Faced With a Stacked Deck

What is the solution when the deck is stacked against you?

Isaiah 36 & 37

Today we will be looking in the book of Isaiah for three points to use in dealing with the situation.

Isaiah prophesied from 739–681 BC to the people of Judah who had turned a deaf ear to the Lord.

Instead of serving The Lord with humility and faithfulness and offering love to their neighbors, they offered meaningless sacrifices in God’s temple at Jerusalem and committed injustices against each other.

The people of Judah turned their backs on God which prompted Isaiah’s pronouncements of judgment, declarations that he made in the hope that God’s chosen people would return to Him.

36:1 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them.

2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field.

Rabshakeh, probably “the Rabshakeh” was the leader of the Assyrian forces surrounding Jerusalem. Rabshakeh was probably a title rather than a name. Let’s look at how the Rabshakeh tried to undermine the faith of Hezekiah and Judah.

3 Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, which was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, Asaph's son, the recorder.

4 And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?

Rabshakeh is asking where they put their trust.

5 I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?

Explains to them how strong his army is. Takes them on for rebelling against Assyria. Ahaz was paying tribute to Assyria, but Hezekiah stopped it.

6 Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.

He knows that Hezekiah has formed an alliance with Egypt, but he describes Egypt as a broken crutch which will pierce the person who tries to use it.

7 But if thou say to me, We trust in the Lord our God: is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?

Rabshakeh is using some psychological warfare here. He is trying to imply that the altars Hezekiah has removed has angered God, when in fact, they were altars of idol worship.

8 Now therefore give pledges, I pray thee, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.

Now he tries some bribery.

9 How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

You don’t have the power to challenge even the smallest of Assyria’s armies even with the assistance of the Egyptians.

10 And am I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? the Lord said unto me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.

And now actually claims he has consulted God about the attack.

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14 Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you.

Don’t listen to Hezekiah, he can’t deliver you.

15 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

Hezekiah may tell you to trust in the Lord, but don’t believe him.

16 Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern;

Rather than putting your trust in Hezekiah, make an alliance with me and I will see that each of you is taken care of.

17 Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

I will take you to a pleasant place much like your own home.

18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, the Lord will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

He is saying that he had conquered many lands and none of their gods have been able to overcome his forces. Why should this case be any different?

19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

All the gods he had faced had been powerless to stop him.

What parallels can we draw to our lives today?

What do Christians hear in our modern society that is intended to separate us from the Lord?

If God exists, then why do bad things happen to good people.

I know “insert non-believers name here” does not believe in God and he has a marvelous life, while “insert believers name here” is barely making ends meet.

Nice guys finish last.

You only live once; go for all the gusto you can grab.

He who dies with the most toys wins.

When you think about it, a lot of the anti-God talk that occurred in Hezekiah’s time are pretty similar to what we hear today.

When you face a crisis, the devil will approach and say, “You can’t trust in God. Look what’s happening to you.”

Now, Hezekiah was one of the few good kings that Judah had during their history. Was Hezekiah perfect, no far from it, just like me, and I expect, just like you.

Hezekiah occasionally stumbled. Sometimes, instead of putting His trust in the Lord, he tended to put his trust in alliances with other nations, political maneuvering and massive building programs to secure his nation.

But Hezekiah did quite a few things right. He had inherited a people who were deep into idolatry due the failures on the part of his father Ahaz. Hezekiah ordered the destruction of the idols in high places that had promoted the worship of idols and centralized worship and sacrifices at the temple of Jerusalem.

Hezekiah is also mentioned in Matthew chapter one as being a descendant of David and in the genealogy of Jesus (although the KJV lists his name as Ezekias).

In chapter 37 Hezekiah has just got the news that Assyria has invaded Judah and surrounded Jerusalem.

37:1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.

These are signs of deep mourning. He rent his clothes. I would imagine the king wore some pretty fine clothes, but he rent them, he tore them apart. And after he tore apart his fine garments, he put on a burlap bag. He scripture says sackcloth. Literally a cloth formed into a sack, a lot of times woven from goat or camel hair.

In any case, there is no doubt that Hezekiah realized the seriousness of his situation.

You can imagine the effect of the people when they saw the actions of their king. I expect you would have seen a case where Hezekiah was not praying alone.

Individual prayer is crucial, but corporate prayer is also important. Throughout the Bible we see godly leaders organizing their people to pray as a group. But how can we pray corporately if we never gather with God’s people? That is one reason it is so important for us to be able to meet here in person, a chance to participate in corporate prayer. That is hard to do on Facebook or Zoom or YouTube.

Today I have three points to make, three things we need to do when the deck is stacked against us, and the first point is:

To Pray

What does Hezekiah do first, he goes into the house of the Lord to pray about this situation? He doesn’t pray at home; he goes to the temple. He needs that connection, he needs to be in the dwelling place of the Lord, he needs to be in the temple. He needs to be close to God.

How to we make that connection today when we need it? We make that connection through Jesus Christ. We don’t have a temple which is designated as the dwelling place of God, we have something better, we have a direct connection with God through our relationship with Jesus Christ.

2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

Here we find our second point,

He proceeds

Prayer is important, but it also important to carry forth. Granted, sometimes there are situations that we have not control over and praying is the only thing we can do, however, in most cases it is important for us to continue on with our work in fashion that honors God until God answers our prayer in one way or another.

I remember seeing an interview with an astronaut many years ago. The interviewer asked him “suppose you are on the moon in the lunar excursion module, and you have just learned that the engine will not fire, and you will not be able to return to the earth.”

“How would you spend your last few hours before your oxygen ran out. Would you be talking to your family on the com link or spending your time in quiet contemplation about your life and where it has led you?”

The astronaut looked at the interviewer and said, “I would be outside working on that rocket engine.”

Prayer is important, but we have to be an active participant in our relationship with the Lord.

3 And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

What they are telling Isaiah is that there is an imminent danger which is approaching and cannot be avoided, and Judah does not have the strength to overcome it.

Unless Yahweh intervenes, Judah will be like a pregnant woman who dies in childbirth, too weak to deliver the child.

The metaphor depicts their hopelessness and risk of death.

4 It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.

Notice something profoundly interesting here. They are not asking primarily for the deliverance of Judah. They are asking for God to reprove that one who has said such blasphemous things against God. There main goal is to see that God is honored.

Hezekiah correctly identifies the issue: Assyria has ridiculed not Hezekiah or Judah but “the living God.”

5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

Here we come to our last point.

We see Prayer

We see Proceeding

And here we see Isaiah’s advice to:

Place your trust in the Lord

The language that Isaiah uses here, fear not, be not afraid, appears in Scripture around 140 times. It is one of the key themes. It is another theme that we need to keep in mind in our times. How relevant is “fear not” for our days and times?

41:13 For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

Hebrews 13:6 KJV 1900

6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

7 Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

This rumor that Isaiah prophesizes about is a report of the advance of the Egyptians led by Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, who was the most famous king of Egypt’s Twenty-fifth Dynasty. This causes Sennacherib, the king of Assyria to get involved in a campaign against Egypt which ultimately costs him his live.

Proverbs 11:5 KJV 1900

5 The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: But the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.

So, what do you do when the deck is stacked against you?

When it seems as if the whole world is trying to separate you from your connection with Christ.

Pray

Proceed

Place your trust in not the king, but the King of Kings