Isaiah 38 Footnotes

38:8 The text does not say that the sign involved the stopping of the sun or the interruption of the earth’s rotation. The sign involved the reversing of the shadow on the sundial built onto the palace steps. No explanation is given for how this occurred. Today one can only speculate about a miraculous interference in the refraction of the sun’s rays, or the introduction of a new source of light in a location different from that of the sun. Whatever the cause, that which seems physically impossible is not so for God.

38:21 Was Hezekiah’s healing from this sickness really a miracle or was it just the result of some common ancient medicinal practices? Both Isaiah and Hezekiah understood that it was the Lord who spared the king’s life. The application of a common remedy to heal the skin did not undercut the miraculous nature of the deed any more than Jesus’s application of mud on the eyes of the blind man (Jn 9:6) reduced the nature of that miracle.