Hezekiah's Prayer and Answers (Isaiah 37:1-38)
Rev. Myung-Sin Choi
“1 And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 3 And they said to him, ‘Thus says Hezekiah: 'This day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.' 5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 And Isaiah said to them, ‘Thus shall you say to your master, 'Thus says the Lord: ‘Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7 Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.’ 8 Then the Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish. 9 And the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "He has come out to make war with you." So when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 ‘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.’ 11 Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?' 14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. 15 Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying: 16 ‘O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17 Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. 18 Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, 19 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands--wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them. 20 Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord, You alone.’ 21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him: ‘The virgin, the daughter of Zion, Has despised you, laughed you to scorn; The daughter of Jerusalem Has shaken her head behind your back! 23 ‘Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice, And lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. 24 By your servants you have reproached the Lord, And said, 'By the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, To the limits of Lebanon; I will cut down its tall cedars And its choice cypress trees; I will enter its farthest height, To its fruitful forest. 25 I have dug and drunk water, And with the soles of my feet I have dried up All the brooks of defense.' 26 ‘Did you not hear long ago How I made it, From ancient times that I formed it? Now I have brought it to pass, That you should be For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins. 27 Therefore their inhabitants had little power; They were dismayed and confounded; They were as the grass of the field And the green herb, As the grass on the housetops And grain blighted before it is grown. 28 ‘But I know your dwelling place, Your going out and your coming in, And your rage against Me. 29 Because your rage against Me and your tumult Have come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back By the way which you came." ' 30 ‘This shall be a sign to you: You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, And the second year what springs from the same; Also in the third year sow and reap, Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. 31 And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, And bear fruit upward. 32 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, And those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. 33 ‘Therefore thus says 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 build a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, By the same shall he return; And he shall not come into this city,' Says the Lord. 35 'For I will defend this city, to save it For My own sake and for My servant David's sake.' 36 Then the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses--all dead. 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. 38 Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.”
Introduction
There was an earthquake in Turkey and 25,000 people died as a result. If you look at these video clips, many of the people in Turkey were praying to and screaming out the name, “Allah.” I feel like when the end times come, this is what will happen; many natural disasters will happen. When you look in the book of Revelations, they say that 1/3 of the world population will die. Imagine the amount of chaos that will occur when this happens. When this occurs, I am sure many people will cry out to their god, asking their god to save them. The important thing is when this happens to us, what kind of attitude will we have? Even if we succeed or the wealth that we achieve, none of that will matter when these things happen. What is important is what we live for and what we hold onto is. We read today’s main Biblical scripture and back in the day, during the days of the reign of King Hezekiah, a great crisis occurred. During that time, Assyria conquered many regions but Rabshakeh from Assyria came and threatened Judah. We read last week that King Hezekiah commanded the cupbearers of Judah not to respond to the cupbearer of Assyria. We also saw that the cupbearers of Judah tore off their clothes in anguish when they heard the words of Assyria.
1. Hezekiah's Restoration of Faith
1) Hezekiah's repentance
Verses 1-4 - When King Hezekiah heard the words of the cupbearer, he tore off his clothes and went to the temple of God. King Hezekiah tore off his royal robe and wore a sack cloth. This means that King Hezekiah was putting down his role as king and was coming before God in humbleness. This means that King Hezekiah was coming before God as a sinner. His heart was so much in anguish and he came before God with his heart. He entered the temple of God and repented before God.
Verse 2 - All of the high officials of Judah tore off their clothes and wore a sackcloth. When your parents die in Korea, they would take off their clothes and put on a sackcloth. It was a dressing robe and dress code for a funeral. This means that they were confessing before God that they were sinners and they are dead. After they changed their clothes into sackcloths, King Hezekiah commanded his three cupbearers to go to Isaiah. This was because Isaiah was always in a place of 24 hours with God and was always in a close relationship with God. This was because Isaiah had an answer. King Hezekiah knew this. We need to become someone like Isaiah. When people have problems, we need to become people so that people can come to us to find their answers. Isaiah was a person of prayer and was inside of God’s word constantly.
