In order to explore this issue, let’s consider another cryptic "sign" given by Isaiah to Hezekiah that has not yet been mentioned in this study. Some time during the weeks or months following Sennacherib's 701 BC invasion of Judah, he sent some of his government officials to Jerusalem demanding that Hezekiah surrender and pay tribute to the Assyrian empire (II Kings 18.17-36; Isaiah 36.1-22). During this verbal confrontation, his representatives displayed an attitude of arrogance and contempt for Hezekiah and for God. When the Lord responded to Hezekiah through Isaiah (II Kings 19.20-34; Isaiah 37.21-35), the Lord rebuked Sennacherib for his insolence, and then provided Hezekiah with a "vineyard sign" to comfort him, and to confirm that He would personally defend Jerusalem. Here was the "vineyard sign":

The Lord stated further that this sign was to apply, not only to Hezekiah personally, but also to the entire remnant of Israel. One commentary gives the following interpretation of the sign.

This study to date has been engrossed in calendar and regnal years, but we have never thought to correlate our chronological construct with the Levitical calendar, which is governed by Jubilee and Sabbath years. Fortunately, a great deal of time was devoted in Coming Glory to search out and test the correct Jubilee calendar, not only over the entire span of Bible times, but also into the 20th century. That result showed it to provide correct answers with respect to epic years like Jacob's birth, the beginning of David's reign, the Babylonian Exile, the birth of Jesus Christ, and World War II.

Therefore we have come to have a great deal of confidence in its validity, and are ready to overlay it upon the Hezekiah timeline without hesitation. According to the Jubilee Calendar, David's first regnal year of 1006 BC was also a Jubilee year. Since Jubilee years repeat on a 50-year cycle, it is easy to see that 706 BC should also have been a Jubilee year. With this, we have overlaid the Jubilee/Sabbath Calendar on Hezekiah's reign in the following table.

Now with alignment shown in the previous timeline, let's examine the "vineyard sign" to see just whether and how it might relate.

Since Sennacherib invaded Judah in Hezekiah's 29^th/14^th year, that would have been the season of crop devastation making the sign apropos. Notice that the last six months of that year, when the sign would most likely have been given, would have been a 6^th year in the Jubilee/Sabbath calendar.   

Sure enough, just as Hindson and Kroll speculated, the next year would have been a Sabbath year when planting and harvesting was prohibited according to the Levitical Law (Leviticus 25.3-7).   

The year immediately following a Sabbath year was the first occasion for this to be done, and fits in with the events surrounding Sennacherib’s invasion, since by that time his army would have been destroyed and he would have slunk back to Nineveh in disgrace. It is in that year that certain other provisions of the Levitical Law become operative. (Leviticus 19.24-25) places certain restrictions on the maturing times when the fruit of the plantings may be harvested. These verses specify that the fruit of trees and vineyards shall be considered "unclean" for the first three maturing years and shall not be eaten. In the fourth year, their fruit may be eaten but shall be consecrated holy unto the Lord as praise to Him. Then starting in the fifth year, no further restrictions are imposed on their use.   

It becomes clear that if vineyards were planted in the year immediately following the Sabbath year, that would also have been the 26th year of Hezekiah's Covenant reign, causing the fourth maturing year for the vineyards to have also been in the 29^th year of his Covenant reign. However, this is the very year previously identified as the final year of Hezekiah's life! During this 29^th year, which would have begun on Nisan, 695 BC, he could have eaten the fruit of the vineyards with the provision that it was to be holy consecrated to the Lord. Traditionally the grapes were gathered in baskets in September and October with much festivity, which would have been at the time of the feast of Tabernacles in the month of Tishri, 695 BC. Now notice that this vineyard sign promises that Hezekiah will live until this season in the 29^th year of his Covenant reign. But independent of this, we learned previously that the start of Manasseh's regnal reign should have begun in this very same month of Tishri, 695 BC, so by this timeline construct, Hezekiah would have died in the fall of 695 BC, at the very time of the year when Manasseh’s reign was due to begin.

We believe that the correctness of this assumed 29 year Covenant reign of Hezekiah can now be certified by reason of the following Scriptural links that become a consequence of this particular timeline construct.

1. The first is the positive agreement that exists between Hezekiah’s Covenant reign and the Jubilee/Sabbath calendar, demonstrating that the Sabbath year fell at exactly the right time in its seven-year cycle to fulfill one of the provisions of the “vineyard sign”.

2. The second is the fact that the 29^th year of his Covenant reign then corresponds with the fourth maturing year of the “vineyard sign”, thereby completing its fulfillment.

3. The third is the fact that the timing of the complete fulfillment of the “vineyard sign” dovetails perfectly with the beginning of Manasseh's reign, calculated independently from another synchronism with Israeli/Babylonian history.

All of this stems from the supposition that the time of Hezekiah’s illness and the sundial sign actually occurred during the final two quarters of the 19^th year of his secular reign (710 BC), also falling in the first two quarters of the 14^th year of his Covenant reign, as shown by the previous timeline. Thus if the Lord added exactly 15 years to his life at that time, his reign would have continued until the third quarter of the 29^th year of his Covenant reign in 695 BC, thereby coinciding with the beginning of Manasseh’s Tishri reign, which should have begun in that same quarter of the year 695 BC.

The Bible once again proves itself to be correct in the end, but this recognition requires that we broaden our thinking beyond the purely secular, to allow God to miraculously regress Hezekiah's regnal calendar by exactly 15 years if He wants to, and to extend special favor toward Hezekiah and the remnant by reinitializing his reign when that king moved boldly to re-establish Covenant worship in the Land as prescribed by the Law. Thus, when we incorporate these prophetic and Covenant dimensions into our Biblical interpretation of stories like these, things begin to fall into place, and we are able to discern the Lord's mighty omniscient Hand at work through the pages of Biblical history.

It occurs to the writer that there is a kind of spiritual parallel between the way the Lord responded to Hezekiah when he covenanted to wholly obey God, and the way He will respond to any believer who makes such a commitment. Until the time when Hezekiah made the decision to restore the Covenant to all Israel, he was just another king, his days being counted by Judah's civil Levitical calendar; but at the moment that decision was made, the Lord gave him a new 29 year reign and a new purpose, signifying the change with a new Levitical regnal calendar based on the Covenant. By analogy, one who has not wholly committed his life to the Lord continues to be preoccupied with the secular, but at the moment he fully grasps the New Covenant of the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”, he is given a new plan with a new purpose, with the promise that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8.28)". And just as Hezekiah saw the Lord's special protection even through much tribulation for the remainder of his earthly days, so every committed believer is given that same kind of promise on this side of the Cross.

Even if our study were to end here, the spiritual truths made real by this interlude of Biblical history would make it a very fruitful exercise, but as we shall now see there is much much more, when we discover a link between Hezekiah's reign and the Psalms.

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