Isaiah 38
Revelation 12:1-12

The story about King Hezekiah getting an extension on his life span after he had become mortally ill
is relevant to something that frequently happens in our society today. People who have fatal illnesses often get a reprieve because of the miracles of modern medicine and surgery. With organ transplants and infection killing drugs our average life expectancy keeps extending further and further. The king was very grateful for the extra time he was given as he was a good king and hoped to bring the Hebrew people into a period of "peace and truth." So following the declaration to him made through the prophet Isaiah, he expressed his feelings to God in writing. He expressed first how saddened he was when he first learned that he was mortally ill and would be, "deprived of the rest of his years" and would enter Sheol. His understanding of life after death was that it was very bleak. "I shall not see the Lord in the land of the living, I shall look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world." He was feeling emotionally distressed about it. He speaks of moaning like a dove and looking wistfully to the heights and being oppressed and that he would wander about because of the bitterness of his soul. His expression of the emotional turmoil he is going through as he faces his impending death would fit well into any modern day textbook on the stress associated with death and dying.

Although God had declared that Hezekiah would live another fifteen years there was still a need for medical intervention and Isaiah says that they should make a poultice of fig cake and apply it to the boil that was infecting him and was going to cause his death.

In our reading from the Book of Revelation we also see a situation in which there is the threat of death, but this time it is not from illness but from murder. The Red Dragon was going to devour a new-born child and also destroy the child's mother. Again we see God intervening and removing them from the danger of death.

It is interesting to note that in both of these stories there is an indication that a sign was given. Both of them are associated with prophecy and the signs are signs of things to come. They are not to be seen as simply historical or anecdotal incidents. What they are are prophesies of the development of new religions in the world. Isaiah is speaking about the coming of the Lord into the world and the beginning of Christianity. John's Revelation is speaking about the second coming of the Lord and the beginning of the New Christianity.
Hezekiah represents the religion of the Jewish Church, which had reached a low state under the evil rule of Ahaz. It was almost at the bottom in terms of its degradation. But there was a slight improvement under the kindly rule of Hezekiah and so there would be a reprieve before the final end of that church and the beginning of a new dispensation. 

The sign of the shadow on the stairs was given to Hezekiah as evidence that the Lord would defend him and Jerusalem from the king of Assyria, who represented the perverted rational mind of man destroying all the things of the church. This sign represented that the time of the coming of the new church that was to be established by the Lord would be set back; "Behold I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps." The shadow moving back signifies the drawing back of the time before this change should occur and the Lord would come into the world. The "shadow" signifies what is commonplace, and in this context it refers to the progress of the common life of the Hebrews. "From the rising to the setting" and "the shadow being withdrawn ten steps," or ten degrees signifies the prolongation, of that lifestyle for many years. The "sun which should go back", signifies the Lord's coming. The Lord's coming took place when the Jewish Church was at an end, that is when there was no more good and truth left in it. The entire period of the Jewish Church was represented by the steps of Ahaz, its beginning by the first step, when the sun is in its rising, and its end by the last step when it is at its setting. This takes place, representatively on the steps of Ahaz, because Ahaz was a wicked king, and profaned the holy things of the church, consequently if his successors had done the same, the end would have come quickly; but as Hezekiah was an upright king the time was prolonged.

A fig cake was to be applied to the boil that was causing the death of Hezekiah and would heal him temporarily, thus allowing him to live and rule for another fifteen years. The fig corresponds to the natural good of man joined with his spiritual good as every tree in the Word signifies some aspect of the church in mankind. So the natural good that was still being practiced in the Jewish Church, at that current time, was to be joined with the spiritual good that was in it from earlier times, and the church would survive for an extended period of time until the Coming of the Lord would bring about the introduction of a new church. The Jewish nation indeed did experience a period of positive activity for a while, until some further evil kings brought about further deterioration of the church. This led to its eventual downfall and total collapse, when all were taken into captivity by the Assyrians and Babylonians.

We wonder why our church with its message of a New Christianity is so slow in coming into being, but we must remember that it will come gradually in the Lord's own good time. There are many things in the old church that must first be exposed and removed so that the new doctrines will not be contaminated and destroyed without a chance to become viable. 

The child, born to the woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet and a crown with twelve stars on her head, needed to be protected immediately that he was born. A child represents the new doctrine of the new church. It was a male child because a son represents the truth of doctrine and the understanding of truth. The woman signifies the church and in this instance the new church that was to come into the world. She was seen "clothed with the sun," because the true church, or the people of the true church, live in love to the Lord and acknowledges Him and keeps His Commandments, which is an expression of love to Him. The moon was seen under her feet because the church on earth, which is not yet conjoined to the church in the heavens, is meant. The moon signifies intelligence in the natural man, and faith that results there-from. Its being seen under her feet means that it is about to come onto the earth. (Apocalypse Revealed # 534)

This new church with its new doctrines would give new enlightenment and understanding to God's Word. It was first established in the heavens, which is what is described by Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. But the church had to be protected for a time and so the first church in effect had its life time extended just as the Jewish church had it's life extended in Hezekiah's time, although for different reasons. The woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared for her by God, so that there she could be nourished for a period of time stated to be one thousand two hundred and sixty days. "Place signifies state or the state of the church or the condition in which it would be held and maintained until the world of man would be able to receive it without destroying it. "To nourish," is provision for its increase. A "thousand two hundred and sixty days," means until the end of the former church and the beginning of the new. It is of the Lord's Divine Providence, that the church should be among a few at its inception because of the falsities of the former church must first be removed; for truths which are received and implanted before falsities are removed do not remain, but are dissipated by the Dragonists." (AR #547)

A loud voice was then heard shouting from heaven, "Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come." Now people can be saved by the Lord's Divine power because the Lord alone reigns in heaven and in the church on earth. 

God is the Divine Itself from whom are all things, and Christ is His Divine Human which is called the "Son of God." There is joy in heaven among the angels as the new Christianity takes shape and makes its impact on the world of man. There is joy when it becomes more and more understood that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns in heaven and on earth. The shadow, that was set back ten steps, has slowly advanced down the stairway and one day soon it will have disappeared and then the sun in all its glory will enlighten the world as the New Jerusalem descends from God out of heaven into the lives of all mankind.