Verse 3 - They were in a midst of great conflict and crisis, and they could feel the wrath of God. They were facing this crisis because of God’s wrath because they were in disbelief and made God angry. They were facing shame and mockery because of God’s wrath. This was what they meant, when they wanted a child but had no strength to give birth. This means that they had no power and were in powerlessness. They had no spiritual power left. This is the spiritual walk of faith that they were having so that is why they came before Isaiah for help.
Verse 4 - The three cupbearers were having a problem and failed to rely on God, and they knew that God was listening to the words of Rabshakeh. They were acknowledging that God is alive and heard the words of Rabshakeh. They were asking to find God’s plan and through their prayers and pleas, they were asking for an answer from God. When Isaiah heard this, he prayed to God and received an answer from God, and gave them a reply.
2) The answer that Isaiah received
Verses 6-7 - God was saying that He knew everything that was happening and assured the cupbearers to not be afraid. This was what Isaiah was told by God.
God told Isaiah His plan in verse 7 - God said that He will put His spirit in the king of Assyria, which means that God’s spirit of judgment will fall upon the king of Assyria and eventually be destroyed. When the cupbearers heard the answer of God, the spirit of God started working immediately.
Verse 8 - Rabshakeh was supposed to receive some kind of uproar or response from King Hezekiah but heard nothing. All King Hezekiah did was stay silent and entered into the temple of God. Rabshakeh was supposed to receive some kind of response but he kept waiting but heard nothing so he returned back to Assyria with nothing to report.
2. Hezekiah's Prayer
1) Mockery from King Sennacherib
Verses 9-12 - You could see how God was working in verse 9. The king of Ethiopia was coming towards Assyria to fight a war against them. This was the report that King Hezekiah received. This was the answer that they received from God. We can see the work of God working immediately after Isaiah prayed to God. As I told you last time, a long time ago, Ethiopia had conquered the land of Egypt. King of Ethiopia was a young king, a 20 year old, who commanded that he would attack the Assyrian army. The king of Assyria was on his way to conquer and fight Judah but he changed his direction completely when he heard that the king of Ethiopia was coming towards them to fight them.
Verse 10 - The king of Assyria was still trying to deceive the people of Judah and continued to tell them that their God of Judah will not save them. We can see that the king of Assyria was looking at God at the same level as the other gods of other nations.
2) Hezekiah's prayer is answered
Verses 14-20 - The moment King Hezekiah received this letter, he was so angry that he entered into the temple of God with this letter in verse 14. He was in so much anguish, that he took the letter from Assyria into the temple of God and entered into sincere prayer. From this, we should see how we should pray as we look at how King Hezekiah prayed. What kind of prayer did King Hezekiah have that he received such tremendous answers?
The first answer is seen in verse 16 - King Hezekiah first started his prayer with confessing God as “His God” and was glorifying and praising God as the most powerful God. Then he continued to confess that God was the God who was between the clouds of the cherubim. What were the clouds of cherubim referring to?
We can see in Exodus 25:22 “And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.” - This is referring to the inner sanctuary in the temple of God, which no one could enter. At the temple of God, there was the covenant of God, the ark, and the angels’ wings were covering it. This is referring to the clouds of cherubim. This is showing that God is alive and the almighty God. King Hezekiah was acknowledging the great presence of God. This was what King Hezekiah confessed. This means that King Hezekiah who was in the temple of God, was acknowledging that the great presence of God was there, in the temple of God where King Hezekiah was at. He was acknowledging that the Almighty God was with him at that moment. Where is God? God is within us. God lives inside of us. We possess the status where we can enjoy the power of the heavenly throne. We are such precious beings. Who is this God? This God is the God who is present in the clouds of cherubim. He is the God who is the one and only true God, and the other gods of this world are fake. The only God that he must praise and worship is God alone. Who is this God? He is the God who is the Creator. He is the Creator who created the entire universe and is the almighty. He is the God who is in control of all things. This was what King Hezekiah was confessing in his prayer to God.
