Friday: Further Thought ~ Defeat of the Assyrians
Further Study:
“Only by the direct interposition of God could the shadow on the sundial be made to turn back ten degrees; and this was to be the sign to Hezekiah that the Lord had heard his prayer. Accordingly, ‘the prophet cried unto the Lord: and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.’ Verses 8-11.” — Ellen G.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
White, Prophets and Kings, p. 342.
“The visit of these messengers from the ruler of a faraway land gave Hezekiah an opportunity to extol the living God. How easy it would have been for him to tell them of God, the upholder of all created things, through whose favor his own life had been spared when all other hope had fled! …
But pride and vanity took possession of Hezekiah’s heart, and in self-exaltation he laid open to covetous eyes the treasures with which God had enriched His people. The king ‘showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not.’ Isaiah 39:2. Not to glorify God did he do this, but to exalt himself in the eyes of the foreign princes.” — Pages 344, 345.
Discussion Questions:
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Summary:
In response to the cry of a faithful king, God saved His people and showed who He is: the omnipotent King of Israel who controls the destiny of earth; not only does He destroy those who attempt to destroy His people, He also provides opportunities for others, no matter how “Babylonian,” to become His people.
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In my study this week I read a couple of secular history articles on Sennacherib. Here is a link to one of them:
https://www.ancient.eu/sennacherib/
One of the main points of interest that I gained was the level of agreement between the Biblical and secular accounts. Obviously the miraculous intervention of the God is left out of the Assyrian account but you would expect that. There is no doubt though that the Assyrians left Jerusalem in a bit of a hurry and did not complete the task. Interestingly, Herodotus, describes the siege of Pelusium in Egypt by the Assyrians where a plague of mice came in and gnawed their quivers and bows to the extent they could no longer fight, so they went home.
Sennacherib had a lot of trouble with the Babylonians and in fact razed the city. He treated them with distain and it is not altogether surprising that the Babylonians were friendly enough with the Hebrews at the opposite side of the Assyrian Kingdom to send emissaries there to enquire about the miracle of Hezekiah's healing.
Hezekiah lived in a dangerous political climate. Both Assyria and Egypt were empire builders and pushed and shoved at their neighbours. You could work out a treaty with one of them, only to have them treacherously attack you, even after you had paid them a rich tribute not to.
The other interesting thing that I was reminded of this week was that Isaiah was the original "copy and paste "specialist. If he had lived today he would have made good use of the copy and paste functions. The story of Hezekiah is retold almost word for word in both 2 Kings 18-19 and 2 Chronicles 32.
What do we learn from this weeks lesson? Hezekiah is recorded as one of the best kings of Judah. He did that which was good in the sight of the Lord, yet he was human and made mistakes too. He lived in a dangerous period for the Hebrew nation yet in spite of it all he remained true to God. That record in itself is encouraging.
There is a prayer that says "shield us in our joys". God teaches us through trials, and He also develops our character through success. Hezekiah had looked to God for SAFETY in laying out the letter before Him in prayer. Hezekiah had looked to God in SICKNESS in begging God to add years to his life. In his prayer after his recovery ...before he showed off his treasures to the Babylonians... it is interesting to note that he says, "....I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul" (Isaiah 38:15). And then he promptly forgets to be humble!
I've done this too! I'm sure we all have....God gets us out of a scrape and then we somehow explain it away. A healing can be explained by medicine and science. A reconciliation can be explained by circumstances. I find myself trying to give away credit due to God. I forget that God's gifts always come with the promise of a complete healing (Is. 38:17). When I/we do that, we put ourselves in the way of more disaster. Jesus cautioned about this to people he had freshly delivered (Jn 5:14; Jn. 8:11).
So, Hezekiah passed the tests of SAFETY and of SICKNESS, but failed the test of SUCCESS. He didn't bring success to God too. He prayed a thankfulness prayer, but somewhere inside he must have explained away the miracle. We know this because when a group of people traveled to hear him tell his miracle story - however did the sundial turn back?! - he didn't immediately start praising God. All of our riches are opportunities to point to the goodness of God. Hezekiah forgot 1 Chronicles 29:14.
