Ted Lee: Okay, as you know, pastor Doug and pastor Micah are preaching through the book of Isaiah and church friends, we've come to chapter 36 today.
Ted Lee: So turn there with me Isaiah, chapter 36.
Ted Lee: Actually, our text for today is 36, verse 1, through 37, verse 7.
Ted Lee: Isaiah chapters 36 to 39 serve as a turning point in the prophecy of Isaiah.
Ted Lee: These chapters consist of narratives that are also contained in 2 Kings, chapters 18 to 20.
Ted Lee: They're nearly identical.
Ted Lee: There are some differences, but they're nearly identical and they function both as a conclusion to chapters 1 to 39 and serves as a transition to what follows.
Ted Lee: These chapters chapters 36, 37, 38, and 39, focus on three events involving Hezekiah and Isaiah First of all and we'll deal with that today and next week the Assyrian invasion of Jerusalem's miraculous deliverance.
Ted Lee: Second, we'll be looking at Hezekiah's fatal illness and his miraculous healing.
Ted Lee: And third, we'll look at a visit by a delegation from Babylon.
Ted Lee: These chapters bridge the present threat of Assyria and the future conquest by Babylon, and they set the stage for the themes of exile and the comfort and hope for restoration that dominate the latter part of the book, chapters 40 to 66.
Ted Lee: So let's go to God in prayer.
Ted Lee: Heavenly Father, I ask that you open our eyes so that we see wonderful things out of your word.
Ted Lee: Show us your ways, o Lord, and teach us your paths, amen.
Ted Lee: In ancient times, sailors would look to the stars in the heaven for navigation, but when clouds start to come in, in the cloudiness of storms, they relied on their knowledge, their expert knowledge.
Ted Lee: They called it dead reckoning, but that's a fancy term for best guessing.
Ted Lee: Who or what can you trust to guide you through situations like that?
Ted Lee: In the same way your own lives?
Ted Lee: Storms often cloud our vision.
Ted Lee: This is really tested when we face life's fiercest storms.
Ted Lee: Storms in your life have a way of producing anxiety and fear.
Ted Lee: Sometimes the stormy waves bury you under and you might doubt God.
Ted Lee: You might even forget God in your situation and end up making decisions in your life without God.
Ted Lee: This may prove to be disastrous.
Ted Lee: Today we'll take a look at the life of Hezekiah.
Ted Lee: The Bible tells us that he did what was right in the Lord's sight, just as his ancestor David did.
Ted Lee: That's 2 Chronicles 29, verse 2.
Ted Lee: But there was a season in his life when he faced one of his fiercest storms and was challenged by this question who can I really trust?
Ted Lee: Some of us may be going through our own storms right now or about to enter a storm that we don't even know about.
Ted Lee: So the practical question for you and me is how can fear, even the most intense form, turn into trusting God's promises?
Ted Lee: We'll tackle this question by examining three aspects of Hezekiah's life as he weathered through this storm.
Ted Lee: The first identify intimidation and fear.
Ted Lee: Second, ignore the insulting influences.
Ted Lee: And third, invoke God's intervention.
Ted Lee: So our first point identify the intimidation and fear.
Ted Lee: There are two sources of intimidation and fear that Hezekiah, king of Judah, identified.
Ted Lee: The first is the intimidating power of the massive Assyrian army and the second one is the intimidating power of the Assyrian royal spokesman.
Ted Lee: So let's look at intimidating power first of the Assyrian army.
Ted Lee: Let's look at intimidating power first of the Assyrian army.
Ted Lee: During the course of our studies in Isaiah, we've had various encounters with the Assyrian empire.
Ted Lee: In Isaiah's prophecies, assyria's rise as a consolidated, expanding empire was reaching its height during the reigns of King Ahaz and now here in King Hezekiah.
Ted Lee: Assyria built up its reputation as an intimidating force to be reckoned with.
Ted Lee: This was due to three success factors First, its military innovations.
Ted Lee: Second, they had an empire-wide communication system that was second to none.
Ted Lee: And third, there was a resettlement policy.
Ted Lee: First, the military innovations.
Ted Lee: They had the use of a cavalry that was a shock force, that was well-equipped, well-trained and they effectively neutralized enemy defenses.
Ted Lee: They were also effective in reconnaissance, effectively neutralized enemy defenses.
