2 Kings 19:14-20, 29-31
SS Lesson for 09/15/2024
Devotional Scripture: Rom 8:29-39
The reign of godly King Hezekiah (716-687 BC) over the southern kingdom of Judah was a time of trouble. Previously, in 722 BC, the Assyrian Empire had annexed the northern kingdom of Israel along with areas to the north and east of it. In 702 BC, the Assyrian ruler Sennacherib invaded Judah, destroyed the major city of Lachish, and besieged Jerusalem itself (the two cities being about 30 miles apart). Jerusalem survived only after Hezekiah agreed to pay tribute to the Assyrian king (2 Kings 18:13-19:13; 2 Chronicles 32:1-19; Isaiah 36:1-37:13). The account in today’s printed text also appears in Isaiah 37, almost word for word. This double placement reflects the close relationship between the king and the prophet, which appears in the story itself. The text under consideration reports a conversation between Hezekiah and God, with the prophet Isaiah as the go-between. In 2 Kings 19:1-5, the king sent messengers to the prophet asking for his help communicating with God. Isaiah’s answer promised that God would create a distraction to the Assyrians (19:6-7). The blasphemous and arrogant statements by the Assyrians did not help their cause (19:8-13)! Texts that are parallel to those in today’s lesson are Isaiah 37:14-20, 30-32, and 2 Chronicles 32:20. On the godly character of King Hezekiah, see 2 Kings 18:1-8.
Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone."
(Scriptural Text from the New King James Version; cross-references from the NIV)
14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.
15 Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: "O Lord 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 heaven and earth.
16 Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.
17 Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,
18 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them.
19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone."
2 Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.
6 Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy.
22 I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praise to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
164 Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws.
15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry; 16 the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. 17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will.
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.
6 You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge.
26 He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
8 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard.'
29 'This shall be a sign to you: You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from the same; Also in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.
30 And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
31 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.'
2 O you who hear prayer, to you all men will come.
24 Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.
7 But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
7 "'This is the Lord's sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: 8 I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.'" So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.
12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."
1 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country — a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
24 See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us — even eternal life.
10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,
19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all;
26 "But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they put your law behind their backs. They killed your prophets, who had admonished them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. 27 So you handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.
9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the Day of Judgment, while continuing their punishment.
Hezekiah’s response to this crisis was to turn to Yahweh in prayer and to His prophet for an answer. He sensed his position under Yahweh’s authority, humbled himself, and sought God’s help (cf. 2 Samuel 7; 1 Kings 8). God rewarded Hezekiah’s attitude and assured him of success because the Assyrians had challenged the reputation of Yahweh.
God’s method of deliverance involved harassing the Assyrian army. First Libnah, a town a few miles northeast of Lachish, needed Sennacherib’s attention. Then he received word that the king of Cush (southern Egypt) was coming to attack from the southwest, the direction opposite from Libnah and Jerusalem. These divinely sent diversions caused Sennacherib to suspend his siege of Jerusalem.
Sennacherib sent another warning to Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:10-13) that led him to pray again. Some scholars believe that Sennacherib conducted two campaigns against Jerusalem. [Note: Bright, pp. 282-87.] Hezekiah’s model prayer shows the king’s proper view of Yahweh, himself, and their relationship, all of which were in harmony with God’s revelation. Hezekiah’s concern was more for God’s glory than for Judah’s safety. Furthermore, he viewed deliverance as an occasion for Israel to fulfill the purpose for which God had raised her up (2 Kings 19:19; cf. Exodus 19:5-6).
"God is the one Being in all the universe for whom seeking his own praise is the ultimately loving act. For him, self-exaltation is the highest virtue. When he does all things ’for the praise of his glory,’ he preserves for us and offers to us the only thing in all the world which can satisfy our longings. God is for us! And the foundation of this love is that God has been, is now, and always will be, for himself." [Note: John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, p. 37.]
God sent Hezekiah the news of what He would do, and why, through Isaiah. The "virgin" daughter of Zion (2 Kings 19:21) refers to Jerusalem as a city that a foreign foe had never violated. The "Holy One of Israel" (2 Kings 19:22), a favorite name of God with Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 5:24; Isaiah 30:11-15; et al.), stresses His uniqueness and superiority. On some monuments Assyrian conquerors pictured themselves as leading their captives with a line that passed through rings that they had placed in the victims’ noses. [Note: Cf. Luckenbill, 2:314-15, 319.] God promised to do to them as they had done to others (2 Kings 19:28; cf. Galatians 6:7).
