Broken Kingdoms: WK4 - WED
A Kingdom Under Fire - 2 Kings 19:14–19
14 After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord’s Temple and spread it out before the Lord.15 And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord: “O Lord, 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. 16 Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God.
17 “It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. 18 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. 19 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.”
The letter that King Hezekiah received was from the King of Assyria, who had been laying siege to the known world for some time now. No one was able to stop them. What Assyria was telling Hezekiah was that they were next on their list.
Hezekiah’s response is critical. He doesn’t immediately call his generals together and begin planning how to defend themselves; rather, he went to the temple and prayed.
As part of his prayer, it’s clear that Hezekiah isn’t hiding from the threat, nor is he unaware of how serious it is. He knows what has happened to those that Assyria has conquered. Hezekiah also knows he alone can’t find such a powerful force. He is simply not enough, but he knows the one who is. So he prays.
Hezekiah in this moment reminds me a lot of the story of Nehemiah, after Nehemiah had learned that the city he loved, Jerusalem, was still in ruins. Nehemiah had been weeping, but he also had to do his job, which was the cupbearer of the king. However, to go into the court of the king and not look your best was usually a death sentence. If you didn’t look good and healthy, you were probably poisoned by the enemy, so they’d kill you and get another cupbearer.
But Nehemiah must have been a person of good character, because the king doesn’t do what kings usually do in this moment. The king asked Nehemiah what was wrong. When Nehemiah told him about Jerusalem and his sadness over it’s condition, the king responded by saying, “Well, how can I help you?” The king was basically giving Nehemiah a blank check. How does Nehemiah respond to this incredibly gracious question?
“4…With a prayer to the God of heaven, 5 I replied…” (Nehemiah 2:4b-5a, NLT)
I want to be this kind of person, a person whose first reflex is to go to God in prayer. Instead, and far too often, I try to do what I can to fix a problem, or I immediately begin to worry over all the “what ifs…” But the few times I have been able to go to God in prayer first, God always reminds me first and foremost that He loves me. He then reminds me of how He is always and forever more than able to do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine. Then, in all that, He simply whispers in my ear, “Trust me, I got you.”
Now that doesn’t mean my problems all go away, but it does change how I respond to my problems. It does change my attitude. It does change who I depend on.
So may you and I learn to follow Hezekiah’s lead; may we lean into prayer first, most, always, and see what God does in us whatever happens to the world around us.
14 After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord’s Temple and spread it out before the Lord.15 And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord: “O Lord, 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. 16 Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God.
17 “It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. 18 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. 19 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.”
The letter that King Hezekiah received was from the King of Assyria, who had been laying siege to the known world for some time now. No one was able to stop them. What Assyria was telling Hezekiah was that they were next on their list.
Hezekiah’s response is critical. He doesn’t immediately call his generals together and begin planning how to defend themselves; rather, he went to the temple and prayed.
As part of his prayer, it’s clear that Hezekiah isn’t hiding from the threat, nor is he unaware of how serious it is. He knows what has happened to those that Assyria has conquered. Hezekiah also knows he alone can’t find such a powerful force. He is simply not enough, but he knows the one who is. So he prays.
Hezekiah in this moment reminds me a lot of the story of Nehemiah, after Nehemiah had learned that the city he loved, Jerusalem, was still in ruins. Nehemiah had been weeping, but he also had to do his job, which was the cupbearer of the king. However, to go into the court of the king and not look your best was usually a death sentence. If you didn’t look good and healthy, you were probably poisoned by the enemy, so they’d kill you and get another cupbearer.
But Nehemiah must have been a person of good character, because the king doesn’t do what kings usually do in this moment. The king asked Nehemiah what was wrong. When Nehemiah told him about Jerusalem and his sadness over it’s condition, the king responded by saying, “Well, how can I help you?” The king was basically giving Nehemiah a blank check. How does Nehemiah respond to this incredibly gracious question?
“4…With a prayer to the God of heaven, 5 I replied…” (Nehemiah 2:4b-5a, NLT)
I want to be this kind of person, a person whose first reflex is to go to God in prayer. Instead, and far too often, I try to do what I can to fix a problem, or I immediately begin to worry over all the “what ifs…” But the few times I have been able to go to God in prayer first, God always reminds me first and foremost that He loves me. He then reminds me of how He is always and forever more than able to do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine. Then, in all that, He simply whispers in my ear, “Trust me, I got you.”
Now that doesn’t mean my problems all go away, but it does change how I respond to my problems. It does change my attitude. It does change who I depend on.
So may you and I learn to follow Hezekiah’s lead; may we lean into prayer first, most, always, and see what God does in us whatever happens to the world around us.
- Are you a person who turns to God first, or are you a problem solver, trying everything you can think of and then if not of that works out, you turn to prayer (I too often am the latter)?
- How can we, as a community of faith, help encourage each other to turn to God first, as opposed to trying to fix all our problems on our own?
- What is one thing you need to take to God in prayer right now?
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