JOY "His Sovereignty" January 26

January 26, 2011
The Only God
Isaiah 40:1-48:22

"His Sovereignty"
I. God is Greater than Our Circumstances 40:1-31
II. God is Greater than Our Fears 41:1-44:28
III. God is Greater Than Our Enemies 45:1-48:22

There is a man who gave his professional business to the Lord. He had hassled over over it for many years. He had wrestled with it and fought for and over it, for more than 2 decades. One day he decided, "I've had it; that's enough!" He had heard from his pastor, that Sunday morning, about the value of turning his entire business over to God. It was when he drove away from church that he decided that he had worried enough about. By the time he got home, he had totally and unequivocally committed his business to the Lord.
That very same night, his place of business caught on fire. He got an emergency call and then he drove down to the building, that housed his business. He just stood, calmly the street and watched it go up in flames. But, the whole time, he had a small, secretive smile on his face, which prompted one of his colleagues to run up to him and question his relaxed attitude, in spite of what was happening. "Man, don't you understand what is happening to you----everything you have worked for all these years, is going up in smoke!"
The man's reply was classic, "Fred, I know exactly what is happening, but it is ok, because this morning, I gave this company to God, it belongs to him, lock, stock and barrel-----and if He wants to burn it up, then that is His business.
Understanding and accepting God's sovereignty, happens, when we are able to take from God's hand, absolutely anything, that He chooses to give us, all the while, looking up, into His face, in love and trust----even in thanksgiving----  knowing that the confines of the hedge, that He has placed us in the middle of, are good, even perfect, no matter how painful they might be, simply because God himself, is the one who placed us there.

His Sovereignty:

The next 26 chapters of Isaiah, which we're going to study, are going to bless our hearts! We are going to bask in the love and blessing and protection and mercy and glory and goodness and provision and hope and holiness and the fulfilled promises of God. But before we can really appreciate the reality, of the truth of these passages and the relevancy of them, to our modern-day lives, and the assurance, that the same promises that God spoke then, have not changed in all the generations since, and the beauty of His words etched into our hearts and minds permanently, in the same way a tattoo artist etches insoluble ink into a person's skin-----I think we need a lesson on the sovereignty and the supremacy, of God.
Because the truth is, if we don't recognize that God is greater than our circumstances and greater than our fears and greater than our enemies and greater than our joys and greater than anything this world has to offer, good or bad-----then we will never be able to know Him, in the way that He wants us to, and we will fall, way short, of the blessings of His kingdom, which, He desires so fervently, to give us, right now.

In one of his letters to Erasmus (the great, scholarly priest who wanted to reform the Catholic Church from within, rather than breaking away from it………) Martin Luther said, "Your thoughts of God are too human…" Erasmus, the great, learned man, that he was, probably resented that kind of rebuke coming from Martin Luther, who was just a miner's son. But it was the truth, then, and its is the truth now! Those men lived in the 15 century, so you would think, that, with all our modern technology and all the millions of books that have been written to explain the scripture and all the "wisdom" that we think our education has broadened our minds to, that we would be smart enough to know and understand and embrace the truth, that God is God and that we are not-------and that He, alone, is beyond anything that has ever been created, especially human beings. Unfortunately, we seem to prefer the vast majority of our preachers and teachers, today, to be like Erasmus------instead of being blinded by the glory of God and falling down on our faces to worship him, we sit back and accept teaching that places Him in the pew beside us. (Last week, I was here at church, in the Family Life Center, at my nephew, Oliver's, 4th birthday-----it was time to go, so everybody was filing single file out the door------I was the last person, because I had the key to lock up------I was in silly mood, (after just being with 16--- 4 and 5 year olds) so I was saying good-bye to everything------"bye lights, bye bikes, by walls, bye tables,------and the last thing I said, with a wave, was, bye God." I wasn't really even thinking, I was just being silly. The daddy in front of me, turned around and laughingly said, "I thought He was going with us!" We laughed but  you know, it startled me---it bothered me that I had said it and I didn't know why it bothered me (because I was just playing) until I did this lesson and I realized 2 things about what it was that bothered me, about my behavior: 1.)that I had placed God on the same level, as those inanimate objects. 2.) that I had treated God with such a casual disrespect, in front of a group of parents and small children, that I don't really know and that I have no clue, of where any them stand spiritually).
Most of us, along with the majority of the people in the world, both believers and non-believers, do not really understand who God is-----we think we have a real appreciation for His majesty and His supremacy and His sovereignty, but it is hard for us-------because we live in the United States of America--the greatest democracy in the world--------a country that is ruled for the people, by the people----a country that offers the American Dream and the promise of success to anyone who will work hard----- and we are proud of that fact---as we should be-------but it gives us a false sense of who we are and who God is.
It is right that we see God, as our heavenly Father, who is available for us to talk to 24/7------and it is right for us to see the Holy Spirit as our comforter and our teacher and our guide, who is available, for us to turn to 24/7 and it is right that we see Jesus, as our Savior and our Redeemer and brother and our friend, who is available for us to rely on 24/7-but it is not ok, for us to ever forget, that all 3 of them were present and accounted for and the sole force behind it all, when the world was spoken into reality and when Adam and Eve were formed with God's own hands and were given life with His own breath and were granted a soul in His own image, all by His divine will.
Unfortunately, way too often, we just a catch a glimpse of who God is, so that we can't fully appreciate the privilege and blessing that we have been given, to know our God, because we allow our focus to be taken off of Him and we put it on ourselves----- we don't realize that every word of scripture and every pause between the words, gives an accounting, of our Almighty God. We need to search the scripture and get to know our God. I love what 2 Samuel 7:22 says --and I love the poetry of how it is is written in the King James version----- "Wherefore, thou art great, O Lord God; for there is none like Thee, neither is there any God beside Thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears." 

