Hezekiah’s Prayer in National Crisis (2 Kings 18 and 19) Mlay 26, 2018
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers (of Assyrian King Sennacherib) and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God….
19 Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.” 20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 2 Kings 19:14-20
………………………………………………….
My friends in Christ, if you were facing a great crisis in your lives, what would you do? To whom do you run to for help? Let us learn from King Hezekiah’s crisis, and how he handled the coming of the Assyrian king’s huge army.
Assyria was a nation in northern Mesopotamia during the time of the OT; it expanded into the region of Palestine and became a large empire, which had an enormous impact on the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. King Sennacherib (Assyrian royal name meaning “Sin,” “the moon god multiply brothers”) of Assyria challenged and despised the Lord God of Hezekiah; he believed no gods of the nations would ever deliver the people from his hand (2 Kings 8:33). However, Hezekiah deeply believed that the Lord would surely deliver the Israelites from Sennacherib. The King of Assyria sent his commanders and large army to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. Let us hear from what the commander said to the people of Judah:
“Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!” (18:28)
The commander believed that the King of Assyria was the greatest, most powerful king in the world, a god, because he had one hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers in the Assyrian camp; this army certainly had great power through human eyes, and the large number of soldiers seemed to have more power than the invisible God’s power in small Judah. Have you ever believed, like the Assyrians, that the power of nations with strong modern nuclear weapons and political/economic power are the true power, exceeding the power of the invisible God in our small churches? Do the daily words of the politicians seem more believable and trustworthy than God’s words in the Bible?
“This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. HE cannot deliver you from my hand. (18:29)
Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’” (18:30)
“Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern…” (18:31)
“Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god (God) you depend on deceive you when he (God) says, ‘Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria. (19:10)
Do these words seem familiar to you? They are very similar to the voice of the serpent in the garden of Eden, and the deceiving voice of the devil Jesus heard in the wilderness after He was baptized and spent 40 days fasting at the beginning of His salvation ministry for the world. “Come to the King Sennacherib, listen to him, and trust him who will give you food and water. Don’t go to the Lord God and listen to Him, who is unable to help you.”
What did Hezekiah do? He tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord (“Wearing sackcloth” is a sign of repentance, mourning, anguish, fasting [as sitting on an ash heap], and/or great national distress). He spread the letter out before the Lord and prayed to the Lord. (19:15) He also sent his officials to the prophet Isaiah to pray to God.
God sent Isaiah and responded to Hezekiah: “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: do not be afraid of what you have heard. Those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Listen! I am going to put such a spirit in him that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut own with the swords (of his sons).” (19:6-7)
“I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria….34 I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.” 35 That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. (19:33b-34)
I pray that all of us seek God, run to Him, listen and believe in as our Lord and Almighty Creator Father, as Hezekiah did, and experience God’s miraculous work for us. Amen.(insook do)
