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Chapter 20: The End of King Hezekiah's Reign
2 Kings 20:1-11 ~ The illness and cure of King Hezekiah
See the parallel passages in 2 Chronicles 32:24 and Isaiah 38-39. Hezekiah was ill and Isaiah brought him Yahweh's message that he was not going to recover and was going to die.
Question: Instead of begging that his life be spared, what did Hezekiah do? What was the result and why?
Answer: He prayed that God would remember his faithfulness and then submitted himself to God's will. God sent word to Hezekiah that his life will be spared for 15 years for the sake of God's covenant with David and in three days he will be well enough to attend the Temple liturgy.
Isaiah was either returning to the Temple and had only reached the middle Court of the Women or the middle court of the palace when God sent him back to the king. After giving the king the news of his recovery, Isaiah asked for the materials to make a poultice for the king. It appears that Isaiah was applying a folk remedy to the king's ulcer and not performing a miracle.
Hezekiah wanted confirmation of his healing and asked for a "sign." He asked that the sun reverse in its path by "ten "steps." What is being referred to is apparently some kind of a sundial from the time of King Ahaz that displays the passing of time in a series of steps set into a wall: ten on the left side to show the shadow of the ascending sun and ten on the right side for the descending sun. A similar device has been discovered in Egypt.
Question: Why did he ask for this sign and what did the miracle represent?
Answer: It is easy for a shadow to incline down then steps since it would be the natural course of the shadow in the progression of the sun in its path across the sky; therefore, Hezekiah chooses the miraculous reversal of the progress of the shadow that becomes a symbol for the reversal of his imminent death.
The miracle is a reminder that God is the Master of Creation and all of Creation is subject to Him.
2 Kings 20:12-19 ~ The Babylonian Embassy
See the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 32:23-29. Hezekiah is flattered by the attention of the Babylonians and foolishly shows them his accumulation of wealth. This also suggests the event took place before Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem since after the capture of Lachish, and prior to the siege of Jerusalem, Hezekiah stripped all the wealth from the palace and the Temple in an attempt to appease the Assyrian king (2 Kng 18:13-16).
Question: Why was Hezekiah's display of wealth to the Babylonians foolish? What prophecy did Isaiah give concerning the Babylonians and what was Hezekiah's response?
Answer: Such a display of his great wealth was more likely to inspire envy than admiration in a foreign delegation. Isaiah foretold an attack on Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the deportation of the nobility. Hezekiah's response can be seen either as a selfish expression of relief that all of the prophecy will take place after his lifetime or as resignation and submission to God's divine will.
Isaiah's prophecy will come true in 609 BC with the first deportation of exiles out of Judah (see 2 Kng 24:10-16). It will be in this deportation that the prophet Daniel will be taken into exile to Babylon where he will become a minister to the Babylonian king.
2 Kings 20:20-21 ~ The end of the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah
The history of Hezekiah ends with the typical formula statement and mention of his great accomplishment in bringing water into the city of Jerusalem from the Gihon Spring (also see Sir 48:17).
CHALLENGE: “Peter isn’t the rock because Paul says, ‘For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor. 3:11).”
DEFENSE: Scripture describes the Church’s foundation in at least five ways. You can’t pick one and ignore the others.
Paul was not speaking of the universal Church’s foundation. He was referring to how he started the local church at Corinth, of which Christ is the irreplaceable foundation. One can extend this concept to the universal Church, but not without taking into account other things the New Testament has to say.
In 1 Peter 2:6, Isaiah 28:16 is applied to Christ: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.” Here the word for “stone” isn’t petros (the name Jesus gave Peter) but lithos. Further, 1 Peter 2:6 says Jesus is the Church’s “cornerstone” (Greek, akrogōniaios). A cornerstone is only one part of a foundation—the corner part of it.
Ephesians 2:20 says the household of God is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.” The prophets here are likely prophets of the New Testament age, as made clear by the other two references to them in the epistle (Eph. 3:5, 4:11). Together with the apostles, they form the Church’s foundation in this passage, with Christ as the cornerstone. The fact that Paul wrote this passage and 1 Corinthians, shows there is no contradiction in his mind between Christ being the foundation in one sense and others being the foundation in another.
In Revelation 21:14, the New Jerusalem is said to have twelve foundations with the names of the twelve apostles written on them. Note that the Twelve were a select group who had followed Jesus during his ministry (Acts 1:21–26); not even Paul and Barnabas, who also were apostles (Acts 14:14), were members of the Twelve.
Finally, in Matthew 16:18 Jesus says: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it.”
We thus see that Scripture does not depict the foundation of the Church just one way, and what Jesus says to Peter must be given its due.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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