It was utterly impossible. Impossible. Hezekiah described it as a woman in childbirth who no longer had the strength to deliver (2 Kings 19:3). The cruel, wicked, vicious Assyrians had utterly surrounded Jerusalem and were going in for the kill. Almost 200,000 soldiers for little Jerusalem. No one yet had been able to stand up to them.
Before making any decisions and crumbling before this massive army, Hezekiah sought out the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah tells him not to fear, but that God would give the victory by making the Rabshakeh turn back. And that’s exactly what happened.
But Assyria came back. So Hezekiah went again to the LORD with the letter of threat from Assyria. He spread it before the LORD and prayed:
And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
“It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God” (2 Kings 19:15-19).
God answers through Isaiah and reminds him that Sennacherib’s threats are not against Jerusalem, but rather against the LORD. And that if they will trust in Him, He will deliver.
It is a moment of truth. Will Hezekiah cave in to Assyria rather than risk horrific deaths? Or will He trust the LORD that what he said would come to pass even it was utterly and completely an impossibility?
Hezekiah chose the latter. And that night disease broke out among the Assyrians and 185,000 were struck down by plague. The remaining ones returned back to Assyria, defeated by the LORD God Almighty.
This is such a powerfully rich story and one for me felt more alive when I read the Gods and Kings series (here). But the tension of the moment is powerful.
Such rich things we can learn too.
1) Crisis shows who we really rely and depend on.
2) In the worst crisis, we must look to the LORD and be led by him, even when what he see defies everything we know.
3) When our hope is in the LORD, we don’t trust our eyes. We trust what he is saying.
Undoubtedly Hezekiah was criticized by fearful Jerusalemites. They feared the rape and tortures and awful things Assyria did. But Hezekiah held firm in what the LORD said and because of it, they saw one of the most extraordinary victories in the Old Testament. Truly extraordinary.
Courageous. Faithful to the LORD. Uncompromising.
Truly Hezekiah was one of the greats.
