By: Denise Pass © 6/20/14

Isaiah 38:5, 20-22

5“Go and tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life. 20 The Lord is about to deliver me, and we will celebrate with music for the rest of our lives in the Lord’s temple.” 21 Isaiah ordered, “Let them take a fig cake and apply it to the ulcerated sore and he will get well.” 22Hezekiah said, “What is the confirming sign that I will go up to the Lord’s temple?”

I love this passage in God’s word for several reasons. First, we see God’s mercy and healing in answering Hezekiah’s prayer when he was most certainly going to die. Second, we see Hezekiah responding in faith at just the word from Isaiah that God was going to heal him. But my favorite part is how God healed him. I mean, I have always been a little too fond of sweets, and I get the sense that Hezekiah munched a bit too much on them, as well, but to apply it to his boo boo for healing? I can understand Hezekiah asking for a little assurance when the method was an application of fig cake. I hope you are laughing now, because that is the point of today’s blog.

Hmmm . . . I can see it now on Dr. Oz . . . apply a Fig Newton to your wound and miracle cure by morning! But the point was not the method – why God chose that method, I do not know. But Hezekiah’s heart and I am sure ours would be tested by such a means. I have had the blessing of hearing God tell me that He was going to heal me and seen Him do it. This testimony I cherish, because He initiated the healing and He kept His promise. It was not naming and claiming it, nor anything too dramatic, just Him whispering in my ear what He was about to do and me stepping out in faith and believing Him. I have also had seasons when I could not hear Him at all, when I was not healed but cleaved to His word, knowing He would ultimately make sense of hardship. Either way, God is good and all that He does is good – all the time.

Sometimes God will ask us to step out in faith and do things that we think are a bit odd. Recall the blind man in the New Testament who had mud placed on his eyes. Was it the mud that healed him? I think not. Perhaps God wants us to lighten up a bit and do something silly. If we have for certain embedded in our souls that God is in control and sees our pain, our mess ups, our victories – He sees it all and adores us – maybe we can rest a little more when the road is bumpy.

Today if you are in a place of pain, I am not wanting to trivialize that pain – I know it is real. I personally suffer daily with a variety of autoimmune diseases. God cares about your suffering, too. But if you can find the courage to dig in His word and cry out to Him – give Him your pain and maybe even dare to be brave enough to find humor in the situation – now that’s sweet! Sweeter than cake, to be able to laugh in the face of disaster! The next time you have a piece of cake, maybe you will think about it a little differently – Hezekiah did. (o:

Father, thank you for this story about Hezekiah. Help us to trust you when life hurts and things are scary, too. May we run to you and seek your face. Help us to have faith like children and to laugh again.