An immediate sign helped Hezekiah believe in the long-range deliverance God promised (2 Kings 19:29). Signs were either predictions of natural events, which came to pass and thus confirmed the prediction (cf. Exodus 3:12; 1 Samuel 2:34; Jeremiah 44:29), or outright miracles that proved God’s work in history (cf. Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 38:7). [Note: Keil. p. 454.] The Israelites had not been able to plant crops around Jerusalem because of the besieging Assyrians. God promised to feed His people for two years with what came up naturally, namely, as a result of previous cultivation. This was a blessing of fertility for trust and obedience (cf. Deuteronomy 28:33). In the third year they would again return to their regular cycle of sowing and reaping. Like the crops, the remnant of the people remaining after the invasions of Israel and Judah would also multiply under God’s blessing. As for Sennacherib, God would keep him away from Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:32-33). Ironically, the Assyrian king suffered assassination in the temple of his god, who was not able to deliver him. This was the very thing he had charged Yahweh with being unable to do for Judah. Extra-biblical sources corroborate Sennacherib’s assassination, though they mention only one assassin. [Note: See Cogan and Tadmore, pp. 239-40.]
(Adapted from URL:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dcc/2-kings-19.html)
This account reveals a faithful leader seeking God’s help on behalf of an entire nation during a time of great crisis. This aspect of spiritual leadership remains relevant. Asking for God’s help is still an important part of such leadership. The threat may come from many directions, but it often comes from those who aspire to control others involuntarily. The leader must be alert to such a danger and align the people’s hopes with God’s desires, as Hezekiah did. One way to do this is via the ACTS method of prayer. This acronym speaks to a four-stage prayer pattern:
Adoration: Recognizing God for who he is;
Confession: Admitting one’s sins;
Thanksgiving: Expressing gratitude for God’s blessings already received;
Supplication: Requesting God’s intervention or blessings.
This pattern, with various emphases, is seen in Hezekiah’s prayer. Such prayers often come naturally to people who believe God can help them in crisis, assuming that God has no reason to dismiss such prayers (contrast Lamentations 3:8, 44; Ezekiel 8:18; 1 Peter 3:7). Indeed, in today’s text, God answered promptly and positively.
But supplication in and of itself isn’t the whole of the ACTS-pattern prayer battle; it’s only one-fourth. A vital part of the ACTS prayer pattern is ensuring some balance among its four aspects. The prayer lives of many Christians lack such a balance. That deficiency is seen when we spend most of our prayer time asking for things (supplication), with little time spent in adoration, confession, and thanksgiving. Consider Hezekiah’s prayer again: he didn’t start with his plea for help; he started with adoration. Then he moved to recognition of sin—Assyria’s sin of blasphemy. We may think that “confession” involves only one’s personal sin, but the Bible witnesses to corporate confession as well (Leviticus 16:21; 26:40; Ezra 10:1; etc.). Moving to the aspect of thanksgiving, this is difficult to detect in this singular prayer of Hezekiah. But thanking God was a big part of Israelite prayer practices (1 Chronicles 16:34, 41); a prayer of King David witnesses to all four ACTS elements (29:10). Returning to the aspect of supplication, another challenge in this area is to pray with right motives. Such motives align with God’s stated will (Matthew 6:10; James 4:3, 15). A further challenge is not to use prayer as a spare tire—“only in emergencies”! Today many Christians face crises of persecution, famine, political unrest, injustice, etc. It’s important to pray for issues that affect the body (James 5:14-15), but this is where the “emergency, spare tire” practice seems to reveal itself the most. A Christian once counted the prayers and their nature as he sat through 10 weeks of an adult Bible class. When the 10 weeks were up, he analyzed the resulting 133 prayers to see patterns. He discovered that every prayer could be categorized in one of three ways: prayers for bodily healing or preservation of life (97 prayer requests); prayers for “situations” such as grief, marriage, and job loss (33 requests); and prayers for spiritual issues (3 requests). Contrast that with what Jesus had to say about prayer in Matthew 6:5-15.