In Psalm 50:21 God says, "these things you have done and I kept silent; you thought that I was altogether like you, but I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face." He was talking to the Israelites, but God could say the same thing about us-----because we don't really know Him like we should. We think that the Lord is moved by sentiment and feelings instead of righteous principle. I'm afraid that we don't really trust His omnipotency and His omniscience and His omnipresence( even though we say we do and we want to), so we find ourselves living in fear, that satan can usurp God's authority anytime that he wants to. My friend Cathy, was talking the other day, about how our plans sometimes are like moving targets, they're subject to change, at a moments notice. Too many of us see God's plan, in that same way, we think that it is subject to change. God's plan is God's plan---and it will happen in the exact way that He has designed for it to happen, when He has decided that it will and it is perfect and it will always bring blessing to those who believe and wrath to those who don't.  We also think, that if we acknowledge the power of God, that we will lose our free will and that God will be able to use us, just like a puppet-master uses his dolls. But that is just pride on our part-------God designed us with free-will, from the very beginning----so that we would freely choose to get to know Him, so that we could live in a face-to-face relationship with Him. He doesn't want to have to make us do His will-----He wants us to want to do it. He is a gentleman, He never forces us to do anything.
How much sweeter is it when someone lets us know that they love us by words or actions, without us having to ask them, if they love us or without us having to to bribe them or guilt them, into doing something for us. And the worst thing of all, that we do, is, that we cheapen the Lord's sacrifice on the cross, by treating it like it is a remedy for a cold that we can use if we want to---rather than the great gift to mankind that it is. If we don't know and trust and desire to obey the God that is described to us and made real to us, in the scripture, then we don't know God at all. If we learn the attributes of God and we read the scripture and we start looking for Him, we will find HIm----1st Chronicles 28:9 says "…if you seek Him, He will be found by you…"

The absolute and and universal supremacy and sovereignty of God is plainly spelled out in the scriptures, this is just a few of them:
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1st Chronicles 29:11-12 "Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord is the kingdom; You are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; You are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all." (Notice that this verse is in the present tense------which means that God rules over all things now----not just in the future when He will rule over the new heaven and the new earth)
2nd Chronicles 20:6 "O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand and no one can withstand you." (Before God, emperors and kings and presidents and popes are nothing more than grasshoppers.)
Job 23:13 "But He stands alone, and who can oppose Him." (God is not a make-believe fairy godfather------made up somewhere in the mind of man to explain the ways of nature--He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.)

Job 38:1-41:34 (I want you to go back and read this passage, I don't have time to read it to you----but it is an incredible message from God, to Job, describing who He is----- and when we read this passage we discover, just like Job did, that the greatness of God and the privilege of trusting Him, makes the search for answers to life's problems insignificant and unnecessary.)

Job 42:2  "I know that you can do all things, no plan of yours can be thwarted." ( All that He has designed, He does. All that He has commanded, He perfects. All that He has promised He performs.)
Isaiah 40:12-14 "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of His hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance." (God holds the world in the palm of His hand.)
Isaiah 40: 25-26 "'To whom will you compare Me? or who is my equal?' says the Holy One. Lift your eyes up and look at the heavens: who created all of these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." (If God named each star, how can we not believe that He has named each one of us with names, infinitely more precious?)
Isaiah 40: 28-29 "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding, no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak." (Our weakest moments can be turned into our greatest feats of strength when the Lord is in control.)
Isaiah 45:5-7  "I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting, there is none besides me. I am the Lord and there is no other, I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I the Lord, do all these things."  (There is nothing that is not in God's control.)
Isaiah 46: 9-10  "… I am God and there is no other, I am God and there is none like me I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please." (We can trust that God will keep His promises.)
Psalm 115:3  "Our God is in heaven, He does whatever pleases Him." (He is sovereign over everything because He created all things).
Proverbs 21:30 "There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan, that can succeed against the Lord." (He is wisdom-James 1:5 says "…if anyone lacks wisdom, ask God…"
John 5:17 "Jesus said to them, My Father is always at His work, to this very day and I too, am working." (again this in the present tense-God is still continuing His creative and sustaining work of His creation-the world and everything in it).
John 10:29  "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, no one can snatch them out of My Father's hand. And I and My Father are one."   (Once we are saved, we are always saved-we are secure in the hand of the one and only God.)
John 3:16  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him would not perish but would have eternal life." (only the God of Creation would and could do this, to satisfy Himself, for the penalty of sin, so that we wouldn't have to and He has made it available to every person who has ever been born or who will ever be born.)
John 16:33  "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world." (Only God can make this promise and only God can provide this peace.)

God's supremacy and His sovereignty over the works of His hands is vividly depicted in scripture:
Animals, inanimate objects and human beings all bend to the will of their maker,----- and at His pleasure: the Red Sea parted and the waters stood up like they were walls; the battlements and the towers and the thick walls of Jericho tumbled down in an instant; the sun stood still so a battle, Joshua was leading, could be finished; time was turned back to affirm to Hezekiah, that God was in control; 185,000 Assyrian men were killed in one night without a single word; lions mouths were closed, so that Daniel wouldn't be eaten; fire didn't burn them, when Shadrach, Meshack and Obednigo were thrown into the furnace; a virgin gave birth to the son of God, Jesus chose to come to this earth in the form of a man and He chose to stay on the cross to take the full force of our sin, onto His human body and He chose to die in our place and then God chose to raise Him from the dead so that we will be able to live forever; and finally, miracle of all miracles, the Holy Spirit lives in the heart of every believer and through the work of sanctification changes our hearts to be like God's.

J.I Packer once said that "Knowing God, is a relationship that is calculated, to thrill a man's heart." But our hearts can't be thrilled if we don't Him and if we don't trust His absolute , supreme sovereignty. And the truth is--------the more we know Him, the more we will love Him and the more we love Him, the more we will trust Him, the more that we trust Him, the more we will know HIm. So……..

*Do we know that God is merciful? The Lord is compassionate and gracious; He is slow to anger; and He is abounding in love and faithfulness. His great mercy and love, spares us, from the punishment and death that we deserve. Realizing that we are the beloved beneficiaries of God's mercy, is a very humbling place, for us to be in, because when we have a deep awareness of God's mercy, it will strip away all our selfish pride. It is good for us to understand that God's mercy and human pride cannot coexist. God's mercy is greater than all our needs and all our fears and all our doubts and all our pain.

*Do we know that God is our Father? Psalm 27:10 says, "For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up." It is hard to imagine a parent ever forsaking a child, but it does happen sometimes, because there is hatred and evil in the world--------and even those of us who are cherished by our parents, have to come to the realization that every parent forsakes his child at one time or another------ because nobody is perfect and because everybody fails sometimes and there will always be some situation where we will be let down or we will let our child down. And then, there is the worst forsaking of all, losing a parent to death. God says that when we start to realize that our fathers can't perfectly father us, that's when He will speak to our hearts to tell us what has been waiting all of our lives to tell us-------that He can take us up and can hold our hand perfectly, and will never let us go. 

