The Book of Isaiah

Chapter 1 V.1 Part 5.6

Isa 38:4  Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,

Isa 38:5  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.

The book of 2 Kings gives more of a description of this conversation.

2Ki 20:4  And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

2Ki 20:5  Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.

There’s the first sign; the number 3.

2Ki 20:6  And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

2Ki 20:7  And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid [it] on the boil, and he recovered.

2Ki 20:8  And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What [shall be] the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the third day?

What I question is why did Hezekiah ask what the sign of this healing would be? Was it that he was asking when it would take place? Because surely being healed would be evidence itself. And too, wasn’t he just healed of a boil? But he still wasn’t convinced? This reminds me of another scripture:

Mat 12:39  But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

Mat 12:40  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Mat 12:41  The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas [is] here.

And here we see the number three again. It’s everywhere, but no one seems to realize it. And look who will arise in judgment. We will see this name mentioned again later.

2Ki 20:8  And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What [shall be] the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the third day?

2Ki 20:9  And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?

2Ki 20:10  And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.

2Ki 20:11  And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.

Dial: for the measurement of time, only once mentioned in the Bible, erected by Ahaz (2Ki 20:11; Isa 38:8). The Hebrew word (ma’aloth) is rendered “steps” in Exd 20:26, 1Ki 10:19, and “degrees” in 2Ki 20:9, 10, 11. The _ma’aloth_ was probably stairs on which the shadow of a column or obelisk placed on the top fell. The shadow would cover a greater or smaller number of steps, according as the sun was low or high.

Probably the sun-dial was a Babylonian invention. Daniel at Babylon (Dan 3:6) is the first to make mention of the “hour.”