Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
10 months ago yesterday, October 7th, 2023, will go down in world history, and especially the history of Israel, as an unforgettable day of rage and terrorism. Hamas warriors from the Gaza Strip entered peaceful Kibbutz villages in southern Israel and slaughtered innocent people of all ages. Jews were celebrating Yom Kippur all across Israel, thus unprepared to suddenly leave their joyful celebrations, grab their weapons and rush to defend these helpless villagers under attack. For the past 10 months the world has watched as Hamas has refused to release the hostages they took; refused to stop firing rockets into homes and markets in Israel; refused to accept any good faith efforts for a cease fire. I find their hatred of Israel repulsive. Yet they are certainly not the first, nor will they be the last angry people intent on destroying the nation of Israel.
For the past several weeks I’ve been leading you through the Biblical history of Israel looking to see what lessons we can learn from the years of the Kings and Chronicles. In the past few days we’ve joyfully been looking at the years between 715bc and 701bc when King Hezekiah was king in Jerusalem, leading the southern kingdom of Judah in a spiritual renewal which resulted in a nationwide outpouring of God’s blessing upon the Israelite people in Judah.
What a dramatic contrast to the horrific situation in northern Israel where the people were eking out an existence recovering from the invasion of the Assyrian army which was continuing to ravage smaller nations in the region and now, in 701bc, the Assyrians were attacking Judean villages along the eastern side of the southern kingdom of Judah. As we saw yesterday, word had come to King Hezekiah that the Assyrian army was intent on eventually conquering Jerusalem!
God’s prophet Isaiah was a trusted advisor to King Hezekiah and he gives us a detailed record of this remarkable segment of Israel’s history in Isaiah 36&37. His record reads: “In the 14th year of King Hezekiah’s reign (701bc), Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. He sent his field commander and a large army to Jerusalem.” (Is.36:1,2)
King Hezekiah sent a trusted delegation of his officials to go out and meet with the Assyrian commander. Isaiah gives us the details of the frightening, taunting speech the commander made to King Hezekiah’s officials. I urge you to read it all found in Isaiah 36:4-10. These words strike me: “This is what the great king of Assyria says: ‘On what are you basing this confidence of yours?…” (Is. 36:4) It was a fair question for the Israelites but it’s also a question that every human being should answer today and everyday for the rest of their lives, do you agree?
As wars rage in several places in our world; as terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and Houthi and ISIS and Boko Haram and many others terrorize our world; as dictators build up their supplies of weapons of mass destruction; as cyberterrorists gain more and more ability to shut down business computers worldwide; as economies rise and fall; as global disease pandemics kill millions of people… Yes it’s a very fair and important question every human being needs to answer: ‘On what are you basing your confidence for living’? So what about you, my “Walking with Jesus” friends? How do you answer the question for yourself and your family this Thursday?
The Assyrian army commander challenged Hezekiah’s men to consider the military successes of the Assyrians and the harsh reality that no kingdom large or small had been able to withstand the pulverizing force of the Assyrians, and even the ravaged northern kingdom of Israel was a smoldering example. But then the commander said something which I’m sure shocked King Hezekiah’s officials. He said: “The LORD Himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.” (Isaiah 36:10)
King Hezekiah’s men were stunned. How could that be? Those words contradicted every concept they had of their Holy God of Israel and His covenant with His Chosen people Israel. It was true the prophets had repeatedly warned Israel and Judah that if they continued in their rebellion against God and their worship of the false gods and idols of the surrounding nations then God would allow foreign invading forces to conquer them.
But in the minds of Hezekiah’s officials, that was wicked northern Israel, not Judah! King Hezekiah had led Judah in dramatically rejecting the wicked ways of his father King Ahaz; they had reopened and cleansed the Temple; they’d called all the people to worship God and tear down the evil idols and altars; Hezekiah had even invited all Jews from the entire middle east to join together in Jerusalem for a joint Passover which had lasted two glorious weeks! (2 Chronicles 29:35,36; 30:26-31:1) Judah was prospering under God’s great blessings, (2 Chronicles 31:20,21) surely God would not allow the Assyrian commander to do to Jerusalem what he had done to Samaria...would He?
But it was also true… no nation, large or small, had been able to withstand the overwhelming attack of this Assyrian army, and certainly Judah was a very small kingdom as compared to some they had already decimated. Evidently the Assyrian commander had learned the Hebrew language and was speaking Hebrew to Hezekiah’s Jewish officials, so they made a request: “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand that language. Do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people gathered on the wall of our city. But the commander replied, ‘Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people gathered on the wall – who like you will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?” (Isaiah 36:11,12)
The commander of the Assyrian army has now moved from warning and invitation to negotiations; to intimidation and threats. His words were an accurate description of the vicious reputation of Assyrian military tactics which had been imposed on other cities as they were conquered! Hezekiah’s officials stood there speechless.
The Assyrian commander wasted no time and approached closer to the wall of the city where the people had gathered, and called out to them in a loud voice and in their language Hebrew: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. This is what the great king says: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. 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’…have the gods of any nation ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? Who of all the gods of these many lands have been able to save their people from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?“ (Isaiah 36:13-20)
It should not be difficult for us to imagine the terror which seized the hearts of the Judeans. From the Israelites who had come for Passover they had heard stories too gruesome to imagine about what the Assyrian army had done to Samaria and other northern Israel cities. Could God deliver Jerusalem from this vast army? Should God deliver Jerusalem, considering their history?
Let’s pause right here my friends and place ourselves right in the middle of that frightening situation outside Jerusalem. If you could speak to those terrified Jerusalem people what would you tell them to do? And what are you facing today no matter where you live in the world? Do you need a miracle from God? Does Jesus understand your situation and is your relationship with Jesus strong enough to endure? And if God does a great miracle in your situation, who will receive the glory?
So, here’s Charity Gayle with a new song to help us consider God’s miraculous power in the face of challenging, maybe frightening times, my friends:
Today’s Scripture: Isaiah 36.
Choose below to read or listen.
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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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