Answers Bible Curriculum: Lesson 7 - God Answers Prayer

Lord, we thank you so much for your word that is just so amazing and as we look at this morning at your sovereignty, your omniscience, your care for your people, your judgment, we ask that you just open up our eyes to your word and illuminate it, help us to see. What you have for us this morning, bless are those that are teaching our children. We thank for your great love for us. In the name of Jesus, we pray.

Amen. So one of the questions that we're gonna try to answer this morning is, why do bad things sometimes happen to people who seek the Lord? It's not uncommon at all, and I'm sure you've run into this to talk to people in the church. Who clearly they've believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, they're seeking Him.

maybe they're, they're praying for a loved one who has gotten cancer. And they're crying out to the Lord to save them, to heal them. And then, my best friend, one of my best friends, Greg Lees. his wife contracted breast cancer, they were praying, they were seeing doctors, lots of different things, and she got cancer about the same time my wife got cancer and she passed away and my wife, survived.

why does that happen? Is it because we, we really sought the Lord with more faith? Then Greg and his wife Amy. I don't think so.

and so part of what we're gonna try to figure out is We're gonna look at Hezekiah, and he is clearly a good king. And yet, right in the middle of his reign, right after he's done all these awesome works for the Lord, some really crazy stuff starts happening to him. And so we're going to try to take a look at that. So if you guys remember where we're at, last week, we, Dan did a great job talking about just prophecy and God's omniscience.

Part of what we're gonna be looking at, the lesson gears it towards prayer. We're gonna expand it a little bit to just lessons that we learned from Hezekiah in general and particularly the narrative with him and Sennacherib. And not snack rib, Sennacherib. He's this king in Assyria, pretty, pretty bad dude.

so let's just do a little bit of review where we've come from. Remember, we're in the divided kingdom period. we've got Israel in the North, who's in the south? Judah and God starts sending prophets to the north and to the south.

up in the north, do we have any good kings that, no. But when we look in the south, there are actually some good kings. We're gonna look at one of those today, Hezekiah. And so in previous lessons, we've looked at Amos, how that God warns Israel in the north.

We've got Hosea, God reminding them of his love. We've got Nehum, where God is actually speaking of his judgment of Nineveh. Remember we had Jonah who brought the message and they repented, but Nehum comes about 100 years later and pronounces judgment. Last week, we looked at the concept that God is omniscient and speaks clearly through his prophets.

And a couple of things that Dan noted that I just want to remind us of, I think these are great points. One is that the religion and history of Israel are fundamentally prophetic and should be viewed as revelation, not merely as a recounting of events. So, when we're looking at Israel's history in the Bible, this isn't just so we know good history, this is so that we can see God working in the nation of Israel. So their history itself is revelatory.

in fact, a quote here from Hobart Freeman. Israel's religion, unlike that of her contemporaries, was grounded in a revelation through historical events rather than metaphysical speculation, superstition, or physical reasoning. There's, there's a lot, I, I don't know if any of you have ever taken like a philosophy of history class or maybe in one of your history classes, they'll talk about the philosophy of history and there's various approaches to history. But one of the approaches is that God is the one that is moving events along and particularly when we look at Israel, is we see God very involved in the history of Israel.

And so when we're reading about that history, we're actually reading about God's work. And so we saw this last week that there was this prediction of Josiah's purging of Bethel. We also spent time talking about the prophecy of Cyrus. so this morning, what we're going to do is, I've titled this, David and Goliath Revisited.

David and Goliath revisited. Your handout that you studied this week has more of a focus on prayer. We will talk about prayer. But when we look at Hezekiah versus Sennacherib, you definitely get this David and Goliath type of language.

And so let's go ahead and open up first of all, the 2 Kings. Isaiah, the passages that you read in Isaiah, we will be coming to those as well. But this narrative that we're looking at, it's the only narrative in the Old Testament. That occurs in 3 different places.

So it's pretty unique. You have the same material in 2 Kings, the same material in 2 Chronicles, and the same material in Isaiah. there are some details that one or the other fills in for us and so that's why we're actually gonna look at all three so we can get the big picture. But let's first of all look at this point, that is that Hezekiah is David Reloaded.

Hezekiah is David Reloaded. And we'll look at 2 Kings 18, and I'm gonna be reading verses 1 to 8 and making some comments, and this is a new King James version I'm reading from. Now it came to pass in the 3rd year of Hoshea, the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. He was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah, and he did what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father David had done. That's a pretty big statement. You don't see even his father Ahaz, you can go way back. You don't see very many kings doing what was right in the sight of the Lord.

You finally get to this king, he had done what is right. But not just that, he did it according to all that the Father David had done. So he's being compared to David himself, and that gets, and David-like acts show up in Hezekiah's life. For instance, verse 4, he removed the high places and broke up the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent.

That Moses had made for until those days, the children of Israel burned incense to it and called it Nehushtan. and so, How many times have we read about various kings that do a lot of things right, but they leave the high places alone? You guys remember that? But in Hezekiah's case, not only is he removing Baal worship and some of the really, what do you call it, obscene images.

