Isaiah Lesson 47

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Isaiah: Prophet of the Suffering Servant Lesson 47: Isaiah 37 Pastors Jeff Kliewer and John Lasken

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Alright, welcome, thank you for coming, and let's dive into God's Word, that's what we're here to do, right?
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Amen. Open up the scriptures and be edified by the Word of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to you this morning,
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Lord, we are so thankful that we can open the scriptures and be taught and trained by you,
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Holy Spirit. We ask that you would speak to us, that you would just help us to trust you more, to see your plan, to know that you are in control, and also to learn how to run to you when we're in distress.
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In Jesus' name, amen. So, all of us have had times in our lives where we've had conflict, right?
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Anybody here not have conflict throughout the course of your life? And there are times when somebody will come at you out of left field, right?
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Just out of the blue, just a full frontal attack, swinging, hitting, maybe it's a physical attack more than likely, it's a verbal attack, and you didn't see it coming, and what do you do?
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Well, today, in Isaiah 37, we're going to learn what to do when in that kind of distress.
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When you have an attacker, be it verbal or, in this case, it turns out to be all verbal, but the threat is for physical violence, and yet the
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Lord is the deliverer. Hello, brother. Good to see you. Morning. Did you get my emails? Oh, man, you've been pounding me with emails.
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I thought you might be interested in one of those Marx emails. Oh, those were very interesting, and I do appreciate the emails, but you've definitely been flooding me.
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You've got to get that book, Paul Kangaroo. Yeah, I will do it. You will find it fascinating.
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So today, we're looking at, brother, when the day of trouble comes, run to the
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Lord in prayer, and he will deliver you. So, Dave, would you mind reading first, let's all get to, first of all,
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Isaiah 37. Isaiah 37. This is kind of the historical interlude in the middle of the book of Isaiah, where we hear information about what happened with the onslaught of Assyria to Jerusalem.
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This is when Jerusalem is under siege. We've learned about how Hezekiah is the king.
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The Assyrians have been running everybody over, and you would assume the same fate is going to meet
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Jerusalem than any other country, but it will not be the case, because Isaiah has a
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God who is real. Israel has the true God, and He is not threatened by Assyria whatsoever.
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It's really the other way around, that He, it was God who was wielding Assyria. We learn that in Isaiah chapter 10, that what the king of Assyria intended in his heart was one thing, and what
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God intended was another thing, but it was God who was using Assyria as an instrument, as a rod of His judgment on the nations, and we'll see the same thing today.
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So, Dave, would you mind reading for us? Isaiah 37, 1 -4. As soon as the king
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Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the
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Lord. And he sent Eliakim, who was over at the household, and Shebnab, the secretary, and the senior priest, covered with sackcloth to the prophet
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Isaiah, the son of Amoz. He said to them, thus says Hezekiah, this day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace.
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Children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the
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Lord your God will hear the words of the Resh -shaken, whom
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His master, the king of Assyria, has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the
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Lord your God has heard. Therefore, lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.
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Okay, so, the Reb Shaka, he is like the commander of the army of the
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Assyrians, he's sent by the king, and he's talking trash to the men on the wall. Now, they're instructed, don't answer him, but at first they say to him, what?
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Speak to us in our language, because our people, I mean, in your language, because we don't want our people to hear what you're saying.
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And that was the wrong thing to say, because the Reb Shaka turned it around on them and said, no,
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I want them to hear, too, that your God's going down, Hezekiah's going down, and so he just really verbally is destroying them.
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Now the word goes back to Hezekiah the king, and this is the instruction. Run to the
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Lord in day of trouble. In the day of trouble. We Christians need to learn how to pray, how to go to God with these kind of things, because the battle belongs to Him.
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So, this is a beautiful thing. And verse one, when Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, that's a sign of mourning, that's a good thing here, this is like a, kind of like fasting, it's a cultural form, that they would,
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Job did the same thing, tearing your clothes as a mourning or a lament of what's gone down.