*Do we know that God is Transcendent? Knowing that God is in "heaven" assures us of His transcendence. Just like we can't imagine how far above us the heavens reach, we can't comprehend how far beyond us, that God exists. God said, in Isaiah 55:9, "….as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts"------ and in Acts 17, Paul preached that God is not confined to a particular time and space----that He isn't limited in any way and that He isn't dependent  on anything for His existence. He transcends the world as we know it.

*Do we know that God is Just? God couldn't allow sin to go unpunished. He couldn't just forgive our sins and let His justice go unsatisfied. With the death of Jesus God had devised a plan where both His justice could be satisfied and His mercy and love expressed. We like to say that God loved us so much that He was willing to sacrifice His son for us--which is true! And, that love should lead us to worship and adore Him and then to obey and serve Him-but there is anther side to the cross that we have to keep in mind----God guards His justice so much, that in saving us, it was necessary for Him to sacrifice His son, to satisfy it. If we want to really know God, we have to believe that every aspect of His character is perfect. We have to know Him as holy and righteous and just, as well as loving, compassionate and merciful. This is the marvelous wonder of the Gospel. God's greatest act of love was also His greatest act of justice and they met on the cross. When Jesus said, "It is finished…" He was saying that God's justice had been completely and perfectly satisfied.

*Do we know that God is Loving? As a woman, I love Ocean Isle Beach, Pachabells's Canon in D, chocolate covered oreos, my husband Dale, our 3 children and their 2 spouses historical fiction and my passed-away dog, Freckle. I love someone or something because of what I find in them or what it does for me. God isn't like that though. God loves us, for what He finds of Himself, in us. He doesn't love us because we're good--------He loves us, because He is so unimaginably good, that He loves us even in our sin. He doesn't love us because He detects something appealing in our behavior or in our attitude and it prompts Him to respond to us with love. He is the source of love----so He acts---He doesn't react. He is love, without any motive. Does God love us because we spend time with alcoholics and AIDS patients or go on Mission trips or feed the homeless and the hungry or because we spend an hour in prayer every day? or because we are faithful to our husbands or our boyfriends? The answer is no!
If we believe doing good works is a motive for God to love us, then we don't understand who He is. God's grace tells us that we are only loved for one reason and that reason is….that God loves us, period! Every page of scripture, tells us, that God loves us in a way, that defies human logic and human comprehension and human limitations. That is why we can say, with theological certainty, that God loves us unconditionally, just as we are, not as we should be, because, this side of heaven, we are never going to be what we should be. God loves us in the morning sun and in the evening rain; He loves us in broad daylight and in darkest night; He loves us when we mess up and when we get it right; He loves us without caution or regret. If God stopped loving us, then He would not longer be God.

*Do we know that God is Redeemer? When God created the world, He called it "good". He mourns the evil that is destroying it-----and He plans to restore it to its original "goodness" in His time. God, more importantly though, is the redeemer of mankind-he wants to redeem us so that His image, as it is reflected by Jesus, is restored in us, the way it was originally created to be, in the Garden. 

*Do we know that God is Vulnerable by Choice? Jesus could have called 10,000 angels to His rescue rather than go to the cross. He chose to die purposely. The heart of the miracle of Jesus' vulnerability is because it was chosen. As much as we try to deny our vulnerability we can't escape it. No matter what we do, there will always be a certain amount of pain that we will have to endure because we are imperfect human beings living in a fallen world. But Jesus, is a different story. All power in heaven and on earth is His. At every point, He had a real choice. He could have chosen an easier path; He could have chosen any option that would have been less painful. We should be moved to incredulous awe, when we let ourselves believe the love that was revealed by His chosen powerlessness.

*Do we know that God is Mysterious? God is unsearchable, unfathomable, ungraspable, untraceable, uncontainable and indescribable! Trying to grasp Him is like trying to wire a mini flashlight bulb, to a lightening bolt. But, at the same time, when we read David's word in the Psalms-----as He tried to ponder the imponderable mind of God------we can see all of God's infinite intellect directed toward us and it should swell our hearts with joy------just like it did David's. Psalm 139:17-18 says, "How precious are your thoughts about me, O God!, they are innumerable! I can't even count them, they outnumber the grains of sand! and when I wake up in the morning, You are still with me."

*Do we know that God is Good? When is God good? Contrary to what we might think, God is good when He convicts us of sin, because He wants to sanctify us. God is good when He disciplines us, because Hebrews 12:6 tells us that He disciplines those that He loves. He even sends testings our way, for our good. Deut. 8:16 says, "In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end." God is also good when He prunes us, when He cuts off what appears vibrant, so that we can be strengthened and will be able to bear more fruit. Instead of giving us what we want, God gives us what will change us into pure vessels for His glory. God's goodness is like the sun. There is never a moment when the sun isn't shining; it has to shine--that is why it was created. Its nature is to give off life and heat. From time to time, clouds can obstruct our view of the sun, and the rotation of the earth can keep us from seeing its light, and the seasons can keep us from feeling its warmth, but the sun itself doesn't move or change. Just like the sun doesn't stop shining, even when it is the darkest part of the night, on the darkest day of the year--God's goodness doesn't go away when we face hard times. Even when situations and disappointments cry out to us, that God couldn't possibly be good and still allow bad things to happen, the truth is------God is, has been and always will be, good! His character never changes. His goodness isn't subject to mood swings, favoritism or getting enough sleep. God is always and only------ good!

*Do we know that God is Holy? At the heart of God's Holiness is His unique distinctness. We could never invent the God of the Bible. He is perfect, pure and spotless. Day and night angels continually worship Him. He is called the Holy One, 58 times in scripture.Even the ground is made holy, by His presence.

*Do we know that God is Beautiful? Isaiah said in 53:2 that there wasn't anything beautiful about Jesus appearance--but when we know Him, we can see a new kind of beauty. We can see beauty, in the way that Jesus loved people and in the way that He listened to them. He is beautiful in the way that we can see Him, even today, reach people who are unreachable and touch people who are untouchable. There is an unexpected quality of surprise in beauty----when we come around a corner and are startled by a full moon hanging in the sky, we can be moved to tears by its beauty-----Jesus specializes in surprising us. His beauty, often, takes our breath away.

*Do we know that God is a Servant? We think that we are important and this makes us consciously or unconsciously, expect others, to serve our needs. But when we recognize that the Lord Jesus is a servant of men, ---that He, the King of Glory, humbled Himself, to wash the feet of his disciples, we should be prompted, to fall to our knees, speechless, to worship Him.  

