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- Oct 26, 2007
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"Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: 'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, "Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria." 'Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered? 2 Kings 19:10-11 NKJV
Mockery toward God and His people is nothing new. Centuries before Jesus’ birth, the Assyrian king Sennacherib tried to dishearten Hezekiah with a threatening letter ridiculing the Lord. “Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them?” Sennacherib asked (2 Kings 19:12). Then he listed ten people groups wiped out by Assyria.
Sennacherib’s boasting wasn’t hot air. While praying to God, Hezekiah admitted, “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands” (2 Kings 19:17). But as king of God’s people, Hezekiah recognized a truth that Sennacherib missed. The reason the Assyrians had been so successful was that those nations’ gods “were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands” (v18). The one true God, who had spoken those false gods’ wood and stone into existence, had no reason to fear Sennacherib’s threats.
God saved Hezekiah and Judah from the Assyrian threat. He’ll protect us as well, even if that’s by taking us home to Himself.
Prayer: Lord God, with You on my side, I never need to fear.
Mockery toward God and His people is nothing new. Centuries before Jesus’ birth, the Assyrian king Sennacherib tried to dishearten Hezekiah with a threatening letter ridiculing the Lord. “Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them?” Sennacherib asked (2 Kings 19:12). Then he listed ten people groups wiped out by Assyria.
Sennacherib’s boasting wasn’t hot air. While praying to God, Hezekiah admitted, “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands” (2 Kings 19:17). But as king of God’s people, Hezekiah recognized a truth that Sennacherib missed. The reason the Assyrians had been so successful was that those nations’ gods “were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands” (v18). The one true God, who had spoken those false gods’ wood and stone into existence, had no reason to fear Sennacherib’s threats.
God saved Hezekiah and Judah from the Assyrian threat. He’ll protect us as well, even if that’s by taking us home to Himself.
Prayer: Lord God, with You on my side, I never need to fear.
