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We're there in Isaiah chapter 38, and we are continuing our study through the book of Isaiah, and we are in, really, the story of Hezekiah. So chapter 36, chapter 37, 38 and 39 is really dealing with the story of Hezekiah. And so we already saw where Rhapsody came into town and basically was railing against the Lord. Chapter 37 was the response to that, and where God took out the king of Assyria. Chapter 38 here, we're actually getting into where Hezekiah got sick, and he was sick unto death or he was about to die, and so it's an interesting story here. So in verse 1 there, let's start off here, it says, In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death, and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live. And so you probably heard that phrase, set your house in order, and so you think of how you have like a last will and testament, and you're setting up as far as who's going to take what or whatever, but especially if you're a king because the idea is that you need to have your house in order because you need to figure out who's going to be taking over for you. One huge case of this, or I guess there's a big story in the Bible where this almost became a mishap, is with King David to Solomon. So if you remember the story, King David had chosen Solomon to be his heir, but Adonijah wanted to basically usurp that, and so David was really old, and he was about to die and all that, and Adonijah basically got the priest, got Joab, and they started basically saying that he was king, and David had to step in and say no, actually Solomon is who God chose and who I chose to reign after me, and so that's why it's good to have that stuff set in order. Actually I remember, it was a couple years ago, Holly and I, we went out to Washington and I was going to preach out there, and we were on the plane, and we were just thinking about the fact of, well what if this plane crashed and we both died, you know, and it's kind of a morbid thought, and it's not like we were scared of it or anything like that, but you know we have three children, and all we can think about is like, well who's going to take care of them, like what's going to happen, you know, like the idea of not having that ready was kind of scary if that makes sense, and not for us because I mean, you know, we'd be in heaven, it's not like I'd be worried about anything, but I do care about my family and I want to make sure they're all taken care of and all that. So by the way, we still haven't got that settled, so you know, it's been two years and I'm like still haven't got my, so I'm just like here thinking like yeah, I probably should get that ready to go there, but that being said is that the idea of setting your house in order before you die, okay? And so Hezekiah, or Isaiah tells him to do that. Now let's see how old Hezekiah is right here. So it doesn't really tell us in Isaiah here his reign or how old he was when he began to reign, but go to 2 Chronicles chapter 29, 2 Chronicles chapter 29, because he ends up praying to the Lord and he doesn't want to die, and when you see how old he is, you can definitely understand that, because Hezekiah here is not an old man by any stretch of the imagination. He's actually pretty young, and so you could definitely understand why he would be praying and saying, Lord, you know, I don't want to die, you know, like, you know, look at the things that I've done, all that stuff, but in 2 Chronicles 29 and verse 1 here, it says, Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and 20 years old, and he reigned nine and 20 years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah, and he did that which was right inside the Lord according to all that David his father had done. Okay, so we see that he was 25 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. Okay, so that means that he ended up dying, you know, obviously if he died right when he ended his reign, we know there's some co-regency. For sake of argument, he died, you know, in the last year of his reign, okay, and that means he was 54 when he died. Now that means that he would have been 39, okay, because you know the story, spoiler alert, but God adds 15 years to his life, okay, so minus 15 would be 39. So he's a young man, right, at least I'm gonna say that because I'm gonna be 36, and I still consider that pretty young, but he's not 40 yet, I mean he's just 39 years old, and so you could definitely understand his thought process. Now let's think about this too. When was this when he was sick? Okay, well go to 2 Kings chapter 18. 2 Kings chapter 18, 2 Kings chapter 18, 2 Kings chapter 18 and verse 13, and verse 13 it says, Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah did Zanacharib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them. So if you think about it, he reigned for 29 years, what's 29 minus 15? Fourteen. That means in the fourteenth year of his reign is when Zanacharib came up against them, and that's when he got sick. So it's actually like, you ever hear the phrase, when it rains it pours? You know, you think about that, right, Zanacharib's coming against them, he's dealing with this great battle, now he's got this sickness that's under death around the same time, and I believe it's around the same time as far as all this stuff's going down because later on it says, hey I'm going to heal you and I'm going to give you 15 more years and I'm going to take care of this king of Assyria. So just think about that when you think of that story that we already read about Zanacharib, rapshaki and all that, and now think about the fact that Hezekiah has this illness, this sickness that's under death, right? And so just to show you that he's 39 