Commentary - Isaiah 38:7-8

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but potent passage, we are shown the tangible confirmation of God's promise to Hezekiah. Having been granted a fifteen-year extension on his life, Hezekiah asks for a sign, not out of faithless doubt, but as a support to his faith. God, in His condescension, does not rebuke him but grants a sign of staggering proportions. He offers to move the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz forward or backward ten steps. Hezekiah, reasoning that the shadow moving forward is its natural course, asks for the greater miracle: that it would retreat. Yahweh obliges, turning back the shadow, and by implication, the sun itself. This is not a parlor trick. This is a fundamental demonstration of God's absolute sovereignty over the created order. The God who made the cosmos is not bound by its operations. He is the Lord of time, light, and celestial mechanics, and He can make them serve His redemptive purposes as easily as a man winds his watch. This sign serves not only to bolster Hezekiah's faith in his personal healing but also to declare to all that the God of Israel is the one true God, the master of heaven and earth.

This event is a physical manifestation of a spiritual reality. The God who can reverse the course of the sun is the God who can reverse the course of death. The sign is not the main event; the promise is. But the sign is God's seal upon that promise, a divine signature written across the sky. It is a powerful reminder that our faith is not in abstract principles, but in a God who acts, who intervenes, and who has all authority in heaven and on earth. And as with all such signs in the Old Testament, it casts a long shadow forward, pointing to the ultimate sign: the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the one who truly turned back the power of death and darkness.

Outline

Context In Isaiah

This passage is situated within the historical narrative section of Isaiah (chapters 36-39), which serves as a bridge between the prophecies of judgment against Judah and the nations, and the glorious promises of restoration and the coming Servant of the Lord in chapters 40-66. Chapter 38 details the personal crisis of King Hezekiah, who is on his deathbed. His story runs parallel to the national crisis of the Assyrian siege in the preceding chapters. Just as Jerusalem was delivered from the hand of Sennacherib by a mighty act of God, so Hezekiah is delivered from the grip of death by that same hand. His heartfelt prayer (38:2-3) is answered, and God, through the prophet Isaiah, promises him fifteen more years of life. The sign of the sundial is therefore the divine guarantee attached to this promise of healing and deliverance. It is a personal, historical event that demonstrates the same divine power that undergirds all of Isaiah's grander prophecies about the future redemption of God's people.

Key Issues

Lord of the Cosmos

We moderns have a tendency to put God and "the laws of nature" on the same level, as though God set the universe in motion like a clockmaker and is now bound to watch it tick according to the rules He established. But this is paganism, not Christianity. The Bible teaches that what we call natural laws are nothing more than the regular, moment-by-moment expression of God's personal, sustaining power. The sun rises each day not because of gravitational inertia alone, but because God tells it to rise. As the Westminster Confession puts it, God's providence upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all creatures, actions, and things.

This miracle of the sundial is a stark reminder of this foundational truth. God is not a resident of the universe, subject to its internal regulations. He is the Creator, and the distance between Creator and creature is infinite. For Him to make the sun's shadow retreat is no more difficult than it was for Him to say "Let there be light" in the first place. He is not breaking His laws; He is simply willing a different outcome. He is the author of the story, and if He wants to write a parenthetical comment in the sky, He is perfectly free to do so. This event forces us to reckon with the God who is actually there, not the tame, predictable deity of our own making. He is the Lord of the cosmos, and the cosmos obeys His voice.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7 “Now this shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this word that He has spoken:

The transaction begins with God taking the initiative. It is Yahweh who offers the sign, and it is offered for a specific purpose: so that Hezekiah will know that Yahweh will perform the promise He has just made. A divine sign is not magic; it is an accommodation to our weakness. It is a visible anchor for our faith. God's word alone is utterly sufficient and trustworthy, but in His kindness, He often provides tangible confirmations. The sign does not add to the certainty of God's word from God's perspective, but it adds to our subjective assurance. Notice the repetition of God's covenant name, Yahweh. This is the promise-keeping God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He is putting His reputation on the line. The sign is to be "from Yahweh," a direct, unmistakable act that could not be attributed to chance or any other cause.

8 Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.

Here is the miracle itself, described in straightforward, observational terms. The "stairway of Ahaz" was likely some form of sundial, a structure with steps or degrees where a shadow would mark the time of day. The mechanics are not the point; the effect is. God says, "Behold, I will cause..." This is the language of absolute sovereignty. God is the direct agent. He is not asking the sun's permission. The shadow, which had been progressing on its normal, downward course as the afternoon wore on, would reverse direction. The parallel account in 2 Kings 20 tells us Hezekiah chose for the shadow to go backward, as that was the harder, more unnatural thing. And so it happened. "So the sun's shadow went back ten steps." The text states it as a simple fact. For the writer, there is no need to explain away the scientific difficulties, because for the God who made the sun, there are no difficulties. This is a brute fact of history, a moment when God reached into the machinery of the solar system and made it run in reverse to encourage one of His servants. This is the kind of God we serve. He is not a distant abstraction; He is the Lord of heaven and earth, who numbers the hairs on our heads and turns back the sun for the sake of His promises.

Application

The story of Hezekiah's sign is a profound encouragement for the believer. It teaches us, first, that God is intimately concerned with the lives of His people. The God who governs the galaxies stoops to hear the tearful prayer of a sick king. No concern of ours is too small for His notice or too great for His power. He is the God who condescends.

Second, this passage confronts our anemic view of God's power. We live in a secular age that is deeply skeptical of the supernatural. We are tempted to explain away the miracles of the Bible or relegate them to a bygone era. But this story shouts that our God is the Lord of creation. The laws of nature are His servants, not His masters. While we should not expect Him to turn back the sun for us on a whim, we should pray with the bold confidence that nothing is too hard for the Lord. The God who did this for Hezekiah is the same God to whom we pray today.

Finally, and most importantly, this sign points us to the ultimate sign given to mankind: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hezekiah was brought back from the brink of death and given fifteen more years. This was a wonderful reprieve. But Jesus Christ went into the very heart of death, into the grave itself, and shattered its power from the inside out. He did not just turn back the shadow; He abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Tim 1:10). Hezekiah's sign was a reversal of time; the resurrection is the reversal of sin and death. Hezekiah's sign was for one man in one generation. The empty tomb is God's sign for all men in all generations, the ultimate confirmation that His word is true and His promises are sure. Our faith does not rest on a shadow on a staircase, but on the solid reality of a risen Savior who is Lord of all.