When I get too caught up in the storyline of my own life, my troubles and challenges, and forget to look at the bigger picture of how God is weaving my story into His gospel story that stretches through time, I lose focus on Him. Our health, our families, our talents, our achievements, our influence, our hours and minutes, these all belong to God. Our lives are built on God's riches, God's results and God's reputation. Why is it so hard to praise His name before those who don't yet know how to?
I asked myself what should Hezekiah have done when the Ambassadors of the king of Babylon came to visit.
One suggestion: He could have held a concert in the courts of the temple and let the professional Levite singers and musicians sing some of the Psalms - starting with Ps 103 & 104 praising the LORD and continuing with Ps 105 - 107 recounting how the LORD had looked after Israel throughout their history.
Defeat of the Assyrians
Time to show and tell
I dont think there was a problem with him showing what the Lord had bless him and the faithful people. What I supposed the problem was;
1. Showing and taking the praise for oneself.
2. Misunderstood how evil and wicked humans heart was.
3. Not giving God all the praise for what they had.
Thank God for troubles, thank God for success! We do not see as God does. We even fail to judge our own hearts! It is difficult to have self-counsciousness! Thank God Who knows deep inside who we really are! And when we are really open for His lessons, He can change us! Besides, we may never achieve a perfect state while we're living here! But by trusting in Christ, He exchange our sinful nature by His! Thank God for the wonderful love of Jesus for us!
All through this portion of the history of Israel, God’s character is clearly seen as He works with humanity. I’m seeing what happens when we accept Him, reject Him or make human blunders and errors.
In all that’s revealed, it’s plain to see there’s no God like the God of Heaven, Creator of all things. There’s no substitute for true heart service to Him.
Brother Maurice’s account of the plague of mice gnawing the bows of the Assyrians during the siege of Pelusium has a contemporary example of a plague of mice doing the same to the electrical wiring on the Nazi German tanks during the siege of Stalingrad in World War II, potentially altering the course of the war.
We can take ‘Defeat of the Assyrians’ as a stand-in for ‘Defeat of the forces of the Adversary of mankind’; we could see that, ultimately, all things are in God’s hands and He has provided victory over the archenemy of mankind. If I take *Assyria* to stand for the adversary who deceived man into believing that he has the ability to determine his own destiny by whatever means are available, I can see the *lawlessness* from the father of lies to instigate all things unlawful.
The Will and Ways of God do not change, but the will and ways of man can and should change once his spiritual eyes are opened and can see the Truth.
Yes, pride and vanity are the enemy of a contrite and grateful heart. Whatever Hezekiah experienced, and we do not know his mind and heart, one hopes that it prompted him to be forever thankful to have received such extraordinary help from God to secure his reign over the people he was put in charge of. Is it not God who directs and anoints the religious leaders who in turn prayerfully select and anoint their king?
Is this still the same today? Do we take it serious to pray for leadership and guidance from Heaven to select those we put in charge over His flock according to HIS Will?
Zech.3:1-10KJV – v.8: ”Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH, v.9: “…. Behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. v.10: “In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree.”
Rev.12:10KJV – “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
The *power to accuse in the presence of God* has been taken away from satan, he has no more access to the Father. A new administration, lead by the Son of God, our Saviour Christ Jesus, has been established; the accuser is not found in their ranks anymore. In his place stands the advocate, the defender of the weak and downtrodden, the savior of those who humble themselves and pray for forgiveness of their sins, the last High Priest to stand in the gap to so provide access to the Father.
The Father and Son have called us to walk Their Way of Righteousness by Faith, to love them with all our heart and mind and to stay close to them to so be protected by Their Justice, Mercy and Grace – Rom.8:1KJV.
The greatest take-away from this weeks lesson is Hezekiah's humility and faith through entire dependence upon God. His preparations began when he instituted reform and restored the worship of God as no king before him had done, then he made the physical preparations in faith, and took every concern to the Lord and listened to the prophet of God. These physical preparations were a statement of faith that God would provide for His people, as promised, and that they would no longer depend on paying tribute to a pagan nation for protection, and in doing so, deny God.
Yes, Hezekiah failed to make the most of a golden opportunity, and we may learn much from this failure as well as the successes. This is why WE study today, "upon whom the ends of the world are come"(1 Cor 10:11).