Isaiah 38:7-8

And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord

The shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz

We are not to imagine that in this miracle any effect was wrought upon the motion of the earth round its axis.

A miraculous refraction of the sun’s rays was effected by God on a particular sun-dial, at the prayer of King Hezekiah. It was a miracle, wrought on a particular dial, in a particular place, showing that it concerned a particular person; and it was not wrought on the solar orb, but on the solar light. (Bp. Wordsworth.)

The shadow reversed on the sun-dial of Ahaz

This astounding miracle could only have been affected by a light. “brighter than the sun,” rising on the other side of the sun-dial. We all know how electric light reverses the shadow of gas light. At St. Paul’s conversion, “the light from heaven,” the Shechinah brightness of Immanuel, outshone the splendour of the noonday sun. In the heavenly city there is no need of the sun to shine on it, nor of the moon to lighten it, for the glory of God and the Lamb is the light thereof. Unfortunately, we cannot tell on which side of the temple at Jerusalem the sun-dial of Ahaz was situated. It was probably a monolith or obelisk, resembling that on the Thames embankment, elevated on steps--translated “degrees”--and intended to regulate the hours of public worship. The setting sun had thrown the shadow across the steps; it had gone down ten degrees, when suddenly from the gate or window from the mercy-seat behind the veil of the naos, or temple proper, there flashed forth the majestic light of Divine glory that dwelt between the cherubim, reversing the shadow of the natural sun, and converting for Hezekiah the shadow of death into morning. (R. Balgarnie, D. D.)

The Light of the Mosaic past

To the ardent eyes of the old prophet the light that had reversed the shadow on the sundial was the old “Light” of the Mosaic past. It had illumined the land of Goshen in the days of supernatural darkness that overspread the rest of Egypt. It had flashed out with more than electric brightness upon the hosts of Israel as they struggled on through the night and the sea to escape the pursuing army of the Pharaoh. It had “glided” as a fiery pillar before the tribes through the rocky desert, warning off their enemies, and guiding the pilgrim army homeward to the fatherland. It had synchronised their movements with those convulsions of nature that arrested the Jordan at harvest flood, and shook down the walls of Jericho at the moment when they were prepared to cross and capture the devoted city. And it had stood over Gibeon as a sun that would not go down, and as a moon that would not withdraw, while Jehovah fought for Israel, and gave them their “crowning victory” over the idolatrous Canaanites. Isaiah knew the Light. (R. Balgarnie, D. D.)

Christ the glory of His people Israel

Was it this, I wonder, that evoked from Isaiah that unwonted outburst of enthusiasm in the chapter beginning, “Arise, shine, for thy Light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee”? “Thy sun shall no more go down. .. for Jehovah shall be unto thee an everlasting Light, and thy God thy glory”? If so, how appropriate the words to the occasion. It is easy to identify the Light of Israel with Christ, the Light of the world. (R. Balgarnie, D. D.)

Christ dispels and reverses life’s shadows

I do not consider that I am putting any undue strain upon the text in applying it to Christ. The Shechinah was the recognised token to Israel of the presence of her covenant God. It led the Magi to Bethlehem. It shone around the shepherds on the night of the nativity. It overwhelmed Saul of Tarsus on the way to Damascus. Christ is the Light that dispels and reverses our shadows. Christ has dispelled and reversed--

I. THE SHADOW OF, SIN.

II. THE SHADOW OF GRIEF.

III. THE SHADOW OF DEATH. “If He be in thee,” wrote John Pulsford, “who is the Light of Life, very Light and very Life, then, when the candlelight of ,thy body’s life goes out, the sunlight of thy soul’s life shall be bright about thee. ‘ (R. Balgarnie, D. D.)

The great miracle

The miracle is how God Himself began. Why will men always attack the wrong point, as if it were a wonderful thing that a man should have fifteen years added to his life; and yet we omit the stupendous miracle that man ever began to live. Thus attack what mystery we may we only go backward and upward until we come to Deity Himself. That is the great mystery, and there is none other. (J. Parker, D. D.)