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He covered himself with sackcloth, but here's the very important part, and went into the house of the
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Lord. He ran to Yahweh. And that's a good and safe place to go.
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So, he sends, the second thing he does, is he sends Eliakim to the prophet
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Isaiah. That, again, is an amazing thing and a wonderful thing to do.
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You know that you and I can do the same thing? We can go to Isaiah? Well, wait a minute,
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I thought he's been dead for 2 ,800 years. We can go to Isaiah, because God has preserved these words.
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When you're in a day of trouble, remember what we're learning today. When you're under attack, Isaiah 37.
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Run to Isaiah, to the word of God. God has preserved Isaiah's words for us, and the testimony of what
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God can do when you're under attack. It's powerful. So, they said to him, thus says
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Hezekiah, this day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace. Children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.
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That's a metaphor of a woman in labor, but then running out of strength, and the child cannot be delivered, and she will die in the childbirth.
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It's like that. It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the
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Rabshakeh. So, does Israel here feel like they have any strength to withstand the army? No.
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No, they feel like a woman who's run out of strength in giving birth. They're done. They have no hope in themselves.
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But it may be that God will hear the taunt, the Rabshakeh, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to mock the living
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God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.
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Get Isaiah to pray. Now, Isaiah's going to do more than pray. He's also going to speak.
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So, Rich, would you read Isaiah 37, 5 -7? 5 -7.
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So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. And Isaiah said to them,
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Thus you shall say to your master, This says the Lord, Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
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Surely I will send a spirit upon them, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword of his own hand.
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Okay, so the first thing he's told is, Do not be afraid.
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And we need to hear that again and again, because when you first hear the bad news, when you first receive that email tearing into you, or that phone call, or that face -to -face, and they're spitting, they're so angry, it's easy to become intimidated, to become afraid.
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But as Christians, we need not fear the attacks of the enemy. And here, Isaiah speaks a word of what
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God is going to do. He's going to work the circumstances behind the scenes. In this first case, he's going to change the circumstances.
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Something is going to draw the Rabshakka off of the battlefield to go deal with another situation.
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So that's what Isaiah says is going to happen. I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.
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He's going to disperse this threat without Israel having to fight it off.
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And he can do that. God can work things behind the scenes. So we go to God, who controls all things.
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John, would you read 8 -13? The Rabshakka returned and found the king of Syria fighting against Libna.
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For he had heard that the king had left Lachish. Now the king heard concerning Tirhaka, king of Cush.
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He has set out to fight against you. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
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Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah, king of Judah. Do not let your
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God, in whom you trust, deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
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Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction.
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And shall you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them? The nations that my fathers destroyed?
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Gozan, Haran, Reshep, and the people of Eden, who were in Telasset.
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When is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvain, the king of Eba?
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So why is he listing all these kings? Who are these kings? These are the ones that worship false gods, but he's listing them, not for that reason, but because we already killed all of them.
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Look at our track record. We're undefeated. We kill everybody, and they don't stand a chance against us.
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Look at our history. And do you think you're any different? We're going to do the same thing to you.
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But now notice, the Rabshakeh is saying this over his shoulder, meaning, figuratively, he's having to leave because he's been summoned back, because some situation has happened.
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Look at verse 8. The king of Assyria was fighting against Libna, for he had heard that the king had left
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Lashish. So you have another situation that's drawing the attention.
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But Rabshakeh is saying, look, I'm leaving now, but I'll be back. And I'm going to do to you everything we did to everybody else.
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Don't think your god is delivering you. I'm going to go deal with this situation, but I'll be back. And now in verse 9, the king heard concerning Terhaka, king of Cush.
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He has set out to fight against you. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah. So there's a second situation.
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Where is Cush? Ethiopia. So now you've got Ethiopia rebelling against the dictatorship of Assyria.
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Notice a trend here with Assyria. They're in a lot of wars because war is in their heart.
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In Psalm 55, verse 21, his speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart.
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His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. Some people have war in their heart.
