More Tests for Hezekiah

2 Kings 20

            Yesterday, we read how Hezekiah was tested by an Assyrian invasion. Today, we read about two more tests that Hezekiah faced. The first was a terrible sickness. Some similar notes to yesterday: first, note that Hezekiah calls the Lord’s attention to his (Hezekiah’s) faithfulness, as if he had earned the Lord’s good will. He seems to think that he doesn’t deserve his suffering, that he should be exempt from it. The Lord hears Hezekiah’s prayer and promises healing, but notice that the Lord never references Hezekiah’s claim. As a matter of fact, the Lord says He will do it for His own sake and for the sake of the promise He made to David. The Lord keeps His promises, not because we earn it or deserve it, but because He promised, and He is consistent with Himself.

            Interestingly, the Lord promises Hezekiah 15 more years. Working backwards from the end of Hezekiah’s reign (686 BC), we discover that this sickness must have occurred just before the Assyrian invasion. It’s only anecdotal, but it’s often seemed to me that trials come in bunches, that when the Lord tests us, He really tests us. I often ponder St. Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 1. He’s talking about all the trials he endured in a short time and he says, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:8b-9). When circumstances gain up on us and the test of faith is hard, we remember faith saves not because we have faith, as if it’s some virtue of ours. No, faith saves because it trusts only in the Lord and His strength.