FBC Adult Sunday Bible Study

Faith Baptist Church

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You know, I saw some of the places where we've been, you know, we've vacationed down there and you know, restaurants and stores and stuff like that, they're just gone.

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I mean, there's nothing but the foundations left. And it struck me that that's not only, you know, buildings, but that those are people own those businesses and that was their livelihood and they employed people for their livelihood and that's just, that's just all gone.

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That doesn't come back. So, it's just a devastating, devastating thing.

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Right near Fort Myers Beach, there's the causeway that crosses over to Sanibel Island and that was wiped out.

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That's the only way to get to that island and just past Sanibel is in Captiva.

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You have to go to Sanibel to get to Captiva and there's no access, there's just no access.

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And my sister -in -law was saying that they're questioning whether or not

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Sanibel will even be habitable again after this. So, I don't know if any of you have ever been there, but the kind of...

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All right, well, less than a week ago, people all over the state of Florida were looking at the news.

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They were watching the weather. They were hearing about this thing circulating and going on in the

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Caribbean and that it was headed toward the mainland in the United States and they all wondered what exact course would this take and maybe you saw some of those models that showed lines for this hurricane all over the place and going from straight up to the panhandle of Florida off to the west or, you know, as it ended up trajectoring right into Fort Myers and then across the state and then up into the

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Atlantic and so forth. But people were watching and they were waiting and as the track for that hurricane became more clear, people responded to that impending crisis.

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Millions of people evacuated. They left the coast altogether looking for safe land away from the devastation.

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The state's emergency teams, they got into place and activated all of their resources as quickly and feverishly as they possibly could so that after the fact, they could provide the help and the relief that was necessary and then everybody waited.

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They waited and finally, that dreaded day arrived and as I mentioned earlier, the disaster in Lee County, Florida was far worse than anybody anticipated.

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And all of the efforts that people put into protecting property along the coast, sandbags and all the rest of that kind of stuff just proved to be largely futile but it was absolutely nothing to deal with the devastation of this storm.

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Well, in Isaiah chapter 28 to 35,

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Judah has been anticipating the churning developments that were going on to the north.

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The Assyrian Empire was moving in its direction and the challenge was how were the people of Judah going to respond?

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What were they going to do in anticipation of this potential threat?

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And in those chapters, chapters 28 to 35, Isaiah had been warning the people how to prepare, what to do and what not to do.

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Chapter 31 verse 1, Isaiah tells the people, don't go to Egypt.

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Many of them did. Many of them wanted to. They wanted to go to Egypt for help. They thought

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Egypt would provide the necessary defense and protection against this impending threat from the

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Assyrians but Isaiah says in 31 .1, woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses who trust in chariots because there are many and in horsemen because they are very strong but who do not look to the

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Holy One of Israel nor seek the Lord. Isaiah warned against the response of going to Egypt for help and instead, he exhorted the people to trust in the

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Lord. So in verse 6, he says, return to him, that is to the Lord, against whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.

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So Israel to the north had revolted from the Lord and they were devastated by the

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Assyrian Empire. And now Isaiah exhorts the people of Judah as they see this churning

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Assyrian army heading their direction, he exhorts them to return to that one whom

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Israel has left. But what will they do? How will they respond?

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How will they respond? Now finally in Isaiah chapter 36 verse 1, that dreaded day has arrived.

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It says it came to pass in the 14th year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

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Now what? Now what? How are they going to respond? Now at this point in the book of Isaiah, the literary structure of the book changes.

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So we've looked at 35 chapters, some in more detail than others, most of them we've just kind of skimmed through.

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But in those 33 chapters, they are largely prophetic oracles.

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That is, Isaiah has uttered some prophetic warnings and some promises to Israel, to Judah, and to the surrounding nations.

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But chapters 36 to 39 are now historical narrative. In other words, they're telling the story of what has happened.