years old, he's 14 years into his reign, and he's about to die. Now go to Isaiah chapter 38 again in verse 2, Isaiah 38 verse 2. Now if I say Hezekiah instead of Isaiah, or if I say Isaiah instead of Hezekiah, please forgive me because that's probably going to end up happening here. There is no book of Hezekiah, so if I say turn to Hezekiah chapter 38, you know what I'm talking about, right? But verse 2 there, it says, then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed unto the Lord and said, remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah saying, go and say to Hezekiah, thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father, I have heard thy prayer and have seen thy tears, behold I will add unto thy days 15 years, and I will deliver thee in this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. And that's really, you know, if you think about it at the end of chapter 37 is where God says, hey, I'm going to defend this city for David, my servant's sake, and all that. And so you can definitely see how these stories are really intertwined as far as the sickness and with him taking out the king of Assyria. But we see here, what does Hezekiah bring up to the Lord when it comes to the fact of why he should heal him, right? Because this is something to think about as a Christian. Now Hezekiah, I believe, no doubt is saved. And so, you know, he's not bringing up, you know, this isn't about eternal salvation, about believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and being saved from hell or anything like that. He brings up the fact that he's walked before Him in truth and with a perfect heart and done that which is good in thy sight. And go to Psalm 34, Psalm 34, and there's a scripture I was just thinking of, but I don't have it in my notes. You're going to Psalm 34, but in 1 John chapter 3, the idea of how you get your prayers answered, the idea of, there has to be things accompanied with prayer if you actually want it to be answered. One, you have to have faith. But another one is the idea of being righteous before God. And chapter 3 and verse, where is that at? So it says in verse 20, and I know you're in Psalm 34, I'm going to get to that. But in 1 John 3 and verse 20 says, For if our heart condemneth, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things, beloved, if our heart condemneth not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. See something there that's very similar to what's said with Hezekiah, you know, and the idea of, we know that we're going to receive what we ask because we do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And Hezekiah brings that up, he says, I have done that which is good in thy sight. And so this idea of being righteous and living for the Lord and basically being in good fellowship with God, okay, and go to Psalm 34 and verse 11 here, Psalm 34 and verse 11, it says, Come ye children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Now this is quoted in 1 Peter chapter 3, and it was kind of hard to read there actually because just knowing that verse, because it says, you know, let him eschew evil and do good, let him seek peace and ensue it, it says in 1 Peter. And it also says, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayer. Okay, so in the New Testament it says prayer and cry and prayer, obviously if you're praying or asking or calling out to God, you're crying out to God. But the idea here is that he is not, you probably remember the story where the man that was, the blind man that was able to see, right? And he's basically kind of rebuking the Pharisees, right, because they keep saying, well how did you speak, how did you see, you know, how did he make you see? And he's like, I told you already, you know. But the idea here is that guy starts preaching to him, he says, you know, the Lord doesn't hear sinners. And the thing is is that if you think of Cornelius, you think of a lot of people in the Bible, even people that weren't saved, you know, God was merciful unto them because they were trying to do right, you know, Cornelius' alms deeds were sought before God, his prayers and his alms were seen before God, and the idea is that God sees that. And so it is true, now here's the thing, obviously God will save anybody that believes on him, okay? So I'm not here to say like, you have to be living a righteous life, or God's not going to get, you know, save you, or you can't be saved unless you're living a righteous life. I'm talking about the fact that God sees that, and, you know, especially when it comes to his children, if you're doing right and doing those things which are pleasing in his sight, the idea of him answering that prayer is going to be higher on the priority list, okay? I mean, think about your own children, right? If your children are disobeying everything you say to them, and then they come up to you with a request, and they say, hey, I want a piece of candy or something like that, or I want chocolate, or whatever the case may be, you know, they come up to you and they ask you that, well, it's not that you don't love them as far as whether you're going to give them this treat or not, right? So usually, when it comes to stuff like that, what are you usually looking at is like, okay, have you been good today, right? Have you been good? And if they've been horrible the whole day, they've been nasty to their siblings, you'd be like, no, you're not getting a piece of candy, you know? But if they've been good and they've been like, you know, helping out, and they've been doing all this, and then you'd be like, yeah, you know, I'll give you a piece of candy, you've been good today, and you haven't been nasty to your siblings, and so the moral of the story is that my