Ted Lee: They were also effective in reconnaissance.
Ted Lee: But one of the highlights of their military innovations was the development of siege warfare.
Ted Lee: They built battering rams, siege towers.
Ted Lee: They were incredibly effective and they had their mark now in military history.
Ted Lee: The empire's communication system allowed the Assyrian king and his officials to communicate empire-wide.
Ted Lee: This was through a relay system and this depended on well-constructed and well-maintained roads throughout the empire.
Ted Lee: And thirdly, assyria's resettlement policy.
Ted Lee: We see this in how they treated the conquered peoples.
Ted Lee: This resettlement policy had two purposes.
Ted Lee: The first one, a negative one, is to break their identity and their spirit so that they will no longer rebel against Assyria, and Assyria did this by relocating the populations into areas across the empire.
Ted Lee: The second one was a positive one for the empire.
Ted Lee: The second purpose was that they used these peoples and relocated them so they could bring new agricultural techniques to develop new lands for the empire.
Ted Lee: Well, using these advancements, assyria conquered Samaria in 720 BC, taking the northern tribes of Israel into exile and settling them across Mesopotamia.
Ted Lee: Almost 20 years later, the Assyrian king Sennacherib, in our text today, continued to expand the empire and launched a military campaign into Judah in 701 BC.
Ted Lee: These mighty Assyrians thought they were invincible.
Ted Lee: So this brings us to verse 1, chapter 36.
Ted Lee: Turn with me there.
Ted Lee: In the 14th year of King Hezekiah, king Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
Ted Lee: Then the king of Assyria sent his royal spokesman, along with a massive army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem.
Ted Lee: The Assyrian stood near the conduit of the upper pool by the road to Launderer's Field.
Ted Lee: Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, shebna, the court secretary, and Joah, son of Asaph.
Ted Lee: The court historian came out to him.
Ted Lee: Housed in the British Museum in London is Sennacherib's annals.
Ted Lee: This was a collection of his military campaigns written on a stone prism.
Ted Lee: These also include the account of his invasion of the kingdom of Judah.
Ted Lee: These annals state that Sennacherib laid siege to 46 of Hezekiah's fortified cities from north to south of Judah and conquered them using siege, siege rams and battering rams and his foot soldiers.
Ted Lee: And in the wake of this destruction, sennacherib destroyed Tyre and Philistia.
Ted Lee: Sennacherib also defeated Egypt, and you remember who Egypt was and how Egypt played into this whole story around here.
Ted Lee: But he defeated the Egyptian army which came up to help Hezekiah, but they were no help.
Ted Lee: Hezekiah's alliance in Egypt for assistance failed.
Ted Lee: Isaiah had previously warned Hezekiah multiple times against seeking alliances with Egypt, but Hezekiah took matters in his own hands.
Ted Lee: Judah's neighbors also, edom Moab, were just as weak as Judah and were preoccupied with their own survival.
Ted Lee: To help, to help offer any help, hezekiah was left alone.
Ted Lee: He was isolated, no longer with any nation to turn to for assistance.
Ted Lee: So why did Sennacherib seek to destroy Judah?
Ted Lee: Well, isaiah here does not tell us.
Ted Lee: But 2 Kings 18, verse 7, indicates that King Hezekiah rebelled against the king of Assyria.
Ted Lee: Remember, judah became a vassal state of Assyria under Hezekiah's father, king Ahaz.
Ted Lee: He made an alliance with Assyria in 2 Kings, chapter 16.
Ted Lee: When Sennacherib conducted his military campaign into Judah and conquered those 46 fortified cities and numerous villages along the way, he came to Lachish and sieged it.
Ted Lee: Lachish was one of the most important cities in Judah, it was second in importance to Jerusalem and Lachish was only 35 miles southwest of the capital city, jerusalem.
Ted Lee: Sennacherib had his crosshairs really targeting Jerusalem, though Hezekiah acknowledged the slaughter that had already occurred throughout the land.
Ted Lee: It was a result of his poor decisions and he left only a small portion of Judah's population living only in Jerusalem.
Ted Lee: The threat of the Assyrians so intimidated Hezekiah that he thought he could use gold to buy peace.
Ted Lee: And we see this in 2 Kings 18.
Ted Lee: You don't have to turn there.