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And these chapters essentially repeat what's recorded in 2

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Kings chapters 18 through 20. By the way, you might want to get a bookmark and go there, 2

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Kings chapter 18, because we're going to be turning to that passage in just a few minutes.

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So basically, Isaiah is recounting that same story. And these chapters tell the story of King Hezekiah's responses to four kinds of crises.

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And most of them center on this threat from the

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Assyrians. And for the most part, these chapters flesh out the kind of faith that Isaiah has been calling

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God's people to exercise toward the Lord, in the Lord, in the face of the crisis.

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So these four different kinds of crises and how Hezekiah responded to them. First of all, in chapters 36 and 37, the crisis is momentous.

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It is momentous. As we see in verse 1, the enemy is a powerful enemy and seemingly invincible.

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Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, has come up against the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

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Come up against the fortified cities. So this wasn't just, you know, some of the outlying villages, you know, they kind of overran.

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But they came against the fortified cities and overtook them. So this is a very powerful enemy.

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Now look back at 2 Kings chapter 18, and in verses 9 to 13, you get a fuller account of this powerful foe.

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2 Kings 18, look at verse 9. It says, it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hosea, the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and besieged it.

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At the end of three years, they took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hosea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

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All right, so the Assyrians are taking over and destroying the northern kingdom of Israel.

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Verse 11, then the king of Assyria carried Israel away captive to Assyria and put them in Halah and by the

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Habor, the river of Gozen, and in the city of the Medes, because they,

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Israel, did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His covenant in all that Moses, the servant of the

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Lord, had commanded. And they would neither hear nor do them. And in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

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So this enemy is a powerful, seemingly invincible enemy, like there's nothing you're going to do to stop this particular enemy.

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So how to respond? Well, Hezekiah's initial response seems to be a reasonable one.

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Look at verse 14 here. We're in 2 Kings 18 still. It seems to be reasonable.

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Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish saying, I've done wrong.

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Turn away from me. Whatever you impose upon me, I will pay. And the king of Assyria assessed

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Hezekiah, king of Judah, three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

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So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king's house.

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At that time, King Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the pillars which

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Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. Again, it seems like a reasonable response.

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Let's pay him off. Let's give him what he wants and he'll go home and leave us alone.

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But that initial response backfired. You see in verse 17, then the king of Assyria sent the

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Tartan, the Rabsurus, and the Rabshika from Lachish with a great army against Jerusalem.

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So instead of taking all the silver and gold and turning around and going home and saying, well, thank you very much, it's been a pleasure, no, they continue the march and now they're headed toward Jerusalem.

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And that brings us back to Isaiah 36 and to verses 2 and 3.

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Then the king of Assyria sent the Rabshiki with a great army from Lachish to Jerusalem. And he stood, the

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Rabshiki, stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool on the highway to the fuller's field.

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And Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shabna, the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.

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So the initial response just backfires.

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This enemy is a powerful one. And we also notice as we continue on here in chapter 36 that this enemy, the

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Assyrians, is a proud and an arrogant enemy. Look at how they expressed their arrogance and their pride in verses 4 and 5.

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They belittle, they completely belittle Judah's confidence. The Rabshiki said to them, say now to Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, what confidence is this in which you trust?

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I say you speak of having plans and power for war, but they are mere words.

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Now in whom do you trust that you rebel against me? And in that next section, verses 5 and 6, they not only belittle

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Judah's confidence but misrepresent their trust. What are you trusting in? What are you trusting in?

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Who is this that you're trusting in? Verse 6, look, you are trusting in the staff of this broken reed,

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Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is

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Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. So the Rabshiki here, the

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Assyrians, in their arrogance, are assuming that Israel or Judah and Hezekiah, that they're trusting in Egypt, even though that's not actually what's going on.

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In verse 7, they further misrepresent their trust by misunderstanding their God.

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Verse 7 says, but if you say to me, we trust in the Lord our God, is it not

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He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and said to Judah in Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar?