kids don't get candy very often. But that being said, you kind of see it on a human level as far as how God sees that, right? So if you're his child, if you believe on him, it's not that he doesn't love you if sometimes he doesn't answer the prayer, but listen, if you're living in sin and you're not keeping his commandments and you're not doing what he wants you to do, you're not in good fellowship with him, okay? That's the truth of the matter. If you're walking in darkness all day long and you're bringing shame to his name, you know, and embarrassing him, then the idea of you, you know, being willing to just listen to every little prayer that someone has, it's just not going to happen, okay? But does that mean that I don't, like, feed my children if they're bad and I don't, you know, give them clothes if they're bad? No, of course, I still feed them, I clothe them, you know, I take care of them, even when they're not doing what they should be doing, okay? But, you know, if you, and children, I guarantee this, if you're obedient to your parents and you're good to your siblings, your parents will reward you. You know, that will be, if you ask them something, you know, it's going to be a lot more chance of a yes if you're being a good kid and you're being a good, obedient child to your parents. And so that being said, you know, you have that. Now go to James chapter 5, James chapter 5. So I think this story with Hezekiah is a good one because God answers this prayer. Actually, you don't see it in this story, but if you go to 2 Chronicles, it's either in 2 Chronicles or 2 Kings, the same story is being told, and basically Isaiah doesn't even leave, I believe it's like a garden area or something like that, but basically he doesn't even leave the area that he was at. He's on his way out, walking away from Hezekiah, and Hezekiah is praying to the Lord, and on Isaiah's way out, the Lord's like, you need to go back and tell him I'm not going to, you know, I'm going to give him 15 more years. So that's how quick God heard it, okay? And how quick God actually answered that prayer. But also in James chapter 5, notice what it says in verse 13. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. So notice here that you also have faith involved, and this isn't a whole sermon on prayer here, but obviously Hezekiah was a very faithful Christian, okay? He had a lot of faith. I mean, just with the stories we just read about Hezekiah, and the faith that he had that God was going to deliver them out of the hand of the king of Assyria, okay? I mean, that would be the equivalent if you were a country, maybe not third world, but you were a country that's not the U.S., and the U.S. was coming at you with their army, okay? Because the U.S. is pretty much the world power today, right? And the U.S. was coming at you with their army, and you're saying, no, I know the Lord will keep them back. That would be kind of the equivalent as far as what Hezekiah was dealing with back then, so he definitely had faith. But notice in verse 16 here, it says, Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. You know what that means? Is that the opposite would be true, meaning that if it's not an effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man, it doesn't avail much, right? Meaning that if you're not a righteous person, right? If you're just living in the flesh, and I'm saying you're saved, right? You have eternal life, you're going to go to heaven, but if you're not walking in the new man and you're not living the life that God wants you to live, you're not doing the works that He wants you to do, then you're not, you know, you're not that righteous man praying before Him, okay? And a lot of times what happens, unfortunately, is Christians, they get down into a pit because they're not living for God, they're out of church, they're not doing what they should be doing, they're not reading their Bible, they're not praying, but then, you know, basically everything falls apart, and then it's time, oh, you know, then they're reminded, like, I need to get to God here. But that's not the position you want to be in. Now, I'm not saying God doesn't, won't hear you, and that God won't be merciful unto you and, and, and, you know, pull you through that. I'm not saying that. But wouldn't you rather be, like, I'm going to church every week, I'm, I'm reading my Bible, I'm going out soul winning, you know, I'm trying to do the best I can to, to follow all the commandments in the Bible as best I can, and you're just pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God and Christ Jesus, and that's just, like, your goal in life. And then everything, you know, basically falls apart because if you say, well, that won't happen to you, oh, look at Job, okay? So obviously, Job is a great example of somebody that was doing everything right, and everything fell apart. But see, Job is a case where you would look at and be, like, that's the position you want to be in, though, right? Because when Job was asking for a reply from God, God answered him out of a whirlwind in the end, right? And he not only answered him out of a whirlwind, but he doubled everything he had. And the end of Job was greater than the beginning. And not only that, but, I mean, James 5, which we were just reading, talks about, and you have heard of the patience of Job, and knowing that at the end of the Lord, you know, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. And so that being said, you know, I think it's a great story to show you that, hey, Hezekiah was a good man, a faithful man, and one that was serving the Lord, and I don't believe it's a coincidence that God answered his prayer there, okay? Now go to 2 Kings chapter 21, something else to think about here. 2 Kings chapter 21 and verse 1, 2 Kings chapter 21 and verse 1. Now how many years did God extend to Hezekiah? 