I don't wanna go into details, but if you guys know anything about Assyrian history, history, we're talking about these phallic images to their false gods and so on. And so he goes and destroys all of these images. And he also destroys this bronze serpent that the people had started to worship. And so he's not very pluralistic.

he's not trying to bring all the religions together to, to work out world peace. he is destroying these false idols and false gods. And then verse 5 tells us more about his, why he's doing it and his relationship with the Lord. Verse 5, he trusted the Lord God, Yahweh God of Israel, so that after him was none like him.

Among all the kings of Judah, nor were before him. That's a pretty. That's something else, right? So if, if Cornerstone were to go on, let's say for 100, 125 years and somewhere along the line, you read this message that says, Pastor Milton was just a great pastor, better than all the pastors before him and even all the pastors after him.

You'd be like, wow, he's a pretty good pastor. and so Hezekiah is, is spoken of that, that way as a king. Not only that, verse 6, he held fast or he clung to the Lord. This is the same word, Hebrew word that speaks of Adam clinging to his wife.

he did not depart from following him and kept his commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses. Verse 7, and here's what resulted from these, this clinging to the Lord. The Lord was with him, he prospered. wherever he went, and he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him and subdued the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from, watchtower to fortified city.

So for him to, for this text to say that he rebelled against Assyria. This is a big deal. this is like, a, a baseball team beating out the Yankees when they had Murderous Row during that time period. this is like, Puerto Rico going to battle against the United States and winning, right?

this is a big deal. If Syria is the big power. Israel is a little peon country, but he rebels against Assyria, and it seems like with the Lord's approval and help, and, and actually succeeds in that. So let's talk about a second point though.

he faces off with Sennacherib and initially demonstrates leadership. And wisdom. So let's, let's turn over to 2 Chronicles 32. So this is the other place where we pick up the exact same narrative.

So, so now we're gonna talk about, that rebellion, how that rebellion kicks off. So we'll start, yeah, we'll go 1 to 8. Here in 2 Chronicles 32. So after these deeds of faithfulness, the the previous chapter has just recited all the different things that Hezekiah done and his demolition, iconoclasm of, the various idols and stuff.

So after the deeds of faith, most Sennacherib, Sennacherib, king of Assyria came and entered Judah. He encamped against the fortified cities thinking to win them over to himself. When Hezekiah saw that Snareb had come and that his purpose was to make war against Jerusalem, he consulted with his leaders and commanders to stop the water from the springs which were outside the city, and they helped him. So, we'll talk more about this in a second, but right on the heels of all this faithfulness to, of Hezekiah, an enemy attacks and doesn't just attack but succeeds in many of the cities in, in Judah.

So, Sennacherib comes down, we would think we call this the first invasion, and he is succeeding. So, Hezekiah gathers all of his people together, his leaders, and one of the first things they do is they say, we need to get rid of the wells that are outside of the city. Why would they pour a bunch of dirt and stop up the wells outside the city? Yeah, you don't want the enemy to be able to get water, right?

So that's a pretty good strategy. verse 4, thus many people gathered together who stopped all the springs and brook that ran through the land, saying, why should the kings of Syria come and find much water? We don't want them to come and quench their thirst. and he strengthened himself and built up all the wall that was broken, raised it up to the towers and built another wall outside.

Also, he repaired, the the Milo or Milo in the city of David and made weapons and shields in abundance. So, if you guys have studied much about ancient warfare, it's not like today where you find out your enemy's gonna attack, the next day they attack. he knows that he's, Sennacherib's already attacking and laying siege to various cities in the northern part of Judah, and, and so he's got time to build up his walls, to stop up the water wells, and, And so on, and to make weapons, and then he puts an outer wall around the existing wall.

So you can imagine that would take quite some time.

That's just the pace at which ancient warfare typically moves. Verse 6, then he, then he set military captains over the people, gathered them together to him in the open square of the city gate and gave them encouragement. So he, he, he does all this stuff from a military standpoint, but he doesn't want the people just to trust in their shields and weapons and walls. In fact, Isaiah had warned against that mentality, if you remember early in Isaiah.

So what does he say in verse 7, Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid nor dismayed before the king of Assyria, nor before all the multitude that is with him. For there are more with us than with him. Now, the translation here is difficult in the Hebrew. Some of you guys, your translations probably say, God is with us, on our side or it might say, there's more power with us than with him.

Any of you guys have that where it says there's more power with us? What, what, what do you guys see there? In your translation at the bottom of verse 7, yeah, OK, how does it say it, Larry, greater power. OK, so, in the Hebrew, it's a little bit difficult at this point, and I actually lean towards the side that Isaiah, that Hezekiah is not saying we have more soldiers than they, because you're, we're gonna find out later that 185,000 die.

I think more the idea is the Lord in His power is with us, and so therefore don't be discouraged. Does that make sense? and so some of the translates equivocate on that. Verse 8, with him is an arm of flesh that is Narib, but with us is Yahweh our God to help us and to fight our battles.

