God Heals with a Fig Cake - Isaiah 34-39

 Isaiah 38:20-22 (ESV)

The LORD will save me,

and we will play my music on stringed instruments

all the days of our lives,

at the house of the LORD.

Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”

The above passage is at the end of a prayer by King Hezekiah.   He was on his death bed and prayed to God.   Isaiah sent a message to him that since he had asked God, God would give him an additional 15 years to live.   So, we see the power of prayer and the moving of even a death-date through God’s answering that prayer.   The interesting part of Hezekiah’s prayer is the ending of the story.   Hezekiah proclaims that the LORD saved him.  He recognizes that times and seasons and death is in the power of the LORD.   He also recognizes that his healing would be real and full as he would once again hear the music he loves.   He would also be able to worship again in the house of the LORD.  In fact, that is a major point he is making.  He concludes his prayer with the fact that those who go to death can no longer praise God and no longer hope in God.   Of course, from a New Testament age perspective we know that believers will live with God for eternity and praise him.  Hezekiah is merely speaking in human terms.  Dead people don’t praise God is his thought.    

With all that said, the unique aspect of this prayer and event is that Isaiah not only believes in prayer and that God will answer His prayer, but that, also, Hezekiah would need medical help.   Yes, God could heal him miraculously, but God, in this case, choose to use some medicinal approach.  Isaiah instructs them to take a cake of figs and put it on the boil that was causing Hezekiah suffering.  This may have been for the purpose of showing those around Hezekiah a material and visual act.  We can think of Jesus spitting in the dirt to make mud to heal the blind man in John 9.   Jesus didn’t need the mud but used it as a visual sign of something happening.    In the case of Hezekiah the fig cake could have been that same tool.   Or, there may have been some chemical reaction that brought healing that only God knew about.   The point of the matter is that God did the healing using prayer AND medicine.   He does not have to, but some times he chooses to do so.    When Jesus brought Lazarus from the dead He used no healing of medicine.   When Nahaam was told by the prophet Elisha to dip in the Jordan rive seven times, there was no healing power in the Jordan river.   But, the dipping made Nahaam humble.   So, God can use, does use and might choose not to use, medicine to heal.   Healing always comes from God’s power, hand and will.  But, the method God uses can vary greatly.