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The Assyrian king had war in his heart. Now, he didn't have the smooth words.
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He didn't have speech as smooth as butter. He was direct with his words. And rarely will you find that.
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More often than not, the person who has war in their heart against you will speak with words as smooth as butter.
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They'll hide their true motives against you. They'll flatter you even. But there's war in their heart.
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When I think of that, I'm always reminded of the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 22. Remember verse 15 and following?
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It says, and the Pharisees were intent to attract Jesus and entangle him with words.
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So, they sent the questioners from their group along with the
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Herodians. The Herodians are Romans. And they try to entrap him with the question about taxes.
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Do we pay taxes to Caesar? If I say yes to that question, well, now you've just angered the
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Pharisees. You're siding with Rome. But if you say no to that question, now the
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Herodians are going to arrest you and attack you. They're setting him up. And it even says that they begin by saying,
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Teacher, we know that you're truthful. And you don't care about what people think and their opinions of you.
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You don't care about the appearances. So, tell us. And they set him up.
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So, their words are smooth as butter. And he was fooled. Yeah, right.
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Jesus wasn't fooled. Yeah, their words were smooth as butter. But war was in their hearts.
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And the Bible says Jesus, knowing their motives, knowing their malice, it says, was able to answer.
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Render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. Just completely thwarted them. They had to go away. They didn't expect that.
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A lot can be said about that in another sermon. But the point is, you have people like this. Enemies of the cross.
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Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction. Their God is their stomach.
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Their mind is on earthly things. And don't you know, Christians are often under attack, even when we don't know it.
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There are people that plot the demise of the church. For many reasons.
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One of them is that we condemn them by preaching righteousness.
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Noah was a preacher of righteousness in his day. And he condemned the world, according to Hebrews 11.
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So he was hated and reviled because he preached against the immorality of the dead.
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We're hated because we stand on the law of God's word as our moral standard. But we offer the grace of forgiveness.
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If someone doesn't come to Christ, they'll hate you for condemning their sin, for being so judgmental.
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You'll be hated. And Christ told us this. We will be hated. So this is the case with us. So what do we do when we face a situation like this?
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For the first part, they ran to God. But the threat returns. Now that's very instructive, guys.
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Because even though our God delivers, sometimes it's not in the time frame that we want.
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And sometimes that attack seems like it just keeps coming. And here it comes again in a second wave.
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Now, could have God sent an angel and mowed down that army the first time? Sure he could have.
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Why didn't he? It wasn't in his timing. He has purposes. It wasn't in his timing.
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And I think some things were accomplished in Isaiah and in Hezekiah the king. Hezekiah learned to pray.
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But it wasn't just pray and the answer came. Here he learns to go again and again.
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To continue to endure. And we'll look at the Luke 18, 7 example of the widow who finally gets justice because she keeps coming to the judge.
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But let's read it first in Isaiah 37, 14 to 20. Barb, would you like to read?
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Oh, sure. Thank you. Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the
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Lord and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord. Oh, Lord almighty
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God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth.
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You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, oh Lord, and here open up your eyes, oh
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Lord, and see. Listen to all the words Shem the cherub has sent to insult the living
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God. It is true, oh Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these people in their hands and their lands.
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They have been thrown. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them. For they were not gods, but only wooden stone fashioned by human hands.
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Now, oh Lord, our God, deliver us from his hand so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, oh
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God, oh Lord, our God. Amen. Wow. All right, guys, this is a privilege for us as Christians right now.
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We get the chance to go with Hezekiah into Hezekiah's school of prayer. What can we learn?
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First of all, in verse 14, he took the concern and he spread it out before God, spread it before the
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Lord. He went to his prayer closet. Now, we don't have a temple, but we can go to God anyway.
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We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. He went into the temple, and I think he had a letter, a scroll from the king of Assyria.
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He opened the scroll, rolled it out before the Lord. He took it to God. Now, listen to how he prays.
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In verse 16, he does not begin with, somebody's sick, heal them.
