Do Present Your Requests to the LORD

Anxious for Nothing Present Your Requests to the LORD 2 Kings 19:5-7,10-11, 14-19, 20-37

[May I have a small (12” x 12” or slightly larger) white box on the table for this message? I will place envelopes into the box during the message.]

Letters can be powerful. Email has changed our relationship with letters, but when I letter arrives in your mailbox it has the power of potential. This letter could contain wonderful news, or frustrating news. The contents could be inspiring or insulting. It is amazing how opening a letter can be the trigger of great anxiety.  

Welcome back to our series, Anxious for Nothing. We are learning how to pray about our most anxious moments. Throughout this series we are following the story of King Hezekiah. When we left Hezekiah last week, the field commander sent by the king of Assyria to try and convince Hezekiah to surrender the city of Jerusalem, had publicly threatened the city and created an anxious situation. Hezekiah invited Isaiah, the prophet of God, to pray along with him. God answered. To see God’s reply, open to 2 Kings chapter 19. Page 545 in the pew Bible.

The LORD Speaks: 2 Kings 19:5-7

5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’”

And it happens. The field commander withdraws after hearing his king was engaged in another conflict, the threat passes. Victory. God’s Word came true. His promise was fulfilled. The threat is over, the night has passed and the dawn is here. But the King of Assyria really wanted Jerusalem, it was a strategic advantage for him in the ongoing expansion in the region and he wasn’t ready to give up the fight. He has one more play, instead of sending his field commander to come and publicly threaten Hezekiah, he sends…a letter!

The Anxious Letter: 2 Kings 19:10-11

10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?

This letter is nothing new. It is basically a recap of what the field commander had said to the people of Jerusalem. In fact, it is shorter and to the point. God had already said, “Not going to happen.” So, as we read this story objectively, we think, shrug, “nothing new,” toss the letter and move on. But this one rocks Hezekiah. We could argue if it should or shouldn’t have, but it did. He was impacted by this. Perhaps it was the follow-up that bothered him, suggesting that the King of Assyria was set on taking the city of Jerusalem. Maybe it was the direct nature of the letter, instead of a public threat, it was a personal address and was very pointed. Or, my opinion on this, it wasn’t the content of the letter as much as it was the consecutive wave. Objectively, this letter was nothing in comparison to the theatrics that were displayed by the field commander from last week. But there was something of the “here we go again” that seemed to impact Hezekiah.

I’ve seen this to be true in my life and in my own wrestling with anxious thoughts. At times, the most anxiety producing moments aren’t the biggest threats I face or the most serious situations I am confronted with or must lead through. At times, it can be smaller, seemingly mundane situations which can rock me. A lot of it, honestly, has to do with me being tired and emotionally or spiritually worn out. I’m not alone in this. In another part of the Old Testament there is the story of a prophet named Elijah. Elijah confronts the evil king Ahab and has a spiritual show-down with Ahab’s prophets of a demon god named Baal on Mount Carmel. God shows up so strong and with miraculous power displays He is the only true God. It is an epic scene; it was a spiritual high for Elijah. It was clear God was with Elijah and he is unstoppable. Then, after all this success and display of power, Ahab’s wife, a woman named Jezebel sends Elijah a message that she is going to kill him. Now, objectively, “Really? Did you see how God just wiped the floor with anyone who was against Him? What could you, Jezebel, possibly do against God or His chosen prophet?” But, in 1 Kings 19 we are told Elijah heard the message, was afraid and ran. That’s what can happen to us. It doesn’t make sense, but we are tired, worn out, exposed, at the end of ourselves and there in those moments, boom, we lose our nerve or become anxious.

When those moments come, what do we do about it? As we have seen throughout this series, we pray about it. Have you noticed this pattern? Look at Hezekiah’s prayer in verse 14.

Present Your Request to the LORD: 2 Kings 19:14

14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.

The act of spreading out the letter before the LORD was a symbolic act of presenting this request before God and asking for His help and response. It wasn’t as if God needed to read it, He already knew everything about it. He knew the content, He knew when it was written by the king of Assyria, He knows everything. But the action was Hezekiah displaying publicly what was happening within him spiritually and personally. He was coming before the LORD.

