Hezekiah: Tomorrow You Shall Die
While many know the details of the lives of some of the kings of Israel like David and Solomon, their lives would be so blessed today by studying the details of the life of king Hezekiah. He was king of the southern kingdom of Judah when the ten northern tribes were destroyed by the Assyrians. Assyria’s army then came and surrounded Jerusalem. The prayer of Hezekiah moved God to annihilate 185,000 Assyrians who had surrounded Jerusalem without Hezekiah’s army having to shoot a single arrow (2 Kgs. 19).
What will you do with what is left of your life?
Shortly after this great victory Hezekiah became sick, and Isaiah came to him with this message from God. “Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live” (2 Kgs. 20:1). What an amazing message, and what a blessing this horrendous day can be to us if we just imagine we had been that king. How would you respond if you knew that this would be the last day of your life and that tomorrow you would die?
Read all the details of what happened that day and what Hezekiah did when the message came to him. Because of the king’s actions, God added fifteen years to Hezekiah’s life. Tragically, he made grave mistakes in those years.
The truth is that whether we die today, tomorrow or fifteen years from now really does not matter. Some day I will die. Some day you will die. Hear the words of God, “It is appointed for men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). We have the appointment to die, but unlike Hezekiah, we do not know the time of that appointment. The message for us is so obvious. All of us must make sure we are ready to keep that appointment and the event which follows.
The reason for this urgency is found in the last words of this verse from Hebrews—”…after this the judgment.” Daniel Webster, the American statesman, said that the most sobering thought he ever had was that some day he must stand before God and give an account for how he lived. Consider the fact that the lives of all men would be changed if they never forgot this sobering thought, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).
Unlike what happened to Hezekiah, God has not sent the prophet Isaiah to come to our house to tell us that we should set our houses in order for the end of our life has come. However, is this not the message found repeatedly throughout the scriptures? We may not know for certain the time of our death, but we know for certain that we shall die. How would you live today if you knew that this would be your last day on this earth? It could be!