*Do we know that God is glorious?  God's glory is His multifaceted perfection put on display for the whole world to see. It is His incomprehensible love, His infinite hatred of evil expressed in His wrath, His tender mercy, His amazing grace, His love of justice, His boundless wisdom, and His iridescent holiness. God glorifies Himself by exercising and displaying each one of His character traits. And, because we have been redeemed, bought with the price of God's love and Jesus' blood, we are the ultimate testimony to God's great glory.

God's Sovereignty and His Supremacy don't always answer the questions that we face, as we walk through our lives. But as we grow and mature in our walk with the Lord and the more we get to know Him------  why things happen or why they don't, stop being so important-----and the important question becomes---- Who!
Knowing that the words "chance and what-if" are not in God's vocabulary, becomes the chain, which anchors our faith in and to Him. That's when we will come to understand that He really does have "the whole world in His hands" and we will begin to Know Him by His character and the attributes that He reveals and we will begin to trust, that He is weaving our joys and our pains and our successes and our failures, into one beautiful and wonderful tapestry, as He works out His will, in our lives.
 
Author Unknown
"Man's life is laid in the loom of time
the pattern he does not see.
While the weavers work and shuttles fly
till the dawn of eternity.

Some shuttles are filled with silver threads
and some with threads of gold,
While often, all but the darker hues
are all that they may hold.

But the weaver watches with skillful eye
each shuttle fly to and fro,
and sees the pattern so deftly wrought
as the loom moves sure and slow.

God surely planned the pattern:
each thread, the dark and fair,
is chosen by His master's skill
and placed in the web with care.

My life is but a weaving
between my Lord and me
I cannot choose the colors
He works so steadily.

Oft times He weaves in sorrow,
and I, in foolish pride,
forget He sees the upper
and I , the underside.

He knows only its beauty,
and guides the shuttles which hold
the threads so unattractive
as well as the threads of gold.

Not until each loom is silent,
and the shuttles cease to fly,
shall God reveal the pattern
and explain the reason why.

The dark threads were needful
in the weaver's skillful hand
as the threads for gold and silver
for the pattern which He planned.




















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JOY "Crisis in Jerusalem" January 19

January 12, 2011

Isaiah 36:1-39:8

“Crisis in Jerusalem”

I. Assyria Asserts Authority 36:1-22

II. Hezekiah’s Righteousness is Rewarded 37:1-38

III. Talking to God 38:1-22

IV. Focus Failure 39:1-8

Sheri Rose Shepherd is a former Mrs. United States, and she tells the story, in
her book, Life Is Not Dress Rehearsal, of how she came to understand just how
dramatically important prayer is, in the life of every believer.

She was on a plane, en route, to a speaking engagement. It was a long flight, and
she says that she shifted around for awhile, until she could find a comfortable
position to try and get some sleep in. As she tells it---- no sooner had she closed
her eyes, than the Lord started speaking to her. He wouldn’t let her go to sleep.
He kept prompting her to talk to the man in the seat beside her. She felt like
He was telling her that the man had a daughter who was in trouble and that
she needed to talk to him about it. But, Sheri wouldn’t, she refused to open her
eyes and she just kept trying to push the thoughts away, convincing herself that
she was making it up-------because she had never had the Lord speak to her in
that way, before. But just like God kept speaking to little Samuel, until he finally
acknowledged Him, God kept speaking to Sheri, until finally she surrendered
and told Him, “Ok, if this is really you nudging me, God, then I am going to take
a chance, on completely humiliating myself and ask this perfect stranger about
his daughter. (Hezekiah took the same kind of chance, when, in the early days of
his reign, he gathered the priests and Levites together to clear all the idols out
of the temple and to cleanse it from all the impurity that had been allowed to
infiltrate its walls and to consecrate it to the Lord, along with all its furnishings
and to reinstitute the atonement and thanksgiving sacrifices to the one true God-
------and He took the same kind of chance when he sent out the invitation to all
the people in Judah and in Israel to join him in a collective Passover Celebration in

Assyria Asserts Authority 36:1-22
Hezekiah’s Righteousness is Rewarded 37:1-38
Talking to God 38:1-22
Focus Failure 39:1-8

Jerusalem. Any one of those things would have required an enormous amount of
courage.

So, Sheri looked at the man and blurted out, “Excuse me, is your daughter
in trouble? He looked at her like she had 2 heads and then he began to sob.
Eventually, he got control of himself and asked, “How could you possibly know
that?” and then he proceeded to tell her about his daughter who was away at
college and was in trouble. Apparently, she was an innocent young girl, who had
been raped by one of her employers and was pregnant. Sheri listened to him and
then she offered him the truest comfort that she could---- she said to him, “The
best thing that I know to do sir, is to pray. I don’t know what I can say to lighten
your burden, but I do know that when I don’t have the words, God does.” So the 2
of them prayed for the daughter, for the baby, for the employer and for the man
and the rest of his family. As soon as they left the plane, the man called home and
told his wife that that the first thing that they needed to do, was to commit their
lives to the Lord; then they needed to pray together for their daughter; and last,
they needed to go back to church.

6 months later, the man contacted Sheri and rejoiced with her over how prayer
had changed his daughter’s life, as well as his and the lives of everyone in his
family. The daughter didn’t have an abortion; she decided to give the baby up for
adoption. The whole family had given their lives to the Lord and were attending
church faithfully. Prayer had turned one of life’s darkest moments into an open
pathway to God….

(I am sure a lot of you have seen Ted Williams, on the news the last few week. He
was the homeless man, in Columbus, Ohio, with the absolutely beautiful voice,
who was 1st introduced to us on U-Tube and then he was featured on all the news
networks. The 1st time that I saw him, he was on Good Morning America and Matt
Lauer and Meredith Havera were interviewing him. They asked him what made
him think that he could stay on the straight and narrow this time, since he had
been given other opportunities before. His answer was precious---------he told
them that he had prayed for a 2nd chance and that the difference between him
now and him at any other time, was quite simply, the Lord--------that this time he

was acknowledging the Lord, in all his ways-----in every aspect of his life ---- and
that he was going to give God all the glory for his new and changed heart and for
his renewed purpose for living ---and that he knew that that is what would make
the difference between a life of victory and one of defeat.)