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They're misunderstanding their God because the knowledge of current affairs is accurate, and that being that Hezekiah has indeed taken away these high places and altars.

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We read about that back in 2 Kings 18 verse 4, where it says that Hezekiah removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden image and broken pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made.

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So yeah, their understanding of current affairs was accurate. Hezekiah did tear down all these places, but their knowledge of theology was bad because God wasn't offended in that.

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In fact, God was quite pleased. Back in 2 Kings 18 verse 5, it says that Hezekiah trusted in the

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Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him.

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For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments which the

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Lord had commanded Moses. The Lord was with him. The Lord was with him. So the

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Assyrians are off base here. They're completely wrong, misunderstanding

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God, thinking that God is going to be working against Judah because the high places were torn down, when in fact,

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God was quite delighted with the fact that those high places were torn down. Well, in verses 8 and 9, they continue their arrogance and their pride by mocking the ability of Judah to fight.

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He says, now therefore I urge you, give a pledge to my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you 2 ,000 horses, if you're able on your part to put riders on them.

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I'll give you the horses, but you don't even have the men that are able to ride these horses. He's always mocking them and making fun of them.

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And then again in verse 10, they misrepresent the Lord. He says, have

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I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord, and notice the spelling of the word

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LORD, all caps, right? That's telling you He's using the covenant name of the

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God of Israel, Yahweh. He says, have I now come up without Yahweh against this land to destroy it?

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Yahweh said to me, go up against this land and destroy it. Well, let me ask you, did

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Yahweh give that direction to the Assyrians?

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Or is he just making it up as a way of undermining the confidence of these people in the

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Lord? And then in verses 18 to 20, notice how in his arrogance, the rabbi

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Shakiv speaking for the Assyrians maligns the Lord. He says, beware lest Hezekiah persuade you saying,

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Yahweh will deliver us. Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

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Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvim?

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Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand that Yahweh should deliver

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Jerusalem from my hand? What are you doing here, Rabbi Shakiv?

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Are you saying that Yahweh is just like all the gods of all the other nations? Yes, exactly.

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He's saying that the God of Israel, Yahweh, is no more powerful than the pagan gods of the pagan defeated lands.

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Well, this enemy continues in verses 11 to 17 and is intent on evoking fear.

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Notice in verses 11 and 12, they do so by ignoring the request of Eliakim and so on.

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They say in verse 11, please speak to us in Aramaic. Aramaic would be the language of diplomacy.

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It wasn't the language of the common person on the street. He said, please speak to us in Aramaic for we understand it and do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of all the people on the wall.

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We don't want everybody in town to hear what you're saying and understand what you're saying. Speak to us in the language of diplomacy.

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But verse 12, the Rabbi Shakiv said, does my master send me to your master and to you to speak these words and not to the men who sit on the wall who will eat and drink their own waste with you?

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In other words, this request is completely ignored and it's ignored so that fear might be evoked in the hearts of the people, the common people.

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And the Rabbi Shakiv then in verses 13 through 17 exploits this situation. There with all these people tuned in, listening to the words that he has to say, he stokes their fears when in verse 13 and 14 he says, hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

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Thus says the king, do not let Hezekiah deceive you for he will not be able to deliver you.

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Are you hearing that all you people? Your king is not going to be able to deliver you. And then in verses 16 and 17, he said, or further in verse 15, he says, don't let

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Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord. The Lord is not going to deliver you. Then in verses 16 and 17, he says, just surrender to us and life will be good.

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Do not listen to Hezekiah, verse 16, for thus says the king of Assyria, make peace with me by a present and come out to me.

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And every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and of vineyards.

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You will receive promised prosperity if you just make peace with me, exploiting the situation.

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So how to respond to this? This seemingly invincible, powerful foe who has already taken the fortified cities and is now there right at the door waiting to take over your city.

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What are you going to do, Hezekiah? How will you respond now? Your first initial response backfired on you.