And the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. So it's, to me, I don't know about what you guys think, but this seems like Hezekiah makes some good decisions. He finds out what's happening. He established, gives the people some good strategy, but we don't wanna just trust in that, and he encourages them in the Lord.

so some good wisdom. By the way, it might be at one, during one of these talks, where he tells, the people that when Sennacherib sends his entourage, do not speak to them. We'll find out later how they respond. but in, in all likelihood, he says, do not speak a word when they come and deliver their messengers.

But let's talk about a third thing that we see in this narrative, and that is however, Hezekiah makes compromises that backfire. So let's go back to 2 Kings 18. They're due, he, he makes some wise decisions. But In 18 2 Kings 18:13, he does some things that most commentators would say.

This should not be viewed positively, it should be viewed negatively. We'll see what you guys think. So starting in verse 13, are you guys with me? 2 Kings 18:13.

And in the 14th year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against the fortified cities of Judah and took them. Then Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent the king of Assyria at Lackish. Now, the chronology here, is somewhat, there's a little bit of guesswork. My guess is that he already, he stopped up the wells, built up walls, encouraged the people.

But then perhaps himself started to tremble in his boots a little bit after all of this. And so, then he sends a message to the king of Assyria. Maybe after he hears what Sennareb is doing to Lackish, he's like, I don't know if I wanna deal with this guy. So in the middle of verse 14, I have done wrong.

Turn away from me. Whatever you impose on me, I will pay. And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah, king of Judah, 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. Now, it's interesting that our text says 300 talents of silver.

In Sennacherib's annals. it's really interesting because that's another source of this whole narrative is what the Assyrians say about what happened. They say that they exacted 800 talents from Hezekiah, whereas the Bible says 300 talents of silver. So, two points on that.

One, it's just interesting to me that we have all over the ancient Near East, corroboration of what the Bible says happened. there's no debate that Sennacherib was threatening to come down, that Hezekiah did send, payment to try to keep him off, but they're haggling about what the actual payment was. So what, what do you think would explain the difference? Why would the annals of Snacherib say 800, whereas Hezekiah's, annals or the Bible says 300 talents of silver?

Yeah, there's normally when, when you look at the research, the, the various reports that come from, the pagan kings, they normally exaggerate their victories and exaggerate their payments, and if they ever get defeated, they never talk about it. And that's gonna be another issue we'll talk about here in a second, that they just don't record their defeats. So. We, I go with the Bible, that it would have been 300 talents of silver and Sennacherib is almost certainly just exaggerating what he exacted from Hezekiah.

But if you're gonna read secular scholars in the ancient Near East, they're gonna point this out and try to, they always side with the, the, the extra biblical literature and say the Bible's wrong. that's just their presupposition. so look at verse 15, so Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord. And in the treasuries of the king's house, at that time, Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the pillars which, Hezekiah, king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king, of Assyria.

I don't, there's no commentary right here in this text. But in 1st and 2nd Kings, whenever somebody does something like this, just sends off. stuff from the temple or from, they just send gold off to try to appease the one who's attacking. It's never viewed well.

And so most commentators would suggest that this is actually a compromise on Hezekiah's part, which raises the question, how can the first part of the chapters say that Hezekiah did all the things that God commanded? He was just like David, and yet here he is compromising and sending off payment to Sennacherib. How, how do we Reconcile that. David.

That's a, yeah, it's a great point. In David's life, we, we have this very positive viewpoint of David, looking back on his life, right? And, and when you're, the Bible's always looking back at him and saying he was a great king, he served the Lord, with all of his heart, and yet we all know that he, sinned in a great way with Bathsheba. and yet he repented and so the Lord, we see at the Old Testament really approaches righteousness and sin in the same way that we come to the Lord by faith in the Old Testament to the sacrificial system representing Christ, and the New Testament coming through Christ and His righteousness, and we're all saved by the righteousness that's granted to us by the Lord.

the matter is repentance and humility, right? And so Hezekiah is clearly a great, king. But in this case, he, he makes some pretty severe compromises. I was reading, this week about Pastor Wang Ming Tao, who lived 1940s, 1950s, he was a pastor in China.

And, and there was a lot of pressure coming from the communist government upon Christians, and they arrested him, and he, before he left, he gave this charge to his church, we're gonna stand fast, you stand fast, I will not cave in, I'm gonna be faithful to the Lord. but after many years, actually, I think it was about a year of torture, and when he found out that they were beginning to torture his wife, he caved in and he said he would sign the documents they wanted him to sign and he would join the communist organization.

He didn't say he didn't believe in God, but he, he began to really break down emotionally. And so they, they, they let him out of prison.

And he just went around in shame for about 6 months. He was asking himself, am I Peter or worse, am I Judas? And then, what really turned him was reading Micah. yeah, which, which verse is it?

Let see if I can, we should probably turn over to it cuz it's a really. Yeah, let's turn over real quick to Micah 7. Jonah Micah Neabaka. I still sing the youth group song in my head to find the books of the Old Testament.

let's see, Jonah. Dab second I have is there, OK, so Micah. 7, we're gonna read verses 7 to 9. So this is the passage that Pastor Wang, that really hit him when he was just feeling the shame of, of, of what he had done.

Therefore, I will look to the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation. my God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, my enemy, when I fall, I will rise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.

