“Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.
Isaiah 38:5 NIV
Hezekiah was one of the two best kings of Judah after the division of the united kingdom. 2 Kings 18:2 says that he was 25 years old when he began to rule. And he reigned as king for 29 years. Midway through his reign, he contracted a fatal disease and was told by God that he would die. Hezekiah wept and prayed over this pronouncement, and God granted him an additional 15 years of life.
I am much older than Hezekiah. And I have no assurance that I will live long enough to finish this note. But this makes me wonder how my life might be different if I knew with certainty that I had 15 years left. Would I invest that time wisely? Or would I waste much of it, knowing that I still had time? And I wonder how much different my answer would be at 20 or 40 years old instead of nearly 70?
But the Lord has not entrusted me with that information. And I am good with that. I can live each day as if it were my last. Being faithful to the one who has called me to himself—and looking forward to that time when I come fully into his presence. Whenever that might be. It might be today. Or it might be 15 or more years in the future. But whenever it is, I will trust him, and live for him, each day along the way.
