Hezekiah Week 5: Who's Glory is it?
Notes
Transcript
Welcome to another week of church together. I am so excited that we are gathered here together. It is always such a blessing to be able to gather together and to worship together. I spent a lot of this week praying for our church and the future of our church. Time in prayer is always a good thing for me. It helps me to recenter my life and to focus it in the right ways. I am thankful for prayer and I am thankful for this church and how God is working. Let us begin by looking at what the word of the Lord has for us this morning through the story of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah Recap
Hezekiah Recap
The last couple weeks we have gone through this interesting story and I am so glad we have looked at his life because for me it is always interesting to examine these people from the Bible and to remind us of those who have come before us. So it is with Hezekiah that we left him in a time of dire distress and in difficult circumstances because he was faced with the imminent threat of the invasion and destruction. He has received the letter from the King of Assyria and the threats that are laid out before him. This is where we pick up the story again with Hezekiah and how he responds to this letter.
Hezekiah’s Prayer
Hezekiah’s Prayer
Earlier I shared that Prayer can help center me. It is in these moments of prayer that I find peace and I find comfort. It is in verbalizing and sharing with God that I often gain clarity and I find new direction for what I am to be doing. I think this is one of the reasons that I have enjoyed this study on Hezekiah because this seems to be the same response for Hezekiah. Whenever things get rough or things are quite right Hezekiah turns to prayer. It is without a doubt one of his go to responses to difficult things in life. Let’s read together his prayer to God in the Book of Isaiah.
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.
15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord:
16 “Lord Almighty, 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.
17 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
18 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.
19 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.
20 Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are the only God.”
What a powerful prayer and what a beautiful insight into what is the focus of Hezekiah. I think this is one of the moments that we see he heart and his focus on what he believes he needs to do and be as a leader. Let’s start looking at it closer this morning.
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. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord:
These first couple verses are really interesting. Hezekiah does a couple of interesting things when it comes time to prayer. Obviously the first thing he did was he went up to the temple of the Lord. This is consistent with previous passages that we have looked at about Hezekiah. His return to the temple the central place of worship of the Lord is a central element of who he was as a leader.
It is the second action that really grabbed my attention though as i was studying this weeks passage. He took the letter with him and he spread it out before the Lord. This simple action to me had some profound symbolism. Think for a moment. Did Hezekiah have to take the letter with him to present to God? Did he really need to physically bring it before God in the temple? Wouldn’t God already know exactly what was in the letter? These are all valid questions that we can ask of why this action is intriguing. One truth that we know is that there is no previous recording of this happening in the Old Testament to this point. Never before had someone brought the very problem they were dealing with to the temple and present it to God.
This had me thinking, Why? Why hadn’t anyone ever done this? Maybe it wasn’t every thought of. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal for those before Hezekiah. Yet, Hezekiah choose to do this. He choose to bring the letter forward and lay it out before God. This symbolism for me represents a recognition of Hezekiah that he is striving to lay it all at the feet of God. He is physically showing God the burden of his heart, mind and soul in the moment as the leader of his people. This is a powerful representation of recognition of the authority of God in the situation and giving it to him.
16 “Lord Almighty, 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.
We know that Hezekiah recognized the authority of God in the way that he begins his prayer. He begins with an affirmation of who God is. This affirmation is important because it confirms for us that Hezekiah knew that he did not deserve to be heard by God. If you really think about it none of us really do deserve to be heard by God when it comes to our prayers. It is by his Grace that we are able to come before him and present our petitions. Instead this affirmation is a recognition of who God is. This is something that is essential when it comes to our prayer life because it helps us to center our prayers not on ourselves but it centers it on the God and creator of the universe. Who has authority over all the kingdoms of the earth and the heavens and the earth.
It is in this moment that our prayer shifts the focus it is in this affirmation that we see that we are seeking something that is beyond us. Something that is more than who we are. Something far greater than we could every imagine. It is in these moments that we find God and we see that he is in control.
