Start Time:	06:59 AM
End Time:	07:37 AM
Date:	July 16, 2014

 

TITLE: Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold

Scripture: 2 Kings 19:1 – 37

God’s Message / God’s Commands / God’s Promises:

→When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.  It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”  When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah,  Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’” When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.  Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush,^[a] was marching out to fight against him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word:  “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? Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”

NOTES:

Ø  There is peace and assurance in God.  When Hezekiah heard all the words of king Sennacherib, king of Assyria, he tore his clothes and went to seek God.  He sent people to go to Isaiah, God’s prophet, and requested to intercede for God’s people in prayer.  Hezekiah’s heart and mind is one in seeking God in difficult times.  His people were cornered and king Assyria have sent words to create fear in the whole of Judah and to the king but King Hezekiah knew what he needed to do, so he went to the temple seek for God and even asked the prophet to intercede for them.  He knows that only God can rescue and deliver them from the hand of Sennacherib.  And when he is in the presence of the Lord, assurance and peace was given to him.  The words of the Lord from Isaiah happened as he said it so.  So when we are troubled, let us go directly to God for in Him peace and assurance can be found.  Note that the king of Assyria was really pushing fear in the hearts of Judah, driving me to think that king sennacherib (or should I say, the enemy, the devil) was afraid of Hezekiah…that’s why instead of going to battle, he cornered them and planted words of fear first.  Clearly, the devil knew that Hezekiah did what was right before God and he obeyed like David did.  So the devil had to break the wall of courage and strength in God first that’s why he threw words of fear to Hezekiah and his people.  Even when king sennacherib had more pressing matters to attend to, because he heard that the king of Cush was marching against him, he did not leave without throwing more words to inflict fear to Hezekiah. 

→ Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to theLord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.  Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.  “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.  Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.”

NOTES:

Ø  Hezekiah’s prayer is about God not about them.  Reading thru Hezekiah’s prayer, you can see that the subject of Hezekiah’s prayer is the Lord, not them or their situation, or Sennacherib.  If we read it carefully, we can see that Hezekiah’s prayer is for God to save them for the purpose that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that He alone is God!  Hezekiah did not pray to save them because they are hopeless or weak, Hezekiah did not ask to be saved because Sennacherib was very strong and have won so many battles but the purpose of Hezekiah’s request is for God to be known as the One and True God over all Kingdoms!  Hallelujah!  Let our prayers have the same motive as well.

→Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: “‘Virgin Daughter Zion despises you and mocks you. Daughter Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!  By your messengers you have ridiculed the Lord. And you have said, “With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its junipers. I have reached its remotest parts, the finest of its forests. I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”  “‘Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone.  Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up.  “‘But I know where you are and when you come and go and how you rage against me.  Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.’  “This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: “This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.  Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.  For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. “The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.  “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: “‘He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.  By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the Lord.  I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.’”  That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.  One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.

NOTES:

Ø  God hears our prayer, the prayer that is in accordance to His plan, which is to give glory to His Name!  After Hezekiah’s prayer, God answered thru Isaiah and He gave Hezekiah a sign that his line will continue on, that a band of survivors will spring out of Judah, that their nation will remain living!  That night, God fought for Judah, showing Sennacherib and the whole kingdoms that He alone is God. 

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, marvelous king and gracious Father!  Thank You Lord because You are truly the One and True God here on earth and in Heaven.  Thank You because You are worthy of all our praises and today You have revealed new knowledge to me.  Thank You for showing to me that everything falls back for the Glory of Your Name.  Help me Lord to pray like Hezekiah did.  Help me to realize that I should not let Your will adjust to mine but it should be mine to Yours.  Help me to remember in good and bad times that You alone can give me peace and assurance.  Lord show me Your way that I may walk in it uprightly.  Help me Lord to always give all glory and honor and praise back to You.  Help me to pray like Hezekiah did.  Help me to have a heart like David did.  Help me Lord to be more and more like You each day!  In Jesus’ Name, Amen!