Map from vs. 12-13Isaiah 37
Sunday Morning Bible Study
November 28, 1999
Introduction
What do you do when you go through a crisis?
Hezekiah was prepared – He had lived a life that had helped him be in a place to handle the crisis well.
Sometimes we have a hard time seeing why it’s so important to establish good spiritual disciplines in our lives, that is, until we face a crisis. You may not see the benefits of daily Bible reading right away. But it’s helping build up the protection around you. So is praying and going to church regularly. Be prepared.
As we left the story, the ambassador from Assyria, Rabshakeh, had been standing outside the city of Jerusalem shouting his taunts and threats to Hezekiah’s messengers. They came back to their king with their clothes torn out of grief.
:1-7 Asking Isaiah to pray
:3 children are come to the birth … not strength to bring forth.
The picture is that of a woman delivering her baby, and having a long, painful, exhausting labor, and has finally run out of strength.
They’ve done a lot to get to this day of final crisis. They’ve done a lot of preparation. But now that it’s here, they aren’t sure they can go through with it.
Just because you are prepared for a crisis doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy or painless.
Lesson
God specializes in rope ends.
They’re at the "end of their rope". Sometimes it’s at the point of total weakness that we’re at the place to trust totally on God.
Paul wrote:
2Co 12:9-10 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. (AV)
You may be feeling like you’re at the end of your rope, but perhaps you’ve just come to the place where you’re going to see God work now.
:4 wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.
Hezekiah is asking Isaiah to pray.
Lesson
Ask for prayer.
When you've got tough times, ask others to pray with you! At the end of the service I usually encourage those of you who need prayer to come forward. Maybe this is your week to ask for prayer.
:7 Behold, I will send a blast upon him …
blast – ruwach – wind, breath, mind, spirit. Three things will happen to Sennacherib as a result:
1) He will hear a rumor
2) He will return to his own land
3) He will be killed in his own land
:8-13 Rabshakeh’s second threat
:8 Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah
It seems there was a temporary reprieve, but only while Rabshakeh fills his boss in on what Hezekiah’s response was.
Libnah … Lachish – Sennacherib had moved his armies from Lachish to Libnah in his campaign against the cities of Judah. Lachish was 28 miles southwest of Jerusalem. Libnah is 23 miles southwest of Jerusalem. Sennacherib is getting closer.
:9 And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia
Tirhakah was the king that some of Hezekiah’s advisors had been urging Hezekiah to make a treaty with. The net effect is that Sennacherib is now going to put more pressure on Hezekiah to surrender before Tirhakah gets any closer.
:12-13 as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph …
:14-20 Hezekiah’s prayer
:14 unto the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD
This is one of my favorite passages. I love this about Hezekiah. He has this horrible problem and he can’t wait to go and talk to His Best Friend about it. He lays it all out before the Lord.
Lesson
Tell Him everything
Pour out your heart to the Lord. David wrote,
(Psa 62:8 KJV) Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.
(Psa 55:22 KJV) Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Peter wrote,
(1 Pet 5:7 KJV) Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
Hezekiah took the threatening letter and spread it out before the Lord.
Illustration
Tom Monaghan in his book Pizza Tiger shares an incident that occurred when he was flying his Cessna 172.
"I flew over to Pontiac one day that summer to see Eldon Huff. The ceiling was very low when I started back, and once again clouds closed in on me. In trying to ease myself below them, I lost control of the plane. It stalled, and I found myself in a spin. I pulled back on the control yoke with all my might, But I couldn’t budge it. Plowed fields were whirling up toward me, and I realized there was nothing left to do but pray. I released the controls, closed my eyes, and folded my hands under my chin: "Father in Heaven, please help me" I began, and I felt a miraculous change take place. The spinning stopped and suddenly the plane was flying level again.
Great advice when we’re in a tail spin: release the controls, close our eyes, and pray."
-- from Tom Monaghan, Pizza Tiger, New York: Random House, 1986, p. 130.
:15 And Hezekiah prayed unto the LORD
Lesson
Are you praying?