Hezekiah found this to be true too, in his nation’s darkest moment and in his own
personal confrontation with death. And we also, can find that God has something
to say and do for us, no matter how bleak, the moment, or the situation appears.
He wants us to trust Him, and talk to Him honestly and openly, about our
darkness. Our prayer life reveals what our relationship with God really is. When
troubled times come, the person of faith will take his personal and emotional
thoughts and feelings to God. Faith begs God to show us what is happening and
why-------- but, faith also acknowledges, that God doesn’t always show us why,
and it helps us to understand that we can still trust, that anything that happens,
no matter what it is, has a perfect fit in God’s plan.

Way too often, we pray only in moments of convenience, when we are scared or
worried—we treat God like He’s a convenience store, we just run in when we’re
really desperate for something. We need the Lord to teach us to pray without
ceasing-----all the time. We need to be in a continual attitude of prayer—talking
to the Lord all day long-------He should be our constant focus-----when He is,
nothing can trip us up; nothing can surprise us. Taking it to the Lord in prayer
should be as natural to us, as breathing.

***************************************

The Book of Isaiah is divided into 2 major divisions----------the 1st section (that
we have already studied) deals with the justice and judgment of God and the 2nd
section (which we’re about to study) deals with His grace and salvation. Chapters
36, 37, 38 and 39, act as a bridge of history, which links the 2 halves together.
There are 4 significant and interesting reasons why theologians believe that these
chapters are important for us to study. 1.)These chapters show how secular and
sacred history, are one and the same and they reveal to anyone, who has eyes
of faith, deep spiritual truths, which average historians would consider trite

and incidental. 2.) For something to be considered a historical fact it has to be
corroborated by 3 sources--------the particular events that we have studied this
week are recorded 3 times, almost identically, in scripture-------- 2nd Kings—18,
19 and 20; 2nd Chronicles 29, 30, 31 and 32 and in these chapters in Isaiah. This
is comforting, I think-------it authenticates the inerrancy of the scripture, to me,
and makes it clear that there is one author of scripture and that author is God,
Himself, even though, He used mere men to hold the pen.

3.) There are 3 incredible miracles recorded in these chapters,

a. The angel of the Lord slayed 185,000 Assyrians in a single night,

b. The sun retreated 10 degrees on the sundial of Ahaz and

c. God healed Hezekiah and extended his life for 15 years.

4.) Hezekiah received 2 important letters-----One he took straight to the Lord
in prayer and the other one he didn’t------going to the Lord in prayer, resulted
in the salvation of his people and not going to Him, resulted in their ultimate
destruction. (this is a valuable lesson for all of us to learn----we need to take it to
the Lord in prayer.)

I.)

It was the 14th year of Hezekiah’s reign and Sennacherib was ready to overthrow
the city of Jerusalem. A serious and critical confrontation was about to occur.
On one side, was the proud and totally ruthless Assyria, who had every military
advantage----they had already annihilated the kingdom of Israel, 10 years earlier-
---- and on their march to conquer Egypt, they had leveled 46 Judean cities---
-Sennacherib expected Jerusalem to be just one more notch on Assyria’s belt.
From a worldly perspective------Hezekiah and Judah seemed to be defenseless;
they were out of all human resources----it was the perfect setting for God to
demonstrate that He was the Sovereign Lord of the world, with total control over
kings and kingdoms; with the power to allow countries to either practice war or to
dwell together in peace.

Assyria Asserts Authority

But Hezekiah was a man of God---2nd Kings 18:5 says that, “there was no one
like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.” Hezekiah
worked hard to lead the people into a great reformation, which enabled Judah
and some people, from the kingdom of Israel, to come back to a real worship
of the one true God. They had put away their idols and restored the temple
services and had sought after God’s blessings. But this didn’t make them exempt
from trouble. Perfect peace and prosperity, were not a guaranteed result of
their wonderful reconciliation with God, and with each other. Christians aren’t
promised that life will be always sunshine and laughter, but we are promised, that
the Lord will walk with us through our trouble. God’s great purpose, in our lives,
is to build godly character. And the main ingredient for this is to trust God, no
matter what.

Former Us Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger, once told the New York
Times, “There can’t be a crisis next week, my schedule is already full.”

The truth is, a crisis will come whether our schedule permits it or not. How do
we handle crises? Warren Wiersbe says, “that what life does to us depends
upon what life finds in us. That a crisis doesn’t make a person; it shows what a
person is made of.” A crisis often comes when we least expect it. A lot of times, it
comes after great success or spiritual blessing. (there is an adage that says, ‘after
the blessing comes the testing’------------this is so true and we need to learn to
expect it, so that we can’t be surprised by it---------and so that we can learn to
trust the Lord through the testing). Hezekiah’s illness, to the point of death, and
Judah’s showdown with Assyria and the unveiling of all the Judean riches to the
ambassadors from Babylon, teach us how to respond to a crisis and how not to
respond to one.

(History tells us of a small crisis that President Calvin Coolidge experienced.
He woke up in his hotel room one night to find a cat burglar going through his
things. Instead of staying quiet or risking even greater danger, by calling security,
he began to quietly talk to the thief. Coolidge asked him not to take his watch
because it had special meaning for him. This made the young man curious
and interested in the president’s lack of fear. As Coolidge continued his calm

conversation, he discovered that the thief was a college student with no money.
As the young thief listened to the president, he began to put everything that he
had stolen, back where he had found it. Coolidge wound up giving him $32 as a
loan, to get back to campus and he made the boy leave the same way that he had
come, so that he could elude the Secret Service. The young man eventually, paid
every dime, of the loan back.) The way that President Coolidge handled himself
in the crisis and the mercy that he extended toward the wrongdoer turned a bad
situation into a good one. The bottom line of dealing with any crisis, is for us to
behave the way that Jesus would behave and the only way that we can really do
that is to take it to Him, in prayer.

The Assyrians were at Lachish, which was about 30 miles southwest of Jerusalem,
when, according to 2 Kings 18:17, Sennacharib sent 3 of his most important
officers to arrange for Hezekiah to surrender Jerusalem, to him. This committee
of 3 was led by the Rabshakeh, which is a military title, not a personal name. In
return, Hezekiah sent out 3 of his leading officials, to meet with them. The place
of their meeting is significant, because it is the exact same location, where Isaiah
had confronted King Ahaz, Hezekiah’s father about 30 years before. Ahaz had
refused to trust the Lord and had made a treaty with Assyria. Isaiah had warned
him that Assyria would not keep its promises and that eventually it would turn on
Judah------ and now his words were being fulfilled.