His second prayer was in verse 17 - Who was the God that kIng Hezekiah believed in? He is the God who hears and sees all things. This was what King Hezekiah was confessing. King Hezekiah was pleading to God to hear, which means that King Hezekiah was pleading to God to hear all of the mockery that was going against God. King Hezekiah was telling God to see His mockery in this letter from Assyria.
Verses 18-19 - Assyria was a land that was destroying all nations. Assyria was a powerful nation that was destroying nations but their gods were made out of rocks and stones, and things from this earth. Their gods were not true gods. Their gods were made out from the hands of man. This was what King Hezekiah was saying. Their idols were nothing but a creation from man’s hands. This was what Assyria was worshiping. They were under the influence of Satan. Everything is laid to waste because of this wicked nation, Assyria.
Verse 20 - God is the true and only God so King Hezekiah was pleading with God to save them. Only God could save them so King Hezekiah was praying to God to save them. The last prayer of King Hezekiah was giving glory to the name of God. He was confessing that all of the world will know the name of God through this prayer and event.
3. God's Answer
1) God's judgment
Verses 21-38 - God gave an answer to King Hezekiah. You can see the answer that he received in verse 22. From here, this is talking about Assyria. Assyria will end up in destruction and mockery. Through the land of Judah, Assyria will be seen in pitifulness.
Verse 23 - Their mockery and blasphemy was not against the land of Judah but it was against God. This was what God was telling King Hezekiah. What Assyria was proud about and increased their ego, God said that he will destroy all of that. God commanded that he will destroy them by drying up the river of Egypt.
Verse 26 - God said that He was the one who gave Assyria this power and status. He gave Assyria the power to conquer nations and lands.
Verse 28 - God gave them power but they used their power to mock and blasphemy against Him.
Verse 29 - God was saying that He will return them back to their original state, nothingness and emptiness.
Verse 35 - God will never lose His glory against any idol or god of this world. God will remember and fulfill His covenant. God will protect His covenant no matter what.
Verse 36 - God heard the prayers of King Hezekiah and completely demolished the land of Assyria in a blink of an eye. The moment God heard the prayer of King Hezekiah, in one night, God destroyed the land of Assyria.
Verse 37 - The king of Assyria barely survived the judgment of God and returned back to his homeland, Nineveh.
Verse 38 - The god that king of Assyria worshiped so dearly, he reported to his god what Judah did to him and asked for help. This god that king of Assyria was proclaiming as the most powerful God, he was pleading for help. When God saw this, God sent the king of Assyria’s own sons to kill the king of Assyria. The god that the king of Assyria arrogantly worshiped, this god couldn’t even help the king of Assyria in the end at all. This shows that what God commanded was fulfilled in the end. The king of Assyria was killed by his own sons. This shows God’s prophecy being fulfilled. This shows that when we pray, God hears all of it and will fulfill it no matter what. Our God is alive. Even now, our God knows all of our thoughts and hearts. How can we save those who are in darkness? We need to receive the answer of 25 hours.
2) 25-hour prayer that heals the world
Verse 19 - What was what the king of Assyria didn’t know? The king of Assyria didn’t know that they were being enslaved and conquered by Satan by worshiping these idols. What people and leaders of this world don’t know is that they are being deceived by Satan. There are so many people who worship stones and rocks. They don’t know that they are being controlled by Satan when they worship these gods.
Isaiah 36:19 “Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand?” - You can see the mockery towards God here. Satan always tries to mock God. Satan’s work is to conquer people with darkness and the ideology of the age of Nephilim. We must heal and save our leaders.
Verse 26 - People and nations of this world think that they gained all things because of their own efforts and power. But it is God who allows all things and is in control of all things. Things cannot happen without God’s permission. They receive all of that because God has allowed it. We must realize and know this.
Conclusion
Who does God use? Acts 9:15 “But the Lord said to him, 'Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.” - The king of Assyria and the land of Assyria were used primarily as a rod against the land of Judah. But Apostle Paul was used as a chosen vessel of God to save mankind and people of this world. May we receive this blessing so that we can save this world and the people around us.
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