LAYING IT ALL BEFORE THE LORD
“And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.” (Isaiah 37:14).
We
all experience times in our lives when things become overwhelming, and we’re
not certain of what we should do. There
are times when we have trouble hearing that still, small voice of God speaking
to us and directing our path. It’s then
that we need to deliberately take our troubles before the Lord and spread them
out in His presence, praying for wisdom, direction and a clear word from Him. Human beings don’t naturally hand over
control of their lives that easily, however.
There is some preparation that needs to take place beforehand to make
that transition easier. That’s why King
Hezekiah of Judah’s example in scripture is an important one for us to follow.
Hezekiah
didn’t have a good example to follow when he was growing up. His father, King Ahaz of Judah, was an
unfaithful king. Scripture records that
he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD. Instead, he followed the ways of the rebellious
Kingdom of Israel (the ten tribes that separated themselves from the house of
David in the days of Jeroboam) and made molten images of Baal and worshipped
them. He also collected all of the holy
vessels that were in the House of the LORD and cut them in pieces. He then shut up the Temple of Solomon so that
the people could no longer go there to worship the LORD as God had instructed
them. In fact, he built altars in every
corner of Jerusalem on which they offered sacrifices to the gods of the
heathen. Worse yet, he burnt his own
children in the fire after the example of the ungodly nations whom God had
rejected. This was the example that Ahaz
set for his children and how Hezekiah was raised.
God
sent many judgments against Ahaz and his kingdom because of their sins. First, the King of Syria attacked Judah and
carried away a great many people to Damascus as captives. After this, the King of Israel rose against
Ahaz and killed 120,000 warriors in Judah in just one day. They also tried to take 200,000 women, sons,
and daughters captive, but God sent a prophet against them and prevented them
from doing so. Next, the Edomites came
and carried off captives from Judah.
Finally, the Philistines came and conquered six cities in the south of
Judah along with the smaller villages that supported them, and inhabited them
with their own people. All of this did
God allow because of Ahaz’ sins. “For the LORD brought Judah low because of
Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the
LORD.” (2 Chronicles 28:19).
One
would think that Hezekiah would have been mixed up and confused about what was
right and wrong, but that was not the case.
Scripture records that at 25 years old, when he ascended to the throne
of Judah, “…he did that which was right
in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his [fore] father had done.” (2 Chronicles 29:1,
2). Hezekiah could see the handwriting
on the wall. He was aware of the
judgment of God that would fall on his people if they did not repent. The Prophet Isaiah was a contemporary of
Hezekiah and his prophecies were full of God’s warnings to the nation of Judah
as well as the nations around her. The
King would have understood how God had raised up the King of Assyria and was
using him as an instrument of judgment.
He also knew that the best prevention for judgment is sincere, heartfelt
repentance. God had spoken through
Isaiah and said, “Wash you, make you
clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do
evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the
fatherless, plead for the widow. Come
now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool. If ye be willing and
obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye
shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.”
(Isaiah :16-20). So, it was to this end
that Hezekiah directed his efforts: to lead Judah back to the true worship of
God and spare them from God’s righteous judgment.
Hezekiah
wasted no time in restoring the true worship of God back to Judah. In his first month in office he repaired the
doors of the Temple of Solomon that his father had destroyed and made sure that
they were open to the people. He
assembled all of the priests and Levites - those who God had appointed to care
for the temple and offer the sacrifices for the sins of the people. He commanded them to sanctify themselves and
to cleanse and sanctify the House of God, ridding it of all the filth and
uncleanness that was there from years of abuse and neglect.
Hezekiah
announced openly that “…it is in my heart
to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that His fierce wrath may turn
away from us.” (2 Chronicles 2:10). Moreover,
He told the Levites and priests, “My
sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before Him,
to serve Him, and that ye should minister unto Him, and burn incense.” (2
Chronicles 2:11). Oh, how we need those
voices in the Church today that will speak for God and challenge the leaders to
stand before Him, serve Him, minister to Him, and burn incense (pray,
intercede) to Him. The Church today also
needs cleansed from the filth and uncleanness that has polluted it. Many of its leaders need to sanctify
themselves before the Lord to get back to the pure Gospel message that Jesus
and the Apostles taught and preached. They
need to return to the foundation principles of godliness: repentance from dead
works, faith toward God, the doctrine of baptisms, laying on of hands,
resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment (Hebrews 6:1-3).