Ted Lee: I'll read from verses 14 to 15.
Ted Lee: Kings 18.
Ted Lee: You don't have to turn there.
Ted Lee: I'll read from 14, verses 14 to 15.
Ted Lee: So Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish.
Ted Lee: I've done wrong.
Ted Lee: Withdraw from me.
Ted Lee: Whatever you demand from me, I will pay.
Ted Lee: The king of Assyria demanded 11 tons of silver and one ton of gold from King Hezekiah of Judah.
Ted Lee: So Hezekiah gave him all the silver found in the Lord's temple and in the treasuries of the king's palace.
Ted Lee: Sennacherib accepted this tribute, but he then abandoned his agreement.
Ted Lee: He proceeded to send a massive army from Lachish to Jerusalem.
Ted Lee: He demanded total submission from Hezekiah.
Ted Lee: Sennacherib planned to permanently eliminate any further trouble from Judah.
Ted Lee: Hezekiah's plan of self-reliance, his self-reliance to remove Assyrian domination, failed again.
Ted Lee: First time it was the failure of the Egyptian alliance.
Ted Lee: The second time now it's the failure of the tribute payment to bring peace, although Hezekiah genuinely trusted in God, and we see that in 2 Kings 18 and in 2 Chronicles 29.
Ted Lee: His desire to be entirely free from Assyrian domination led him, in his own thinking, to formulate his form and policy without regard for God and without considering the message from God that Isaiah presented.
Ted Lee: So the first source of intimidation was the mighty Assyrian army.
Ted Lee: Let's take a look at now how the Assyrian royal spokesman created the intimidation.
Ted Lee: The Assyrian royal spokesman, also known as Rabshakeh in other Bible translations, was joined by two other leading Assyrian officials With the massive Assyrian army behind them.
Ted Lee: They stood at the wall of Jerusalem, a short distance from King Hezekiah's palace, and, as a representative of the Assyrian empire, that spokesman spoke on behalf of the king, king of Assyria, king Sennacherib, to Hezekiah's three officials, and this is recorded in verses 4 to 10.
Ted Lee: That spokesman used verbal bullying and he used persuasive logic to undermine Judah's confidence in Egypt, in King Hezekiah himself and God.
Ted Lee: If the Assyrian envoy was able to achieve success in causing Hezekiah's surrender, the Assyrians would have accomplished their goal without any losses, without military effort.
Ted Lee: So let's see how the Assyrian spokesman tried to achieve this.
Ted Lee: First is verbal bullying.
Ted Lee: Let's look at verses 4 and 5.
Ted Lee: We see this there.
Ted Lee: First is verbal bullying.
Ted Lee: Let's look at verses 4 and 5.
Ted Lee: We see this there.
Ted Lee: The royal spokesman said to them Tell Hezekiah the great king.
Ted Lee: The king of Assyria says this what are you relying on?
Ted Lee: You think mere words are strategy and strength for war.
Ted Lee: Who are you now relying on that?
Ted Lee: You have rebelled against me.
Ted Lee: Observe the tone of these words spoken by the Assyrian spokesman.
Ted Lee: In verse 4, he referred to the Assyrian king as the great king, the king of Assyria, but he called out Hezekiah by name only, without addressing him as king, disrespecting him as the king of Judah.
Ted Lee: He also dismissed King Hezekiah's confidence by saying that it was supported by mere words.
Ted Lee: That was not supported by a sound strategy nor by the force of arms.
Ted Lee: That was verse 5.
Ted Lee: The Assyrian king's spokesman mocked Hezekiah by challenging him on whom and on what he was trusting in.
Ted Lee: The word translated in the Christian Standard Bible text as rely on or relying on, is mentioned six times in seven verses.
Ted Lee: Here, for example, we read in verse five who are you now relying on that?
Ted Lee: You have rebelled against me.
Ted Lee: The Assyrian royal spokesman used also persuasive logic to further intimidate King Hezekiah, and he said this and made four points.
Ted Lee: First, sennacherib thought through.
Ted Lee: His spokesman mocked Judah's trust in Egypt.
Ted Lee: Look at verse 6 with me.
Ted Lee: Look, you are relying on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who grabs it and lean on it.
Ted Lee: This is how the pharaoh, king of Egypt, is to all who rely on him.
