July 22 - 2 Kings 20:1-11 | Isaiah 38:1-8 | 2 Chronicles 32:24-31 | Isaiah 38:9-22 | 2 Kings 20:12-19 | Isaiah 39:1-8

Good morning everyone,

This morning as we begin, Isaiah has brought word to king Hezekiah that the illness he is suffering will be terminal. Personally speaking, I have only known a couple of people who have received such information, but even in my limited experience I can appreciate how devastated Hezekiah must have felt and understand his pleading with the Lord for his life while he wept bitterly. 

When I read the word “wept” it, of course, reminded me of the shortest verse in the Bible, John 11:35, “Jesus wept” while dealing with the death and resurrection of Lazarus. In Luke we can read of another time when Jesus wept, this time for the people of Jerusalem as he stood outside the city and looked over it. When I first read this, years ago, I could picture Jesus standing on a hill with sweet soft tears of compassion rolling down his cheeks, but it was when I did a study of the book of Luke that I learned that this word “wept” meat that Jesus was bitterly crying, that hard cry, sobbing convulsively cry of the broken hearted for those lost souls. Jesus has such a heart for us, He loves us so incredibly much. This is where the fear of God comes in, the fear of hurting someone. Jesus, who loves you more than anything, however, that’s a whole other devotional.

Well, God had a heart for Hezekiah’s tears too and sent Isaiah back to tell him he would extend Hezekiah’s life by fifteen years, which sadly will prove to be the worst fifteen years of his life. Hezekiah asked for a sign to really know that God would do as Isaiah had said, so God said “No problem dude, I’ll just turn back time” (paraphrasing of course). Isaiah 38:8 “I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.” Wouldn’t that just blow you away?  This is the second time this year we have read that God has changed the length of a day, remember in Joshua when God lengthened the day, well this time he shortened it. I will be honest here, I have no clue how or what it would look like for God to actually reverse the orbit of the earth for that ten degrees. What I do know, though, is that because it is written about in the Bible that it did indeed happen. Despite the fact I do not understand it, my faith and trust in God is big enough for me to just say “far out” and let it go at that.

So many times in our lives we come across situations that we just do not get why God would let them happen, good or bad, or even how a particular instance can happen. Once I was waterskiing with my brother and sister-in-law down in Arizona. I had been in the water so long, I was trying something new, some board instead of skis, I was tired and my hand strength had gone, so in an effort to get up just one last time I wrapped the ski ropes around the board then around my hands (please don’t judge, I wasn’t thinking). Had the boat, rope and pull gone off according to “plan” the ropes would have severed my fingers, looking back that is a no brainer …. now. But just as the boat began to pick up speed something in my head snapped, realizing this was not a good situation I desperately tried to unwrap the ropes, it was not happening until …. until like magic, like God, the ropes loosened and off they came leaving only mild scraping. A potentially very bad situation gone good.

The point of the story is not everything can be explained away with logic, which is sometimes difficult for me as I am a very logical person. God has His own agenda, He can and will make things happen that we have no understanding about. Let’s face it, He put this whole world, universe, to infinity and beyond in place, so I am pretty certain turning back time, like having the the ropes lift off my hand, is a “scoop of chocolate, scoop of vanilla”, an easy peasy moment for God.  Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” All we need to do is exercise our faith and our trust then just enjoy life while letting Him take us where He wants us to go. Amen?

Have a super good day friends and to God be the glory.

God bless you all …