Use clear, nonmedical language, so there is no confusion. Avoid long and complicated explanations. Don’t tell stories about what happened to others. Be careful about sharing too much information at one time. These tips may be helpful, but it’s never easy to announce a terminal illness. Just ask Isaiah. As chapter 38 opens, the prophet is given this very assignment from God. King Hezekiah has been quite sick, so it was probably not a total shock, but he was certainly not ready to hear Isaiah relay the bad news. “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover” (v 1). It was the kind of news we all secretly dread. And it was not just an informed prediction based on fallible medical opinion; this was the infallible word of God delivered through His mouthpiece, Isaiah. Hezekiah must have wondered, “How could this possibly be!?” He was just thirty-nine years old, a man who faithfully walked with God and did what was right in God’s sight (v 3). Still, he was about to die. It was announced, not as a word of judgment, but as a simple fact. The Bible is quite clear: even the righteous fall sick and die. Once again, Hezekiah turns to God in desperate prayer, weeping bitterly (v 2). Later he wrote down a fuller record of the prayers he uttered during those days of distress, and these words make up most of this chapter (v 9-20). To be honest, after reading the account, we may not be quite as impressed with Hezekiah’s prayer life as we were in the previous chapter! When the Assyrians threaten the kingdom, Hezekiah trusts in the LORD and prays unselfishly for God to bring honor to His own name. But when the threat is more intensely personal, the king’s faith seems to falter, doesn’t it? At this point it may be helpful for us to remember a couple of things. First, this prayer is in the form of a lament. Like many of the psalms, it models the kind of transparent relationship with God that He wants to have with all of us. When we are troubled, we should pray, and it’s important that we express to God how we are truly feeling. Hezekiah does not want to die just yet! Second, Hezekiah is living 700 years before God sent His Son to conquer the grave. Jesus promised that those who trust in Him will pass from death to life, enjoying eternity in His presence. But this idea of a blissful afterlife with God is not yet fully developed in Old Testament thought. The prospect of death was especially fearful in those former days, even for genuine believers. In His kind mercy, God answers Hezekiah’s prayer for healing, extending his life by fifteen years and giving him a sign to increase his faith (v 4-8). For further meditation: