HEZEKIAH'S PRAYER by David Paulson, M.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 26, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 52.

HEZEKIAH'S PRAYER.

By David Paulson, M.D.

THE invalid will find much in the prayer of Hezekiah that is profitable, instructive, and comforting. Hezekiah was so ill that he was said to be "sick unto death." He was said to have a boil; but the seriousness of his condition makes it evident that it was more nearly what we to-day would term an abscess; for the pus infection was so severe as to cause a sufficient chill to make his teeth chatter. Isa. 38:14. He mourned as a dove, or groaned, and he was "oppressed;" and then he prayed a prayer that is a perfectly proper one for every invalid to pray: "O Lord, I am oppressed; ease me," margin. "I shall go softly all my years." The value of such a repentance is indicated in the following verse: "By these things men live; . . . so wilt Thou recover me." When a man comes to the point where he is willing to change all his erroneous spiritual and physical habits, and it has become so thoroughly fixed in his mind as it was in Hezekiah's, he is then in an attitude where God can accomplish something for him; for the attitude God always maintains toward the sick man is indicated in the words, "The Lord was ready to save me." Verse 20.

That Hezekiah recognized the necessity of the earnest co-operation of the human agent in this healing process, is indicated by the fact that he carried out Isaiah's instruction, "Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover." And so rapid was this recovery that in three days he was able to come into the house of God. 2 Kings 20:5. DAVID PAULSON, M.D.