I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me forth to the light, and I will see his righteousness. He, when he just read this verse, this Holy Spirit just overwhelmed him with a sense of God standing up for him in spite of his compromise under great pressure, and, and then he actually, he and his wife went back to the communist authorities and said, we reject the thing we signed, we're gonna follow the Lord, and they re-arrested him and throw him back into prison.

And so, so Pastor Wang stood for the Lord and, and, and, and we're gonna see Hezekiah while he makes this compromise.

It actually backfires on him. So that rib doesn't say, oh great, you sent me 300 talents of silver. I'm gonna leave you alone. No, now, he actually starts to come back.

Turn to Isaiah 36 now. So it doesn't, it doesn't solve anything. So this would assumedly be after he had sent the silver and gold. So now, look at verse 36.

Now it came to pass, chapter 36 verse 1. It came to pass in the 14th year of King Hezekiah that Snarib, king of Assyria, came against with all fortified cities of Judah and took them. Then we have him stopping up the wells, sending up the silver and gold, doesn't satisfy verse 2. Then the king of Assyria sent Rab Shaka with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, and he stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool on the highway, to the Fuller's field or some of you might say the launder's field.

And, And Eliakim, the son of Hilkiaah, who was over the household, Shebna, the scribe, and Joa, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him. And so, and we're gonna start reading what the message is, and so that takes us to our, our, our next point, and that is Hezekiah goes to the right place. Actually, what? No, we'll come back to that.

Let's, let's go through the rest of 36. So, so you have this, this big entourage that's sent from Sennacherib. Hezekiah's group comes out, including a scribe. These days, somebody would be out there with the camera.

Back then, There were scribes that would run around and they would just write everything down. so, so you just have to imagine. So, That this, really bad, bad dude, Rab Shaka, which is almost certainly not his name, more of his title. So he comes out and if you remember like the goal, the like the curly locks probably, he's a really bad looking guy, but rather than speaking in Aramaic, which would have been the lingua franca of diplomacy, he's speaking in Hebrew.

And he starts off by saying this, and when I hear, when I read this scene, I kinda almost have a feeling of, it's almost like, the 3rd Lord of the Rings, when you have, the entourage that comes up before the big black gates. What is that called? The big No, no, not that one at the very end when that really bad dude comes out. only it's in reverse.

The bad dudes outside of the gates in this case, and the good guys are inside. So he says this, now, say now to Hezekiah, thus says the king, the king of Assyria, what confidence is this in which you trust? So he's received the silver, but he's no doubt heard about the stopping of the wells, the building of the walls, the armaments, and so now he's, he's sending his, his guys down. I say verse 5, you speak of having plans and power for war, but they are mere words.

Now, in whom do you trust that you rebel against me? Look, you are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. That's one of the best lines in the Old Testament. this broke, this reed that's been broken, and if you lean on it, it pierces your hand.

I don't know about you. When we're reading this, oh, is this the one? Yeah, I think it was Anna when she heard this, we're listening to it. She's just like, she's, physically moved.

So Pharaoh king of Egypt, so is Pharaoh, king of Egypt to all who trust in him. So he's heard about maybe some negotiations going on between Hezekiah and Kush or Egypt. Verse 7, but if you say to me, we trust in the Lord our God, Is it not he whose high places, whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar? So now he's appealing to the people on the wall that may not be too excited about the fact that the high places have been torn down.

So verse 8, now, therefore I urge you to give a pledge to my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you 2000 horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them. So I'll give you a couple 1000 horses, if you guys come on out. By the way, I know you can't put riders on all of them, but hey, this is what we'll offer you guys. Verse 9, how then will you repel one captain of the least of my master, master servants and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

Have I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, go up against this land and destroy it. The Lord told me to come and take you out. And that's a tricky one because the Lord did tell him to come take out Assyria, or the Lord did move upon Assyria, Assyria to take out Israel.

but there's no indication anywhere that God moved upon or at least commissioned or decreed. For punishment's sake, for Syria to come down and take down Judah and Jerusalem. So then in verse 11, then Elia Kim and Shebna Joa said to Rab Sheika, please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it and do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall. Please use the language of diplomacy.

We don't want our people hearing what you are saying to them. And so that just wraps them up some more. Rabhea said, has my master sent me to your master and to, to you to speak these words and not to the men who sit on the wall who will eat and drink of their own waste with you? And the NIV gives this a little better.

You're gonna eat your own excrement and drink your own urine. this is, this guy is a bad dude. Verse 13, then Rabsheka stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew and said, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus says the king, do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you, nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, 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, for thus says the king of Assyria, make peace with me., buy a present and come out to me, and every one of you will eat from his own vine and every one of you, his own fig tree, and every one of you will drink waters of his own cistern. So instead of eating your own excrement, drinking your own urine, come on out, you guys, and we're gonna give you food and drink. You're really gonna have a great time.

the little caveat in verse 17, until I come and take you away to the land like your own, in a land of grain, a new wine, a land of bread vineyards, yeah, we, we are gonna deport you. we're gonna, kinda like the, the Germans did to the Jews. We're gonna move you into these camps, but come on out, we're gonna give you food, you're really gonna, it's gonna go much better for you. Verse 18, beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying the Lord will deliver us.

Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? I love that word, Sepharvaim, that's just a great city name.

I think we should change Moreno Valley to Sepharvaim. Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand. But they held their peace and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, do not answer him.

So you just gotta imagine this guy's yelling and screaming in Hebrew, probably with Acadian accent, and then he stops and you just hear the crows. You're, there's no noise whatsoever. then Eleaakim, the son of Hilkiaah, who was over the household, Shebna, the scribe, and Joa and the son of Aaph and the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Habsheka. So this is a pretty, pretty amazing scene.

You were, and you just wonder, it does raise the question, man, Hezekiah has been such a good king. he removed the high places, he's returned everybody back to the Lord, and, and, and what does he get for all of the good deeds he's done? He gets the attack of Sennacherib, only the most powerful, king on the planet at this time. and it can raise questions in people's minds, doesn't it?

As Christians, you go off and you're serving the Lord, maybe you've, you've seen, you've really, given up certain, sins, or you've kinda maybe really given to the Lord and your finances, and then all of a sudden, boom, you get cancer. all of a sudden, somebody really close to you passes away. some things just start going bad. We need to be very, very careful that our faith isn't a faith that, that we believe is just a prophylactic, like we, we believe in Jesus to ward off bad things to come.

We believe in Jesus so that disease won't come to us or our belief in Jesus is almost like a rabbit's foot that is meant to keep all the bad things in life at bay. the Bible's never really promised that. In fact, Christ has told us that we will suffer as he has suffered, and we will get to fill up his sufferings. In fact, one of, one of the guarantees, one of the promises in the Bible is that Christians will be persecuted just as Christ was persecuted, and it's actually through suffering is one of the ways that we enter true joy, that sounds contradictory, but one of the ways that we enter Into our rest is through sufferings in this life.

Yes, there are many joys, the Lord gives us all kinds of rich things to richly enjoy, but he has also granted Christians the opportunity to suffer with Christ and so as it were, fill up Christ's. Suffering and so Hezekiah, a very good king, is seeing this crazy stuff starting to happen to him, but the Lord is allowing this for a reason. We're gonna see that here as Hezekiah goes to the right place, when he begins to engage these trials. So let's, let's look at verse chapter 37 now.

By the way, did anybody get to listen to the NIV dramatized version of this this week? Anybody? Oh man, you guys gotta check it out. I, I need to see if you guys like it as much as I do.

The NIB dramatized version. When you just listen to the guy who's Rabheka, I think he does a pretty good job of insulting Hezekiah and yelling out his insults and stuff. And, So, I don't know, I'm, I'm into it. There's also a newer, not a newer, there's a thing called the Word of Promise.

Has anybody heard of that? It's a dramatized version that's done by all these like famous actors like Jim Caviezel and I forget who some of the actors are, but almost every one of the actors is, they're not necessarily Christians. In fact, I don't think most of them are. But it's a pretty amazing, they spent about a million dollars on this read of the New King James Version.

It's got killer music and really good acting in it. It's called The Word of Promise. And so it's the whole Bible. If you want to get the CD it's about $100 but you can download the MP3 for $39 on Amazon or a couple of different places.

It's just the whole Bible drama dramatized. they've even got a What's the name of the actor that does George in Seinfeld? Jason Alexander plays Joseph. In the Book of Genesis, yeah.

So. And Richard Dreyfuss is one of the guys, Jon Voight is one of the readers. It's pretty, pretty amazing. Anyway, let's look at verse 37 here.

So, what does Hezekiah do? And so it was when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went to the house of the Lord. OK, so we need to really understand what's going on here. you guys know tearing of clothes in a Jewish sense, putting sackcloth.

This is, this is a sign of mourning. He's not just like mad at God, like, oh, I can't believe God would do this to me. I'm gonna pour dirt on my head and tear my clothes. No, he's, this is a sign of I'm gonna humble myself and actually go before the Lord.

And so he goes to the house of the Lord, which is where the presence of the Lord resided at this point, redemptive history. It's where he let his special presence be known. So he goes to the right place. I need to go to the Lord.

Then he sent Elea Kim, who was over the house, Shebna, the scribe, the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloths to, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos. And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, this day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy, for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. Obviously a metaphor, the idea seems to be here is we just don't have strength. We don't have strength, we don't know what to do.

There's no strength. Quite a powerful image of a woman who is, birth is upon her, but she is totally out of strength, she's exhausted. She cannot, she, she cannot give birth to the baby because she is ready to die. Verse 4, it may be, and I love this language, or perhaps that the Lord God will hear the words of Rabshea.

whom his master, the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord God has heard. Therefore, lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left. So he's like, it might be that the Lord has heard this, and how will the Lord respond? I think, I'm just guessing here, I think in the back of Hezekiah's mind, he's probably thinking, I really blew it sending that 300 pieces of silver and trying to pay off Sennacherib, and now it's coming back to bite me.

I don't know what the Lord's gonna do here, but it might be that the Lord has heard him ridicule Yahweh, and maybe he will be gracious and have mercy upon us. So verse 5, so the servants of the king of Hezekiah came to Isaiah. Isaiah said to them, hus you shall say to the master, thus says the Lord, do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, which the servant of the king of Assyria has blasphemed. Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

You gotta know that's pretty comforting to Hezekiah. Don't be afraid. I am gonna just move in this whole situation. And this, how else can you explain this, other than just God's absolute sovereignty?

Hezekiah comes with maybe, Isaiah, there's no maybe, baby, he's like, this is what the Lord's gonna do. He will move Hezekiah out, Sennacherib out, and Sennacherib will die. so then some interesting turn of events began to happen. There really doesn't, letter E, nothing really changes though.

Isaiah gives this great prophecy, but then, the same group comes right back delivering similar threats. But notice in verse 8 and following how this develops. When, when the Rab Sheika returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libna, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish, and the king heard concerning, Tirhaka's king of Ethiopia, he has come out to make war with you. So when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah saying, OK, so let's stop right there.

So this rumor of war has been heard by Sennacherib. So now he feels like, I don't have time to deal with Hezekiah. he's a peon anyway. I'm gonna go deal with this Kush Egyptian situation.

So he does, he gets diverted now, doesn't attack Jeremiah immediately. Instead, he sends the same cronies back to deliver another threat. I'm gonna let them know that we are on our way. I don't want them to know that we've been delayed, but I'm gonna send another threat.

And so here's what they, they come saying, Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah verse 10, saying, Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you saying Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of Assyria. Now he's not saying, don't let Hezekiah deceive you, now it's, don't let God deceive you. Look, you have heard what the king of Assyria, what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands by utterly destroying them. And shall you be delivered?

Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed? Gozan, Hean and Reza, and the people of Eden who were in Teliar? Where is the king of Hameth, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Zephharaim, Hanna, and Eva? So same type of threats, these gods have not been able to deliver.

how in the world do you think Yahweh is gonna be able to deliver you? So what does Hezekiah do? Verse 14, Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. So this probably came, Rebhea probably delivers this verbally, but also it's in written form.

Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. So he goes back to the Lord. First time he goes to the Lord, nothing changes, he goes back to the Lord, and he prayed, and let's, let's just make note of his prayer here. This is one of the awesome prayers of the Bible.

Oh Lord of hosts. God of Israel. The one who dwells between the cherubim, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made the heaven and the earth. Three things that comes out in the opening part of his prayer, you are present, you're the one who dwells between the cherubim, you're here.

Secondly, you are sovereign, you, alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth, and you are powerful, you've created the heavens and the earth. So, so he's reminding himself and, and stating before God of these facts. Then he, he cries out to the Lord in verse 17, incline your ear, oh Lord, and hear, open your eyes, oh Lord, and see and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. It sounds like David, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should reproach the people of the living God.

Verse 18, Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste to all the nations and their lands. So, a couple, points he's gonna make. Yes, it's true, the Assyrians are bad guys. They've been very successful in their campaigns, but verse 19, and have cast their gods into the fire, but they were not gods, but the works of men's hands, wood and stone.

therefore, they destroyed them. Now, therefore, oh Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord alone. We want you to get glory and honor. And power.

yes, they have defeated these other nations, these other nation's gods, but the type of gods that they were going up against, these were puppets. These are scarecrows. These are false gods. It's, it's like, they were playing, the freshman team and, and gloating over beating the freshman team, but now you're gonna run into a stone.

You were fighting air. Now they're gonna be crushed by a rock. Verse 21, here's God's answer. Then Isaiah, the son of Amos, sent to Hezekiah saying, thus says the Lord God of Israel, because you have prayed to me against Nareb, king of Assyria, this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him.

And so that takes us to point F, the Lord, replies through prophecy. So here, and this is recorded again, here also in 2 Kings. So here's how the Lord, he's replying to Hezekiah. And if you're, if you're tracking with me the narrative, it's really Hezekiah's messenger.

So Hezekiah's gonna get this message later. But the message though it's to Hezekiah is about Sennacherib, to kick things off, right? Yeah that makes sense? So we're gonna be, he's gonna be talking about Sennarib right out the gate.

The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you, Sennacherib, laughed you to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind your back. There's a couple of ways to look at this, like, like, almost kinda like, like basketball players, if they do a big slam dunk and they're like wave their finger or somebody hits a home run in baseball in the opposite stadium, they're all. Like that stuff, it's that idea.

He's going to, and, and the literal idea is, is they're throwing their head back, just laughing at what the Lord is going to do to Assyria. Verse 23, whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel, so you haven't just mocked.

Hezekiah, you've mocked me. By your servants, you have reproached the Lord and said, by the multitudes of my chariots, I have come up to the height of the mountains. To limits, to the limits of Lebanon, I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress. I will enter its farthest height to its, it's, it's, fruitful forest.

I have dug and drunk water and with the soles of my feet, I have dried up all the brooks of defense. It's interesting how In prophecy, the Lord is quoting the type of boasts that Sennacherib would have. I wanna read for you. from Sennarib's annals.

This is actually a quote from Sennacherib, an extra biblical source on the type of stuff that he would say. I had my camp pitched at the foot of Mount Nipper, and with my picked bodyguard and my relentless warriors, I, like a strong wild ox, went before them and led the way. gullies, mountain torrents and waterfalls, dangerous cliffs. I surmounted in my seat and chair.

