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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends, I hope you have been having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend wherever you are around the world. It’s been special for my wife and I to have time with our family!
Are you perhaps already thinking about next week and the final month of 2020, a year we could never have imagined? Do those thoughts make you anxious? Here’s an important question… whatever the future holds, is God already there waiting for you and ready to help you with it?
The past two days we’ve been learning important life lessons from king Hezekiah during a monumental time in Israel’s history. It’s so significant you’ll find this era of 29 years recorded for us in multiple chapters of the Bible…2 Chronicles 29-32 & 2 Kings 18-20 and even Isaiah 36&37. There is a time gap of several years between the end of 2 Chron. 31 and beginning of 32. This was a glorious time to be alive in Jerusalem and the surrounding region. It was a time of abundant peace and prosperity and a wonderful spiritual atmosphere of everyone seeking to honor God with their lives.
I have learned in these rare times in my life to use them to prepare myself, for very likely the enemy of humanity, Satan, is scheming, preparing an offensive. That was true in Hezekiah’s day even though they didn’t know it! Look at 2 Chronicles 32:1 “After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of the Assyrian empire came and invaded the land of Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for his expanding empire. When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come to make war on Jerusalem, he consulted with his officials and advisors…”
Let’s step into Jerusalem together, so we can feel what is happening here. Assyria was a huge empire with Nineveh as its capital. It occupied then, what is today all of the countries of Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and even some of Turkey! The Assyrian army was huge and vicious and the Assyrian emperors were determined to conquer the known world, one small country at a time. Thus far, for nearly 100 years, they had been very successful, including conquering Syria and the northern kingdom Israel just within the past generation. This meant little Judah and Jerusalem were surrounded by Assyria and they knew it was only a matter of time before it would be their turn. 2 Chronicles 32 is that amazing, remarkable story!
I wonder if you remember our friend the prophet Isaiah? He was one of king Hezekiah’s advisors and they met often to pray and seek God’s guidance. Isaiah 36 & 37 give us Mr. Isaiah’s perspective on this invasion in 2 Chronicles 32 and I urge you to find time to read those chapters this weekend, for they give even more impressive detail of the miraculous things God did to protect Jerusalem and deliver His people from invading Assyria.
Have you found mockery, insult, ridicule, and intimidation are all very powerful weapons in awakening anxiety, fear, worry even desperation in people? Have you experienced it? You’ll see that’s the strategy the army of Assyria used. While they had a formidable military force, they first sent envoys and even letters to taunt and awaken fear in king Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem. Listen to Isaiah 36:13 “The Assyrian commander called out in the Hebrew language to the people of Jerusalem: ‘Hear the words of the great king of Assyria! Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says: ‘The LORD will surely deliver us…’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the mighty king of Assyria?… Who of all the gods of these other countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
As the people listened they knew much of what this Assyrian army commander boastfully shouted at them was true. No army had been able to withstand the aggression of the huge Assyrian military machine. Country after country had been overrun, decimated, cities and towns burned to the ground, thousands of people taken captive. Many of those cities were much larger and more fortified than Jerusalem. From a practical, logical standpoint, surrender and captivity was their best option. But God! Don’t you love those two words my friends? When God is in the situation, everything changes, do you agree? Over and over God has said to His people “NOTHING is impossible with God”! (Exodus 14 / Exodus 16 / Numbers 20 / 1 Samuel 7 / 2 Chronicles 20 / Luke 1 / Daniel 6 etc)
So my friends, when was your last experience with the unlimited power and understanding of God in your difficult, frightening life situation? Have you recorded your stories somewhere? Thanksgiving weekend is a wonderful time to tell those remarkable God stories to your friends and family! Remember friends, no one else has YOUR story!
Isaiah and Hezekiah both did the wisest thing in the face of this frightening confrontation…they went to meet with God and seek His guidance! Hezekiah took the letter of intimidation sent to him from the Assyrian commander and took it to the Temple of God. Here’s how Isaiah records it: “King Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers of the king of Assyria and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread the letter out before the LORD and he prayed…” (Is. 37:14)
I urge you to take a moment and read king Hezekiah’s urgent, desperate but confident prayer, it’s very powerful. And I have another question: when you receive heartbreaking news… a medical report, an email, a registered letter in the mail, an urgent text; what if you did what Hezekiah did? What if you laid it out before God and prayed…before you did ANYTHING else? What if you had a relationship with God like Hezekiah did, especially if you are a leader? So no matter what the bad news, you know you can go to God with it…and you will?!
While Hezekiah was praying in the temple, Isaiah was praying in his home prayer place and he received a word from God which he wrote down and sent to Hezekiah. I love this response from God to Isaiah: “This is what the LORD says concerning the king of the Assyrian Empire:
‘He will not enter this city Jerusalem or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.
By the way he came here, he will return; he will not enter this city Jerusalem!
I will defend this city and save it for My sake and for the sake of David My servant.’ declares the LORD.” (Isaiah 37:33-35)
Now friends, a word from God is a very powerful thing isn’t it? Does God’s Word often come alive to you as you are prayerfully reading, and does God speak specifically to you and your situation? That’s the promise of Hebrews 4:12!
And after God speaks, I love the fact that God often ACTS as only God can! Look at what happened in Isaiah 37:36 “Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death 185,000 soldiers in the Assyrian camp. When the people of Jerusalem got up the next morning – there were all the dead bodies! So Sennecherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh…One day while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king of the Assyrian Empire.”
The record in 2 Chronicles 32 concludes with this: “So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all others. God took care of them on every side.” (2 Chron. 32:22) Now my friends, I have no idea what the future holds for you or me or any of us, no matter where we live in this world. There are huge, fierce military forces ready to invade many places. There are technology wizards working to corrupt every computer in the world. There are more diseases like COVID 19 brewing. There will be hurricanes and typhoons and forest fires, and earthquakes, and floods and maybe even asteroids racing through space which may collide with planet earth. Are you afraid of the future?
What I do know is the future is unpredictable from a human perspective, but is fully known by God…and He’s already there in the future of every person, every nation every business, every church. I am determined to face my uncertain future like Hezekiah and Isaiah and the people of Jerusalem… how about you? And just as they used the good times of 2 Chronicles 29-31 to strengthen their relationship with God and prepare, so I am doing the same… how about you?
Let me leave you today with these words of Jesus: “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:26-29)
I look around where I’m recording this my friends, and I see people, young and old and I wonder what the future will be like for them? Who will bring to them the hopeful message of Jesus?
Here’s a great song to help you give serious consideration to where your HOPE and CONFIDENCE is rooted in such uncertain days:
Click to read today’s chapter: 2 Chronicles 32. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
NEW FEATURE: Click here to listen to a dramatized reading of 2 Chronicles 32.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“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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