Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 20
Sometimes, God gives his people ‘signs’ – in other words, special evidence that he has spoken.
It is wrong to test God. Our duty is always to trust and to obey God’s word. We must not try to test God – in other words, we must not try to force him to prove that he has spoken. That was the reason that Ahaz gave to refuse a sign from God in Isaiah 7:12. However, Ahaz was an evil man, and God himself had offered him a sign.
Hezekiah, who was Ahaz’s son, was a good man. Isaiah the prophet (holy man) had told Hezekiah that God would cure him from his illness. So, Hezekiah asked Isaiah for a sign, evidence that God had spoken. He allowed God himself to choose what that sign would be.
Isaiah pointed to the ‘steps’ that Hezekiah could see from his bed. In the opinion of many people, those steps were stairs on a staircase that Ahaz had built. Possibly they were marks on a sundial, a tool that uses the shadow to measure the time. Of course, the sun always moves in the same direction each day. So, from his bed, Hezekiah could see the hours that passed by the movement of the shadow.
For the shadow to move back, would be the opposite of what happens naturally. In the same way, the natural result of Hezekiah’s illness would be his death. So, on this occasion, God would do something extraordinary – the opposite of what happens naturally. First Hezekiah would see it when the shadow moved in the opposite direction to its usual direction. Then Hezekiah would know it in his own body as he recovered from his illness.
So, that is what happened. God cured Hezekiah; and in many different countries, people heard about the wonderful things that God had done for him.
Next part: Hezekiah tries to impress the officials from Babylon (2 Kings 20:12)
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