Sometimes we do okay at asking others to pray for us. But have we actually spent time praying?
Hezekiah isn’t sending any messengers to Isaiah asking for prayer. He’s getting down to business and praying himself.
Illustration
I have a friend who once needed urgent prayer. He called the office of the church he was attending, but nobody was there and he got the answer machine. The message on the machine was, "We’re not here right now, but have you tried taking your problem to the Lord?" My friend felt convicted that he hadn’t been praying himself yet, so he prayed, and God helped him!
David wrote:
Ps 34:4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. (AV)
:16 O LORD of hosts, God of Israel …
Lesson
Big prayers start with a Big God.
It’s not a bad idea to learn to start your prayers in a way that causes you to think about the greatness of God. The idea is not to try to be flattering God like Eddie Haskel used to flatter Mrs. Cleaver ("Gee Mrs. Cleaver, you sure look nice today!"). The idea is to make our minds realize just who it is we’re talking to.
Hezekiah’s great-great-great-grandfather Jehoshaphat also faced a tremendous enemy when the Moabites and Ammonites teamed up to fight against him. He too prayed in his time of trouble:
(2 Chr 20:5-6 KJV) And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court, {6} And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?
Big needs don’t seem so overwhelming when you have a Big God.
Illustration
Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, said, "Many Christians estimate difficulty in the light of their own resources, and thus they attempt very little, and they always fail. All giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His power and His presence to be with them."
-- John Maxwell, Be All You Can Be (Victor, 1987), p. 15.
Lesson
Know your God.
Hezekiah’s prayer tells me that he had a little bit of a clue as to who God was.
To Hezekiah, God was:
His God, the "God of Israel". God was accessible, the one who "dwellest between the cherubim" in the temple. Hezekiah’s God was sovereign, being "the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth". And lastly, Hezekiah’s God was powerful, the one who "hast made heaven and earth."
Hezekiah knows His God. Do you know yours? If you were to make up a list of all the things you knew about God, how big would your list be? We’d all probably have "loving" and "faithful" on the list, but would there be much on it beyond that?
If you had to file a "missing person" report on God, how easy would it be for the police to find Him? Would you be like the person who says, "Well, He was sort of medium height, kind of an average guy …"? Or would you be able to give a pretty detailed description?
:19 And have cast their gods into the fire
Some of what the Assyrians had claimed were true. They had indeed conquered all the other nations and all their "gods" (little "g"). It’s just that the other "gods" were nothing but wood and stone.
:20 Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand
Hezekiah’s basic request: Save us! Doesn’t seem like a very long prayer, huh?
Lesson
Great prayers don’t have to be long prayers.
Somehow we’ve gotten the idea that if we are going to be a great prayer warrior, we’ve got to learn to use a lot of words.
Solomon said,
(Eccl 5:1-2 NLT) As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut! Don't be a fool who doesn't realize that mindless offerings to God are evil. {2} And don't make rash promises to God, for he is in heaven, and you are only here on earth. So let your words be few.
We used to have a rule when we had a Home Bible Study: Keep your prayers to 25 words or less! God is more concerned with your heart and the content of your prayers, not the length.
Illustration:
Consider this: The Lord's Prayer contains 56 words; the Gettysburg Address, 266; the Ten Commandments, 297; the Declaration of Independence, 300; and a recent U.S. government order setting the price of cabbage, 26,911.
It's not how long we talk, it's what we say that is so important. -- From the Book Positioning
:21-35 Promise of Deliverance
:22 This is the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him;
I think it’s interesting to see that Hezekiah prays in the temple to the Lord, and then the Lord sends a message back through the prophet Isaiah.
Lesson
Prayer should be a two way conversation.
Are you listening for God’s reply to your request? Can you imagine a relationship where only one person did all the talking? Would it be frustrating if you were the one on the receiving end and were never given a chance to reply?
