Commentary - Isaiah 38:21-22

Bird's-eye view

These two verses function as a narrative footnote or a parenthetical insert, providing crucial details that the main flow of the story had passed over. At first glance, they seem out of chronological order. Verse 22 records Hezekiah's request for a sign, an event that logically precedes God's answer with the sign of the sundial in verses 7-8. Verse 21 gives Isaiah's prescribed remedy for the king's boil. The Holy Spirit arranges the text this way to make a vital theological point: God's sovereign decree and promise of healing do not negate or render useless the ordinary means He has appointed for that healing. God promised Hezekiah would live, and He also commanded him to use a fig poultice. The promise and the poultice are not in conflict; they are partners in the work of God. This passage is a potent corrective to both a fatalistic passivity that does nothing and a secular pragmatism that relies on means alone without faith in God.

Hezekiah's request for a sign is not an expression of unbelief, but rather a desire for faith-bolstering assurance. And the object of his desire is telling: the sign is to confirm that he will once again "go up to the house of Yahweh." His recovery is not ultimately for his own comfort, but for the resumption of his central calling as king, to lead the people in the worship of the true and living God. The healing of the body is for the purpose of worship.

Outline

Context In Isaiah

Chapter 38 is a personal interlude in a section of Isaiah dominated by international affairs. Chapters 36 and 37 detail the national crisis of Sennacherib's invasion and God's miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem. Chapter 39 will pivot to the next great threat, Babylon, foreshadowed by the foolish pride of Hezekiah. In between these two massive geopolitical events, the Spirit zooms in on the personal crisis of the king. His near-fatal illness and miraculous recovery serve as a microcosm of the nation's own deliverance. Just as Jerusalem was delivered from the jaws of death, so is its king. These final two verses provide the practical details of that deliverance, grounding the miraculous sign of the sundial in the earthy reality of a medical remedy and showing that the king's ultimate concern was his restored access to corporate worship.

Key Issues

God's Promise and God's Poultice

One of the perennial temptations for Christians is to create a false dichotomy between God's sovereign power and our responsible action. Some fall into a hyper-spiritual quietism, thinking that if God has decreed something, there is nothing for us to do but wait for it to happen. Others fall into a practical atheism, acting as though everything depends on their effort, their ingenuity, and their tools. This passage blows up that entire framework. God makes an unconditional promise to Hezekiah: "I will add fifteen years to your life" (v. 5). And God gives a direct command through his prophet: "Apply a cake of figs to the boil."

The promise does not make the poultice unnecessary. The poultice does not detract from the power of the promise. God works through means. He is the one who created figs with medicinal properties, and He is the one who commands their use in this instance. To refuse the figs out of a "purer" faith would not be faith at all; it would be disobedience. To apply the figs while trusting only in their chemical properties would be idolatry. True faith receives the promise of God and then obediently uses the means that God provides. We pray for our daily bread, and then we go to work. We pray for the salvation of our children, and then we catechize them. We pray for healing, and we call the doctor. This is not a contradiction; this is the nature of creaturely faithfulness.

Verse by Verse Commentary

21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take up a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may live.”

The structure here, "Now Isaiah had said," tells us the narrator is filling in a detail from earlier in the story. Before the sign of the sundial, this very practical instruction was given. God, who can heal with a word, chooses to heal with a fig. A "cake of figs" was simply pressed and dried figs, a common food item, but also known in the ancient world for its medicinal use as a topical application to draw out infection. God is not above using common, earthly things to accomplish His purposes. This is the principle of incarnation. The eternal Word became flesh. God uses water in baptism and bread and wine in communion. He uses the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. He delights in sanctifying the mundane. The command is straightforward: apply the remedy. The purpose is clear: "that he may live." God's promise of life is tethered to Hezekiah's obedience in this simple, practical matter.

22 Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of Yahweh?”

This verse is also a flashback, recording the question that prompted the sign of the sundial. Hezekiah's request for a sign should not be seen as a lack of faith, but as a request for confirmation, much like Gideon with his fleece. The promise of fifteen more years of life was staggering, and Hezekiah asks for an anchor for his faith. But notice what the sign is for. He doesn't ask, "What is the sign that I will feel better?" or "What is the sign that I will get out of this bed?" He asks for a sign that he will "go up to the house of Yahweh." This is the heart of a true believer. His life is not oriented around himself, but around God. To be restored to health meant, for him, to be restored to the place of public worship, sacrifice, and praise. To be cut off from the assembly of the saints was, for him, the very definition of a living death. The purpose of his physical healing was spiritual communion. God delivers us from our private sickbeds so that we can rejoin the great congregation in worship.

Application

This passage puts steel in the spine of ordinary Christian faithfulness. We are called to live in a world where God's supernatural sovereignty and our natural responsibilities are woven together seamlessly. We must reject the false choice between faith and works, between prayer and planning, between trusting God and taking our medicine. When you are sick, pray for healing with all your heart, and then call a competent doctor and follow his instructions. When you are facing financial trouble, pray for God's provision, and then get to work on a budget and look for a job. Faith is not closing your eyes and jumping off a cliff; faith is walking obediently on the path God has laid out, using the tools He has provided.

Secondly, we must constantly check the ultimate goal of our prayers for deliverance. Why do we want to be healed? Why do we want that new job? Why do we want our marriage restored? Is it merely for our own comfort and convenience? Or is it, like Hezekiah, so that we might "go up to the house of Yahweh"? The goal of every personal deliverance is to be freed for worship. God does not save us from our troubles so that we can go back to living for ourselves. He saves us so that we can offer our bodies as living sacrifices, which is our reasonable service. Every answered prayer, every grace received, should result in a renewed commitment to the people of God, gathered in the house of God, to sing the praises of God.