Hello my ‘WWJ’ friends,
The news headlines are flying around the world so fast I can hardly keep up with them, nor can I imagine what world leaders like Biden, Harris, Trump, Netanyahu, Khomeini, Putin and so many others, are thinking or planning behind closed doors!
What I CAN DO is pray, keep digging into God’s Word and celebrate that Almighty God is on His throne!
He is sovereign over all things, at all times, in all places and nothing is happening in our world today that is unknown to God or catches God by surprise, do you agree? I am amazed at how relevant the accounts of very real events recorded in God’s Word in Israel 2700 years ago are to our world today.
So let’s rejoin King Hezekiah, the prophet of God Isaiah, and the wicked field commander of Assyrian forces as they advance on Jerusalem in about the year 701bc. While the story is recorded for us in 2 Chronicles 32 and 2 Kings 18 I prefer the account the prophet Isaiah gives us in Isaiah 36 & 37.
Yesterday we watched as the Assyrian commander verbally assaulted both King Hezekiah and the God of Israel as weak and inadequate to the vastness and viciousness of the approaching Assyrian army. Furthermore that commander made some inflammatory, boastful and vile statements including this one: “I have come to attack and destroy this land because the LORD Himself told me to march against this country and destroy it!” (Isaiah 36:10)
That statement shook these Israelites to the core, for they had seen what the Assyrians had done to their northern cousins, the kingdom of Israel. But let’s remember Jerusalem and the people of Judah had been experiencing a remarkable spiritual revival and cleansing of their country and cities from all the false idols and altars. (2 Chronicles 30:26,27) They had experienced the wonder of God restoring His people to His blessing, thus Hezekiah had instructed the people to NOT engage in discussion or debate with anyone from the Assyrian army.
Have you and I learned that an argument requires two people and silence is one of the best deterrents to conflict and violence?
Isaiah records that “The people remained silent and said nothing in reply…” (Isaiah 36:21) Instead King Hezekiah’s officials turned away from the Assyrian army commander and they went to give their report to King Hezekiah. To demonstrate the audacious, terrifying, severity of the situation, Isaiah reports these men went into King Hezekiah’s presence “with their clothes torn and told the King what the Assyrian field commander had said.” (Is. 36:22)
Now, put yourself in King Hezekiah’s shoes and reflect on all we have reviewed that he has experienced over the past 14 years while he has been King over Judah. Knowing well the total devastation the Assyrian army had inflicted on the northern kingdom Israel, and so many other kingdoms in the region of the middle east, what do you think Hezekiah thought as he listened to his officials give their terrifying report? What should the King say to his frightened people? What could he expect from the God of Israel in this horrific situation?
In those days there were three main ways of publically demonstrating extreme grief…
* Tearing of your clothes while those clothes were still on your body
* Putting on sackcloth as clothing of desperation
* Pouring ashes on your head symbolic of total devastation
Isaiah records this response from King Hezekiah: “When King Hezekiah heard their report he tore his clothes and he put on sackcloth and he went into the Temple of the LORD.” (Is. 37:1) Then King Hezekiah sent his officials, along with some priests, to God’s prophet Isaiah with a clear message of gloom: “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘This day is a day of distress and rebuke in disgrace…it may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the field commander, who his master the King of Assyria has sent to ridicule the living God, and that God will rebuke him… Therefore pray…” (Is. 37:3,4) I’m so grateful for the prophet Isaiah’s clear explanation of what happened. I want to learn from King Hezekiah so whenever I am confronted with frightening, shocking, terrifying news, I respond similarly.
Did you notice? King Hezekiah did NOT rally his military commanders demanding that they make a strategic plan to fight the approaching army. King Hezekiah did NOT send his officials back to the Assyrian commander with a white flag begging for mercy. King Hezekiah went to God in humble, desperate worship while sending word to his close spiritual advisor Isaiah, urging him to pray, seeking God’s advice.
There are lessons to be learned here my friends. I wonder if any in modern Israel leadership have read Isaiah 36 & 37 since the October 7th invasion? If so, what have they thought? What have they recommended to Prime Minister Netanyahu and the modern Israeli Knesset?
I don’t know how long the prophet Isaiah prayed after hearing their report, but here is what Isaiah records as his answer, sent back to King Hezekiah through his officials: “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! When the Assyrian king hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword!“ (Is. 37:5-7)
What a bold and powerful prediction of God’s direct intervention in the military vulnerability of His people Jerusalem and Judah. Do you recognize how this is consistent with God’s covenant pattern with His people Israel which God had promised on several occasions, but especially to King Solomon on the occasion of the dedication of the great Temple? (2 Chronicles 7:12-22) This is what happened during the reign of King Uzziah 80 years before Hezekiah. ( 2 Chron. 26:7,8) It’s what happened during the reign of King Jehoshaphat about 150 years before Hezekiah. (2 Chronicles 20:1-30) And it’s what happened during the reign of King Asa almost 200 years before Hezekiah. ( 2 Chronicles 15:1-19)
So I naturally wonder what might happen in Israel TODAY if current Israeli leadership did as these Israelite great leaders of the past have done and what God calls His people to do in 2 Chronicles 7:13-15?
Isaiah gives us no record of any more message for Hezekiah at that time and we presume his officials returned to the king and gave him this remarkable news from the prophet Isaiah. We also have no record of Hezekiah’s experience when he went into the Temple to seek God’s face. What we do have is Isaiah’s report that GOD took action! “When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.” (Is. 37:8)
Can God work in the hearts of military field commanders to maneuver their troops on the basis of military reports? YES! Lachish was one of the Judean fortified cities King Sennacharib was trying to conquer about 17 miles west of Hebron and about 30 miles east of Gaza. Libnah was a town north of Lachish about 12 miles and about 10 miles west from the Valley of Elah where shepherd boy David had killed the Philistine giant Goliath,about 300 years before! (1 Samuel 17:45-50) As the Assyrian commander withdrew there was a temporary lull and we can imagine great celebration arose in Jerusalem as Hezekiah and the people must have concluded God had intervened on their behalf, if even only temporarily!
Let’s pause here my friends and give careful thought to what we see currently in these very same fields in Israel today, as we see in Isaiah’s battlefield account. As God watches Hezbollah attacking the Galilean villages in the north of Israel; and Hamas continues to attack southern Israel from the Gaza region and other enemies attack Israelites in the West Bank and even the Golan Heights regions, can you see the similarity to Hezekiah’s situation 2700 years ago?
On this Friday, I urge us to pray for God’s work in the hearts of Israeli leaders today who have the same responsibility for leading the people of Israel which Hezekiah had in his day! And tomorrow we’ll return to see what God did in Hezkiah’s day!
Today’s Scripture: Isaiah 36:20 – 37:8.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Isaiah 37
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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