Tuesday: Shaken but not Forsaken
Isa: 36:21-37:20
How did the clever oratory of the rabshakeh affect Hezekiah and his officials? 2 Kings 18:37-19:4, Isa: 36:21-37:4.
Shaken to the core and mourning in distress, Hezekiah turned to God, humbly seeking the intercession of Isaiah, the very prophet whose counsel his father had ignored.
How did God encourage Hezekiah? Isa: 37:5-7.
Image © Providence Collection at Goodsalt.com
The message was brief, but it was enough. God was on the side of His people. Isaiah predicted that Sennacherib would hear a rumor that would distract him from his attack on Judah. This was immediately fulfilled.
Temporarily frustrated, but by no means giving up for long, Sennacherib sent Hezekiah a threatening message: “Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. … Have the gods of the nations delivered them …?” (Isa: 37:10, Isaiah 37:12, NRSV; see also 2 Chron: 32:17).
This time Hezekiah went straight to the temple and spread the message out before the Lord of hosts, “enthroned above the cherubim” (Isa: 37:14-16, NRSV).
How did Hezekiah’s prayer identify what was at stake in Jerusalem’s crisis? Isa: 37:15-20.
Sennacherib had pointedly attacked Hezekiah’s strongest defense: faith in his God. Rather than buckling under, Hezekiah appealed to God to demonstrate who He is, “so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD” (Isa: 37:20, NRSV).
Read prayerfully Hezekiah’s prayer (Isa: 37:15-20). What aspects about God does he focus on? What principle do we see in this prayer that can give us encouragement and strength to stay faithful in our own personal crises?
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There is an element of "Our gods are better than your God" in the war of words between Sennacherib and Hezekiah, and it is interesting to note that Hezekiah had instructed his people not to answer the Assyrians.
Instead they took the problem to the Lord and let him provide the solution.
Jesus used the same tactic withHerod at his trial before the crucifixion.
Isaiah has himself prophesied that Jesus would remain silent:
The temptation is often to get ourselves involved in an argument when someone challenges our faith and often the argument becomes non-productive. It takes a lot of faith to answer nothing and let the Holy Spirit work through you in its own quiet way.
I am not suggesting that we should never get into a discussion with unbelievers, but we need to consider carefully that we may be just talking because we are offended by what they say. When the argument comes down to "My God is bigger than your science, or whatever", sometimes it is best to let go of the argument and let God work through you in action and love.
Great point 👍🏽
What a snapshot .... Hezekiah in front of the altar with the object of his distress laid at God's feet. Like a child running to his dad. He wants God to have all of it, every word, no summarizing, no recap, the whole problem. And then he begins to pray. He frames a picture of who God is first, "...you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth" (2 Kings 19:15). In this way he aligns his mindset correctly: "Look at my God, not at my problem. My God is always bigger than my problem." From this frame of mind he is able to ask for help for the right reason, "so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God" (2 Kings 19:19). This is a lesson for me on how to pray. Put God's character first. Ask for things in view of how they further His kingdom.
I also love the physicality of this prayer scene. God is spirit. But we are not pure spirit. So how do we connect with Him?
In one study, neuroscientists have found that "married women under extreme stress who reach out and hold their husbands' hands feel immediate relief." Using MRI scans of brain images and mild shocks to their ankles, the study found that "the women received significantly more relief from their husbands' touch than from a stranger's, and those in particularly close marriages were most deeply comforted by their husbands' hands.....The most profoundly comforting hand-holding was between 'supercouples', whose scores on the marriage questionnaire reflected an extremely close relationship. The brain region involved in anticipating pain was particularly sensitive to this marital quality, suggesting that a touch between close partners can blunt the sensation of physical pain, which is related to the level of anticipation." (from a 1/31/2006 NYT article titled "Holding Loved One's Hand Can Calm Jittery Neurons")
We need to feel God's companionship in a very real tangible way (Is. 41:13). The closer our relationship with God, the more likely we'll feel calm around anticipated pain. How do you experience God as a physical presence? How do you offer yourself to God in a physical way?
Thanks for sharing Esther. That research has really made Is 41.13 and other similar texts come alive for me. God taking my stress (or me giving it to Him as He HOLDS my right hand,not the other way around)
It will be a useful tool to help share comfort and peace to those in distress.
God bless and happy Sabbath.
What a example of an authentic prayer. Hezekiah honesty spreads before the Lord what is really on his heart. He doesn’t use lofty language, cliches or impressive phrases.
God’s response is clear, to the point and full of Fatherly love and foreknowledge.
In God’s response I believe there is an invitation to believe and trust. I love Him for doing the same thing for us when perplexing situations arise.
Sennacherib's messages implied that each area had it's own god while Hezekiah said the LORD was God over all the kingdoms.
There is only one God, the Creator, it does matter whom we worship!
Like Hezekiah we have direct access to the LORD, we can come boldly before the throne to communicate with Him. Heb 4:16, Eph 3:11-12.
We don't need any other mediator - For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus 1Tim 2:5
In our English translation there seems to be a play on words between Sennacherib (cherub) and the LORD who is above the cherubim?
Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. Psalms 83:1
Shaken but not Forsaken
As we go back to the passages, three men came to Hezekiah with their clothing rend because of bad news. A powerful nation was about to destroy them from off the face of the earth. Hezekiah on hearing the news also rend his clothing and cover his head with sackcloth before going to the temple to met with God.
As those of old, so we are call to rent our heart and not our garment. Joel 2:12
Those who profess to believe the third angel’s message often wound the cause of God by lightness, joking, and trifling. I was shown that this evil was all through our ranks. There should be a humbling before the Lord; the Israel of God should rend the heart, and not the garment.....Set your heart in order, lest He visit you in judgment, and the brittle thread of life be cut, and ye lie down in the grave unsheltered, unprepared for the judgment. {1T 133.3}
Am I in mourning today because of the evil around me or in my own life and household? Am I totally sold out to Christ? Am I coming with a contrite heart to the holy One of Israel.
Lyn, is this an American saying "totally sold out to Christ?"
how would you explain it in other words
In my country we say someone has "sold out" if he has deserted his cause for materialism
Sold out =
“Committed”
“All in”
“Is Your All on the Altar?” (An older hymn)
“Completely Surrendered”
“Would you sell everything (physical, emotional) to follow Jesus?”
Some use it to get others stirred up but it needs to come from God and not from an emotional sermon or a “do it or be left behind” group attitude.
Shirley you are correct - sometimes we use words in strange ways that others don’t understand.
Rom.8:31KJV – “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”
If we could just think of this so all important Truth in our time of spiritual distress!
Isa.37:12KJV - ”Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, …?
Isa.37:16KJV - ”O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, that art the God, even though alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.”
Isa.37:17-20 - ”Incline thine ear, O LORD, and hear; open thine eyes, O LORD, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God.
Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries. And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.
Hezekiah asked God to defend His Name, not to protect him from the kings of Assyria - Isa.37:4KJV. The Honor of God's Name, and His sovereignty to act according to the Powers of His Authority, is at stake every time man deminishes Him to the same standing as the gods of wood and stone.
I see humanity’s age old struggle reflected in these verses, to know who their God is, or in our day and time of sophistication, to understand that their still is a God who holds all power to order the affairs of man. Do we have today the same understanding about our relationship with God as Hezekiah had? Are we as confident as Isaiah and heartbroken about the assault against God's name as Hezekiah when we come to God? Ultimately, He assures His Honor and Glory by His Will; this is the only power and objective that matters! God's care for man is unfathomable; He moves Heaven and earth to protect him. Indeed, if God be for us, who can be against us?
Isaiah Chapter 42 tells everyone who has an ear to hear about the Help He has given to mankind to settle the outcome of all the battles once and for all.
Is it not left to us to make sure that God is for us? As we live faithfully, seeking, finding and applying God’s Will and righteousness in our daily lives, does this not give us inner peace and strength to wait upon the Lord to direct our steps?
Isa.40:28-31 - Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew(change) their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
It is from ancient Assyria where we get the word “Assassin”. They are the first known historic group to decapitate those who they conquered. Their purpose was to create terror (terrorism origin) in their neighbors.
Editor, H. S. (2002;2002). BAR 17:01 (Jan/Feb 1991). Biblical Archaeology Society.
Grisly Assyrian Record of Torture and Death
By Erika Belibtreu
“British Museum
Assyrian headhunters gather their trophies. In a relief from Sennacherib’s palace at Nineveh, two scribes, standing side by side at right, record the number of the enemy slain in a campaign in southern Mesopotamia. Heads lie in a heap at their feet. The foreground scribe uses pen and ink on a leather scroll; the other scribe writes with a stylus on a hinged writing-board coated with wax.”
This is the result for peoples who worship gods of wood and stone led by Satan. God set up the nation of Israel to remain distinct from this behavior. He set them up to “do justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with God”. As long as Israel remained faithful to this simple message, they would remain distinct. Unfortunately, most of their Kings led them to imitate the dominate nations around them. When Israel reached the point of sacrificing their own children, discipline soon followed.
It is fortunate for Israel that God’s faithfulness reigns and His promises never fail and despite Israel’s failure, God has sustained them as a people and a nation with the same language and culture (the one He designed) throughout history while people worshiping the gods of wood and stone are literally on “the ash heap” of history.
The message to us is to hang on to God’s simple message of Justice, Mercy and a Humble walk with Him; take care of the weak, needy around us and do no harm to your neighbor.
Shirley- Gale explained it before I can get to it. In my culture, totally sold out to Christ means I surrender all for the sake of following Jesus. World pleasures all forsaken, walking day by day in the footsteps of Jesus, though I fall, I get up with the help of Jesus and starts all over again.
It is always good to look into the reasons behind the final outcomes that take place, such as in this story. Hezekiah was certainly shaken, as all who would exercise faith will be, but he trusted God fully. Could he have had such faith if he had not first acted as we read in 2 Kings 18:3-6?
Everyone knows about Jacob wrestling with the angel and then not letting go until blessed, but do we remember his previous repentance and its vital role in his ability to exercise such a faith that led to his name being changed?
A greater shaking is coming for which few will be prepared, and today is the day of preparation. This story in our lesson is written for our admonition "upon whom the ends of the world are come". We are being shown the path to victory and must walk it ourselves.