Friday, January 30, 2015

WHEN THE LORD SPEAKS



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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

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