Hope for the Overwhelmed and the Fearful
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
It is my joy to be hear in front of you today. I love all of you and pray for you regularly. My joy is even more complete in being able to speak God’s word in this chapel today.
Some of you may know that the Bible contains a lot of history in it. And I know that many of you are not a fan of history. We will try and not make this a history lesson!
It is important that I point out that much of the Bible is history. It is not mythic legend. In fact, what is remarkable is that much of what the Bible says can be shown to be in agreement with histories found in surrounding cultures. And one such place is a passage found in with the story of King Hezekiah of Judah and King Sennacherib of Assyria.
Now I told you that this is not a history lesson. God did not include this passage in his word to teach us about history, but so that we may learn something about who God is through it. That is my hope today, that we all learn a little more about who God is through this passage and that many will come to understand what the Bible claims is true about God.
The passage we read today will be a prayer.
2 Kgs 19:14-
Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said: “O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.”
A little background information on this passage is necessary to understand this passage fully.
In the land that we now call Israel, there were two kingdoms that made up of the twelve tribes of Jacob: Israel and Judah.
Before King Sennacherib of Assyria came down another king of Assyria came down and captured the people of Israel and took them to the land of Syria. The Bible says that this was because the people of Israel “did not listen to the Lord their God but violated his covenant.” God’s judgement against Israel to be sent out of the promised land. They did not uphold their part of the agreement with God, a pattern that we see commonly in the Bible.
Ten years later, King Sennacherib of Assyria, was set on capturing the land of Judah.
The difference between Israel and Judah, however, was that Judah had a very faithful king named Hezekiah. The Bible says about Hezekiah
He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses.
He kept the commands of God and was faithful to God in all his ways.
King Hezekiah tried his best to rid King Sennacherib from the land, but he did not pay the demands the King wanted.
The King of Assyria however wanted more than to just capture the cities of Judah. He wanted to humiliate the God of Judah. So he sent spokesmen and letters to Hezekiah taunting him saying, “What are you relying on?” “What are you trusting in?” He looked around at the land and saw they did not have altars for worship on the hills, and that all people had to worship at one altar in Jerusalem. This King of Assyria insulted the people of Judah because he did not know who this God was that they served.
Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’
2 Kings 18:29-
I. Be guided by the truth
I. Be guided by the truth
The King of Assyria failed to see who the God of Judah was. Do we often fail to see things clearly when it comes to what the Bible teaches? What guides are understanding?
Illustration:
I traveled once to one of the most beautiful places on earth called Zion National Park in Utah. In this beautiful place were these long tunnels carved out of rock. The tunnels were sometimes over 1 km long. All along the road there were warnings to be sure to keep your car headlights on as you traveled through the tunnel. I soon found out that this was not just a precaution, but it was life and death imperative. As I traveled through one of the tunnels, I noticed that they had absolutely no lights in the tunnel. The only light came from my headlights. As I was driving, I noticed that it was quite straight for a while, so I decided to do something that my wife absolutely hated....I turned off my lights. In that split second of turning them off, I had never experienced such darkness before. In fact, I must have only turned off the lights for one second, but I still get nightmares about driving in absolute blindness. My heart literally pounds when I think back on this memory.
Why do I tell you this story? The King of Assyria is like many of us. Driving through that tunnel with no light on. In life, we need a light to guide us yet we don’t have one and we assume the path stays straight in front of us. I will say it more clearly. All of us have some kind of truth that guides us. We all believe in something, we believe that when we come to this school that the transportation we are taking will be safe enough to get us here. Why do you believe that? Have you not heard that there are car accidents? Oh you walked to school today? How do you know that you were not going to trip?
All of us are guided by beliefs.
What guided King Hezekiah? I will tell you. It was his faith in who God was. Even if he was threatened by the King of Assyria. Here is what was said in an intimidating letter:
The King of Assyria sent to him an intimidating letter:
“Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?
“
What Hezekiah does with this letter reveals much of who Hezekiah is and what he believes.
His prayer reveals his beliefs:
Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said: “O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.
Hezekiah asserts that there is one God. You alone are God.
This may be difficult for many people to understand, but the Bible claims that there is one God. Only one. He cannot be paired with other gods.
Not only that, but he is the Creator God. Anything you see, touch, feel, taste, experience; all those things come from the one God.
He is enthroned above the cherubim. Cherubim are the angels. This statement reveals that he has complete dominion over all things, that he is the only true ruler. As a king, Hezekiah submitted before a higher King than himself.
Hezekiah continues saying:
Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed.
Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands
2 Kings 19
2 Kgs 19:1
He believes in a God who hears his people calling to him. He believes in a God who sees things that are written. He believes in a God who desires justice. He believes in a God who will not be humiliated by what a person says.
Furthermore, Hezekiah says of the gods of the other nations, that being made out of the materials of the world, they can be destroyed. A god who can be destroyed by mere human destruction is no God at all. This is why even today, though the temple in Jerusalem has been destroyed, no one claims that God was destroyed.
Finally Hezekiah says
So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.”
Consider Hezekiah’s position. The city of Jerusalem likely had no more than 10,000 people inside the walls. The army of Assyria was more than 10 times that amount. The odds were impossibly not in their favor. All they had was the true and living God on their side.
Illustration:
Maybe you too have felt surrounded by so much pressure that you just wanted to give up. Maybe you have this sense of doom in your heart right now. Maybe you are thinking to yourself, “there is no hope for me, I am overwhelmed and anxious about everything.”
I, too, was like this growing up. I had so much fear about everything that it would keep me from eating. I couldn’t speak in public, I did not have many friends, I was also worried about what might happen in every situation.
I remember on one occasion when I was in college, my old music teacher came to work on their masters degree. Their job was to be the conductor of the orchestra that I was in. Suddenly, I felt that I needed to somehow prove myself to my former teacher, and wanted to show that I was the best horn player. I had a solo in the concert, and I practiced so long. When I finally came to the concert, I felt sick inside. I was fearful if I messed up that my teacher would look down on me. I began to worry about what others would start thinking if I messed up. Maybe I would ruin my teachers reputation
II. Trust in that truth
II. Trust in that truth