Epiphany: Figs?

  Isaiah said,

   “Bring a lump of figs

     so that he may recover.” (Second Kings 20:7)

Why the figs? Why not just say, “You are healed, rise up and walk about!” Funny how we never read scripture exactly the same. When things change in our lives, we notice something in the text we missed; or, in other ways overlooked; or, simply didn’t care to notice. That’s how it was with me when I revisited the twentieth chapter of Second Kings. I thought it was just about how God granted King Hezekiah another fifteen years of life. When I re-read, I noticed it wasn’t as simple as that. All sorts of things are swirling about “in those days when Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death; and, the prophet Isaiah came to visit him” (vs 1).

Isaiah, as prophets often do, came to pronounce bad news: “Set you house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.” But, “as Isaiah was leaving the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him, ‘Turn back, and say to King Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; indeed, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake’" (vss5-6).

See what I mean? It has to do with “this city” and its inhabitants who live each day in dread of the Assyrians whose king has their city, Jerusalem, in his grip. It’s not all about Hezekiah. There is a whole lot of other stuff: the Assyrians, the city, their ancestor David, the House of the Lord; and always, God’s own enormous self-regard—“for my own sake.” Somewhere in the midst of this big swirl; there are lumps of figs that Isaiah tells Hezekiah to “apply to his wounds, so that he may recover." Why the figs? Whose idea was that? Did the Lord speak such fig commands; or, as seems more probable, did Isaiah come up with it on his own?

I don’t suppose anything my Lord does is just about me. Nonetheless, in the midst of all the swirl, there are figs applied to the wounds. Isn’t that something?