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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
In the fourteenth year of King
Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities
of Judah and captured them. Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander
with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the
commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the
Launderer’s Field, Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the
secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him.
The field commander said to them,
“Tell Hezekiah:
“‘This is what the great king, the
king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say
you have counsel and might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are
you depending, that you rebel against me? Look, I know you are depending on
Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who
leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. But if you
say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”—isn’t he the one whose high
places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must
worship before this altar?”
“‘Come now, make a bargain with my
master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put
riders on them! How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my
master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and
horsemen? Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the Lord?
The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’”
Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said
to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we
understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the
wall.”
But the commander replied, “Was it
only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not
to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own
excrement and drink their own urine?”
Then the commander stood and called
out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is
what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! Do
not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will
surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of
Assyria.’”
“Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is
what the king of Assyria says: ‘Make peace with me and come out to me. Then
each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from
your own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of
grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.’”
“Do not let Hezekiah mislead you
when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Have the gods of any nations ever
delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods
of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued
Samaria from my hand? Who of all the gods of these countries have been able to
save their lands from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my
hand?”
But the people remained silent and
said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”
Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the
palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and Joah son of Asaph the recorder
went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field
commander had said.
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, was marching out
to fight against him. When he heard it, he 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?”
Isaiah 36,
37:9-13
This ends this
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
As we move into Isaiah 36 and 37,
we find the city of Jerusalem up against a serious challenge.
The kingdom of Judah had been under
attack by the Assyrians who were under the rule of King Sennacherib. Scripture
tells us that all the fortified cities in Judah had been attacked and captured,
leaving Jerusalem as the only major conquest left for Sennacherib who had sent
his field commander and a large army there to finish the job.
Ruling in Jerusalem at the time was
King Hezekiah and he had been on the throne for 14 years when this major threat
occurred. As a reminder of what kind of leader he was, we need only go back to
the Book of 2 Kings to find out:
In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of
Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became
king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah,
daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as
his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred
stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake
Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to
it. (It was called Nehushtan).
Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like
him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast
to the Lord and did not stop following Him; he kept the commands the Lord had
given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he
undertook. 2 Kings 18:1-7a
These verses are critically
important for us to keep in mind as we look at the devotions for today and
tomorrow. For when we are living this thing called life, we are going to come
up against many challenges and during those times, we need to understand there
are always two voices speaking to us: the voice of the enemy and the voice of
the Lord. Trusting the Lord, serving Him obediently, and making a relationship
with Him a priority would serve Hezekiah very well as he faced a stern test
from the marauding Assyrians.
Going back to the scriptures, we
see that Hezekiah sent three emissaries (Eliakim, the palace administrator; Shebna,
the secretary; and Joah, the recorder) to meet Sennacherib’s commander. It’s
there that we first hear the enemy speaking as he attempts to attack Hezekiah’s
faith in God:
“On what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say you have
counsel and might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you
depending, that you rebel against me? Look, I know you are depending on Egypt,
that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on
it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. But if you say to
me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places
and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship
before this altar?”
“‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will
give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! How then can you
repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are
depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Furthermore, have I come to
attack and destroy this land without the Lord? The Lord himself told me to
march against this country and destroy it.’”
Note here two different approaches
by the Assyrian commander:
First, he tries to diminish the
power and reliability of the Lord.
But if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”—isn’t he
the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and
Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar?”
Anyone with half a brain full of
God-knowledge would be able to see this as a tainted statement. It wasn’t God’s
high places and altars that Hezekiah had removed for God was to be worshipped
in the temple but rather those places that were destroyed were the places where
false gods were being worshipped, the same false gods that the Assyrians placed
their hope in.
The second attempt was a little slyer
and definitely could have been more believable to someone who was not firm in
their faith.
Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the Lord?
The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’”
Now, the field commander was flat
out lying to try and convince the Israelites to surrender and make a bargain in
order to secure their survival. We know he was lying because he tries to
convince the king and people of Jerusalem that he is there under the authority of
the Lord Himself. As well see tomorrow, that definitely wasn’t the case as we
see the Lord speaking on the matter.
But back to this situation first.
The three emissaries were concerned that the commander’s words might incite
fear and chaos within the fortified city as he was speaking in Hebrew and could
be heard by the people. And so they asked him to speak in Aramaic instead but
the commander (aka the enemy) was not done speaking and trying to persuade the
Israelites to give up without a fight saying:
“Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these
things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to
eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”
“Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what
the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! Do not
let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will
surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of
Assyria.’”
“Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: ‘Make
peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own
vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, until I come and take
you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and
vineyards.’”
“Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver
us.’ Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of
the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods
of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? Who of all the gods of
these countries have been able to save their lands from me? How then can the Lord
deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
The commander made it clear he
wanted everyone in Jerusalem to know he was there to destroy them unless they
made a deal and gave themselves up willingly. He directly tried to discredit Hezekiah
and his assurances that God was with them. Remember he had asserted that God
was actually on the side of the Assyrians.
