In Isaiah, chapter thirty-eight, verse one, “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.” Through Isaiah, God prophesied that Hezekiah would die as the inevitable physical consequence of his sickness.
However, much prophecy is conditional, as in Jeremiah eighteen, verses seven through ten, as the Lord speaks here to his servant. “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.”
God does not act deceitfully, as declared in Hebrews six, verse eighteen, but He can change His plans as a result of our response to His Word. God’s message to Hezekiah was a direct and unequivocal statement about what would happen if Hezekiah’s affliction was altered. But because Hezekiah responded in earnest prayer and in confidence in God’s ability to heal his physical illness, God mercifully answered his prayer and added fifteen years to his life.
In the midst of the king’s magnificence and prosperity, there was that in the inner house of the soul, as well as in that of the outer life, which required ordering. The words may imply a certain sense of disappointment at the result of Hezekiah’s reign.