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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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 house tops, 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. 2 Kings 19 KJV
It's hard to picture this in our day, being in grief over the offense made to God. Our world would rent it's clothes over a soccer game, everyone screams about their own rights and honor, often in disregard and to the opposition of the rights of others. He sends his messengers to Isaiah, desirous of the prayers of the prophet whom God has regarded. They are dressed in sack cloth too, as they represent their king. He is not in need of fine robes to go before God, as God is not impressed as easily as men. It is a day of distress, the water has broken, and she has no strength left in her to push. We are surrounded, the outer cities of Judah have been taken, only this remnant of Jerusalem remains. I have been rebuked, my people, and we are not without mistake, not without sin, but this invader has also blasphemed the living God. I would like to avenge the name of God, but I haven't the army, as this invader also points out. Those who do not regard prayer do not regard God, and to know a prayer warrior, is to know true change, that here I am, this is what has been said, I am at my wits end, I leave it here with you, Thy will be done, not mine, but Thy will be done, You be glorified in this.
So now, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has." Job 42:8
Here is humility in that, God, if you do not intervene, I can do nothing but lose, noble or not, it will be my last breath. "Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard." This servant of the king of Assyria has blasphemed Me. Hezekiah explains the situation, does not ask for it to be handled in a particular way here, he says basically that this is what happened and we are weak. God tells him what He will do, that He will blast him and send him away with a rumor, and that he will die in his own land. God can defend His own honor, He knows the situation before you pray, you need to pray. Now word does come to the Assyrians that the king of Cush is coming after them, and so he wants to press one more time upon Jerusalem, to have their unconditional surrender. He sends a letter to Hezekiah, not to be deceived by his God, don't listen to the prophets if they convince you that you will not fall, that God will save you. Look again, I have walked over all these other gods, destroyed these other kings, just give up. It is said that we have an accuser that is constantly bringing up only part of the story, begging that we give up without a fight, but we should not forget that we also have this advocate with the Father, and that is Jesus Christ the righteous. Like Hezekiah, I know I am not right in myself and if anyone should call me out as a sinner, I will not deny it, nor will I try to stand on my own works, but my hope is in, and I am found in, the righteousness that is by faith in Christ alone. God please save us, for You alone are God, the Creator, please bow down Your ear from heaven and hear my prayer, for I am low, let them all know that You alone are God. Isaiah sent him word that God had heard his prayer. Hezekiah had already received an answer, but he was wise not to respond so quickly to the letter. This will be for God to respond. As the daughter is protected in her father's house, so will be Jerusalem, she shall shake her head at thee and rest assured of her safety. God even goes deeper in His response, he lays out what is in men's hearts, what they probably say around the fire. Look at the might of my hands which are really the hands of so many others, but look at our numbers, our chariots. I have crossed over mountain ranges, dug wells and dried up the waters that fed cities during my siege. Look at me, the "great king." Pride does take us too high, where the air is so thin, and our minds are too warped, ill fed. You fool, you talk of things done with large armies and many slaves, damming up streams, to the God who hath parted both the Jordan and the Red Sea. This is God you approach in arrogance, pleased with yourself that you have burned up idols, who have no power, funny though, since this is God Who will have no other gods before Him. You have been made by Him, allowed to carry out justice, destroy idols, but you speak what you do not know, and you pat yourself on the back. You think you're this great ox, this behemoth, Leviathan? Well then come forth, and I will put a hook in your nose and a bridle in your mouth, and turn you back the way you came.
Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.[a]
11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength[b] of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works. Psalm 73
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