1 & 2 Kings

2 Kings Chapter 19

Isaiah Reassures Hezekiah

• 2Kings 19:1  And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD. 
• 2  And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 

This was the right thing to do. Go to the house of God and seek Him for guidance. He also sent Eliakim to find the prophet Isaiah.

The Son of God we now call Jesus or Yeshua in Hebrew existed before the foundation of the earth, but in the days of the kings He had not yet come to us in a human body. When He did come, He became human by first becoming a baby, born of a virgin. He preached the gospel, a new thing, a way of salvation, a way for mankind to be reconciled to God. Sin separated us from God when Adam sinned by believing the lie of Satan.

Jesus came to take our place and die for our sins after He preached the gospel to all who would believe. He did not sin Himself or His sacrifice could not count on our behalf. The wages of sin is death. He died for our sins but it only counts for those who believe and receive Him into their lives. When Jesus rose from the dead, He made the way for all who believe to have eternal life and raise from the dead also. Although all will be raised from the dead to face the final judgment, only those who received Jesus will be able to receive new bodies that can never die again. The rest of the dead lose their souls and enter hell for eternity.

In the days before Christ, usually the only way they knew to hear from God was to go through a prophet or priest who spent their life living for God and seeking to hear from God. Jesus now makes it possible for all who receve Him to be able to pray and seek God for themselves. His gift to believers was to fill them with the Holy Spirit so that God now can dwell within us and we don't have to go to a prophet, priest or any other means. We can pray in the name of Jesus to God our Father ourselves. How glorious is that?

• 2Kings 19:3  And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. 
• 4  It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left. 
• 5  So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

God was their only hope of survival now. The Assyrians were powerful and were taking over many nations. They remained in power until the rise of the Babylonian Empire.

• 2Kings 19:6  And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 
• 7  Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. 

Isaiah assures them they at that time they would be safe from Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. Judah's captivity to another nation would not happen under Hezekiah's lifetime because of His trust in the Lord.

Sennacherib Defies the Lord

• 2Kings 19:8  So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. 
• 9  And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying, 
• 10  Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. 
• 11  Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered? 
• 12  Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar? 
• 13  Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah? 

Hezekiah is taunted by a letter sent by messengers that threatened him. In the letter was a direct threat defying any power of God to save them from the power of the Assyrians. They were making sure Hezehiah knew that no other nations to whom the Assyrians have defeated had any hope of escaping their dominion and that Hezekiah's God was powerless to deliver them from the power of Assyria. In other words they assumed themselves to be more powerful than God.

Hezekiah's Prayer

• 2Kings 19:14  And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. 
• 15  And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. 

This is awesome to read. Hezekiah decides to seek the Lord for himself. If only we could get everyone to begin to seek the Lord as individuals and also praying with others in corporate prayer. Now that Jesus has come and bridged the way to God our Father, we all, no matter what ethnic background or nation can have a one on one relationship with God like Adam had in the garden before the fall. When sin entered the human race, we were separted from God our Father because of that sin. Jesus then sacrificed Himself to make the way for all who believe to be saved from eternal separation from God. By confessing our sins and allowing Him to cleanse us from those sins, we are then reconciled back to God. He also gives the Holy Spirit to all who believe and ask Him. We can be filled with the Holy Spirit of God and never be alone from then on. What a great gift from our God.

• 2Kings 19:16  LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God. s
• 17  Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,
• 18  And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them. 
• 19  Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only. 

Idolatry was the sin that caused the 10 tribes of Israel to fall and become lost among the other nations of the world. So far Judah was spared for a while. God regathers them in the end times but because of idolatry and the worship of other gods who were not real gods at all, they lost their nation until 1948. The Jewish people were regathered at that time but God knows where the other tribes are. They too will be regathered to the nation of Israel.

Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib's Fall

• 2Kings 19:20  Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. 
• 21  This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. 
• 22  Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel. 
• 23  By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel. 
• 24  I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places. 
• 25  Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps. 
• 26  Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up. 
• 27  But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. 
• 28  Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest. 
• 29  And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof. 
• 30  And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. 
• 31  For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this. 
• 32  Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. 
• 33  By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. 
• 34  For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. 
• 35  And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 
• 36  So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. 
• 37  And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. 

In the previous chapters is written the threats and taunts that Sennacherib sent to Hezekiah saying that his God cannot save his nation from the power of the Assyrians. He uses their previous conquests of other nations and defeat of them in spite of their gods as an example of the might and power of the Assyrian Empire. He thought nothing could stop him and he was unbeatable. How deceived we can be if we are exalted in pride and rely on our own strength and might. Any nation no matter how powerful can not stand if God decides their reign is over. They can't even defeat the weakest, smallest nation or country if God stands for those weak and powerless nations, cities or countries.

We have to remember that God is the creator of the universe. He is mighty in power over and above all others. The thing to be aware of is that when He is rejected by some, He may wait and give them time to repent but when His hand of protection is removed, the protection is gone. I don't care how powerful and how big a nation is, if God departs they are no longer the most powerful nation in all the earth. We need to stay on the Lord's side.

Faith, obedience, love and following His Son Jesus is the only way to guarantee anything that is good, holy and just. Stay with God people. Idols and false religions are vain and powerless to save. Earthly victories are only temporary. Those that do evil and seem to get by with their corruption may think they are safe but the hammer will fall eventually. Now is the time to make things right with God, but it can only come by repentance and faith in Jesus. Jesus is the way the truth and the life. He is the only way back to God from the curse that came upon the earth when Adam sinned.

Jesus gives us eternal life and brings us back to God by faith in His sacrifice, death and resurrection from the dead after three days. Repentance is to change one's ways and one's mind and turn to Jesus for forgiveness. If possible make things right with those we may and harmed in our corruption. Then we can receive Him into our lives and start to live right with a new beginning, old things passing away. We do not have to die lost and without God. DC

2 Kings Chapter 20