Isaiah 38:7-8

Isaiah 38:7-8

[7] And this shall be a sign  unto thee from the LORD,  will do  this thing  that he hath spoken;  [8] Behold, I will bring again  the shadow  of the degrees,  which is gone down  in the sun  dial  of Ahaz,  ten  degrees  backward.  So the sun  returned  ten  degrees,  it was gone down. 

What does Isaiah 38:7-8 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

The Lord also graciously gave Hezekiah a sign that He would indeed do what He had promised, in response to Hezekiah"s request for a sign ( Isaiah 38:22; 2 Kings 20:8).
The stairway of Ahaz was evidently an exterior stairway that led to his upper room on the roof of the palace, where Ahaz had erected altars ( 2 Kings 23:12). This stairway was probably not built as a sundial, but it served that purpose as the sun cast its shadow on more or fewer steps depending on the time of day. That stairway may have been constructed as a sundial, or a different stairway constructed for that purpose could be in view. One writer believed it was an obelisk that rested on a stepped base and served as a sundial. [1] Evidently Hezekiah could see it from his sickbed. The passing away of daylight on the stairway symbolized the passing away of Hezekiah"s life, and the return of sunlight represented the restoration of life.
Was this miracle a local or a global phenomenon? What the Lord promised was the movement of the shadow, not the sun that cast the shadow. This opens the possibility for a local miracle in which the shadow moved backward while the earth continued to rotate as usual (cf. 2 Chronicles 32:31).
The reference to King Ahaz recalls the earlier incident involving the sign that God gave that king. God had told him to request a sign as high as heaven ( Isaiah 7:11). Now God gave Ahaz"s Song of Solomon , Hezekiah, a sign from heaven. Ahaz had refused to ask for a sign because he did not want assurance that God would destroy his allies. Hezekiah requested a sign because he wanted assurance that God would spare his life. Ahaz did not want to trust God, but Hezekiah did.