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How are you going to respond now? The Lord said, don't trust in chariots, don't trust in horses, seek him.

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Seek him. Will he do so? Well, in verses 21 and 22 and following, you see a response of faith that overcomes this momentous crisis.

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In verses 21 and 22, notice how faith doesn't panic.

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Faith doesn't panic. It says in verse 21, they held their peace and answered him not a word, for the king's commandment was, do not answer him.

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Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, they came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the rabbi

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Shacki. Faith doesn't panic. They didn't respond with like a wild -eyed fear and all the rest of that kind of stuff.

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They kept the cool. They remained quiet like they were told. They did what they were told to do, and they came back to Hezekiah with a report.

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And verse 1 of chapter 37, Hezekiah responds with faith that humbly seeks the

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Lord. 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

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Lord, humbly seeking the Lord. And in this action on the part of Hezekiah, he's acknowledging his need and his dependency.

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This is brought out in verse 3, 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.

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We need you. We don't have the strength to do what needs to be done here.

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So Hezekiah is acknowledging the need and the utter dependence upon the

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Lord. And in verse 4, notice how he expresses a greater concern for the glory of God than he does for their own personal sake, their own personal welfare.

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Verse 4, it says, it may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakee, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to reproach the living

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God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. So he's concerned about God's glory.

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Faith doesn't panic, it instead humbly seeks the Lord. And in verses 6 and 7, that kind of faith is honored by the

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Lord. Isaiah said to them, thus shall you say to your master, thus says the

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Lord, do not be afraid of the words which 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 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.

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So that faith is honored by the Lord. So the crisis is momentous sometimes, and it requires a response of faith.

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Secondly, in verses 8 through 38 of chapter 37, the crisis is relentless.

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It doesn't go away. It doesn't go away. In fact, in verses 8 to 10, the

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Rabshakee ignores the hand of the Lord completely. The Rabshakee returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libna, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish.

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And the king heard concerning Terhaka, king of Ethiopia, he has come out to make war with you.

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So when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah saying, in other words, instead of understanding that this turn of events is the result of the

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Lord's intervention for the sake of Judah, instead of doing that, he sends messengers to Hezekiah saying, thus shall you speak to Hezekiah, king of Judah.

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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.

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So he completely ignores the hand of God in this, and again, belittles the Lord, belittles him.

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And instead, in verses 11 to 13, he repeats the threat. He says, look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands by utterly destroying them, and shall you be delivered?

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Do you think your God is going to deliver you from the king's hand, the king of Assyria? Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed,

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Gozan and Haran and Reza, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?

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Where is the king of Hamath? The king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Zephirim, Hena, and Iva?

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Hezekiah received the letter. Yeah, where are these kings? Who do you think you are?

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You think you're going to be delivered? None of the others have been delivered. So he repeats the threat.

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Well, in verses 14 to 20, how does Hezekiah respond to the relentless crisis as it unfolds?

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Again, with a response of faith. A response of faith overcomes a relentless crisis.

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Now in the course of this response, Hezekiah, in verses 18 and 19, he acknowledges the partial truth of the

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Assyrians. Verse 18, he says, truly, Lord, he's praying to the

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Lord, he says, truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations in their lands and have cast their gods into the fire.

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That is the truth, the partial truth. But here's the rest of the truth. They were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone, therefore they destroyed them.

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That's the rest of the story. So he acknowledges the partial truth. But then

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Hezekiah, in this incredible response of faith, he clearly distinguishes between Yahweh, the

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God of Israel, and the other gods. And it all comes out in this prayer in verses 15 and following.

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And listen to what he says. Here's what he says about the true God. He says in verse 16 that He is the

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Almighty God. He calls Him the Lord of Hosts, Yahweh of Hosts, God of Israel.

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He is the Almighty God. He is the Yahweh of Hosts, which is a title that indicates that at the command, at the beck and call of God are all of the hosts of the angelic orders.