15. Let's see how old Manasseh was when he started to reign. So assuming that Hezekiah died the same time that Manasseh started reigning, that means that, you know, it was, you go 12 years back on Hezekiah's life, right? So in 2 Kings chapter 21 and verse 1, Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign and reigned 50 and 5 years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Hephzibah. Now you'd be like, what's the significance of that? Manasseh was a really wicked king. Actually Manasseh was the reason that Judah went into captivity, because Manasseh sacrificed his own son to false gods. Now there was kings that did that before him, and Israel was notorious for that, but Manasseh was really wicked. Now I personally believe Manasseh ended up getting saved, okay, which is crazy, you know, when you think about that story, okay, because there's a place where, you know, in the Second Chronicles where it talks about where God humbled him and he ended up getting, you know, basically turning around, but we don't really know when that happened. I think that was more at the end of his reign, and he reigned. He's one of the longest reigns. If you look at that king's list, which wherever that's at, the king's list, as far as the reigning of the kings, he's one of the longest ones, and he's like one of the most wicked kings of Judah, right? Ahaz was Hezekiah's father, and he was bad, right, but he didn't reign that long, but Manasseh reigned for a long time. Now think about this, if God didn't give Hezekiah fifteen more years, Manasseh would have never been born. Now go to Isaiah 57, Isaiah 57, and the reason I'm pointing this out is because we can intervene and God can entreat us, but sometimes there's reasoning for, you know, why someone would die young, and I actually never noticed, I never thought of this actually, but my Uncle Jack, who was my dad's twin brother, died when he was 39. I didn't even realize that, that it was the same age as Hezekiah when he would have died, because obviously it was a very young age, you know, when I was a kid and for my dad and all that, but I always think about this as the fact that that was sad, obviously it was really hard on my dad, still hard on my dad, but what that did for me, because when he died, my dad started going to church more, and I started thinking about death, and that made me think about what happens after you die, and then got me interested in the Bible, and you know, the rest is history, but eventually got saved, you know, when I was 17 years old, and then, you know, after that obviously the rest is history, as they say, but Isaiah 57 here in verse 1, notice what it says. It says, Now that fits Hezekiah right there, and you know, this is a verse that I often bring up to people when they say, well why do young people die, you know, why would a child die, why would this happen, or whatever, and there's actually stories in the Bible where a child dies, and the prophet's saying, but it's better this way, because all of his, you know, basically the king Jeroboam and all his sons are all going to die by the sword, and they're not going to have a burial, but the child is going to have a burial, and as you know, children go to heaven, so that child wasn't going to grow up in this wicked family, and become wicked like them, and you think about these ideas of why certain righteous people would die at a young age even, and a lot of times you don't see the big picture is the idea, and you know, back when I was younger, you don't really see that big picture, why, you know, why would my dad's twin brother die at a young age like that, and he died of cancer, so it wasn't like it was his own like doing or something like that, you know what I mean, like he died of a drug overdose or something like that, you know, he had a family, and he was just trying to live and raise his family, and then that happened, and, but then you see the big picture and see, well, what else would have, what would have happened if he would have lived, right, and you don't know, but same thing with Hezekiah, and what if Hezekiah would have died, you could ask the question, what would have happened if he would have lived, well we know what happened if he lived after that. Now, go to Isaiah chapter 38 again, Isaiah chapter 38, so that's just a little idea there as far as, you look at the story and be like, that's awesome, you've got 15 more years, you're like, well, there's some things that are good about that, right, because he was obviously a good king, but there's, there's a, there's something that usually happens with a lot of these kings is that their sons don't turn out to be good, now David's son Solomon turned out to be a really good king, but then he kind of fell off and got caught up into having way too many wives, well actually two is too many, but having 700 wives, or is it 300 wives and 700 concubines, so a thousand wives pretty much, I mean, that was his downfall, but that being said is that, you know, so sometimes you want to prolong somebody that's righteous but sometimes it's not the best thing. Now Isaiah chapter 38 and verse 7 here, he's gonna get a sign of basically, you know, Hezekiah's asking for a sign like, how do I know this is actually gonna happen? And in verse 7 here it says, And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, and the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken. Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees which is gone down in the sun, dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees by which degrees it was gone down. Now and go to 2nd Kings chapter 20 because it states here that Hezekiah is the one asking for this, okay, so it's interesting because Isaiah actually kind of goes in a different order, okay, meaning that Isaiah chapter 38 and verse 21, he basically asked for this sign and it says, And so it kind of ends with that but it's basically saying this is why he said all this is because he said take this lump of figs and in verse 7 of 2nd Kings chapter 20 it says, said take a lump of figs and they took and laid it on the boil and it recovered. And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day? So he's basically, he put this lump of figs on there and then he's saying, you know, how am I gonna know, like what sign am I gonna have that I'm gonna recover or go up into the house of the Lord? Now there's a lot of stuff I could get into here. Why is it the third day that he's rising up and going into the house of the Lord, right? Obviously a picture of the resurrection, you know, that on the third day Jesus shall rise. But in verse 9 there it says, and Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord that the Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken. And he's asking a question here, so shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go back ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees, nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz. Now that's interesting. Now you say, well what is this talking about? Well I believe you're talking about a sundial, okay, because you're dealing with a shadow and it's the dial of Ahaz, so I believe it's a sundial. So how does a sundial work? Well basically you have like this certain like triangle that's protruding up and that doesn't move, but obviously as the sun rises and sets, the shadow is going to be displayed on this, you know, usually it's like a round, you know, disk sort of thing with certain markings on there, okay. Now if you've ever watched Bear Grylls, okay, he can show you how to do this with a stick and you take a stick over here and you put it down and you wait for the sun to go a certain distance and you take another stick over here and you can figure out where the true north is because how the sun is going from the east to the west, right. But all that to say is that obviously the shadow changes where you're at depending on where the sun is at in the day. So I believe it's basically talking about making the sun go back, okay. Now we believe here, at least I believe, now there could be flat earthers in here and there could be geocentristic, you know, believers in here, okay. But I believe in the heliocentristic model, meaning that the earth is spinning in orbit and it goes around the sun, okay. So the idea here is that in our perception obviously the sun rises and sets, okay. So as much as if I'm driving down the highway and I say, hey, pass me back, you know, or someone says, hey, pass me back a drink or like a water, if I pass it back to them, relatively I'm passing it back to them but for the person that's standing on the side of the road, we're all going forward and that drink's going forward, right, nothing's being passed back, okay. So it's relative to where you're at, okay. So for us the sun is rising, it's setting, right. We don't, we're in a constant state of motion and a constant velocity as the earth is spinning and it takes 24 hours for us to go back to where we're at and so anyway, this isn't a whole study on how the earth rotates and everything but what I'm getting at here, think about this for a second. Now obviously God can do miracles but let's say he physically did this, right, meaning like in the physics realm of things, okay, because here's the thing, there's certain things that Jesus did that just defy the laws of physics, okay, walking on water, okay, that is a spiritual miracle, okay. So what I'm about to say here, I'm not saying it had to happen this way but technically if you wanted to physically do this, you'd have to stop the rotation of the earth and bring it back a little bit. That's intense, right, because now think about what Hezekiah said there. He said it's a light thing for it to go forward but to go backwards, right, because to go forward what would you have to do, speed it up a little bit. To go backwards you have to literally stop the earth and go back, okay. So you know, riddle me this, if the earth is flat and there's a sun that's just going like this, okay, is it that hard for the sun to just go like stop and go back compared to the whole earth spinning at like a 1,700 miles per hour or whatever it is and that's stopping, okay, because it can't just stop like that or we don't fly off the thing, okay, because there's an idea of deceleration, okay. And so but that being said is that this is a big miracle so don't look past this and be like oh you know the shadow moved, like that's intense, that's an intense miracle and sign that was done there and you can understand why Hezekiah's like well that would be a light thing for it to go forward, it would go backwards, you know. The idea is going back in time and there's obviously symbolism in that as well because you know by giving him 15 more years it's kind of like giving him back 15 years of his life, you know what I mean, he's kind of going back in time a little bit to when he would die, okay. So anyway so there's your science lesson for the day and I'm not you know a science teacher here but the idea here too, there's something else here that I kind of want to point out is that how does he get healed? With a lump of figs. Now go to Proverbs chapter 21, now you probably know this but in the New Testament when Jesus was rebuking Israel and rebuking Judea, you know, in particular because at that time that was the only thing that