Ted Lee: By the time that Sennacherib besieged Lachish, he had already defeated Egyptians' army.
Ted Lee: He had already defeated Egypt's army.
Ted Lee: Second, the royal spokesman questioned Hezekiah's religious reforms.
Ted Lee: We see this in verse 7.
Ted Lee: He mistakenly interpreted Hezekiah's earlier removal of the high places, the altars, as an insult to God, when in fact these actions were really aimed at eliminating idol worship for the Jews.
Ted Lee: Yet the Assyrian spokesman figured that Hezekiah alienated Judah's God by removing all the places of worship except for the altar in the Temple of Jerusalem.
Ted Lee: Third, we see in verses 8 and 9 that the Assyrian spokesman sarcastically challenged Judah's military strength.
Ted Lee: He offered to provide 2,000 horses if Hezekiah could find riders for them, and he knew that Hezekiah could not.
Ted Lee: Fourth, the Assyrian royal spokesman claimed that the Assyrian invasion was divinely sanctioned, and we see this in verse 10.
Ted Lee: Turn there, verse 10.
Ted Lee: Have I attacked this land to destroy it without the Lord's approval?
Ted Lee: The Lord said to me attack this land and destroy it.
Ted Lee: He asserted that the Lord had instructed him to attack and destroy the land.
Ted Lee: This rhetoric was delivered loudly in front of Jerusalem's walls, to all those who were sitting on it and could hear it.
Ted Lee: This intimidation by both the Assyrian royal spokesman and the Assyrian army show us how fear can easily overwhelm us when we focus only on the visible circumstances.
Ted Lee: The visible circumstances Losing 46 fortified cities, along with the many, many villages in Judah severely shook Hezekiah's composure.
Ted Lee: The Assyrians' message focused on the visible path of Sennacherib's destruction, and now the present siege of Jerusalem pointed to an unavoidable destruction of Jerusalem itself.
Ted Lee: Can you feel the weight on Hezekiah now self?
Ted Lee: Can you feel the weight on Hezekiah now?
Ted Lee: The Assyrian threats symbolize the external challenges that you and I face.
Ted Lee: Are you facing opposition?
Ted Lee: While you encounter opposition, the world can tempt you to compromise your values and can cause you to distance yourselves from your Christian convictions.
Ted Lee: The demands of the workplace, for example, can lead to increased responsibility and pressure, potentially putting a strain on your relationships at home and at church.
Ted Lee: For Christian parents, they are heavily challenged every day with the values promoted in public, schools, the media and society and how they affect our school-aged children.
Ted Lee: And if you find yourself facing constant criticism or even harsh behavior from family members about your faith in Jesus Christ.
Ted Lee: You might even find despair closing in on you.
Ted Lee: These barriers can seem insurmountable and we often ask does God really have this under control for me?
Ted Lee: But wait, identifying the source of your intimidation and fear is only the first step towards turning your fears into trusting God's promises.
Ted Lee: The second step is to ignore these insulting influences that usually cause you to feel the fear, and this is our second point.
Ted Lee: Ignore the insulting influences.
Ted Lee: Influences, the ridicule that Hezekiah received and the futile negotiation attempts that went on put a damper on Hezekiah trusting God.
Ted Lee: Worldly voices often dismiss God's power and dissuade us from trusting in him.
Ted Lee: How were these worldly voices affecting Hezekiah?
Ted Lee: Well, let's look at verse 11.
Ted Lee: Then Eliakim Shebna and Joah said to the royal spokesman please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it, don't speak to us in Hebrew, with an earshot of the people who are on the wall.
Ted Lee: Hezekiah's royal officials were well aware of the psychological impact that the Assyrian spokesman's words were having on those gathered on the city walls while watching the events in front of them unfold.
Ted Lee: Hezekiah's three officials protested immediately that he was not following diplomatic protocol by delivering a message to the king in a way that others could understand.
Ted Lee: You see, aramaic was the common language of the Assyrian kings and was spoken for international diplomacy, but only later was it expanded to be used in trade and other communication.
Ted Lee: The ordinary people of Judah at that time didn't know how to speak Aramaic.
Ted Lee: They didn't understand it.
Ted Lee: It was not until their return from the Babylonian exile that Aramaic became commonly used in Judah, and that was 200 years or more after this incident with Hezekiah.
