2 Kings 20:3
I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
When Hezekiah was gravely ill he was told through the prophet that he would die from his sickness when all other hope of life had fled. Facing death he prayed to the Lord, appealing to how he had walked before God in truth and with wholehearted devotion and had done what was good in His sight, and he wept bitterly. God heard his prayer for life and answered with favor by adding fifteen years to his life. His healing joined divine power with the use of a lump of figs laid as a poultice on the boil, showing that the use of simple remedial agencies in harmony with natural laws does not deny faith but can work with prayer and providence. To walk before God with a perfect heart is to live faithfully and obediently before Him by His law as the standard of character, which God alone enables by His grace when His will is given first place.
Sickness, Prayer, and Answer
Hezekiah was gravely ill and, through the prophet, was told that he would die from his sickness, at a time when all other hope of life had fled. Facing death, he prayed to the Lord, appealing to how he had walked before God in truth and with wholehearted, faithful devotion and had done what was good in God's sight, and he wept bitterly with deep weeping.
God heard his prayer for life and answered with favor, granting a new lease of life by raising him up and adding fifteen years to his life. As a sign to the king of that answer, God moved the sun backward so that the shadow turned back ten degrees on the sundial.
That wonder was so great that it was noticed by wise men in Chaldea who studied astronomy and became known to Merodach-baladan. He sent ambassadors to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery and to learn more of the God able to perform it. This gave Hezekiah an opportunity to extol the living God and to tell seekers after truth of His power, goodness, compassion and supreme sovereignty as the God of heaven and upholder of all created things. After his recovery, however, Hezekiah showed the Babylonian ambassadors the riches entrusted to him, and this became a test that revealed what was in his heart.
Healing, Faith, and Obedience
Hezekiah's healing joined divine power with the use of a fig remedy laid upon the boil or sore, and this gives scriptural sanction for the use of remedial agencies. Though God could have healed him instantly with one word, special direction was given to take a lump of figs and lay it as a plaster or poultice on the affected part, and he recovered through this means. Using such beneficial, practical means in harmony with natural laws does not deny faith, but works in harmony with faith, prayer, divine healing, and God's providence.
The figs were a simple natural remedy blessed by God in carrying out the healing. Directing their use turned those caring for him from treatments that were depriving him of power to recover and keeping him from rallying against the disease. To walk before God with a perfect heart is to live faithfully and obediently before Him, guided by His rules and living by His law as the standard of character and expression of His will.
God alone enables this walk through His grace, which gives the experience of a perfected character when His will is given first place. It involves learning holiness, seeking the Lord, confessing sin, and allowing the Holy Spirit to soften and subdue the heart. His distress in affliction is an example of how God's hand and providence can be recognized in events that are dark and difficult to understand, for the Lord can permit affliction and order events for a person's good.