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This is my need, meet it. And I'm not saying it's wrong to supplicate God, but notice how prayer ought to be.
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We need to learn this. He begins with who God is. This is how we should begin to pray.
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Every time we come into the presence of the Lord, beginning with, hallowed be thy name. And here's what he says, oh
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Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are God.
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He's confessing who he's talking to, the God who made all things. You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth.
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Why is he talking about creation at this particular point in time? To emphasize his sovereign omnipotence.
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Omnipotence, exactly. He's confessing, I'm talking to God who made everything, who can do anything.
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And he sets his heart and his faith on that starting point. That's the foundation where he begins.
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Then where does he go? Kind of to the glory of God in verse 17. Incline your ear, oh
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Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, oh Lord, and see. And hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living
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God. You see, the mockery of the living. He's concerned for the glory of God.
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Not just for his own deliverance, but he appeals to God on the sake of God's own glory.
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He holds God's glorious preeminent. And that's the worldview from which Hezekiah prays.
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Very important. Now, he does acknowledge the reality. This is important in prayer. We have to be real with what's happening.
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Here it is. It's laid out before you, Lord. He's threatening to destroy us. This person is attacking me.
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We have sickness in the congregation. Whatever the real thing is, he says in verse 18.
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Truly, oh Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands.
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That part was true, wasn't it? But now look at the next verse. He puts on a theological pair of glasses.
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And he looks at that reality through a theological lens.
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Through a God -centered lens. So he says in verse 19. And cast their gods into the fire.
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For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands.
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Wood and stone. Therefore, they were destroyed. He interprets the reality based on the truth of God's word.
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These were idols. Yeah, he wiped out the other nations. But they're just wood and stone. Those idols had no power.
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And that's why he did it. Because he was crushing what had no life in it.
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Then he goes on to say. So now, oh Lord, save us from his hands. So now, he's gotten to the point.
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Having confessed who God is and the glory of God. Laid the reality out. Confessed the word of God as it applies to the situation.
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Now he petitions. He supplicates. And he says, save us.
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That's how we should pray. Yes, somebody's sick. But God, you made that body that's now ill.
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You can speak the word and your servant is healed. You begin to pray the word over that person.
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And then you ask him, Lord, raise her up. And very often he does.
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And we're seeing that he's doing it again and again and again. It's the power of God to heal. But this is how we've been praying.
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We follow like Hezekiah, like the Lord's prayer. Like we see modeled throughout the scripture.
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The glory of God. Who God is. And that moves. I kind of like the Acts prayer model.
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I still use that a lot. Anybody know that one? A -C -T -S. I very often have that in my mind when
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I'm in a prayer meeting. Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication.
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It's a good way to follow. Kind of a Hezekiah form. Although I don't see particularly thanksgiving.
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But it's in other places. So adoration. It's who God is. It's adoring him. It's worshiping him.
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Confession. Speaking your own, kind of cleaning your own heart according to the Lord's prayer. Where forgive us,
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Lord, for our debts. As we forgive those who have sinned against us. Thanking him.
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Getting in that attitude of gratitude. That thankfulness says in Philippians 4.
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With thanksgiving. Present your requests to God. And then finally you get to this last verse.
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Verse 20. So Lord save us. Supplication. That's asking things of him.
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Amen? So this is a great model of prayer. Verses 21. Luis, would you mind reading 21 to 29?
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Give you a huge chunk there. Yeah, you get to hear
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God's answer to the mockery of the king. Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying,
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Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib, king of Assyria, this is the word that the
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Lord has spoken concerning him. She despises you.
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She scorns you, the virgin daughter of Zion. She wags her head behind you, the daughter of Jerusalem.
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Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights?
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Against the Holy One of Israel. By your servants you have mocked the
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Lord, and you have said with my many chariots
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I have gone up the heights of the mountains to the far recesses of Lebanon to cut down its tall cedars, its choicest cypresses, to come to its remotest height, its most fruitful forest.