Ted Lee: So now let's look at the content of these worldly voices that Hezekiah heard.
Ted Lee: We see this in verses 12 to 16.
Ted Lee: Verse 12,.
Ted Lee: But the royal spokesman replied has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?
Ted Lee: Then the royal spokesman stood and called out loudly in Hebrew Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.
Ted Lee: This is what the king says Don't let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot rescue you.
Ted Lee: Don't let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on the Lord, saying the Lord will certainly rescue us.
Ted Lee: This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.
Ted Lee: Don't listen to Hezekiah.
Ted Lee: You see.
Ted Lee: The Assyrian royal spokesman highlighted the dire consequences of a prolonged siege and mentioned the shortage of food and water.
Ted Lee: The Assyrian spokesman's words were meant to instill fear and panic and to undermine their trust in King Hezekiah as well as their trust in God.
Ted Lee: The Assyrian spokesman reminded the general people of the hard facts of siege warfare, calling out to the people in Hebrew.
Ted Lee: The Assyrian spokesman ridiculed Hezekiah.
Ted Lee: He urged the Jerusalem residents not to let Hezekiah deceive them into thinking that God, their God, will deliver them.
Ted Lee: The Assyrian spokesman tried to convince the people that Sennacherib promised them prosperity in another land.
Ted Lee: That's verses 16 and 17.
Ted Lee: He says make peace with me and surrender to me.
Ted Lee: Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
Ted Lee: Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you.
Ted Lee: The spokesman from Assyria also exhorted the people not to be deceived by Hezekiah, saying that even the gods of the other nations who were conquered by Assyria were not able even to save them.
Ted Lee: And you see that in verses 18 to 20.
Ted Lee: Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying the Lord will rescue us.
Ted Lee: Has anyone of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?
Ted Lee: Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad?
Ted Lee: Where are the gods of Sepharim?
Ted Lee: Have they rescued Samaria from my power?
Ted Lee: Who, among all the gods of these lands, ever rescued his land from my power?
Ted Lee: So, will the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?
Ted Lee: Will the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?
Ted Lee: So why should we ignore such insulting influences?
Ted Lee: The Syrian spokesman's speech planted seeds of doubt.
Ted Lee: He set up Hezekiah to question God's capacity to save.
Ted Lee: Worldly voices can cause us to doubt God's power.
Ted Lee: They can be very persuasive and particularly effective, especially when we're already feeling dejected.
Ted Lee: This point should encourage us, as believers, to discern and silence these negative spiritual influences and to cling to the trustworthiness of God's word rather than the worldly voices that we hear when we're not firmly grounded in God's word.
Ted Lee: Those worldly voices sound like megaphones to our ears and can successfully persuade us to turn away from depending on God.
Ted Lee: Have you ever tried to shout over a megaphone?
Ted Lee: It's impossible to hear anything else In our lives.
Ted Lee: We often let the megaphones of social media, gossip and even busyness drown out God's whispers.
Ted Lee: It's like standing next to a loudspeaker at a concert, completely missing the beautiful melody God is trying to share with us.
Ted Lee: Let's turn down the volume of distractions and turn in to his voice instead.
Ted Lee: So, when facing the storms of life, identify what is causing fear and then ignore the insulting influences from the world.
Ted Lee: And lastly, we need to invoke God's intervention.
Ted Lee: This is our third point Invoke God's intervention.
Ted Lee: Hezekiah's response was to go to God in prayer.
Ted Lee: Hezekiah approached God with a penitent heart.
Ted Lee: How did Hezekiah demonstrate his penitence?
Ted Lee: First, hezekiah owned up to his sin.
Ted Lee: Hezekiah accepted full responsibility as king for the disaster that the nation had come under.
Ted Lee: We see this in chapter 37, verse 1.
Ted Lee: It reads when Hezekiah heard their report, the report from the three officials, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and went to the Lord's temple.
Ted Lee: This act was more than just the formal expression of distress and penitence.
Ted Lee: Wearing sackcloth was a sign of mourning for the dead or of penitence, deep penitence for sin.
Ted Lee: In dressing this way, hezekiah publicly confessed that he had misdirected the people of Judah as he walked, dressing like that, to the temple.