The Rabshakeh delivered the most arrogant and blasphemous speech, that has
ever been recorded in scripture, because of its blatant ridicule of almighty God.
He also demonstrated his great contempt for the Jewish people and their faith
in their God, because he stood in a prominent place, just outside the walls of
Jerusalem, so that his voice could easily be heard by the defenders on the wall
and the people hiding on the inside—he wanted to scare them so that they would
defy and rise up against Hezekiah, and force him to surrender.

His speech was a masterful piece of psychological warfare, which he used to
discredit and undermine everything that the Jews valued. According to the
Rabshakeh, there was nothing or no one that the Jews could trust, except
Sennacharib and Assyria-----*not their military strategy (they couldn’t trust Egypt

to help them---- Assyria’s army was so big, it could wipe out Egypt in a single
battle; *not their military resources (even though Hezekiah had fortified the city’s
walls, the Jews didn’t have the men, nor the horses nor the chariots to attack the
Assyrians. The field commander, laughingly said, that even if Assyria, itself,
supplied them with equipment, the Jews would be too weak to use it, a He was a
jerk!); *not their king (The Rabshakeh said that Sennacharib was a “great king” but
that Hezekiah was a “nobody”, who was just deceiving his people. The Rabshakeh
tried to entice the Jews away, from trusting Hezekiah’s promise of help from the
Lord, by offering them a comfortable home in Assyria. He knew that the Jews
knew that their farms and their orchards and their vineyards had been ruined by
the Assyrian army and that they was facing a bleak future, even if the Assyrian
army withdrew its troops that very minute. He reminded them that if they stayed
in Jerusalem, they might starve to death. He offered them an opportunity to save
their families, if they would just surrender. But he failed to mention that they
would essentially be slaves in a foreign country; *and he tried to make them
believe that they couldn’t trust their God (he said that trusting God was sure to
fail, because God was already displeased with Hezekiah because he had removed
the altars in the high places and insisted that everyone must worship in Jerusalem.
The Assyrian had no idea that those destroyed altars were pagan shrines! He had
no clue about what it means to worship the one true God. And he intimated that
their God wanted them to surrender to him, unconditionally, by reminding them
that the gods of the other nations that Assyria had conquered had not been able
to protect or deliver those nations-----and that even Samaria had been defeated
and they worshiped the same God as Judah.) This shows us just how foolish and
ignorant the Assyrian commander was----he though Jehovah God was just another
god who could be easily manipulated—one who could be rendered powerless
against the mighty Assyrian machine!

The leaders of the city were deeply concerned about the morale of the defenders
and the common people, who were hearing the Rabshakeh’s propaganda
rhetoric, so they asked him to speak in the common diplomatic language, which
at the time, was Aramaic-------but that just made the pompous little man,
shout even louder, in Hebrew. Remarkably, despite the horrible, blasphemous

demands and taunts---- the people, every single one, remained silent and didn’t
respond. They didn’t utter a word because King Hezekiah had asked them not
to. Jerusalem’s deliverance didn’t depend on her negotiating with the enemy;
it depended on her trusting the Lord. And the people’s silence showed that they
did trust Him. This is valuable advice for us----we need to remember that the only
way that we can really diffuse insolence and ridicule and disrespect, is to remain
silent----when we engage in argument or defense, we only escalate the problem.
(this applies to interaction with children, husbands, parents, friends, enemies,
neighbors, and employers, in church and out of church). We need to understand,
that if we will just turn to the Lord and learn to obey Him, then we’ll find, that we
can trust Him, with every situation that we ever face.

The main truth that Sennacharib and his men underestimated was that God, not
Assyria, was in control. The situation appeared ominous to Hezekiah’s officials.
They were grief- stricken, because of the failed negotiations--------they tore their
clothes, as a sign of their grief, as they made their way back to give their report to
Hezekiah.

II. Hezekiah’s Righteousness is Rewarded

When Hezekiah heard their report--------he also tore his clothes and put on
sackcloth. But he knew what to do about His grief. Being the man of God that
he was, he went to the temple and poured his heart out, on the altar, before
the Lord. He also felt the need for counsel and for another praying voice, so he
sent some of his men to Isaiah and asked him to pray for the “remnant that still
survives” (the people in Jerusalem was just about all that was left of Judah. )
(Isaiah had prophesied in the days of Ahaz, that Assyria would conquer all of Israel
and Judah----- and that Jerusalem would be in hot water, up to her neck, but that
God would deliver her. Hezekiah’s illness had actually occurred, sometime before
the Assyrian assault on Jerusalem and Isaiah had promised then, that Jerusalem
would be delivered)------well, the time had come---and Hezekiah wanted Isaiah to
come alongside him in prayer--------it reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew
28:20, “For where 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name, there will I be also”.

Hezekiah also wanted to hear from Isaiah, a word from the Lord-------(this is

another lesson to us-------in building up our faith and teaching us to trust Him
and giving us comfort and courage and assurance of His constant abiding with us,
God’s Word and prayer always go hand in hand.) The Lord speaks to us through
scripture--------that is why it is so important for us to spend time, every day,
reading the Lord’s word and talking to Him about it.

Although this must have been a time when his faith was severely tested-----
Hezekiah didn’t lean on his own strength and God didn’t forsake him. God will
never forsake us, when we commit everything to Him, even in our darkest hours-
----His promise in Psalm 91:5 says, “He will call upon me, and I will answer him:
I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”God was gracious
to Hezekiah------Isaiah immediately sent a message of hope and assurance,
from the Lord, back to him. His word of encouragement was actually 3 different
assurances, 1.) don’t be afraid, 2.) the Assyrians will depart, 3.) and Sennecharib
will die in Assyria.

When Rabshakeh and the other officials went back to their camp they heard
that the Egyptian army was on its way to help defend Hezekiah (which was just
a rumor, that God had allowed Sennacharib to hear and to believe----it was all a
part of God’s plan to save Jerusalem and to defeat Assyria) Sennacharib didn’t
want to divide his army, to fight on two fronts, so he tried to put more pressure
on Jerusalem to surrender immediately, by sending more blasphemous threats to
Hezekiah, in a letter.

Messengers brought the letter from the enemy camp and Hezekiah read it. Rather
than attempting to answer it Himself, he did exactly what he should have done--
--he took it to the Lord in prayer. Bowing in the Lord’s presence, he affirmed his
faith in the One True God and he worshipped Him and he pleaded with Him to
intervene and save His people. He frankly acknowledged that the fake gods of the
other nations had no ability to save anyone and he professed his confidence in
the living God, who would be the salvation of anyone, who would put their trust
in Him. The conclusion of his prayer is very beautiful and very heart-moving, he
says this, “Now, therefore, O Lord, our God, save us from his hand, that all the
kingdoms of the earth may know that You, alone, O Lord, are God.” God rewarded

Hezekiah’s humble faith and confidence and humility with another 3-fold message
of assurance: 1.) Jerusalem would not be taken, 2.) the Assyrians would depart,
3.) and the Jews would not starve.