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And we're going to run into some of this again in the morning service in Revelation 5.

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But the number of hosts is innumerable. And Hezekiah recognizes that his

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God is the God who is over all of these hosts that will do

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His bidding at His call. In other words, there is no limit to His power.

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In the last part, as we continue in verse 16, not only is He the Almighty God, but He is the only

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God. He says in verse 16, you are God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth.

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In the end of verse 16, He calls Him the God who is the sovereign creator

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God. He says, you have made heaven and earth. He is…

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See the distinction between Yahweh, the God of Israel, and the gods of the nations that have been destroyed.

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What have those gods done? What have those gods of the pagan nations done? What have they done?

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What have they accomplished? What have they made? Nothing. Over what kind of horde or host do those gods rule?

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None. None. But our God, our God, the

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Almighty God, the only God, is the sovereign creator God.

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Furthermore, He is the merciful God. Verse 16, He says,

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He dwells between the cherubim. He dwells between the cherubim. This is a reference to the

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Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holy Place. And on that, the top, the cover of that Ark of the

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Covenant are those golden cherubim. And that's the mercy seat.

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It represents the dwelling place, the sitting place of God with His presence with His people.

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But it is on the atonement cover where He sits, the atonement cover.

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Speaking of His mercy in atoning for the sins of His people,

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He is the merciful God. And then Hezekiah asserts that He is the living God in verse 17.

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Look at how he puts it and indicates the life of this

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God. He says, He is the

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God who hears and sees and acts. And this is in stark contrast to verse 19, the gods that were cast into the fire.

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They could do nothing, those false gods, those idols of the pagan nations.

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They could do nothing. They had eyes, but they could not see. They had ears, but they could not hear.

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They had hands, perhaps, and feet, but they could do absolutely nothing. They were simply the work of men's hands, wood and stone.

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They are dead gods. But you, O Lord, are the living

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God. So Hezekiah responds to this relentless crisis with a response of faith in the one true

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God. And the Lord God honors that humble faith in verses 21 through 38.

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Notice verse 21 begins with the word, because.

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Verse 21, And Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying,

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Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib, because you have responded to this relentless crisis in faith, because of that, therefore,

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I will act. And the Lord honors that humble faith. How does

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He honor it? How does He honor that faith? Well, in verses 23 and 24, the Lord notes the personal affront.

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This is the Lord speaking, verse 23, speaking to the

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Assyrians. Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?

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Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the

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Holy One of Israel. By your servants you have reproached the Lord and said,

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By the multitude of my chariots, I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the limits of Lebanon.

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I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees. I will enter its farthest height to its fruitful forest.

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The Lord notes the personal affront. You have spoken against me, the

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Lord says. And in verses 28 and 29, the Lord asserts that He is sovereignly in control.

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He says to the Assyrian, I know your dwelling place. You're going out and you're coming in and your rage against me.

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Because your rage against me and your tumult have come up to my ears, therefore,

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I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips.

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And I will turn you back by the way which you came. Now that is a very graphic way of illustrating the sovereign control that God has over the nations of this earth.

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And I think that kind of imagery is helpful for us to keep in mind when we watch the news and we hear about what's going on in places in this world with saber rattling and even more.

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And then in verses 30 to 35, I'm not taking the time to read it, but the Lord promises that He will deliver

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His people. In verse 35, He says, I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant

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David's sake. I will deliver. And in verses 36 to 38, the

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Lord accomplishes this victory. He accomplishes this victory. The angel of the

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Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185 ,000. And when the people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses, all dead.

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So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went away and returned home and remained at Nineveh, and he himself was executed.

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There was a hook put in the nose and a bridle in his lips and he was sent home, he was sent home.

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So the crisis is relentless and the response of faith, a response of faith is the way to handle a relentless crisis.

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In chapter 38, the crisis becomes personal. It becomes personal.

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Because here, Hezekiah gets sick. He becomes sick.