Ted Lee: And in addition, probably running through Hezekiah's mind as he walked to the temple, he might have been ruminating over the promises that the Lord had already spoken to him through Isaiah, such as in chapter 31, verse 8,.
Ted Lee: Hezekiah said a message from the Lord.
Ted Lee: Then Assyria will fall, but not by human sword.
Ted Lee: A sword will devour him, but not one made by man will devour him, but not one made by man.
Ted Lee: He also may have been thinking about another promise that Isaiah brought to him from the Lord In chapter 38,.
Ted Lee: Chapter 38 is coming up and we'll be getting to that.
Ted Lee: But I'll mention, though, that chapters 38 and 39, the events there in chronological time sequence occurred before chapter 36 and 37.
Ted Lee: But in chapter 38, verses 4 to 6, isaiah writes Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah.
Ted Lee: Go and tell Hezekiah this is what the Lord, god of your ancestors, david, says I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears and I will rescue you in the city from the grasp of the king of Assyria.
Ted Lee: I will defend this city.
Ted Lee: We're not told what Hezekiah did in the temple in this text, but he undoubtedly would have offered sacrifice for his sins and brought the nation's situation before God in prayer, and he called upon God to intervene.
Ted Lee: Hezekiah also acknowledged God's displeasure in him In chapter 37, verse 3, 37, verse 3.
Ted Lee: This is what Hezekiah says.
Ted Lee: Today is a day of distress, rebuke and disgrace.
Ted Lee: No-transcript distress.
Ted Lee: Distress is a result of external pressures and constraints that produce internal anxiety.
Ted Lee: There is no doubt that judah was in extremely bad circumstances.
Ted Lee: Rebuke the word used here points to the lord not being pleased with the behavior of Judah and her king.
Ted Lee: Judah found herself on the verge of national collapse, so it was not a simple verbal reproof or condemnation.
Ted Lee: Judah received the just penalty for her sin, and the word disgrace Disgrace is the result of God rejecting those who rejected him.
Ted Lee: As Isaiah introduced his prophecies.
Ted Lee: He said in chapter 1, verse 4, o sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, brood of evildoers, depraved children.
Ted Lee: They have abandoned the Lord.
Ted Lee: They have despised the Holy One of Israel.
Ted Lee: They have turned their backs on him.
Ted Lee: Judah used to enjoy God's favor, but now, having forgotten God and failing to honor him, god left Judah to experience his rejection.
Ted Lee: The tension inside Hezekiah now caused him to realize that the predicament that he and Judah found themselves in was more than just a political and military crisis.
Ted Lee: At the very root of this situation was a crisis of faith.
Ted Lee: It's the result of the sin of not believing in God's promises, the sin of not believing in God's promises.
Ted Lee: So when Hezekiah's heart reached brokenness, when his pride was broken, he called on God, through Isaiah, to rebuke the king of Assyria.
Ted Lee: Let's look at verse 3, the second part of verse 3 and verse 4.
Ted Lee: It is as if children have come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.
Ted Lee: Perhaps the Lord, your God, will hear all the words of the royal spokesman, whom his master, the king of Assyria, said to mock the living God, and will rebuke him for the words that the Lord, your God, has heard.
Ted Lee: Therefore, offer a prayer for the surviving remnants.
Ted Lee: Note that Hezekiah was conscious of the extent to which his own conduct had distorted his relationship with God.
Ted Lee: Hezekiah could only venture a perhaps.
Ted Lee: In making his request to Isaiah, he said perhaps the Lord, your God, will hear all the words, and then he also speaks of your God.
Ted Lee: He implies that Isaiah, by his obedience, had maintained a closer relationship with God in a way that Hezekiah and his officials did not.
Ted Lee: These are the words of Hezekiah.
Ted Lee: Hezekiah's pride had been broken.
Ted Lee: But let's look at Isaiah's message.
Ted Lee: Now Back to Hezekiah.
Ted Lee: In return, it affirms God's intervention.
Ted Lee: In contrast to Hezekiah's sense of despair.
Ted Lee: Isaiah spoke with calm deliberation and pointed the king to God's promises.
Ted Lee: Isaiah said to Hezekiah in verse 6, don't be afraid because of the words you have heard with which the king of Assyria's attendants have blasphemed me.
Ted Lee: What was called for was trust, complete trust on the part of Hezekiah, and the promises of God.