Sennacherib was full of pride; pride is the perfect blasphemy, because it denies
the perfect God. Assyria was too blinded by pride to realize that the string of
victories that they had enjoyed, was all a part of God’s plan----that those victories
had been designed to punish and discipline unfaithful people.

The purpose of God is what explains the twists and turns of history. Human
responsibility and divine sovereignty are real and compatible. Hezekiah’s prayer
changed him; it didn’t change God. God’s sovereignty is intertwined with human
responsibility. God used the analogy of a man riding a horse to explain this---- God
told Sennacherib, “I will put my bit in your mouth.” The Lord rides the horse of
history, (which surely is a mare with all it restless energy, according to Lizzie) and
the whole time He is fully in control. Human pride can’t throw Him off.

Hezekiah turned to God in absolute trust and God didn’t let his faith go unmet.
God didn’t handle Assyria by meeting force with force. He was subtle---He flew
in under the Assyrian radar and with a whisper of a rumor, he sent Sennacherib
hightailing it back home, where he eventually (20 years later) was killed by his
own sons, in his place of sanctuary, which was dedicated to his foreign gods.
Then, in that 1 night, the angel of the Lord, moved through the Assyrian camp,
in sight of the walls of Jerusalem, and killed 185,000 Assyrian troops without a
sound. This was recorded almost as an afterthought, because the real truth that
God wants us to see here, is the relationship that He and Hezekiah shared, and
their ability to do serious business together. If we trust the Lord with absolute
faith-------then our relationship with Him can be as secure and as radiant as God’s
glory is.

Do we take full advantage of prayer like Hezekiah did? (Kent R. Hughes says that
a Christian life can be summed up in just 6 words-----“Not knowing where, but
knowing whom.” If we always have to know where and what and when and how,
in advance, then we aren’t living by faith, in God. Living by faith in God accepts

uncertainty without getting nervous, because we know that God is in control. Not
knowing where, but knowing whom----that’s faith.)

The Assyrians continually taunted the Judeans with the question, “In whom do
you now trust?” We always live on the cutting edge of faith, either faith in God, or
faith in something else. And, yesterday’s faith in God belongs to yesterday. Even
though past faith is important to our spiritual foundation, it is more important
that we know who we trust right now! In the struggles that we face right now,
who do we trust? We all come, inevitably, to those moments in life, when nothing
will suffice but what is directly and immediately from God. After we’ve done all
we can and all we should and life still continues to demand more of us---nothing
but God, will answer our need. Whatever the challenge is right now, God is with
us in it. Trust Him; look for Him; He will never fail us.

We need to keep our focus on the Lord, because there are other forces which
cloud our vision of God and complicate our thinking and pressure us not to take
Him at His word. There is always some voice (sometimes it is our own or someone
who loves us) whispering to us, that God is not our resource, but that He’s the
actual problem. That is when the question, before us, becomes both profound
and urgent---- Whose voice will we believe? Whose wisdom will we follow?
Whose hope will we cherish and live for? In whom do we trust?

Right now, 2 worlds exist simultaneously----the world dominated by man and
the higher, eternal world of the creator. The 2 worlds are in conflict. Everyone is
caught up in the spiritual tension between them, whether they know it or not.
The world we live in, tells us, that this life is our only chance for happiness; that
human power is the only reality that counts-that we can only bank on what we
can see right in front of us. That kind of thinking is blasphemous, though. It kills
our sense of who we are as God’s children, put in this world for a higher purpose.
It quenches the Holy Spirit. It reduces us to mediocrity. It has the appearance of
wisdom, but it is a lie. Believers need to understand that there is another way to
live, drawing strength from that higher world. Hezekiah understood it. It is called
living by faith.

What does that mean? It means living as if God really exists and really blesses

anyone who seeks Him. It means living by God’s promises, as the bedrock under
our feet, as everything else seems to be shifting around us. We can’t just say that
we believe, we have to live like we believe. We have to put feet to our faith.

Our lives are telling a story. We are acting out what we believe. And that story is
either pointing to Jesus or it is pointing away from Him. Will we stake our lives on
the truthfulness of God? It is His integrity that is on the line----it isn’t ours------we
don’t need to be intimidated by this world, which tries to make us think that the
spiritual struggle going on around us is about our personal fate. What should be
uppermost in our minds, is the reputation of God in the world. We should live as
His example-----people should see Jesus in us.

(The devotional magazine, “Our Daily bread” on March 9, 1977 gives an account
of a missionary doctor in Zaire. A mother died at the mission while giving birth
to a premature infant. The medical staff tried to save the baby by improvising an
incubator, but their supplies were limited. They needed a hot water bottle. The
children at the mission were asked to pray for the now-orphaned baby and her
sister. Typical of a child’s faith (which should be the faith of all believers), one
little girl prayed: “Dear God, please send a hot water bottle today. Tomorrow will
be too late because the baby will die. And Lord, please send a doll for her sister
so that she won’t be sad.” That afternoon a package arrived from England. As
the children watched, the missionary found a hot water bottle under some of
the donated clothing. The little prayer-warrior shouted, “If God sent that, I know
He sent a doll!” and she was right!) Our God is sufficient for all our needs. He is
never late. Even though all our prayers are not answered quite so dramatically, He
will always respond, in His time. Isaiah 65:24 says, “Before they call I will answer:
while they are still speaking, I will hear.”

III. Talking to God

It is believed by most biblical scholars that Hezekiah’s illness and the visit from
the Babylonian visitors had already happened before the Assyrian invasion.
Both situations seemed to have been learning experiences, which strengthened

Hezekiah’s faith in the Lord and enabled him to trust God, to provide a way, when
there seemed to be no way, in his country’s darkest moment.

Apparently Hezekiah was very ill-----------Isaiah told him to put his house in order
because he wasn’t going to recover. When Hezekiah heard the news he turned
his face to the wall and prayed and wept. Most commentators agree that this
wasn’t an act of anger. Most of us would have reacted in the exact same way.
The best thing about life is our closeness with God and with each other. We don’t
want to die, and God understands this. No matter when we receive the medical-
death verdict, it is always a shock. Hezekiah’s reaction was very normal.