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In those days, Hezekiah was sick and near death. So physical affliction affects this righteous man.

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All of the good works that he has done, all of the tearing down of the pagan gods, the high places, and so on and so forth, they didn't prevent him from getting sick.

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He nonetheless gets ill. And the depth of this crisis is revealed at the end of the verse, where the

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Lord says to him, set your house in order for you shall die and not live.

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Well, that's a pretty significant personal crisis, isn't it? How to handle it? Again, with a response of faith in verses two and three.

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Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the Lord. Essentially praying for his life to be spared.

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And in verses four to eight, the Lord honors that response of faith. And He does so in verse five, not only with deliverance from the personal crisis.

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He says, go tell Hezekiah, thus says the Lord God of Israel, I have heard your prayer, I've seen your tears, I'm gonna add 15 years to your life.

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He not only delivers from the personal crisis, but in verse six, he delivers from the national crisis.

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I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, I will defend this city.

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And in verses seven and eight, he gives him clear assurance with this sign of the sundial moving back 10 degrees.

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And how does Hezekiah respond to that? With praise in verses nine to 20.

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Notice especially just verse 20. The Lord was ready to save me.

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Therefore, we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the

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Lord. He responds with praise. In chapter 39, and we have to move quickly here.

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But in chapter 39, the crisis now is subtle. It is subtle.

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It gives no appearance of being a crisis at all in verse one. It says, at that time,

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Merodot Baladon, the son of Baladon, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered.

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This sounds like a very gracious thing on the part of the Babylonians to send a delegation, a get well party, if you will, to Hezekiah rejoicing in his newfound health.

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But in verse two, it is actually a crisis because Hezekiah responds to this situation with a little bit of pride.

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And it's a pride that clouds his vision. Hezekiah was pleased with them, these Babylonians.

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And he showed them the house of his treasures, showed them everything. The silver, the gold, the spices, the precious ointment, all his armory, all that was found among his treasures.

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There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

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Now, given Hezekiah's experience with Assyria and Assyria's greed when

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Assyria found out about the wealth that Hezekiah had, he should have been wary.

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He should have been a little more in tune to the danger of letting some foreign power know how much wealth and so forth that he actually had.

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But he let his heart get lifted up with pride and showed all of this.

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Well, this failure on his part provokes a prophecy in verses three through seven.

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Isaiah comes to Hezekiah and said, who are these people? What did they see? Hezekiah said, well, they came from Babylon and they've seen everything, verse four.

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They saw everything that was in my house, none of my treasures that I haven't shown them. Verse five,

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Isaiah said to Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord. Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and what your fathers have accumulated until this day shall be carried to Babylon, nothing shall be left.

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Now, I want to suggest that that prophecy is not a direct punishment to Hezekiah for showing all his wealth.

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This prophecy of the Babylonian captivity is a prophecy that is made elsewhere and is going to be because of Judah's disobedience as a whole, not strictly because of what

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Hezekiah did. But Hezekiah has an odd response in verse eight to this.

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Hezekiah said to Isaiah, the word of the Lord which you have spoken is good, for he said, at least there will be peace and truth in my days.

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It seems to be a little bit insensitive to what's coming in the generations after him.

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And he just seems to be self -satisfied in the later years of his life to live out his life in peace.

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Tim Chester, commenting on this, closes this section with this. He says, Hezekiah's seeming indifference toward the future, even the future of the

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Davidic kingdom, indicates that, quote, Hezekiah was not the messianic king who would restore

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God's reign over the earth. Instead, Hezekiah's story ends with a sense of foreboding.

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It prepares us for the remainder of the book of Isaiah in which Isaiah addresses those caught up in the exile that the prophecy to Hezekiah has anticipated.

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So it's a foreshadowing of what's to come. Our Father and our God, I pray that in this brief overview of these, this very quick view of these chapters today, you would remind us that in whatever crises we face, momentous, relentless, subtle, that we respond in faith, looking to you, trusting in you.