recovery

Time of death

Around the time when Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked Judah, king Hezekiah contracted a life-threatening disease. Hezekiah’s sickness may have been the result of spiritual circumstances connected with his removal of the high places and images used in idolatry (2 Kings 18:4). Isaiah the prophet came to Hezekiah, “and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live” (Isaiah 32:1).

Hezekiah’s response to Isaiah’s declaration indicated that Hezekiah was a man of faith. He believed that prayer could change the outcome of his situation. It says in Isaiah 38:2-3, “Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, and said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.”

Hezekiah poured out his heart to the LORD in a very real and personal way. He didn’t ask the LORD for anything, Hezekiah merely wanted the LORD to know how he felt about the news he had just received. At the time Hezekiah was told he was going to die, he was about 37 or 38 years old, the prime of life for a man living in that time period.

Hezekiah’s prayer received a response, but the LORD didn’t speak to him directly. “Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years” (Isaiah 38;4-5). The specification of Hezekiah’s time of death meant that he was receiving a divinely appointed extension to his life span, an unusual blessing from the LORD.

It is likely that by changing the time of Hezekiah’s death, God allowed Hezekiah’s life to change the course of history. A connection was made between the extension of Hezekiah’s life and the deliverance of Jerusalem out of the hand of the king of Assyria (Isaiah 38:5-6). After Hezekiah recovered, he received a visit from the king of Babylon (Isaiah 39:1) to whom he revealed all his kingdom’s treasures (Isaiah 39:4). As a result of this mistake, It says in Isaiah 39:5-6:

Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: Behold, the days will come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.

Recovery

Jehu did not walk in the law of the LORD (2 Kings 10:31), therefore, “the LORD began to cut Israel short; and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel” (2 Kings 10:32). Hazael, the king of Syria, was a ruthless dictator appointed by God to afflict Israel because of their idolatry. Hazael had been in power approximately 12 – 15 years when Johoash a.k.a. Joash began to reign at the age of seven.

While Jehu was alive, Hazael focused on the northern kingdom of Israel. For twenty three years, Johoash had a chance to restore the temple of God and to rid Judah of Baal worship. Jehoash’s plan to reignite the people’s passion for their temple centered on the repair of breaches in the house of God (2 Kings 12:5). The breaches may have been gaps in the exterior wall or the interior chamber known as the Holy of Holies. The temple’s existence for more than a hundred years suggests that the building had become old and worn down.

The temple had been Jehoash’s home for seven years while he was being hidden from Athaliah. No doubt, he was very familiar with the structure and the condition of its chambers. As a child, he probably explored places that no one had entered for years. In spite of his order to collect money and make the repairs, the priests refused to follow Jehoash’s command. By the twenty third year of his reign, nothing had been accomplished(2 Kings 12:6).

One of the problems with furnishing the temple was it attracted attention from the surrounding nations. Solomon’s temple was known for its extravagance. Most of the utensils and furnishings were made of precious metals and had been stolen on previous occasions. If the temple became operational, it could be assumed that treasure was available for the taking. Finally, when the repairs began, “there was not made for the house of the LORD bowls of silver, snuffers, basons, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of the LORD” (2 Kings 12:13).

After the repairs had been made, Hazael, king of Syria, attacked Jerusalem. “And Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicate, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and in the king’s house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem” (2 Kings 12:18).

 

Accidents happen

Several months ago, I was in a car accident. It happened on a road that I travel almost everyday. I had made hundreds, if not thousands of trips on that road and never had a problem until the day someone suddenly pulled out of a gas station and rammed into the side of my car. At first, I thought the person must have done it on purpose. How could she not see my red SUV coming toward her? I had been crossing a busy intersection just before the impact and was shocked when I saw her car coming toward me. There was no way I could avoid the collision.

Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 9:12 that man “knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of man snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.” According to Solomon, accidents happen to everyone (Ecclesiastes 9:11); there is no way to control things that happen by chance. Therefore, we should make the most of our circumstances.

In my situation, the driver who hit me had insurance and my car was repaired at no expense to me. Afterward, the first few times I drove on that road, I felt anxious when I drove past the spot where the accident happened, but eventually, I was no longer affected by the memory and returned to normal. It didn’t take me long to get over the incident because I knew it was an accident and would likely never happen again.

God’s recovery plan

Sometimes when it seems like God is against us, he actually is. It says in James 4:6, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” The word translated resisteth, antitassomai (an – tee – tas´ – som – ahee) means to set one-self against or to oppose someone. When God’s children ask him for something that is unhealthy, he says no in order to protect them from harm.

David prayed, “Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel” (Psalm 20:4). What David was saying was that he wanted the LORD to give him what the LORD wanted him to have. David was acknowledging that the LORD knew what was best for him and David didn’t want to get into a position where the LORD stopped saying yes to him because his pride had become a problem.

God had a plan that he was working to accomplish in and through David’s life. If David wanted something that was not a part of God’s plan, God would not have allowed David to have it. David was the LORD’s anointed (Psalm 20:6), which meant  his life belonged to God. David was consecrated or set apart to accomplish God’s will (4899).

David said, “Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed” (Psalm 20:6). The word translated saveth yâsha (yaw – shah´) means to deliver or help and by implication to be safe or free from distress (3467). David was confident that he was in God’s will and whatever happened to him was a part of God’s plan for his life. The assurance David had was based on his awareness that God had made him king of Israel, just as he had planned when Samuel anointed  David.

In spite of everything Saul did to try to kill David and the many battles David fought in which he could have been killed, David became king over all Israel. All of David’s enemies were eliminated and David said, They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright” (Psalm 20:8).

The word translated risen, quwm (koom) is sometimes “used to denote the inevitable occurrence of something predicted or prearranged” (6965). It may be difficult to believe or understand, but God plans for us to make mistakes. He knows every move we are going to make before we make it and has a recovery plan in place before we even know we are going to need one. I thing the best way and maybe the only way to know for certain if someone is a child of God is if he recovers from his mistakes.