Today, I chose to focus on the exciting and thought provoking conflict between King Hezekiah, the King of Judah and Sennacherib the King of Assyria, found in 2 Kings Chapters 18 and 19.
To summarize, King Sennacherib was an arrogant, prideful yet powerful king who was planning to attack the people left in Judah. Not only did he send a very threatening message to King Hezekiah and his people, but he also blasphemed God in the process.
2 Kings 19:10 - 12
“Say to Hezekiah King of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘ Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar?
In the spirit of fairness, we cannot blame Sennacherib for his confidence. After all, it was not a lie that all the nations he had fought against up until that point were conquered and indeed, the gods of those nations did not deliver them. However, King Sennacherib had made one fatal mistake. He underestimated the God of Israel, counting him as any other imaginary God that would never and could never intervene and not as the Great I Am, the maker of the universe, one and only true God.
King Hezekiah was distressed about the threats King Sennacherib had made. However, instead of remaining distressed the first thing he did was to go to the temple of God to worship. When he was faced with this big problem that he did not know how to handle, he went straight to the God who he knew could handle it.
What is a worship song you’ve been listening to alot lately? Let’s start there and let the spirit lead!
Another thing that Hezekiah did was to seek counsel from Isaiah the prophet. In seeking out help from Isaiah, Isaiah was able to tell him that God had already revealed to him that he had a different plan, and that plan did not result in Judah’s destruction but rather in the complete and utter embarassment of King Sennacherib and his people and ultimately Sennacherib’s death.
Having Godly counsel is an important part of being able to navigate through difficult situations in our lives. It is highly recommended that we have someone who has a good foundation in Christ Jesus who we can seek advice from. This is important because counsel that is given outside of the will and knowledge of Christ may have room for folly and error, even if that person or those persons you seek advice from have the best of intentions in mind. Simply put, we are not meant to go through things alone as the body of Christ. We need to be able to have persons supporting us and guiding us as much as possible.
Who do you know you can go to and ask for advice today?
Proverbs 11:14 For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.
Hezekiah received yet another threat from King Sennacherib and this time, he decided to pray. He laid out the problem plain as day in front of God, personally asking him to look into their situation and to deliver them. Prayer acts as a key. It generally opens the door for God to step in and change a situation around as prayer itself is an act of faith. Hezekiah believed in God being the one true God and the helper of his people. Standing on that belief he knew that God would protect them and prove himself strong even to the people of Assyria.
Have you prayed about it yet? Now’s a good time to start!
In the end, as God declared, not even one arrow of the Assyrian army was thrown against Judah. Without even having to fight 185,000 thousand of the Assyrian army was found dead the next morning, forcing them to withdraw. And King Sennacherib? Well, he was later killed by his own people.
Worshiping, seeking Godly advice and earnestly praying are some of the ways we can approach our difficult, nerve-wracking, stress inducing problems in our lives. One thing I know is true, once we depend on Jesus Christ, He will surely bring peace and victory to our situations but first we must invite Him in!