At times, physical actions like this can be helpful. A few years ago, I was in a season of facing a number of challenges, personally and professionally. Things were a bit uncertain and I was feeling anxious. Looking back on it, I can tell you exactly what was making me anxious and when I compare what I was going through then to some of the things I am facing today, I will tell you, they weren’t objectively different or more challenging, but for whatever reason, it was an anxious season for me. This story from Hezekiah, along with two verses from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, inspired me. Paul says in Philippians 4:6&7:

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

So, I did what Paul says and what Hezekiah did. I started writing letters to the LORD. When I would feel anxious about a situation or circumstance or not be sure how to handle something, I would tell God, in a letter. If we had a key opening on our staff, I would sit down, take a piece of paper, and tell God. I would write out my prayer to Him, then I would seal it in an envelope, and I placed it in a small box that sat on my desk. On the front of the envelope, I would write the date and the subject of the letter. Then, whenever I felt anxious about that situation, I would look in the box, see that letter on the topic that was making me feel anxious, I would remind myself that I had already presented that request to the LORD and I was simply waiting for His response. Then, when an answer would come or a resolution happen, I would go to the box, find the letter, open it, and give God praise for how He answered. Sometimes, it was what I had asked for, other times it was different than what I expected, and always it was better than what I would have chosen. One time, I found two letters on the same topic, so apparently, I was extra anxious about that situation! It was deeply helpful for me to learn to trust God with my anxiousness.

Now, when we go to the LORD in prayer about what is making us anxious, what do we pray? Hezekiah’s prayer is instructive for us and teaches us how to pray about the things which are making us anxious, let’s look at his prayer:

Hezekiah’s Prayer: 2 Kings 19:15-19

15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God. 17 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. 19 Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.”

The first thing you might notice about this prayer is how short it is. It takes less than a minute to say this prayer. I realize what is recorded here might be a summary of his prayer, but the length of our prayers is not what is important to God, it is the sincerity that we give them to the LORD from our heart. Jesus Himself affirms that when He taught us to pray. Jesus says:

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Matthew 6:7-8 (NIV)

This short prayer is a powerful and helpful model for how we can pray in our most anxious moments. Let’s break down Hezekiah’s prayer.

1. Praise God: 2 Kings 19:15

The prayer opens with a vertical focus on God, not on the problem, not on Hezekiah’s feelings, not on his anxiousness, but by focusing on God. The specific wording of verse 15 is powerful. He says God is “enthroned between the cherubim,” what does that mean? This is Temple language. In the Temple, where Hezekiah was, beyond where Hezekiah would have been was a room called the holy place and then beyond that room was a place called the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy place. It is where the Ark of the Covenant sat, which was this large box that included a copy of the Ten Commandments and was a physical reminder and representation of God’s covenant or promise that He made to His people. On the top of that Ark were two Cherubim, these are winged spiritual creatures and between them the space was referred to the Mercy Seat. God is Spirit, but in the Temple, it was as if that is where God dwelt or sat and the Spirit of God would settle there in that space. What Hezekiah is saying is he is acknowledging God is the God who sits on top of the promises He makes to His people. God is the one who created this relationship with them. God is the one who made the promise. God sought them out, He called them, created them, and has been faithful to them. The same is true for us. We need to be reminded in our most anxious moments, God chose us to know Him and receive His salvation. Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment for our sins, He rose on the third day to break the power of sin and death, and He dwells no longer in a Temple building, but in the temple of our hearts. He dwells with each one of us. That is a fulfillment of what the initial covenant God made. God still stands, if you will, on His promises. If God has done all that for us, will He fail to be faithful in the situation or circumstance we face? The outcome we want isn’t guaranteed, but what is guaranteed is that God will be with us. He will never leave us or forsake us. Even death itself will not separate us from the love of God!

