“After Hezekiah received the letter and read it, he went up to the LORD’s Temple and spread it out before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the LORD: ‘O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. Listen to me, O LORD, and hear! Open your eyes, O LORD, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God.
‘It is true, LORD, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations, just as the message says. And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But, of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all–only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands. Now, O LORD our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O LORD, are God.'” Isaiah 37:14-20 (NLT)
I’ve been reading in Isaiah for the past couple of days for B90Days. This passage is a part of one of my favorite stories of the Old Testament. It is found in Isaiah and in 2Kings 18-20.
It’s Hezekiah’s story–one of highs and lows, trust and failure, victory and defeat. And an amazing example of how to handle fear.
Normally, I would talk about what I see here, but I want to do something different today. Let’s get some discussion going! In a comment, tell me what you pick up on in this passage regarding the ways that Hezekiah dealt with this very real and imminent fear of being utterly defeated by the Assyrians. (Better yet, read through both Isaiah 37 and 2 Kings 18-20 and tell us what you find!) How does that apply to your own fears?
Have a great week!
What I see is that Hezekiah took his fear, and very real threat, right to the only one who could do anything about it. He verbalized his fear, laid out his helplessness then plead with God to do something! It reminds me of Peter, beginning to sink in the waves, who reaches out and simply says, Save me Jesus!” He took his eyes of the Savior and put them on the fear, and began to sink. Both men bring me good lessons in dealing with fear. I need to lay it out, verbalize it, recognize my personal helplessness, and cry out to Jesus. Even if he doesn’t rescue me out of the situation, he will take the fear out of it.
I like that comparison with Peter. Great points Mom!
The 1st thing I see is his response….’he went up to the LORD’s Temple and spread it out before the LORD”. As much as I would like to say this is the 1st thing I do when faced with fear, in all reality, it is not. I am glad God is still working with and on me!
That is true of me as well! It makes such sense to take it to Him first, but I tend to worry about things before I lay them out before Him.
I think we can learn so much from his response– giving everything to the Lord and praying/pleading before Him. Too many times, we try to take things into our own hands or act impulsively out of fear. Thanks for this! This is definitely something to think and pray about.
Taking everything to the Lord first–I wish I did that every time!
I think we can learn so much from his response– giving everything to the Lord and praying/pleading before Him. Too many times, we try to take things into our own hands or act impulsively out of fear. Thanks for this! This is definitely something to think and pray about.
I see that he is admitting the wrongs that have been done, and proclaiming that God alone is God – and that’s probably something that we should be doing every day!
Yes! Every day proclaiming God is God and coming to Him with whatever is going on!