God’s sign to Hezekiah was that the nation would live off what grows of itself for two consecutive years, and then they would sow and reap again in the following year. That is the same pattern as a year of release followed by a Jubilee year. Two years of letting the land lie fallow, and yet God would still provide enough food to feed the nation. God says these two years would be the sign. He also says a remnant would take root downward and bear fruit upward. In the following verses, God promises that not only will the king of Assyria not come into the city, but that he wouldn’t even shoot a single arrow. I will read to you God’s fulfillment, starting in verse 35:
So, God’s sign to Hezekiah involved two years of land Sabbaths, or what looks like a land Sabbath and a Jubilee. The translation of “a certain night” allows God’s sign to play out for a period of time during the Assyrian campaign in the wider area. On a certain night, 185,000 Assyrian soldiers died by the hand of the angel of the LORD. The people of Judah witnessed an incredible miracle, and Sennacherib returned to Ninevah, where he was assassinated. Thus, Sennacherib reaped what he had sown in the way of idolatry and blasphemy. This meant the nation of Judah was given liberty, which is the predominant theme of the Jubilee. They were freed from their oppressors and no longer under Assyrian tribute—no longer in economic slavery. Full ownership of the land was restored to Judah—all Jubilee themes.
Historians happen to have a great deal of information about the events of Sennacherib’s life, and they date his death to the winter of 681 BC. Now, if his death, and the liberty that came with it, happened in the Jubilee year, as it seems, it puts the land Sabbath the year before, in 682 BC.
But getting back to our theme of an appointed span of time, it is instructive to consider the 49 years leading up to the miraculous liberty God gave Judah. 49 years includes the reigns of Hezekiah, Ahaz, Jotham, and Uzziah. God records that Jotham and Uzziah generally did what was right, but God also specifically notes that they allowed the high places to remain. Unlike Hezekiah, they did not want to go against public opinion and restore true worship. Their complacency later ensnared both of them in significant ways. Then Ahaz, who was Hezekiah’s father, came along. He went full bore into the idolatry that had been tolerated, and he even sacrificed a son. Perhaps Hezekiah’s knowing that his father had sacrificed Hezekiah’s brother helped put Hezekiah on a different course.
Though Hezekiah did his best to reform the nation and rid it of idolatry, he had inherited a field in which idolatry and other sins had been sown for generations. The invasion by the Assyrians was part of what Judah was reaping as the weeks of years wound down, just as God had promised in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. As the appointed time of the harvest drew to a close, Judah faced defeat by the same nation that had carried Israel away captive.
Even though righteous Hezekiah could not single-handedly turn around the deeply-rooted carnality of Judah, God responded favorably to Hezekiah’s seeking of Him, and God caused what amounted to a significant crop failure. Notice, though, that Hezekiah was already right with God. His ways already pleased God. Hezekiah didn’t have to repent and turn when tribulation came. He was already on the right path, and God intervened to save Hezekiah and Jerusalem with an overwhelming deliverance and liberation.
Even so, it wasn’t completely a “happily ever after” story. As we saw, God foretold of a remnant, not that the whole nation was going to prosper. Because of Hezekiah, the harvest of decades of idolatry was not as bad as it could have been, but the nation still reaped a large measure of what it had sown during a period of evaluation.
God’s sign to Hezekiah was that the nation would live off what grows of itself for two consecutive years, and then they would sow and reap again in the following year. That is the same pattern as a year of release followed by a Jubilee year. Two years of letting the land lie fallow, and yet God would still provide enough food to feed the nation. God says these two years would be the sign. He also says a remnant would take root downward, and bear fruit upward. In the following verses, God promises that not only will the king of Assyria not come into the city, but that he wouldn’t even shoot a single arrow. I will read to you God’s fulfillment, starting in verse 35:
So, God’s sign to Hezekiah involved two years of land Sabbaths, or what looks like a land Sabbath and a Jubilee. The translation of “a certain night” allows God’s sign to play out for a period of time during the Assyrian campaign in the wider area. On a certain night, 185,000 Assyrian soldiers died by the hand of the angel of the LORD. The people of Judah witnessed an incredible miracle, and Sennacherib returned to Ninevah, where he was assassinated. Thus, Sennacherib reaped what he had sown in the way of idolatry and blasphemy. This meant the nation of Judah was given liberty, which is the predominant theme of the Jubilee. They were freed from their oppressors and no longer under Assyrian tribute—no longer in economic slavery. Full ownership of the land was restored to Judah—all Jubilee themes.
