And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Read Chapter 38
Cyril of Jerusalem
AD 386
Do you want to know the power of repentance? Do you want to understand this strong weapon of salvation and the might of confession? By confession Hezekiah routed 185,000 of the enemy. That was important, but it was small compared with what else happened. The same king’s repentance won the repeal the sentence God had passed on him. When he was sick, Isaiah had said, “Give direction for your household, for you will surely die, and not live.” What expectation was left? What hope of recovery was there? The prophet had said, “You will surely die.” But Hezekiah remembered what was written: “In the hour that you turn and lament, you will be saved.” He turned his face to the wall, and from his bed of pain his mind soared up to heaven (for no wall is so thick as to stifle fervent prayer). He said, “Lord, remember me.” … He whom the prophet’s sentence had forbidden to hope was granted fifteen further years of life, the sun turning back its course as a witness. - "Catechetical Lectures 2.15"
Hearing that he was about to die, Hezekiah prayed not that he be granted several more years of life but that he be permitted to stand before the judgment of God, as he wished. For he knew that Solomon pleased God by not asking for a longer life. Preparing to journey to the Lord, therefore, Hezekiah chronicled his works, how he had walked before the Lord in truth and in perfection of heart. Happy is the conscience that remembers good works at a time of affliction: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God,” or as it is written elsewhere, “Who will glory in the purity of his heart?” This is the explanation: perfection of heart can now be attributed to him because he destroyed idols, overturned the vessels of Baal in the temple, shattered the bronze serpent and did other things that Scripture commemorates. - "Commentary on Isaiah 11.38.1–3"