Ted Lee: These promises had already been revealed to him.
Ted Lee: Isaiah assured Hezekiah that God, the covenant-keeping God, the God who established David and the throne of his kingdom forever, david and the throne of his kingdom forever would remedy the threat that the Assyrian army presented.
Ted Lee: Back in chapter 9, isaiah said he will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.
Ted Lee: Now this sentence is so important.
Ted Lee: The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this.
Ted Lee: God responded to Hezekiah's call to intervene.
Ted Lee: God announced that he was going to do three things in verse 7.
Ted Lee: God will put a spirit in Sennacherib.
Ted Lee: This was a spirit of deception, such that the Assyrian king would be mentally predisposed to responding to events in the way God wanted.
Ted Lee: So, in addition to putting a spirit in Sennacherib, god will cause him to return home after hearing a rumor.
Ted Lee: It's not clear what this rumor was, but some have interpreted it to be a rumor that Sennacherib would hear after 185,000 of his troops were slaughtered by God's angel.
Ted Lee: We'll see that later on in this chapter next week.
Ted Lee: The third thing God said through Isaiah is that God will cause him to fall by the sword.
Ted Lee: He will not die from natural causes.
Ted Lee: He will not die while directing a military campaign in a foreign land, like Ahaz's his father did.
Ted Lee: But the Lord will sovereignly orchestrate the events such that Sennacherib will meet a violent death where he would least expect it.
Ted Lee: It would occur in the security of his own homeland.
Ted Lee: In fact, his death occurred 20 years after this announcement was made, and we'll talk about that next week.
Ted Lee: These three promises imply that Jerusalem will not be defeated, and it wasn't.
Ted Lee: But most importantly for Hezekiah is that Hezekiah learned from these words that Sennacherib's end would be dictated entirely on God's terms and by God himself.
Ted Lee: There is no room that he could change any of this.
Ted Lee: God determined all of this in his own design and plan.
Ted Lee: So, friends, in times of crisis, hezekiah's decision to turn to God rather than rely on human strength illustrates true faith, while trusting in his own schemes, whether they are alliances with Egypt or paying tribute to the king of Assyria to get him off his back, to the king of Assyria to get him off his back.
Ted Lee: His fears persisted.
Ted Lee: In fact, all these things he did didn't help King Hezekiah one bit, but in fact it made things worse for him.
Ted Lee: Knowing and fully trusting God's promises, as Hezekiah eventually did, is the basis of reassurance and deliverance for believers.
Ted Lee: While identifying his fears before the Lord and ignoring the insulting influences from his enemies, hezekiah turned to holding fast onto God's promises and then invoked God's intervention.
Ted Lee: The loud threats of the enemy were replaced with a gentle and quiet strength found in faith.
Ted Lee: The season of Hezekiah's life demonstrates how God hears and acts on behalf of his people, and emphasizes that faith in God's promises will lead us away from fear to trusting in God's steadfast promises.
Ted Lee: It may require that your pride be broken, though this passage ultimately foreshadows Jesus' victory over our greatest fears, sin and the wages of sin death, reminding us that, just as Hezekiah found deliverance, we too can find deliverance to an internal hope and reassurance through Jesus Christ alone, who is our fortress and refuge.
Ted Lee: If you haven't trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I ask you consider how you will face the death penalty for your sin?
Ted Lee: Will you be like Hezekiah as he faced the Assyrian army?
Ted Lee: Who can you trust to deliver you Yourself, your own good work?
Ted Lee: Is that your pride or the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who knew no sin but became sin?
Ted Lee: For us to become the righteousness of God and therefore we no longer fear death or sin.
Ted Lee: Romans 8 tells us for there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
Ted Lee: For there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
Ted Lee: By keeping our eyes on the Lord and holding fast to the promises found in his word, like the ancient sailors who looked into the stars for navigational guidance, we can trust that the light will return as life's storm clouds pass, and through faith, our fears will turn into trusting in what God has promised.
Ted Lee: Let's pray, heavenly Father.
Ted Lee: I pray that when we face life's fiercest storms, we can say Lord, I trust in you and you alone.
Ted Lee: Remove our fears and anxieties.
Ted Lee: Cause us to hold fast to your promises.
Ted Lee: I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.