Imagine you were inside the walls
of Jerusalem and listening to these words from the Assyrian field commander.
You are aware of all the destruction and devastation the Assyrians have caused
as they systematically worked their way from the north to the south, claiming
one victory after another before parking on the doorstep of Jerusalem, the
crown jewel and beloved, holy city of the Israelites.
Wouldn’t you be just a little
afraid and unsure about what was going to happen? Wouldn’t the proposition of
peace instead of war be more than a little enticing, maybe leading you to feel
that surrender might be the best option? Your fears may just start to override
your faith if you weren’t careful.
Friends, doesn’t this happen to us
in real life too? Don’t we come up against difficulties and maybe start to hear
the enemy speaking to us?
Maybe you might hear things like
this:
You’re going through hardship and
hear the voice of the enemy say, “Your situation is too much for God to handle.”
You’ve sinned badly in life and
done some bad things. The enemy begins to say, “God will never forgive you for
what you’ve done.”
You have a chance to gain a great
deal of wealth and prestige but it will require you to break the law to do so.
The enemy whispers in your ear, “God wants you to prosper and so do whatever it
takes to get ahead.”
You’ve gone through a long time of
trial and, although you have been praying, it doesn’t like it will ever end.”
You’ll hear the enemy say, “God is not going to answer your prayers. You’re a
sinner and deserve nothing from Him.”
And you’re in a committed
relationship but are unhappy with your intimacy within it. The enemy will encourage
you by saying, “It’s alright to find someone else to meet your needs. God
wishes for you to be happy and satisfied.”
Maybe these voices of the enemy
sound familiar. Maybe he has been speaking to you or has spoken to you.
After all, Satan has been in the
business of speaking and deceiving since the times of the bible, in the Old and
New Testaments.
You may recall this from Genesis as
life began and the first man and woman were faced with a critical choice:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord
God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from
any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the
garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the
middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God
knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like
God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and
pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and
ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then
the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so
they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was
walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God
among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are
you?”
He answered, “I heard You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was
naked; so I hid.”
And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the
tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The man said, “The woman You put here with me—she gave me some fruit
from the tree, and I ate it.”
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Genesis 3:1-13
And with that, sin entered the
world forever, all because Adam and Eve allowed themselves to listen and be
deceived when the enemy spoke.
Thank goodness that Jesus changes
everything as I wrote about yesterday.
For as we look at chapter 4 in the
Gospel of Matthew, we find Jesus emerging from the wilderness where He had
spent forty days and nights. Scriptures tell us He was hungry and so you may
have guessed that in His moment of weakness, the enemy (the devil) started
speaking words of temptation:
“If you are the Son of God, tell
these stones to become bread.” v. 3
Any normal man may have fallen for
it but this was no ordinary man. This was Jesus, the Son of God who would not
be swayed into defeat by the words of the enemy. Instead, Jesus pulled out the
word of God, in this instance from Deuteronomy, and showed us how to use it
against the enemy when he tries to entice us:
“It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word
that comes from the mouth of God.’” v. 4
Satan wasn’t ready to give up and
so he took Jesus to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the
temple. Note this time he tries to twist the word of God from the Psalms to try
and get his way:
“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is
written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
v. 6
Jesus would not and could not be
tricked. Instead, he again brought out the word of God from Deuteronomy to ward
off Satan’s temptation:
“It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” v. 7
Two strikes but Satan would give it
one more try, this time taking Jesus to a very high mountain where he would be
able to see all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. Then came the
pitch:
“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship
me.”
But Jesus had had enough and said:
“Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve Him only.’” Deuteronomy 6:13
And with that, Satan left and Jesus
was attended to by the angels. He had refused to listen to when the enemy spoke
and used the word of God to avoid being deceived.
Friends, God’s word is truth and
assures us that:
Nothing is impossible with Him
(Matthew 19:26). Remember that when the enemy speaks and says, “Your situation
is too much for God to handle.”
If we repent, we will be forgiven
of our sins (Acts 2:38). Remember this when the enemy speaks and says, “God will
never forgive you for what you’ve done.”
We can’t serve God and money
(Matthew 6:24). Remember that when the enemy speaks to you and says, “God wants
you to prosper and so do whatever it takes to get ahead.”
Seek the Lord in prayer and you
will find Him (Matthew 7:7-11). Remember this when the enemy speaks and says, “God
is not going to answer your prayers. You’re a sinner and deserve nothing from
Him.”
Adultery is a sin (Exodus 20:14,
Matthew 5:27-28). Remember that when the enemy speaks and tries to convince
you, “It’s alright to find someone else to meet your needs. God wishes for you
to be happy and satisfied.”
Brothers and sisters, the enemy is
speaking. He is speaking every day and drawing countless people into
transgression and wickedness, dragging them further and further away from the
Lord who made them, the only One who can save them.
When the enemy speaks, what should
we do?
We follow the lead of Jesus and
fall back on the certainty and surety of the all powerful word of God. It will
work every time.
Amen.
In
Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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