First Isaiah says that the king needs to put his affairs in
order for he is going to die and then Hezekiah prays and asks God to remember
his service, his reforms of the worship of the nation and all he has done in
the Lord’s service. The response of the
Lord was to add fifteen years to Hezekiah’s life. The king is so surprised to hear these words
that he asks for a sign and the Lord offers two options, to lengthen a shadow
or shorten it, either making time move forwards or backwards, and Hezekiah
chooses to make it go back. All these
events seem to have occurred prior to the sending of the tribute to
Assyria. The chronology of the Assyrian
kings would indicate it as well as the fact that Hezekiah had to strip the
doors of the temple in order to make the payment. What is the problem with the king showing the
riches of his kingdom to the legates?
The Assyrians will now have reason to want to come and take what they
have seen. As prophesied, they
ultimately take away everything, including the people, just as Isaiah said they
would.
Did you notice this isn’t a boy who died? Luke tells us that “a man” died, the only son
of his widowed mother. He would have
been her sole support. She not only had
the grief of the loss of a child but also the uncertainty of life now without
support. Everything about her life was
going to be more difficult now. Jesus
had compassion on this woman and acted to relieve her suffering, doing exactly
the kind of thing the Lord did for Hezekiah, lengthening his life, something
only God could do. Can you imagine a
funeral procession where a man who may or may not have been known to such a
mother and said, “Do not weep”? How offensive would that be? Jesus said that before He raised her son from
the dead. A great prophet indeed!
This Herod is the one who killed John the Baptist and who
was part of the trial of Jesus. His
reign was coming to an end and he likely was aware of his need for allies in
the region. He chose to attempt to win
the favor of the Jews. He was, himself a
Jew remember though he was married illegally under the Law, for which John
rebuked him and lost his life. We aren’t
told why he had James killed but he saw that it was popular with the Jews so he
chose the next man on the org chart, Peter, as his next victim. Peter probably recalled the words of Jesus on
the beach in John “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to
dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will
stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do
not want to go.” Having seen James’
death he was probably prepared for his own demise and had no idea what was
going on when an angel delivered him from death. No one could believe it, it was an
unthinkable thing. Is there anything in
your life that seems impossible? Do
these lessons convince you that nothing is impossible for God?
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