2. Present Reality: 2 Kings 19:17

Hezekiah is honest about the situation with Assyria. It is true they had taken over other lands. However, the reason for this was because it was God’s will. God was using Assyria and God was in control. Yes, they were powerful. Yes, they appeared unstoppable. Yes, they have a history of winning all these battles. But what is true is God is always in control of who is in control. Now, God already knows all this, He knows everything. So why do we bother presenting reality to God? We don’t do it for His sake; we do it for ours. Over the past two weeks we’ve mentioned how going back to what is true is helpful for us when we are anxious. The anxious voice in our mind takes some truth and then mixes it up with misrepresented truth, false promises and lies and then turns it into a jumbled anxious mess in our mind. When we state reality, it is another way of coming back to what is true. It was true that Assyria was strong. But what is also true is who God is. Which is what brings us to the third element of a helpful prayer for our anxious mind.

3. Preserve Good Theology: 2 Kings 19:18

Hezekiah’s theology is sound. He states that even though Assyria conquered these other gods, they really weren’t gods at all. These idols had no power; they were just lifeless wood and stone that someone else carved. The comment, “fashioned by human hands” is a deep statement that speaks about the helplessness of idols and the silliness of following them. We don’t live in a world that is saturated in polytheistic idol worship, there are some parts of the world today where that is their culture, but our world is a little different. To help us understand what is happening here, we need to know that in the Ancient Near East people thought each land had a god. When one people group would fight against another people group, it was understood that the gods of these two places were at war. If one god was conquered, it was understood that the conquered god was under the conquering god. That conquered god still had power, but wasn’t as powerful. This would result in hierarchies of gods and various gods seen as specialists. So, one god would be the god of power another god the god of fertility, etc. Most people would worship many gods. In that world, when one people group, like Assyria, starts taking over everybody, there became this sense that the gods were with Assyria and no god could stop the King of Assyria because he either had an “in” with the gods or whatever gods were behind him were more powerful. Much of Assyria’s brand was built on projecting this image. We see this in how the field commander last week appealed to this image and here, again, the King of Assyria is appealing to it as well. He was pointing to the pile of idols in Assyria of all the other gods from all the nations he conquered as proof he was unstoppable.

While this might seem silly to us, today, we do similar things. There are idols of our society to which people appeal all the time. We would never point to a collection of wooden carvings in a room as proof of our strength. But how many people in our day point to a pile of pieces of paper in a room called a bank as a statement of our worth or strength? How many of us look to a few pieces of paper called a resume or CV as proof of our value and relative strength? How many of us point to trophies from the speech team or track meet or sport tournaments as proof of our success and importance?

Hezekiah sees through the idols of his day. He returns to what is true. These idols are nothing. Perhaps Hezekiah is thinking about what Isaiah, who was the prophet during his time, taught about idols? Isaiah 44:13-20

13 The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in human form, human form in all its glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. 14 He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. 15 It is used as fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. 16 Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.” 17 From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me! You are my god!” 18 They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. 19 No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” 20 Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

Hezekiah realizes, sure Assyria has a pile of idols, but guess what, those idols aren’t anything anyway! Like him, we need to maintain good theology in our anxious moments. Money won’t save us. The title we desire won’t fulfill us. That relationship won’t complete us. The image we long to see in the mirror won’t make us more important or give us more worth. The power we think we need won’t give us the peace we desire. Instead, we turn to God.

4. Present Your Request: 2 Kings 19:19  

2 Kings 19:19 NIV

19 Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.”

Finally, now, we get the request. Notice, the request comes after praising God for who He is, presenting reality, preserving good theology. Now, of course there are moments of throwing up a “Help me, LORD” prayer. But anxiety-busting prayer follows this pattern. After all this, now comes the request. The request was for their deliverance, but it was also for the fame of God to spread. It was a request not just for his own good but for God’s will and purpose to be fulfilled.

Here is how this crisis ends: 32 “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: “‘He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. 33 By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the Lord. 34 I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.’”

Then the angel of the LORD puts to death 185,000 Assyrian soldiers and the king of Assyria retreats. We have annals from this time in history, and we know the Assyrian king mocked Hezekiah in his journal, talking about how he trapped him in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage. But there is no mention of taking the city, but also no mention from the boastful king of the defeat.

We are all facing anxious moments. I want to give us a moment, here at the end of this service to put this into practice. To pause and praise God for who He is. To present to Him our reality. To preserve good theology. And then, to present our request to Him.

Benediction: Philippians 4:6-7