January 15, 2022
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Reading along with us in 2 Kings? Here’s today’s reading:
2 Kings 19 (NIV)
Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold
1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”..............Continue Reading
2 Kings 19
In the presence of this powerful army set against him, Hezekiah does all the right things. First he believes God and is open to what provision and direction he would give. Second, he sends people to seek Isaiah to learn from him the word of the Lord. Third, he dismisses the taunts of the enemy and how he discredits him and God. Fourth he prays and makes his and the nations needs known before God. And in response, God assures Hezekiah that he does not need to worry about Assyria, that God will take care of them and therefore he and Jerusalem will be saved. And then God does the impossible. He sends the angel of the Lord who kills 185,000 Assyrians. Certainly enough to cause them to flee Jerusalem and Judah, and then the king of Assyria meets his demise just as the prophet said would happen.
What an amazing God we serve!
Finally! Hezekiah does the right thing! He goes to God and not only trusts in God but encourages Israel to do the same and God provides!
Hezekiah prays before the Lord.
“Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers 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.
17 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. 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.”
God answers mightily!