17 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
This verse is an interesting one because it implies that God may not hear or see what is happening. We know that is not true of our God and so does Hezekiah. Instead this is a call to remind that God is not like the other idols and gods that The King of Assyria has encountered. The Lord actually can hear, he actually can see and he is not someone to ridicule. This recognition that the Lord is the one true God and that no other god is like him. He isn’t a comparison to the gods mentioned in v. 19.
18 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.
19 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.
This reference back to the destruction the king of Assyria has done across the land and how easily he destroyed the gods and people before him is a recognition of the truth in the letter that the King of Assyria has been mighty in battle and has laid waste to many before now. Yet, this isn’t a moment of fear or worry for Hezekiah instead it is a recognition that the king of Assyria hasn’t ever faced the one true God and is a reflection on the false deity of the gods that he has encountered before now. The Lord is not some object that human hands have fashioned and worshiped. No, God is much more than that which is why Hezekiah can ask for this...
20 Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are the only God.”
He can seek that deliverance form the hands of the King of Assyria because he recognizes that God is able to. Yet, the real heart of the prayer comes in when we read the second half of this verse.
“so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are the only God.”
The focus of the prayer comes forward in this moment. it is in this one line that we see the heart of Hezekiah when he is in prayer for his Kingdom. It isn’t because he wants to be delivered and saved from certain destruction. Instead it is to bring glory to God first and for most. The request is not one to bring him glory it is to bring God glory. This lead me to a question that we have to ask ourselves when we enter into our prayer life.
So what are we praying for?
So what are we praying for?
We often approach our prayer life with an attitude of what i need or want from God. We often come with a laundry list of prayers that are focused around the idea that God is only there to listen to our needs. Now i have shared many times that we are to share with God the very needs of our heart. He desires us to do that. I have no doubt that God wants to hear from us the things that weigh heavy on our minds and hearts. This is the beauty of our relationships with him. Yet, i wonder if we are missing a really key component to the attitude in which we come to God in our prayers.
Are we praying for our own gain? or Are we praying that God is glorified through the prayers that he answers?
Are we looking at our prayers as an opportunity to get? Or Are we looking at our prayers as an opportunity to glorify?
I asked a question in the title of this sermon. In case you missed it here it is.
Who’s Glory is it?
Who’s Glory is it?
It is in this moment of prayer that Hezekiah shows us how important it is to remember who’s glory it is. It is in this time of distress that Hezekiah brings forward this letter of threats to his people and he lays it out before God and prays for the very things that he needs. Yet, he ends on the note that in answering the prayers the intention is that God is to receive the glory. This isn’t a victory for Hezekiah, or the people of Judah. They aren’t to receive the recognition no instead it is to be for the glory of God. This came clear to me when i read this statement out of one of my commentaries.
“We must never pray for God’s help so we in any way, might be elevated in the eyes of the world. Rather, our praying, for whatever reason always must be that our Lord may be honored, glorified, and made known to the world.” —Barry L. Ross
I think of my prayer life and I can think of times that i have not had this kind of attitude. I can think of moments that i would say were selfish and focused on what i wanted and not necessarily about the Glory of God. I realize now that isn’t a good thing. This challenged me to fundamentally look at the focus of my prayer life and what is the intention, what is the focus. Is it only focused on what i want or is it else where.
To God be the Glory
To God be the Glory
This is an old saying that rings true more than every for me this morning. In everything we do we must be reminded that it is not for our gain, it is not so we can have more, it is not so that we can be free of pain and sorrow, or of trouble. It is all so that we can give God glory. It is so that in the darkest of times we can be reminded that it is through him that we have all that we do. It is through him that we can see that good and bad may come our way but we are to pursue the glory of God in everything. We want to be able to share with the world all the blessing and honor that God has given us and it is only when we consistently pursue a state of humbling ourselves and recognizing that it is through him all this is possible and That God is worth of all the praise in the universe and that we must begin and always make that an essential part of our prayer life just like King Hezekiah.