Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Present - Repents - Serpent (07/17/25)
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TITLE: He Lives! | Previous Challenge Entry
By Terry R A Eissfeldt
07/23/25 -
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The royal physicians shuffle pass me with muted sighs and shaking heads.
“Yalah, is that you?” Hezekiah asks, groaning in pain.
“Yes, my king.” Tears fill my eyes. Although I am a slave he has treated me kindly from childhood to present. Once again I send a silent prayer to his God begging for his life.
“Water and a cake of figs, my lord?” I move toward the bed.
“No, leave them. I need Isaiah.” The king tries to sit but falls back wincing in pain. “Call Eliakim.”
I rush out.
Eliakim, the household manager, is pacing the hall. I swear he’s worn a groove in the ancient stone these past few days.
“The king is asking for you.” I bow in deference.
Without answering he rushes to the room and then back out again racing past me. I return to the king’s room. He’s sleeping.
I fall to my knees, tears streaming down my face.
“Oh, God of my king, I beg you to spare Hezekiah’s life. He is just, kind and follows Your ways, unlike a heathen like me.”
I stretch-out on the stone floor. Maybe if I get lower He will open His ears to my plea.
“I remember, I was just a child, when Hezekiah came to the throne. He purified and cleansed Your temple. He broke all the idols apart, even the bronze serpent that Moses made in the desert. They were worshipping it.”
His passion and zeal frightened me. He led the entire nation in repentance to their God.
I sit up and gaze at the bed. The thin linen sheet moves up and down erratically.
I weep louder. “God of David! Hezekiah repents daily! Remember when Assyria was on our door step threatening Jerusalem? He ran to You in sackcloth and ashes.”
I shudder as I remember sitting on the city wall and hearing Rabshakeh mock my king and his God.
Hezekiah quickly sent messengers to Isaiah. I didn’t know who he was but rejoiced when the answer came that God would make the Assyrians leave.
The next morning one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians were dead. I began to wonder who this God was.
Maybe if I pray the same way Hezekiah did when he presented the enemy’s letter to his God…..
“You are the God, You alone of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear Lord and hear….”
Hear what? A small inkling stirs in my stomach. I am separated from God as a heathen….is there a way for me to become His follower?
“God of my King….will you be my God? Please forgive my failings and accept me as Yours.”
A warmth spreads over my body. I lay back on the floor at the foot of my king’s bed.
Suddenly the door opens and someone walks over my prone body. I fell asleep! Is my king still alive?
Then I see Isaiah: wizened, smelling of the desert, dusty robes splayed around him. I shrink into the floor.
“This is what the Lord says: ‘Set your house in order for you are going to die and not live.'"
Flinging his robes around he leaves. Hope abandons the room with the prophet.
I’m in shock - frozen - then I hear my king as he pleas to God, weeping profusely.
I’m undone. I must leave but before I can get off the floor Isaiah swoops back in.
“This is what the Lord, the God of your father David says, ‘ I have heard your prayers; I have seen your tears; behold I am going to heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. And I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will save you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will protect this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”
The prophet points his boney finger at me. “Bring me a cake of figs.”
I scramble off the floor and hand him the cake from the bedside table.
“Put it on the inflammation.”
I follow his instructions without question. As soon as the cake touches his skin my king is healed.
Truly the God of my King lives!
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