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I dug wells and drank waters to dry up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.
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Have you not heard that I determined long ago, I planned from days of old what now
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I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruin, while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded and have become like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown.
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I know you're sitting down and you're going out and coming in and you're raging against me because you have raged against me and your complacency has come to my ears,
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I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.
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Do you know, Rich? Yes. But here's the historical reference.
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The Assyrians would lead all of these peoples into captivity and disperse them among the nations.
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So if they conquered one land, they'd take them and spread them out in different nations so that they'd no longer be a people that could rise up against.
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And so when they were displacing them, they would put hooks in the noses of the people and lead them along into captivity.
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They were a vicious people. The Assyrians, you hear about Nineveh, they would have bodies hung along the wall of the actual...
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Skulls. Yeah, with skulls just trying to deter any threat by fear.
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And one of the ways they demoralized the people was to put the hook in the nose and drag them off to a foreign land.
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Now God says, I will put a hook in your nose. Wow.
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But here's the big idea of this passage. This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Here's why.
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When Christ was killed, He laid down His life according to the will of His Father.
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It was planned of old. It was predestined according to Acts 4, 27 and 28.
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God had planned this for our salvation. God has a plan.
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In Genesis 50, verse 20. What you meant for evil, God meant for good. Joseph went through all of that suffering according to the plan of God.
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God meant it. It was His intended will for these things to happen. But that's not why the brothers did it.
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There was sin involved. There was all these horrible things. There was rejection of their own brother type of Christ.
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All of this was meant by God. When you come to Isaiah chapter 10, you have the evil
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Assyrian king who's wiping everybody out. He has the intention of his heart. God says, but I intended it for a different reason.
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So in all of these things, we have a teaching that God has a decree.
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He has a plan that He has determined before the foundation of the earth.
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So now the king of Assyria is told, yeah, all these things that you say you've done, you've done.
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You've dried up the streams of Egypt. You've conquered Egypt. You have run over the world.
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And then verse 26 is just astounding. I memorized this about 20 years ago because when
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I first saw it, I just loved this verse. Have you not heard that I determined it long ago?
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This is God speaking to the king saying, I determined it what? He goes on to say,
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I plan from days of old what now I bring to pass that you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruin.
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Everything that the king boasted and thought he did in his strength, it was actually
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God doing it through him for God's own purpose. He wanted to judge those idols and the nations that worship idols.
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God had decreed this judgment from before the foundation of the world. Our God has determined everything that comes to pass, and that's what he said right there.
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If even the most wicked thing you could imagine, there's nothing more wicked than an Assyrian domination of the world.
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It would involve killing people. It would involve the Assyrians doing what in their wicked hearts they wanted to do, and they're responsible for it, for the rape of women, for the destruction and killing of babies, throwing them into the stones.
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All the things that the Assyrians did, leading people by the hook, completely devastated, naked, all the things that they did, as wicked as that was, and that's who's responsible for that evil.
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God had a purpose even in that, even in that, and that is such a hard teaching for us because, why
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God? I would rather you not make me go through some of the sufferings of this life, but for the Christian, he's working it all together for good.
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Now, there are people who never come to saving faith, and what is a hard, earthly judgment becomes an even worse eternal judgment.
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That's part of his decree as well, that he would judge the wicked.
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It demonstrates his power and his glory and his holiness, a topic that most people don't want to talk about, but that's why it is that God judges, because he is holy, and his glory he holds above his name.
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We have to keep one phrase in mind, God's ultimate sovereignty. Yeah, there you go.
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That's it right there. Verse 26 is a verse about God's ultimate sovereignty, his sovereignty.
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Very good. And he is no more a worshipping idol, so that's why he used these nations to come against him.
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Very good. So, and what would be the difference between the punishment that, let's say, a pagan nation that had no believers in it, and they get completely wiped out, and what happens to Jerusalem?
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This punishment is different than Jerusalem's discipline.