In
16 days the House of God was cleansed along with the altar and the table of
showbread. All of the utensils used in
the service of the temple were also replaced and consecrated. It was then that the priests were able to
offer to God the sacrifices for the cleansing of the people and of the nation.
Next,
Hezekiah announced that they would observe the Passover feast that had not been
observed for a great many years. God had
commanded that this feast day be celebrated as a reminder of the redemption
that God had wrought in Egypt. Under
Moses, God saved them from the death angel by the shedding of the blood of the
lamb and placing it on their doorposts and lintels. They were marked for judgment, but the angel
passed over them when he saw the blood.
Sound familiar? The blood that
Jesus shed for us as the Lamb of God has caused us to escape the judgment that
was rightfully ours.
Hezekiah
not only called on the children of Judah to keep the Passover, but he sent out
letters to the remnants of tribes of Israel to come and return to the true
worship of their fathers. In the
letters, Hezekiah wrote, “Ye children of
Israel, turn again unto the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will
return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of
Assyria. And be not ye like your fathers,
and like your brethren, which trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers,
who therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see. Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers
were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into His sanctuary, which
He hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness
of His wrath may turn away from you. For
if ye turn again unto the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find
compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again
into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not
turn away His face from you, if ye return unto Him.” (2 Chronicles
30:6-9). Unfortunately, many scoffed and
mocked the messengers, but there were also those who humbled themselves and
came to this call to repentance. It is a
valuable lesson for us to learn that even among those who have turned from the
Lord, there are those who simply need to be shown some compassion and offered
an invitation to return to the Lord.
“After these things, and the
establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into
Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for
himself.” ( Chronicles 32:1). Notice especially the words “After these things, and the establishment
thereof…” This indicates that God
waited for Hezekiah to enact his reforms on Judah before allowing Sennacherib
to come and besiege the city of Jerusalem.
If Hezekiah had not shown a passion to return to the Lord and lead his
people back to true worship, I believe judgment would have fallen on them as it
had upon Israel. However, the King stood
in the gap for his people, and God honored that. Oh, how we need leaders in our age who will
stand in the gap and intercede for God’s people! We need those who will ward off judgment by
leading the people to repentance, sanctification, and faith toward God.
Hezekiah,
the King of Judah, was in dire straits.
King Sennacherib of Assyria was determined to besiege the city of Jerusalem and defeat the
Kingdom of Judah just as he had defeated many other kingdoms across the Middle
East. This King of Judah was wise,
however, and not one to sit on his hands when there was something he could
do. He first stopped up the waters of
the fountains which were outside the city walls so that the enemy would not
have ready access to water for his troops.
Hezekiah then repaired the sections of the walls that were broken down
and built a second wall in front of those while also strengthening the Fortification
of Millo in the old city. The King also
had darts and shields and other weapons made in abundance for the siege. He then encouraged his army saying, “Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor
dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him:
with him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to
fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of
Hezekiah king of Judah.” (2 Chronicles 32:7, 8).
It
is important for us to remember that if we trust in the LORD our God, then the battles
that we face in life are not our battles, but His. If we are determined to stand for God, He
will defend us! We stand by faith and
not by sight. It is not natural might or
power that determines victors: it is the Spirit of the living God! (Zechariah
4:6).
Sennacherib
sent messengers to Jerusalem to demand that it surrender while he and the
strength of his force besieged the City of Lachish. The messengers railed on the God of heaven,
boasting of how they had defeated other nations whose gods were powerless to
help them, and asking how they thought that their
God would be able to resist an Assyrian assault. Hezekiah had no answers of his own to combat
the barrage of insults and lies that the servants of the King of Assyria
leveled at them, but Hezekiah trusted in the LORD. He sent some of his men to Isaiah to see if
he had a word from God for him. God
indeed had a word. He said, “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. 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.” (2 Kings 19:6,
7).