was left, actually at this time that's the only thing that's left, right, because it was in the sixth year I believe of Hezekiah when Israel was completely taken out by the Assyrians, okay. So at this point really Israel, the only thing that's left is that southern kingdom which ends up being called Judea in Jesus's day, right, Judah, Judea, and Jesus likens Israel into a fig tree that's withered away and that doesn't have any fruit, okay. And I'll read to you Matthew 21 for sake of time here, Matthew 21 verse 18 it says, Now in the morning as he returned into the city he hungered and when he saw a fig tree in the way he came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forever and presently the fig tree withered away and when the disciples saw it they marveled saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away? Now another parable that he gives is the parable of this fig tree that they had been going on around for three years and not finding any fruit on it and the guy's like well just let it continue this year also and we'll dig around it, dung it, and if no fruit comes on it we'll cut it down. It's interesting because Jesus' ministry was around three years or so that he was there ministering to Israel and there was no fruit, okay. John the Baptist even came saying hey, you know, that there's an axe that's laid to every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit. Now what's my point with this is that in Hezekiah's day he had a righteous kingdom. He just got done cleansing the house of God, had a great revival where he had this great Passover that hadn't, you know, the Passover that hadn't been done in that manner since like the days of Samuel and then not only that but everybody that came down from the northern kingdom or that was left there came down and they went back into their towns and tore down all their idols and all their groves. So what you have is a righteous kingdom that's bringing forth fruit. So not only was, you know, Hezekiah doing good works and all that but he was also fruitful and you want to add to why he was healed? Because he was a fruitful Christian. And in Proverbs chapter 21 and verse 21 it says, he that falleth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honor. The Bible says also in Proverbs 10, 16, the labor of the righteous tendeth to life, the fruit of the wicked is to sin. So the product of Hezekiah being a righteous Christian bringing forth fruit is the fact that you can almost look at it as his fruit is what healed him, okay? Meaning that he was a fruitful Christian, he was a productive Christian, right? So what does it mean to be fruitful? You're producing something. You're being productive. He was a productive, saved person that was a righteous king doing great works for God and God saw that and basically saw his profitableness and that's what healed him. That's what I believe. You know, if you're going to see a symbolistic view of why there's this lump of figs and why that's healing him, because it could be anything, right? You think of Naaman, you know, the Syrian, he just had to dip himself seven times in the Jordan, right, in the river and he was even saying, why am I doing it in Jordan? It's dirty, you know, there's all these other rivers that are great. It's not really about, like, it being clean water or, you know, it's like, well, you had to have these figs. There's just this magical property in the figs, you know, because everybody now is going to be like, if I have a boy, I'm getting some figs, I'm going to make a lump of figs and I'm going to put it on there. I don't know, you know, I'm not like, you know, a doctor here to tell you, like, whether that would be good or not, but obviously I believe there's some symbolistic stuff going on there. Now, the last thing I want to show you here in Isaiah chapter 38 is what he says, you know, when he was, he basically is giving his mind here about when he was sick, what was Hezekiah thinking, okay? So he obviously brought up, hey, you know, I've been perfect and walked in truth, I was doing those things that are pleasing in your sight. Notice in verse 9 here it says, the writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick and was recovered of his sickness, I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave. I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living. That's a key phrase there, okay? He's not saying I'm never going to see the Lord again, right? He's saying in the land of the living, okay, so what he's saying here has to do with him being on the earth and being alive in the flesh, okay? I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. Mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent. I have cut off, I am cut off. I have cut off like a weaver my life. He will cut me off with pining sickness. From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. I reckon till morning that as a lion, so will he break all my bones. From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. Like a crane or a swallow, so do I chatter. I didn't mourn as a dove when mine eyes fail with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me. What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me and himself hath done it. I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. O Lord, by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit. So wilt thou recover me and make me to live. Behold for peace I had great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind my back. For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee. They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee. As I do this day, the father to the children shall make known thy truth. The Lord was ready to save me, therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord." So this is what's going through his mind. He's basically recapping that when he was about to die, he's basically talking about how he was mourning like a dove and he was just in great bitterness, but that God delivered him. And one of the things that he's bringing up here is that the dead can't praise the Lord. Now I'm talking physically speaking, because obviously if you die and you go to heaven, you're praising the Lord and you're up in heaven, right? But the idea is that your life's over. You're not down here working for the Lord, you're not down here praising the Lord in the land of the living among those that are in the world. And the thing he's saying is that the living, the living, he shall praise thee. Now David says this very similar thing when it comes to the idea of pleading with God. So you imagine that God is there to save you and you're trying to give a reason why he should save you, right? So you think, well I've been serving you, I've been doing this, look at the fruit that I brought forth as far as I've won these people to Christ, or even the fruits of righteousness in that aspect, but the idea here is that he's stating, you know, if I'm dead I can't serve you, I can't praise you. And I think that's a good plea. I mean, think about it. If you're out soul winning every week, you're out preaching the gospel every week, and you're seeing people saved or you're at least warning them, showing them how they can know 100% sure they're going to heaven, and then like you get this sickness, that's not a bad plea to be like, Lord, you know, give me some more time because I want to get some more people saved. I think that's a pretty good plea, right? That I'd be like, no, I want to be down here a little longer so that I can do more work for you. I can praise you more down here. I can do that, right? Because one of the things he says, it says, the Father to the children shall make known thy truth, okay? And by the way, how should they hear without a preacher? How should they preach except to be sent? We are in the ambassadors for Christ, and you know what, without those that go out and preach the gospel with the Word of God, people aren't going to hear it, okay? God's not coming down with angels showing everybody how to get saved. And God's not walking, you know, Jesus isn't walking on the earth right now. He's seated at the right hand of the Father. It's up to us to go, and if we're in that situation where we're about to die, we can look at it and be like, well Lord, you know, I won't be able to go anymore, okay? I won't be able to go if I'm dead, right? That whole aspect. So in Psalm 88, Psalm 88 and verse 9, the last thing I want to show you here is David basically stating the same thing. So you can see that Hezekiah and David are very similar, even to the point where he's talking about singing songs onto the stringed instruments, because David was the sweet psalmist of Israel. So that idea of, that similarity of Hezekiah and David there. And in Psalm 88 and verse 9 it says, Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon thee. I have stretched out my hands unto thee. Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah. Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in destruction? Shall thy wonders be known in the dark, and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But unto thee have I cried, O Lord, and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. So very similar. And I could show you where Solomon says something very similar in Ecclesiastes, I could show you another place where he says the same thing in Psalm, but you get the point, right? The idea is that he's stating that the living are the ones that are going to praise you. The living are the ones that are going to declare your truth. The living are the ones that are going to go out and preach the gospel and make known your word. Right? And I think that's a great plea, you know. So if you're ever in that situation, if you're living for the Lord, you're doing what you should be doing, you know, the plea should be, should hopefully be that, okay? But listen, if you're not living for God and all that, then obviously you need to come humbly before the Lord, and everybody should be coming humbly even if you are working, living for the Lord, but the Lord is merciful, okay? His mercy endureth forever. The Lord is very merciful. But if you're in that situation, which would you rather be in? Would you rather, would you want to be in like Job's situation as far as where his standing is with God? Or do you want to be in like Samson's situation or, you know, another person that is not living for, they're not doing what they should be doing, they're getting caught up in things they shouldn't be getting caught up in, you know, those are two different situations. And we want to be in the latter, or the former, right? The idea, we want to be like Job, we want to be living for God, and then when everything falls apart, you know what? We have confidence that he's going to hear us. And so let's end with a word of prayer there, Heavenly Father, we thank you for today, thank you for your word, and Lord, thank you for the book of Isaiah, and thank you for the story of Hezekiah, and just kind of seeing a little peek into his mind as far as how he felt at that time of being sick unto death, and how we can apply that to our lives, Lord, we just pray that you'd help us to live for you, and help us to be glorifying to you in everything that we do. And Lord, just pray that you'll be with us throughout the rest of this week as we go back to work, but also as we come back to church and everything else, Lord, we just love you, and pray all this in Jesus Christ's name, Amen.