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Discipline and wrath are not the same thing. There's no condemnation, for those of us who are in Christ Jesus.
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But for those of us who are in Christ Jesus, because he loves us, Hebrews chapter 12, we'll get to this in a couple weeks in the pulpit, he will discipline us.
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He disciplines because he loves. He's a loving father. He's not going to do anything that's ultimately for our harm, but he will cause us, at times, to go through painful circumstances.
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Yes! And repent. That's how he wields the rod for discipline.
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Yeah, to bring his people to repentance. It's a loving thing, and if he didn't love us, he wouldn't discipline us.
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What father is there that hasn't disciplined his child? And when he does discipline, it's for love. So that's the difference.
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In one case, a nation might be judged and wiped off the face of the earth entirely, as many of these nations were.
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We don't really know these other countries, right? Didn't we read a list of... It's hard to read, right, John? Yeah. Where's Gozan and Heron and Resseth and Telezar and Hamath and Arpad and Sefer Beim and Hina and Eva?
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Do we know these nations? But anybody here heard of Israel? Yeah, I've heard of them.
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Yeah, because God had a purpose in preserving them, and he was disciplining them at this time.
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Now, are we ready to see the power of God? In verses 30 to 32, I'll just read it.
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This will be a sign for you. This year, you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year, what springs from that.
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Then in the third year, sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat their fruit. So over the course of the next three years, the land will come back.
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That means the Assyrians are gone. You're going to be able to sow and reap, and you'll have an abundant harvest within three years.
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And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward, which again, if we had time to talk about it, that is a beautiful John 15 picture of the
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Christian life, and Colossians 2 .8, to be rooted in Christ, in the word, like Psalm 1, the tree planted by streams of water, and then you're healthy as a tree, and you're bearing fruit.
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This is what the Christian life should be like. Israel will be like that, as a nation. They will be rooted, and there'll be a time of revival in the nation.
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They'll be bearing fruit, spiritual fruit, and physical fruit as well. Here in verse 30 and 31 and 32, for out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.
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The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. When I read that, I was reminded of Isaiah 9, where he uses the same expression.
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Unto you a son is born. A son is given, a child is born, a son is given. The government shall be upon his shoulders, and he shall be called everlasting father, mighty
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God, prince of peace. We'll have no end. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.
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The zeal of the Lord shall accomplish this. Now Isaiah uses that phrase again, to talk about the zeal of the
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Lord, bringing Israel back. What does it look like, when the zeal of the Lord goes forth?
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Rich, you want to read it? 33 to 38, astounding. Therefore, thus says the
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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.
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By the way he came, by the same shall he return. And he shall not come into this city, says the
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Lord, for I will defend this city and save it, for my own sake and for my servant
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David's sake. Go ahead and read it right through the end, because I'd like us to see what he does. The angel of the
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Lord went out and killed the camp of the Assyrians, 185 ,000.
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And when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses all dead,
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Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went away, returned home and remained in Nineveh.
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Now it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god, that his sons
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Adremalek and Cherezer struck him down with a sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat.
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Then Esarhaddon, his son, raised his blade. Wow. What do you guys think about that?
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Before, I guess that night before, the 185 ,000 were destroyed, because he explains that's the way the army would normally come.
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They would come with shields, they would come and build the rampart. Yeah. But to me, it's like, well, he just knew, he just decided that, well, no, they're not going to do that.
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That's a lot of them. No, they're going to die. Yeah. To me, that's just awesome to see.
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The white man has always thought the army was going to, and you see this in other armies in the scripture on how, and I guess it was the same thing with the city, when he marched around the city seven times, they all had, once that city crashed, same thing, there was no ramp built, there was no, none of this.
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Right. It's just like, one day, here's how it's going to be. That's it, yeah. So here you have Jerusalem, right?
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The first attack with Rabshakeh talking trash and everything, that gets deferred circumstantially, that God just causes it to disperse because they have to go fight down in Ethiopia and this other kingdom.
