2 Kings 20:1-11

John 4:46-54

I pray that after last week’s reflection on Gideon’s story, the Magi’s, the shepherds’, and even my own, that your eyes were opened to spiritually see the signs of God’s Presence in your life. Signs through which He reveals Himself, His will, His Love, His Grace. What did you see?! Let’s spend one more week on signs … 

God desires to be in a relationship with us. An intimate relationship with us. Not a relationship that is one-sided, but one that is a beautiful dance between lover and beloved. A dance where one holds while also being held, where one speaks and listens while also being heard and whispered to.

Hezekiah was a king of Judah. He relied on the Lord, was faithful to Him and did not turn from following Him. And the Lord was with Hezekiah to the point that wherever Hezekiah went the Lord was with him (2 Kings 18:5-7). Regardless, Hezekiah became terminally ill. The prophet Isaiah told Hezekiah to get his house in order because he was about to die. There seemed to be no hope. But God heard Hezekiah’s prayers, saw his tears and promised healing. Isaiah brought word of the promise that God would give Hezekiah an additional 15 years of life. God promised, yet Hezekiah still asked Isaiah for a sign that God would heal him and that he would go to the temple on the third day!! (Hezekiah might have already been healed when he asked for this sign. 2 Kings 20:7 tells us that a poultice of figs was laid on his infected skin and he was healed. In verse 8 Hezekiah asks Isaiah what the sign for his healing will be).

Hezekiah wanted a sign and Isaiah offered options! Hezekiah could choose whether the shadow would “go ahead ten steps or go back ten steps”. Given it was more supernatural for a shadow to “go back” than to be lengthened, Hezekiah requested the shadow “go back” ten steps. God provided the requested sign to Hezekiah. (Read the full account of Hezekiah’s story in 2 Kings 20:1-11 or Isaiah 38).

Regardless of whether Hezekiah’s infected skin might have already been healed or not, God had given His word that Hezekiah would enjoy another 15 years of life, so why would Hezekiah need a sign? Scripture tells us that Hezekiah trusted the Lord (2 Kings 18:5). Why didn’t Hezekiah trust God in this promise? Yet God didn’t condemn Hezekiah in his request for a sign,  rather He blessed him with the promised sign so that Hezekiah would know without a doubt that His Lord was still with Him, hearing His prayers, and revealing Himself through the promised sign.

Isn’t that the God you want by your side? Do you desire such an encounter with Jesus that you humbly cry out in the midst of your needs expecting God to not only hear but respond? Will you, in faith, slow down and look for the signs that God is in your midst? Whispering? Do you need more of Jesus? God’s Word promises, You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13. Do you want to find Him? Do you trust He can be found? Do you desire the intimate relationship with Jesus that Hezekiah had with God? God is the same yesterday, today and forever! (Hebrews 13:8). He still loves, still cares, still makes Himself known when we seek and search … with all our heart.

Was Hezekiah doubting God’s promise, perhaps even God’s existence, in that moment when he asked for the sign? Doubt is a very real part of faith – for faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen (Hebrews 11:1). If you can see something, if something is obvious, you don’t need faith do you? But to believe what you can’t see, to believe in the midst of what is an unexplainable mystery, requires faith, requires a confident trust that rises above those doubts. God meets you, meets each of us, in the midst of those doubts assuring us of His presence so that our faith might be deepened, our relationship with Him might become more intimate as we grasp yet one more glimpse of the depth of His grace and unconditional love.

Let me share a personal story, a true story that I hope might encourage you alongside Hezekiah’s story!

A few years ago I shared with a group of Christians a spiritual experience that I had had at a conference. After the meeting, one man confided his doubt that God exists. We chatted for a while and I reminded him that doubt is a very real part of faith and that if he doubts, to ask God to make Himself known.

However, after our conversation, I was heavy-hearted. How could I explain God’s reality to someone, anyone, who was doubting? Was it possible? And in that moment – I had my own doubts! I doubted my ability, even as minister, to adequately share God’s story, share my own faith, in a way that someone might grasp the Truth of God’s Word and existence and claim Jesus as Lord and Saviour. But my doubts went even deeper. In the midst of my inadequacies I questioned if perhaps the man was right, and I was the one who had placed my faith in a God who wasn’t there.

I was sad because I knew that wasn’t true, but in hearing the man’s arguments it was easy to question – especially when I couldn’t reason on any basis but faith (Hebrews 11:1). I felt inadequate to give “proof” for God’s existence, and I felt that rather than encouraging him in his faith, I was discouraged in my own!! If God was real, as I believed with all my heart, why couldn’t I speak such Truth in a way others could hear and also believe? I prayed that God might give me a sign of His presence, a sign that He was indeed real. A sign that what I had to share was truth – for me and all people. In that moment I needed to be encouraged, I needed to be reassured that God was real.

The next day, on my “morning walk and talk with Jesus”, I remember thinking about Hezekiah and how God gave him a powerful sign of His promise and presence through the sun’s shadow. I thought about how God held the sun for Joshua to fight his battle. (That’s another great story – read it in Joshua 10:12-14). And although I wasn’t brave enough to ask for such a sign from God, I did confide in Him that it would be nice to receive a sign as supernatural as those He had given to Hezekiah and Joshua. Although I didn’t hear Him, God must have laughed and whispered, “Just you wait! Have I got a surprise for you!”

When I was eating breakfast after my walk, about 8:40 to 8:45 a.m., I looked up to  notice the candle and plant, (that sat on the knee wall separating our living and dining rooms), were shadowed on the wall behind them. It was beautiful, but something seemed strange about it. I realized that I had not noticed such a shadow before. Then I thought – no wonder – the sun was coming up in the east and this was silhouetted on an east wall! For such a shadow to have fallen the sun should have been coming in through a window facing west! We don’t even have any windows on the west wall of our living room or kitchen!

I took several pictures and tried to figure out a reason for this to have happened, a way to explain or solve this “mystery”. I wondered if perhaps the sun was refracting off the glass wood stove door, but it didn’t make a difference to the shadow when I opened or shut the door. There was no explanation, other than God had “let the shadow go back ten steps” as He had for Hezekiah! It was a miracle – never seen before – never seen since.

When I was done eating my breakfast, ten minutes later, the shadow was gone!! I smiled as I  thought of God holding the sun for Joshua to fight his battle! God had miraculously assured me of His presence in the midst of my own petty doubts. In the midst of my feelings of inadequacy to defend His existence to another, I was reminded that any such feeble attempts to even try to explain such an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God are in fact rather ludicrous. One can’t possibly explain God – one has to experience God!

I tell this story as a reminder that God isn’t merely a God of the Old Testament or of the New Testament — His miracles, His signs and wonders, ceasing with the last “Amen” of the Book of Revelation. He is alive and still speaks today! What is He doing in your life? God continues to move in the present moment. If you look you’ll see the signs of His Presence! Be prepared to be amazed!

Peggy