Which is funny. So he's going up the mountains and stuff, but they're carrying him in his chair. When it was too steep for my chair, I advanced on foot like a young gazelle. I mounted the highest peaks in pursuit of them.

Whenever my knees gave out, I sat down on some mountain boulder and drank the cold water from the water skin to quench my thirst. To the summits of the mountains, I pursued them and brought about their overthrow. Their cities I captured, I carried off their spoil, I destroyed. I devastated.

I burned them with fire. So that, that's, a direct quote from Sennaribs. I don't know if you guys have seen that. five-sided big stone thing, whatever that thing's called.

Anybody remember what that's called? And it's got all of the, The Acadian writing on the side of it. So anyway, so the Lord is, is giving a quote of the type of stuff that sagrib, snack rib would. would brag about verse 26, this is just like a serious put down.

Did you not hear long ago how I made it from ancient times that I formed it? What is the it? Now I have brought it to pass that you should be for crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins. Therefore, their inhabitants had little power.

They were dismayed and confounded. They were as the grass of the field and the green herb and the grass on the housetops and grain blighted before it is grown. She's like, you brag about all the things that you, that you've done. Didn't that from of old, I'm the one that actually rose you up and I'm the one that gave you power over your enemies.

I made your enemies like grass, and so anybody you've mowed over, it's only happened because I allowed it. That's a pretty, that's a pretty big put down., it's almost, like sometimes kids, if they're playing, this isn't the best analogy, they're, they're playing a game together, maybe they're playing one on one basketball and one beats the other kid. The other kid might say, oh, I let you in. Well, in this case, it's true.

The Lord is the one that actually brought Sennacherib, raised him up for his own purposes. He's just a dog on a chain doing his will. but then notice verse 28, but I know, your dwelling place, you're going out and you're coming in, and your rage against me. I like the way the NIV says this, I know where you are.

Does anybody have the NIV for verse 28? What does it say exactly? OK, so I know where you stay. So, the idea is you've raged and you're doing all this stuff, but don't forget, I know exactly where you are.

It's a pretty, I don't know, it just kinda makes the hair rise up on the back of my neck, especially if what's coming down the pike. Verse 29, because you, you rage against me and your tumult, tumult have come up to my ears, therefore, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came. And it's very interesting that the Lord uses this terminology because this is exactly what Assyrian kings would do to other peoples they conquered.

is they would, a lot of times they would pierce people's noses and put a chain on them.

One particular king bragged about how that he used his knife to cut through the cheeks of one of his enemies, and he put chains through his cheeks and dragged them around like a dog and then put them in a cage and they would just all laugh. That's just what they did. And so God says, I'm gonna pierce your nose, and I'm basically, it's almost like I'm gonna pick you up by the rear and just throw you out. And so this is the, the type of language that the Lord is using.

Verse 30, this shall be assigned to you. Now he's speaking to a different you. This is now being spoken to Hezekiah and, and his people. You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, and the second year what spring, springs from the same also in the third, what you sow and reap, put, plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

So you're gonna be around for a long time, and don't worry, you're gonna be planting and reaping, planting and reaping, planting and reaping. Verse 31, and the remnant, who have escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward, for out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and those who escape from Mount Zion, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Therefore, thus says the Lord, concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into the city, nor shall an arrow shoot an arrow there.

But come before it was sealed, nor build a siege mound against it, by the way that he came, by the same, he shall return, he shall not come into the city, says the Lord, for I will defend the city to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.

Whenever God uses language like that, for my sake, and for the sake of my servant David, it's just gonna happen. this is covenant keeping language, where God says, I am going to do this. Let it be written. So let it be done.

It's gonna happen. So this is the prophecy that comes about. So what actually happens after the prophecy is we have, actually, what? Let me read this one quote before we move to the last point.

this is from My favorite commentator on the planet, Dale Ralph Davis on 2 Kings, because we see all this very, this very sovereign decree, predestination language and this prophecy. he says a little pre predestination cuts arrogance down to size, speaking to Sennacherib. Predestination, of course, makes some Christians nervous. They shudder at the mention of the P word.

All I can say is, if you don't want predestination, well then go ahead and live a comfortless life, bite your nails, swallow your tranquilizers, watching the evening news. I, however, prefer the pillow of predestination. That is of having a big, a God big enough that he is never surprised by blathering sennacheribs of this age. I think it's a killer quote.

And it's just hard to escape the predestination that's just all over this chapter. From before the world ever was, I decided I was gonna raise you up, Sennacherib. I'm the one that, that weakened your enemies, and I'm the one that's gonna put a hook in your nose and kick you out. I'm the one that actually is causing a rumor to rise up that will keep you away from Jerusalem long enough to where when you finally come down, now we're gonna move in, and I'm gonna bring the angel of the Lord and whip up on you, which takes us to our final point.

And that is the Lord replies with judgment. And this is actually just a spooky, when Anna and I were listening to this earlier in the week, she was just like, this is like a spooky part of the Bible. Verse 36, then it's interesting how understated sometimes these statements get. Then the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000, and when the people arose in the morning, there were the corpses, all of the dead.

