Hezekiah not to be afraid of the commander’s words, because God will make him return to his own country. And true to the prophet’s word, the Assyrian commander realizes that King Sennacherib had gone to fight in another area, so he leaves. But some time later, King Sennacherib again sends messengers to Hezekiah with more of the same threats: “Don’t let the god you depend on deceive you by telling you that Jerusalem won’t be taken over by the king of Assyria. Haven’t you heard how the Assyrians have destroyed all the other countries? And you still think YOU will be delivered? Did the gods of the other nations I destroyed deliver them??” (2 Kings 19:10-13, paraphrase mine) This time, Hezekiah went directly to the temple himself and prayed fervently to Yahweh. It’s such a beautiful prayer that, for once, I won’t even try to paraphrase it! Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “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.” (2 Kings 19:15-19) And God answers Hezekiah’s prayer! He receives a message from the prophet Isaiah promising that the Lord would defend and save Jerusalem and that the king of Assyria would not set foot (nor arrow nor shield nor siege ramp) in the city. That same night, the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian soldiers. When King Sennacherib woke up to find so many of his men dead, he withdrew and went back home to Ninevah, Assyria’s capital. Then one day, the Assyrian king was murdered by his own sons while he was worshiping in the temple of his god. You have to love the situational irony there...the king who defied Yahweh’s ability to save finds that it’s his own god who is powerless to save him!! We all enjoy stories like this one…the good king wins and the bad king loses, God miraculously saves His people and punishes their enemies, faith is rewarded and evil is avenged, the underdog is victorious and the tyrant is overthrown. But of course, it’s so much more than just an exciting and satisfying story. It has some valuable things to teach us about the God we serve, the Enemy we battle, and the people of faith we should be.
2 Kings 19:15-19 NIV
And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “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. 16 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God. 17 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 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. 19 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.” This story is a wonderful reminder that the Lord is the one and only true God. Yahweh alone has the power to save, heal, rescue and deliver. He is the One Sovereign Ruler over all the kingdoms of the earth. He is not a God created by human hands. He is the Almighty, Omnipotent, Uncreated, Transcendent One. And perhaps you’re thinking, “Well of course the Creator and Sustainer of all living things has power that idols of stone and wood don’t have! That’s a no-brainer.” But how often do we look to create things to satisfy our cravings and desires, rather than wholeheartedly seeking the Creator who is the only one with the power to bring meaning and significance into our lives, and give us peace, hope, joy, and rest our souls long for? It’s not enough to know that He is God alone. We have to make Him the King of our hearts, Lord of our lives, and the sole object of our affection. I think this story also serves as a jolting reminder of the schemes of the Enemy of our souls. Satan’s main objective is to get us to doubt God’s character. The lies he whispers to us sound a lot like the words of King Sennacherib: “What makes you think God is really going to help YOU? Do you really think you can count on Him now? Just look at the destruction, disaster, and brokenness in the world around you! Who do you think you are to think that you’re going to be saved from the sin and decay that abounds everywhere else? God doesn’t really care about you! You’d be better off if you just do your own thing. Just think of all the people who have let you down. What makes you think God is going to be any different?”
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