Good Morning Friends,
Sennacherib was king of Assyria, whose
capital was Nineveh. He and his powerful and large army came against Jerusalem,
intent on capturing it. Hezekiah was king in Jerusalem and he cried out to the
Lord and sought the Lord’s guidance and help.
Scripture records that when Hezekiah heard
what Sennacherib was doing “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.” (Isaiah 37:1-2) When the nation faced military and political trouble,
the king did not turn to his military and political advisers, he turned to the
Lord and to the Lord’s prophet. What an interesting and unusual response to
such a problem, so different from what we would expect in our own day of our
own leaders.
Then Hezekiah received a threatening letter
from Sennacherib and “he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out
before the Lord. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord.” (Isaiah 37:14-15) In time of
trouble, the king turned to prayer!
Isaiah responded to what Hezekiah had done
with these words, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you
have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word the
Lord has spoken against him.’” (Isaiah 37:21-22) Isaiah goes into a long account
of how the Lord will defeat Sennacherib, concluding with this promise, “He will
not enter this city or shoot an arrow here.” (Isaiah 37:33) Sennacherib did not
enter the city and did not even shoot an arrow against it. In the night, the
angel of the Lord put 185,000 Assyrians soldiers to death and Sennacherib and
the rest of his army fled back to Assyria where Sennacherib was assassinated!
We’re facing tremendous problems in our
country, so complex that no one knows how to deal with them all. We have
financial distress that threatens the very fiber of our economic system. We
have a broken health care system that costs too much, helps too few, and locks
too many out. We have moral deterioration that seems to have no end. We have
such political infighting that little of significance can be accomplished in our
national and state capitals. We face problems around the world and struggle to
know how to respond. You can add your own ideas of other complex problems that
you see in our time.
Don’t you wish the leaders of our country
would seek the Lord for our national problems like Hezekiah did for Israel’s in
Isaiah’s day?
Or here’s a more personal question – facing problems like that, how come we don’t
pray?
His, by Grace,
Steve
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