185,000. I'm trying to think what's the biggest football stadium in the United States right now or, or what's the biggest soccer stadium in the world? 100,000 people? How many does the Dallas stadium hold?

Anybody know? 100,000? Dallas Cowboys probably. So we're talking about two stadiums.

Say it again. 70? OK, so you're talking about at least 2 times that Michigan Stadium. That's 110,000.

OK, so just about two times Michigan Stadium, you walk out, all those bodies are just on the ground. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed. I wonder why, and went away, returned home and remained in Nineveh. Now it came to pass, what we don't know is this is 20 years later, but it came to pass as he was worshiping in the house of Nishrok, his god, that his sons, Adrim Malek and Sherazer struck him down with the sword and they escaped into the land of Ararat.

Then Ear Haddon, his son reigned in his place. So just as the Lord had said, he would go back to his land and he would be struck down. He's struck down by his own kids. Beautiful children.

tell me about your chil children. Yeah, they probably read the prophecy. couple of little tidbits here and then we're gonna have to wrap this up. one is, is we have no idea this Nis rock, we have no idea who, what God this is.

The only reference this God is in the, in the Bible, but these things all tend to pop up somewhere in archaeology eventually. and it's just interesting that he goes back to Nineveh, but in Assyrin history, there is no mention whatsoever. Of their defeat at Jerusalem. Nothing.

But one thing that we know with absolute certainty is Sennacherib did not, he did not attack and did not defeat Jerusalem. We know that for sure. We also know for sure that Sennacherib was on the cusp of attacking Jerusalem. But there's no records outside of the Bible why he didn't complete the attack, especially since he had destroyed all these other cities including Lackish in Judah.

in Nineveh, he had a huge hall that just drew the warfare and lackish, just putting on display all of his wonders and what all the enemies that he had defeated, but there is no room anywhere in Nineveh to celebrate the defeat of Jerusalem. And so it begs the question, why not? And the Bible gives us the answer because God defeated him and sent him a running. And so all of this, raises, I think, it's just a, I, I think an amazing section of narrative.

We realize that this isn't just given to us so that we have a nice bit of Israel's history. This material is given to us, one, to remind us where should we go when we hit times of trouble. Hezekiah, I, I, I don't think that the Lord was, there's no indication in the text that God was bringing Sennacherib down. To punish Hezekiah for his compromises.

There's just no indication of that in the text. Sure, he did make a compromise, but it seemed like Sennacherib was just on his way. And two different times, Hezekiah just goes to the Lord and he goes to the Lord, he's crying out to God. He's trying to strengthen the people to trust in the Lord.

They have the arm of flesh, but we've got God on our side. If we've got God on our side, then what can stop us? And the same God that we have in the Old Testament is the same God today. What attacks is the devil bringing upon you and your family or, in what ways do you feel accosted by our, our enemy, the world, the flesh, the devil, whatever.

We can just, we can go to the Lord as God's people and cry out to him and say, Lord, perhaps you may deliver in such and such a way. We don't know exactly how the Lord's gonna do it, because we know our final destination is heaven. but we can go and cry out to the Lord and say, Lord, help us, we're defenseless, we need, we need you. So I think to me, that's one of the applications.

I think also I just encourage all of us to take a look at the, the content. of Hezekiah's prayer, how he reminds himself of how that, that God is the only God and he is sovereign and he is powerful as he, as he raises up his requests to to the Lord. And I think the other thing that we see here is God is very jealous for his people and for his, his covenant love's sake. he expresses his love in many different ways, but one of the ways he expresses his love, as we've talked about in the past, is by judging those that would dare assault his people and also assault his own name.

we've talked, you guys take time on your own to read 2 Thessalonians, chapter one, the first chapter of 2 Thessalonians. Where Paul acknowledges that the Thessalonians are just getting hammered. And yet don't worry, this is going to be followed up by Christ's return, where he will come and take vengeance upon his enemies and upon all those who do not obey the gospel, and this is a just thing for God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you. And so God considers it an act of love to bring his judgment upon the people that would violate his kids.

We've talked about that in the past. I'll be up here if there's any other thoughts or questions that you guys have, but, just a, I think an amazing section of scripture. I would encourage you guys to go back and even review it this week. Next week, we'll move into Micah.

We're gonna spend a lot of time in the book of Micah next week. We read a little bit of it today, as we look forward to the coming ruler, Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for just, what we see on this, in this narrative.

Just how this good king, his tough difficulties, even that compromises at time, and yet you are faithful to protect him and the people of, of Judah. we thank you, Lord, for your, the ways in which you assure us of your protection. You who have begun a good work will complete it till the day of Christ Jesus. The gates of hell shall not prevail against us.

We pray, Father, that we would take hold of all the precious promises that we have in your word. And, Lord, that You would cause us to grow. We look forward to the day of Christ's return, when he will come and take all of his people to be with himself, and, and when he will destroy our greatest enemy, the devil, but he also destroy our flesh, finally, and the world system. we thank you for the time that we've had in your word.

In Christ's name we pray. Amen.