Things
that were occurring elsewhere forced the armies that besieged Jerusalem to
withdraw, but the messenger of Sennacherib sent Hezekiah a letter which said, “Let not thy God in Whom thou trustest
deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the
king of Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard
what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly:
and shalt thou be delivered?” (2 Kings 19:10, 11).
All
of these events, from the time that Hezekiah ascended the throne of Judah, to
this letter sent to intimidate and paralyze him and his people from resisting
the enemy, were leading to this one act of faith by Hezekiah. Of all the ways in which the King could have
reacted, he chose the one thing that would make all the difference in the
world: “…Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD, and spread it before
the LORD.” (Isaiah 37:14).
God
is looking for those who will bring all of life’s choices and all of life’s
difficulties to Him in faith, relinquishing the control of their lives to God -
lock, stock and barrel. The Apostle Paul
writes, “Let us therefore come boldly unto
the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time
of need.” (Hebrews 4:16). It is
there, at God’s throne, that earth-shaking and life-changing things are
decided. It’s where we lay down our will and embrace the Father’s. It’s where we acknowledge God’s sovereignty
over us, surrender our control, and focus our faith in Jesus Christ.
When
Jesus was in Gethsemane, He anguished over the task that lay before Him. His spirit wanted to fulfill the will of God,
but His flesh desired to be delivered.
As He sweat great drops of blood, He prayed these words to His Father, “…if Thou be willing, remove this cup from
Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done.” (Luke
22:42).
Like
Jesus, King Hezekiah had done everything to prepare for whatever might happen
next, but it was this final act of surrender that God was waiting to see in His
servant. Hezekiah was capable of making
a decision, to be sure; but was he willing to let God direct his next move?
Hezekiah
prayed this prayer to God, “O LORD our
God, I beseech Thee, save Thou us out of his [Sennacherib’s] hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may
know that Thou art the LORD God, even Thou only.” (2 Kings 19:19). Hezekiah understood that placing his faith in
God and allowing Him to work according to His purpose would not only benefit
the King’s people, but witness to the world that He was God almighty. Our faith and our witness always have a
broader effect on those around us than what we realize. When we talk to someone about the Lord, there
are often others around us who are listening and are affected by what they
hear.
What
if Hezekiah had not sought God’s will for his own life choices? What if he had not commanded the priests and
Levites to sanctify themselves before their God? What if the King had not opened the doors of
the temple, or had the Levites cleanse the filth and corruption from within
that holy place? What if he had not had
the other altars that were built by his father for pagan gods destroyed or
proclaimed a Passover so that the people’s sins could be atoned by an
acceptable sacrifice? I believe that if
none of these things had been done then God would have let the King of Assyria
have his way with Judah and with the Holy City.
When
Hezekiah had laid Sennacherib’s letter before the LORD and prayed, then God
answered through the Prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah sent these words from God to Hezekiah: “
“Thus saith the LORD God of Israel,
That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have
heard. 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. 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...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. By the way that he came, by the same
shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. For I will defend this city, to save it, for
mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.” (2 Kings 19:20-23, 32-34).
The
result of Hezekiah’s prayer and of his reliance on God was this: that very
night the angel of the LORD went out and killed 185,000 soldiers of
Sennacherib’s army. The King of Assyria
was forced to return to his capitol at Nineveh where he was slain by two of his
own sons as he was worshipping in the temple of one of his pagan gods.
We
may all face crises in our lives at one time or another. How we handle those crises will be determined
by how we have ordered our lives before God up to that point. If we build our house on the sand like the
man Jesus spoke of in Matthew 7:24-27, then the storms and floods of life are
going to wash away our foundation. Our
house will fall. If we build our house
on the Rock that is Jesus Christ, however, then our foundation will remain firm.
Our house will endure.
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