Hezekiah was a relatively young man, only 39 years old-------he must have had
many unfinished plans, plus he had no heir--------he must have been deeply
concerned for the nation and who their next ruler was going to be. He would have
felt, keenly, the responsibility of leaving an heir, from the line of David, to rule
Judah.

He didn’t ask God to spare him because he had been such a faithful servant. He
asked God to spare him so that he could continue to serve God and to complete
the spiritual restoration of the nation. Sure he was concerned about his own life,
any of us would be, but he also had a burden for his people. (One interesting
thing that I discovered is that the OT saints didn’t understand, “that to be absent
from the body is to be present with the Lord”, so Hezekiah would have thought
that His death would have been the end of his relationship with the Lord and
that was frightening to him----he would have had no real concept of heaven-----
-we have the Holy Spirit and the scripture ,to teach us about heaven and we still
feel fear when we are faced with death for ourselves or for someone we love).
Hezekiah’s prayer during his illness was not much of a prayer, but it was all he was
capable of, at that moment. Thank God, that when we don’t know what to pray;
that when all we can do is groan----that’s when the Lord is able to shine the fullest
light of His glory to us and through us.

That is what He did for Hezekiah-------not only did God heal him, but He gave
him 15 (un-asked- for) extra years to live and He promised that Assyria would

be defeated. And, when Hezekiah asked for a sign of confirmation, for the
truth of Isaiah’s words of prophecy, to him, from the Lord, the sign was granted
immediately. The shadow of the sundial went back 10 degrees. No wonder
Hezekiah wrote a psalm of praise after his recovery and no wonder he prayed
with a more robust faith, when he had to face the Assyrian crisis. He had learned
a new humility and had gained a deeper love for God, and a new understanding
of His power and sovereignty. He realized that the Lord was in control of even
his illness and it became a cause for gratitude instead of one of frustration. The
illness gave him the opportunity to experience the saving power of God, not only
in his body, but also in his spirit.

Lessons like this are priceless to us, but often, it is only after we look back, that
we are able to see, that the only way that God could teach them to us, was by
allowing us to suffer. God didn’t spare Hezekiah for Hezekiah’s sake------------God
spared Hezekiah because He wasn’t finished with him yet. He still had a job for
him to do--------- and God used Hezekiah’s illness and recovery, to reveal Himself,
to the then known world, as the God above all Gods, and to us, as the One and
Only God. (There are some theologians who think that Hezekiah was wrong to
ask God to spare his life, because 3 years later his son Manasseh was born and
he reigned for 55 years and was the most wicked king in the whole dynasty. Their
premise is, had Hezekiah died without an heir, that wouldn’t have happened?
But, I believe, with all my heart, there is nothing that happens, that God doesn’t
allow, for a purpose. Plus, there is no guarantee that any other successor, would
have been any better----------------- and Manasseh’s grandson, was godly King
Josiah, who brought the nation back to the Lord, after the Babylonian exile.
And 2nd Chronicles tells us that Manasseh did repent, late in life, and ended his
years, serving the Lord. So,this tells me that it isn’t our place to 2nd guess God or
history.)

It is surprising, after the amazing nature of the sign, to read that the Hezekiah’s
recovery itself, was accomplished by something as mundane as a fig poultice.
But we shouldn’t be surprised------there is no distinction, in scripture, between
miraculous and natural healing. To God, it is all the same. He is as involved in one

as He is the other. He is as much the Lord of the soothing poultice as He is the
God of turning shadows back. Just because God uses medicine, doesn’t make
healing any less of a miracle. (Going back to Ted Williams----we know now, that
he has decided to commit himself to a substance-abuse treatment program----
I don’t think that this in any way, negates what he said earlier about the Lord-I
think that he is still acknowledging the Lord in all his ways and that he is trusting
that this is part of the Lord’s plan to heal him and give him a second chance.)

V.

Babylon coming to visit, was not strange at the time. Babylon was just a little
nation trying to break free from its own Assyrian domination and Hezekiah was
the leader, of the anti-Assyrian coalition, in southern Palestine. At the time,
it made sense for the two countries to ally themselves with each other. But it
happened too quickly and Hezekiah let his guard down, because his pride was
stroked by flattery and gifts. He didn’t consult the Lord at all. He didn’t take it
to the Lord in prayer. He lost his focus-----he forgot that God had just revealed
Himself, in a mighty way, to him through his illness and his recovery. It was
certainly a mistake for Hezekiah to give away too many secrets and to show his
visitors all of the nations’ wealth. But pride can make us do all kinds of things. And
also, sometimes after suffering, it just feels so good to feel good, that we forget to
watch and pray.

We know now, that what seemed to be a good-will mission to Hezekiah, was
actually, a fact-finding mission by a bunch of spies. Hezekiah must have been
shocked when Isaiah reprimanded him for his foolishness and prophesied that
Babylon would be the downfall of Judah in the long-run.

Hezekiah’s response of “the word of the Lord that you have spoken is good, there
will be peace and security in my lifetime,” can be interpreted 2 ways----1.) relief
that Babylon wouldn’t cause trouble in his lifetime or 2.)a humble acceptance of
God’s will. I personally think that it was his humble acceptance of God’s will-------
- because if you go to 2nd Chronicles 32:26 we can see that it says, “Then Hezekiah
repented of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore the

Focus Failure

Lord’s wrath did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.” Hezekiah
humbled himself before God and God forgave him. Even the greatest and most
godly of the Lord’s servants can become proud and disobey Him. We need to pray
for our Christian leaders so that they will stay humble before the Lord. Sometimes
we, ourselves, sin so badly that we are afraid that trusting God or Him trusting
us again, is impossible----------but when we repent and confess our sin, no matter
what it is, God will meet us right at the point of our failure and He will use it as an
opportunity to forgive us and to build our faith beyond our comprehension.

This should be our theme song every day of our lives:

What a friend we have in Jesus; all our sins and griefs to bear; what a privilege
to carry; everything to God in prayer. Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what
needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations; is there trouble anywhere? We should never be
discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer; can we find a friend so faithful? Who
will all our sorrows share; Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in
prayer.

Are we weak and heavy- laden; cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior,
still our refuge; take it to the Lord in prayer. Do they friends despise, forsake
thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer. In His arms, He’ll take and shield thee; thou
wilt find a solace there.

We should always take it to the Lord in prayer!