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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
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 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.
Isaiah 37:1-8
This ends this
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Yesterday in our study of Isaiah,
chapters 36 and 37, we saw King Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem facing a
harrowing challenge. The Assyrian army had placed Israel under siege, systematically
attacking and capturing all the fortified cities in Judah. All that is except for
the most important city in Judah, the holy city of Jerusalem.
Scriptures tell us that the king of
Assyria, King Sennacherib, sent his field commander and a large army to
Jerusalem to finish the deal and after King Hezekiah sent three of his staff to
meet them, the commander started to speak loudly so that even the people inside
the city’s fortified walls could hear him.
What did he have to say?
First, we know the commander tried
to convince the people that they could not depend on God to save them as
Hezekiah was telling them.
Next, the commander proclaimed that
the Lord could not be with Hezekiah because He was on the side of the
Assyrians, going as far to say that the Assyrians were carrying out God’s will
in destroying Judah.
Finally, he urged the people to
just surrender and not trust Hezekiah when he promised that God would deliver
them.
His words had to sound very
convincing to a people inside the holy city who were facing down attack and
pending death. But that’s what the enemy does when he speaks. He entices us,
and sometimes very convincingly so, to do the wrong thing or go the wrong way
or trust the wrong things.
It’s a good thing that the enemy
isn’t the only one who speaks.
For today, we will see that the
Lord will always have His say and the enemy’s words will always be trumped when
He does. Look at these verses from Isaiah 37:
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 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. vv. 1-8
As the chapter opens, we find even
the faithful King Hezekiah impacted by the words of the commander, so much so
that he tore his clothes as a result of the distress he was in. He quickly sent
Eliakim and Shebna, the two emissaries who met the commander face-to-face,
along with the leading priests to the prophet Isaiah. All were in sackcloth,
symbolizing the deep grief everyone was in from the pending Assyrian threat, as
they shared Hezekiah’s message:
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 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.”
Note here that Hezekiah sees God as
the only hope that he and the people of Jerusalem have. Without Him, they would
be attacked and destroyed like the other fortified cities of the kingdom before
them. Hezekiah held out hope that the Lord had been listening to the words of
the Assyrian field commander who also spoke words that had come from King
Sennacherib, words of mistruth and insult unto the very God that Hezekiah
trusted would deliver him and his people.
The Assyrians, the enemy, had
spoken. Now it was God’s turn.
For from the lips of the prophet
from whom this biblical book was named after, these words flowed, words from the
words from the Lord God Almighty Himself, words that had to set the people of
Jerusalem at ease and reassure them that the God they loved and worshipped was
in control and would always have the last say:
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.’”
First, words of comfort and
reassurance.
“Do not be afraid.”
Words are just words without
action. The Assyrian king and field commander blustered strong, threatening
words but they also made the big mistakes of speaking words of blasphemy. Thus,
destruction was coming but it wouldn’t be on Jerusalem, not now at least (we
know that Babylon and exile are on the horizon). The people of Jerusalem need
not be afraid for God was with them on this.
Finally, words regarding what would
happen.
“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.’”
The Assyrian king who sent the
commander to Jerusalem was soon going to receive a report, a report that would
lead him to flee home to Assyria. What would the report be? Look at this from
the Book of 2 Kings, Chapter 19:
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. vv. 35-37
The report was that 185,000 in the
Assyrian camp were dead. The judgment of the Lord came fast and furious. So
Sennacherib, minus his fighting forces, returned to Assyria and the city of
Nineveh where a short time later, he was killed by his own sons.
The Lord has spoken and His words
were the words of truth.
Friends, through these two
devotions, we need to understand two very important things.
First, the enemy is always talking
to us, always seeking to discourage us, always seeking to draw us into sin,
always trying to convince us that a life following him is the right life to
live.
Second, when the enemy starts to speak
to you, turn to the Lord and allow Him to have His say. I guarantee you that
when you do, He will have the last say and the right thing will always happen
for His ways and His ways alone lead us to the place of righteousness.
Do not be afraid when the enemy
speaks. God is with you and when He with you, who can stand against you?
(Romans 8:31)
Amen.
In
Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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