to this message from The Lord:
17 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.
18 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.”
19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah,
“This message you have given me from The Lord is good.” For the
king was thinking, “At least there will be peace and security
during my lifetime.”
20 The rest of the events in
Hezekiah’s reign, including the extent of his power and how he
built a pool and dug a tunnel to bring water into the city, are
recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah.
21 Hezekiah died, and his son
Manasseh became the next king.
2)
The second thing King Hezekiah
did in his extended 15 years of life, was to sire a son, named
Manasseh.
The Biblical record regarding
Hezekiah's son Manasseh.
II Kings 21:1-18 NLT (Manasseh Rule in
Judah.)
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he
became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother
was Hephzibah.
2 He did what was evil in the
Lord’s sight, following the detestable practices of the
pagan nations that The Lord had driven from the land ahead of the
Israelites.
3 He rebuilt the pagan shrines his
father, Hezekiah, had destroyed. He constructed altars for Baal and
set up an Asherah pole, just as King Ahab of Israel had done. He also
bowed before all the powers of the heavens and worshiped them.
4 He built pagan altars in the Temple
of The Lord, the place where The Lord had said, “My name will
remain in Jerusalem forever.”
5 He built these altars for all the
powers of the heavens in both courtyards of The Lord’s Temple.
6 Manasseh also sacrificed his own son
in the fire. He practiced sorcery and divination, and he consulted
with mediums and psychics. He did much that was evil in The Lord’s
sight, arousing his anger.
7 Manasseh even made a carved image of
Asherah and set it up in the Temple, the very place where
The Lord had told David and his son
Solomon: “My name will be honored forever in this Temple and in
Jerusalem—the city I have chosen from among all the tribes of
Israel.
8 If the Israelites will be careful to
obey My commands—all the laws My servant Moses gave them—I will
not send them into exile from this land that I gave their ancestors.”
9 But the people refused to listen, and
Manasseh led them to do even more evil than the
pagan nations that The Lord had destroyed when the people of Israel
entered the land.
10 Then The Lord said through His
servants the prophets:
11 “King Manasseh of Judah has
done many detestable things. He is even more wicked than the
Amorites, who lived in this land before Israel. He has caused the
people of Judah to sin with his idols. 12 So this is what The Lord,
The God Of Israel, says: I will bring such disaster on Jerusalem and
Judah that the ears of those who hear about it will tingle with
horror.
13 I will judge Jerusalem by the same
standard I used for Samaria and the same measure I used for the
family of Ahab. I will wipe away the people of Jerusalem as one wipes
a dish and turns it upside down. 14 Then I will reject even the
remnant of My own people who are left, and I will hand them over as
plunder for their enemies.
15 For they have done great evil in My
sight and have angered Me ever since their ancestors came out of
Egypt.”
16 Manasseh also murdered many
innocent people until Jerusalem was filled from one end to the other
with innocent blood. This was in addition to the sin that he caused
the people of Judah to commit, leading them to do evil in The Lord’s
sight.
17 The rest of the events in Manasseh’s
reign and everything he did, including the sins he committed, are
recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah.
18 When Manasseh died, he was buried in
the palace garden, the garden of Uzza. Then his son Amon became the
next king.
The story:
King Hezekiah had a illness that would
of caused his death, death that Hezekiah believed was sent by
The Lord.
Isaiah 38:15 NLT
But what could I say? For He Himself
sent this sickness..."
Hezekiah, refused
The Lord's death sentence.
Hezekiah was
healed, and pridefully flaunted Israel's wealth to a nation that would,
remember it all very well, and carry God's people and their wealth
away to Babylon.
And King Hezekiah
in his life extension, sired a son who would be the most evil king
of Israel.
Can God, send illness?
(All you dear saints of The Lord, and
dear friends of TBPL have written long ago this verse in the flyleaf
of your Bible, if not do so now.)
Psalm 145:17 KJV
The Lord is righteous in all His
ways, and holy in all His works.
God, does not
answer to man, man answers to Him.
Romans 11:33-35
NLT
33 Oh, how great are God’s riches
and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand
His decisions and His ways!
34 For who can know The Lord’s
thoughts? Who knows enough to give Him advice?
35 And who has given Him so much
that He needs to pay it back?
“But, Pastor,
aren't we to pray incessantly?”
Yes!
Matthew 7:7,8
KJV
7 Ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh
receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it
shall be opened.
But, we must
be very careful to ask according to The Word, and The Will of God!
Question:
Did King Hezekiah,
ask The Lord, if death was His will for him at that time?
Answer:
No. (Had The Living
God, seen King Hezekiah's future and tried to spare him?)
Question:
“Pastor, what are
you saying, can God give us our prayer request, even if it is –
not – His will for us?”
Answer:
Yes, if we
bawl like a baby, and demand our own way, He may just give it to us.
Psalm 106:15 KJV
And He gave them their request; but
sent leanness into their soul.
Psalm 106:13-15
NLT
13 Yet how quickly they forgot what
He had done! They wouldn’t wait for His counsel!
14 In the wilderness their desires
ran wild, testing God’s patience in that dry wasteland.
15 So He gave them what they asked
for, but He sent a plague along with it.
“Pastor, please
tell us, what does all this mean?”
Yes, that is the
question alright, and the answer is, when we pray, we first of
all, must know what
The Word Of God
says, and secondly, we must take the time to ask The Lord, if
it is His will for us!
Thirdly, we
must be honestly thankful for His answer, whether it is the answer we
want, or not!
Amen