Illustration
A concerned husband went to a doctor to talk about his wife. He says to the doctor, "Doctor, I think my wife is deaf because she never hears me the first time and always asks me to repeat things." "Well," the doctor replied, "go home and tonight stand about 15 feet from her and say something to her. If she doesn’t reply move about 5 feet close and say it again. Keep doing this so that we’ll get an idea about the severity of her deafness". Sure enough, the husband goes home and does exactly as instructed. He starts off about 15 feet from his wife in the kitchen as she is chopping some vegetables and says, "Honey, what’s for dinner?" He hears no response. He moves about 5 feet closer and asks again. No reply. He moves 5 feet closer. Still no reply. He gets fed up and moves right behind her, about an inch away, and asks again, "Honey, what’s for dinner?" She replies, "For the fourth time, vegetable stew!"
Sometimes we may be wondering why God isn’t answering our questions, but could it be that we just aren’t listening to Him?
How can God give us answers?
He can speak to your heart. (John 16:13)
He can speak through a friend, like Isaiah was to Hezekiah.
He can speak through His Word, as you spend time reading your Bible.
:22 The virgin, the daughter of Zion
Referring to the city of Jerusalem.
:23 even against the Holy One of Israel.
Sennacherib had no concept of what he was doing. He thought he was mocking these uncultured, weak Jews who lived in some stupid city on top of a mountain. But what he was doing was mocking God Almighty Himself!
:26 Hast thou not heard long ago, how I have done it
Assyria has existed only because God had decided they should exist. They have become powerful only because God allowed them to.
:28 But I know thy abode
God knows where Sennacherib lives. He knows when he gets up in the morning. He knows what he has for breakfast.
:29 therefore will I put my hook in thy nose
God will treat the Assyrians like a big, dumb old animal and lead them away. This was exactly the way the Assyrians led off their captives when they conquered a people.
:30 this shall be a sign unto thee
This sign is for Hezekiah, not Sennacherib.
:30 in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards
The whole point of this "sign" is that Sennacherib wouldn’t just be gone for a little while. He’d be gone for good. They were going to be having a food shortage, but God promised to provide. And even after three years, Sennacherib wouldn’t be back.
:33 He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there
Sennacherib isn’t even getting past the front door of Jerusalem.
:36-38 God’s deliverance
:36 Then the angel of the LORD went forth …
Rabshakeh said that one of the smallest of Sennacherib’s officers could have taken care of 2,000 Jewish horsemen. But just one of God’s angels has killed 185,000 Assyrians in a single night.
We don’t know how it happened. Some have suggested that the Assyrians were hit with a plague. Others said it was some kind of fire from heaven. Still others said it was field mice eating their bowstrings and shield straps.
The Assyrian historical accounts tell nothing of this defeat. But then again, they never told of any of their defeats. Sennacherib does boast of having taken 200,000 captives, but also adds an odd line unique to the Assyrian inscriptions (JFB), "Then I prayed unto God", without adding any of the pagan names of gods, just the name "God". Interesting.
:37 Sennacherib king of Assyria departed … and dwelt at Nineveh
He wasn’t sticking around to see what would happen next. He lived in Nineveh 20 more years before verse 38.
:38 his sons smote him with the sword
Isaiah had prophesied that he would die by the sword in his own land (Isa. 37:7).
Lesson
Handling crises with prayer
When it all comes down to it, there was one basic thing that Hezekiah did in handling his crisis. He prayed. There are a lot of misconceptions about prayer.
Having faith in prayer is not some kind of magic twinkle dust that you add to a prayer to force God to answer you. God wants you to have faith, but God wants you to have faith in Him, that He’ll handle the situation properly, not faith that He’ll do things your way.
Prayer is not like rubbing the magic lamp and asking the genie for a wish. The key to answered prayer isn’t in finding a way to twist God’s arm to give you what you’re asking for. The key is in learning to ask God for the things that are His will.
Things happen when God’s people pray.
(James 5:13-18 KJV) Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. {14} Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: {15} And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. {16} Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. {17} Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. {18} And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
Elijah (Elias) was just like us. He was an ordinary guy just like you and me. He prayed and God answered.
Map from vs. 12-13