The Fear of the Lord and Long Life

“The fear of the Lord prolongeth days.” (Proverbs 10:27a).
King Hezekiah is one of the best examples in the Bible of how the fear of the Lord prolongeth days. (Isaiah 38; II Kings 20). After King Hezekiah was told by the prophet Isaiah that he would soon die, he “turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, And said, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying, Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus sayeth the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years…And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken; Behold, I will bring again the shadow of degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.” (Isaiah 38: 2-5, 7, 8). Hezekiah’s fear of the Lord caused him to walk before God with a perfect heart and to humbly petition God to remember his faithfulness. God sent word through Isaiah and also confirmed that He had heard Hezekiah’s prayer and seen his tears by a supernatural miracle. “For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.” (Proverbs 9:11). Fear of the Lord will constrain us so that we can live to the fullest the number of days the Lord has allotted us. (Psalms 39:4).