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Then they come back like they said they would. We're going to be back, and when we do, we're going to crush you like we did everybody else.
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They don't even get to the point of building the siege because when God sends forth an angel, one angel versus the entire army, not even an even match.
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The one angel strikes down all of the 185 ,000 attackers.
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It's good that we know the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him. Yeah, and that's the promise to us.
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Here's what I'm thinking. The next time you or I come under attack, we should not have any fear.
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The person who's, let's say, verbally attacking you, they're speaking against the
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God who has all power. The only thing that allows them to draw that breath to say the words against you is that God is sustaining them and giving them that breath.
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He can speak a word and their breath departs. They have no power over you.
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It's only what God is allowing for your good for a time. There's nothing to fear.
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This is why we as Christians should be fearless in spiritual war, in the physical wars that we get into, if we ever are in a military situation, a police officer in a physical encounter, if you're a
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Christian police officer in that kind of situation, or just the ordinary circumstances of life.
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When your niece comes at you, this is not my situation, but I'm saying, say you have a niece that is mad at you because you go to church and you should be staying home so COVID doesn't spread.
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How dare you go gather and she just tears you up one side and down the other.
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You be thankful that your God is so merciful to her that she doesn't drop dead by an angel's sword at that very second.
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That's the perspective we have. No fear of, oh no, now I'm shamed. Now I have to, no, you don't have to defend yourself.
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Pray for your enemy. Love the one who attacks you. Speak good of them and to them and speak the truth.
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You don't have to shade the truth. Speak the truth in love. And when you have this kind of attitude, knowing who's behind you, this
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God is behind you, it changes how you encounter the enemy.
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You can speak with confidence without fear and with joy and with love.
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And that's the God that we have behind us. Amen. So sometimes it is needful to literally spread the words of a foe out before God.
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As you pray about what you face, remember what Israel faced and what resulted. So let's close with that kind of idea that when these attacks come and sometimes they're scary, right?
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Especially if it's a loved one. If I get some disease and I die, the only thing that scares me about that is that I'm leaving behind my children and my wife.
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I'm not afraid to die, right? There's no fear in that. But sometimes when your loved one is sick, when somebody you care about is having a really hard time, man, doesn't it tear you up?
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Or what about when some situation just seems so overwhelming that you don't know how you'll ever make it?
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What do you do in a time like that? You do what Hezekiah did. He had no resources left, looked like everything was gone.
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They're so outnumbered, 185 ,000 to what's ever left in the city. And Assyria builds siege ramps and they conquer everybody they come against.
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What could possibly save us now? He spreads out the letter before the Lord and he prays.
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He confesses who God is, the glory of God. And then he submits his request. And here is the answer of God in Isaiah 37.
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So come back to it again and again. Be reminded that God hears our prayers. Now, it wasn't right away.
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The first thing might have been months. This whole thing could have been going on for months and months, right?
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The first attack, and then they leave and fight another war. They come back. It's like this could have gone on for a year or more.
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In Luke 18, the persistent widow kept asking. And even an unjust judge got up out of bed to give her justice, just to get her off his back.
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How much more your heavenly father, who is a just judge, who loves you, who has good for you intended.
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How much more will he hear you when you cry to him day and night? So we got to be prayer warriors. We got to keep going to the
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Lord in every situation we face. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. God, you are
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God. You created the heavens and the earth. You hold the whole world in your hand.
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Who shall we fear? God, we turn to you. Lord, it is for your sake, for your glory that you do what you do.
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And we confess that your glory is above all. It's more important than us and our situations.
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Your glory, your name. And we lift up the name of Jesus that is the name above every name.
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We glorify the name of Jesus Christ. You, Jesus, are worthy of our praise.
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And Lord, we do lay before you those of our brothers and sisters who are sick. Lord, raise them up.
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Pray especially for Rich that you would heal him and bring him back to us, Lord. Raise up everyone who is sick and even if you don't, you are
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God. We confess that you are God and you are good. Thank you, Lord. We praise you in Jesus' name.