The Tuesday after the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on August 25, 2026 by under
Scripture: Isaiah 38:9-22 (NKJV)
38:9 This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:
10 I said, “In the prime of my life I shall go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the remainder of my years.”
11 I said, “I shall not see Yah, the Lord in the land of the living; I shall observe man no more among the inhabitants of the world.
12 “My life span is gone, taken from me like a shepherd’s tent; I have cut off my life like a weaver. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me.
13 “I have considered until morning—like a lion, so He breaks all my bones; From day until night You make an end of me.
14 “Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered; I mourned like a dove; My eyes fail from looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; Undertake for me!
15 “What shall I say? He has both spoken to me, and He Himself has done it. I shall walk carefully all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
16 “O Lord, by these things men live; And in all these things is the life of my spirit; So You will restore me and make me live.
17 “Indeed it was for my own peace that I had great bitterness; But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
18 “For Sheol cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth.
19 “The living, the living man, he shall praise You, as I do this day; the father shall make known Your truth to the children.
20 “The Lord was ready to save me; Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life, in the house of the Lord.”
21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of figs, and apply it as a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.”
22 And Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”
Devotion
God does not always explain His reasoning to His creatures. Hezekiah was a righteous king of Judah; one of the best, if not the best, to follow in David’s line. And yet God told him that he would die young. However, Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, and God granted him an extra fifteen years of life. These verses are the prayer of thanksgiving that Hezekiah sang when God cured him of his illness.
Hezekiah would indeed live another fifteen years, but even with the extra fifteen years, he died relatively young. We might think, what could a man like Hezekiah have done with another twenty years? Yet we must remember that our times are in God’s hands; He will call us to Himself when He is ready to do so. The hope that we have as believers in Christ is not necessarily for a long and easy life, but for a life faithful to the callings that God has given us, for as long as God grants us time to live. Hezekiah spent his time re-establishing the worship of the True God, and eliminating superstition. Hezekiah’s recovery is also a powerful lesson for us in the power of prayer—because God did hear Hezekiah’s prayer and granted him fifteen more years. May we fill our days with time well-spent in service to God and to each other.
Collect: Almighty and Merciful God, of Whose only gift it cometh that Thy faithful people do unto Thee true and laudable service: Grant, we beseech Thee, that we may so faithfully serve Thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain Thy heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
