God to the Rescue
- God's People Threatened (2 Kings 18:17-25, 33-35)
- Hezekiah Turns to God (2 Kings 19:1-4)
- Almighty God Responds (2 Kings19:5-7, 35-37)
Central Truth: Because of God's awesome power, the Christian does not need to fear the Enemy.
Focus: Acknowledge and trust in God's delivering power.
Evangelism Emphasis: Jesus conquered sin and death to save all who believe in him.
Key Scripture (2 Kings 19:35): That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!
1. God's People Threatened
A. A Mocking message
Key Scripture (2 Kings 18:17-25): The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field. 18 They called for the king; and Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to them. 19 The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: “ ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? 20 You say you have the counsel and the might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? 21 Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. 22 But if you say to me, “We are depending on the LORD our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem”? 23 “ ‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! 24 How can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen ? 25 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’ ”
b. listening in silence
Key Scripture (2 Kings 18:33-35): Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 35 Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
Before the Battle
Don't wait until you are in the thick of the battle to claim the promises of God.
...Exercise your strength before the battle begins, and you will think, I've already dealt with this.
-- Charles Stanley
2. Hezekiah Turns to God
a. desperate situation
Key Scripture (2 Kings 19:1-3): When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD. 2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.
God, Not Food
Fasting reminds us we are sustained by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). Food does not sustain us; God sustains us.
-- Richard J. Foster
b. plea for prayer
Key Scripture (2 Kings 19:4): It may be that the LORD your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”
3. Almighty God Responds
a. prophetic word
Key Scripture (2 Kings 19:5-7): 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.’ ”
Our Ground and Hope
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor and theologian who lived in Germany during the Nazi era. When Hitler came to power, Bonhoeffer was among those who resisted the Nazi regime. Just before Hitler came to power, Bonhoeffer preached a sermon titled "Overcoming Fear." He declared:
Fear is . . . The archenemy itself. It crouches in people's hearts. It hollows out their insides, until their resistance and strength are spent and they suddenly break down. Fear secretly gnaws and eats away at all the ties that bind a person to God and to others, and when in a time of need that person reaches for those ties and clings to them, they break and the individual sinks back into himself or herself, helpless and despairing, while hell rejoices.
Over the next decade, Bonhoeffer, and many of his colleagues would be tempted to give in to fear. Even so, he insisted, "This world must fall, God stands above all, His thoughts unswayed, His Word unswayed, His will forever our ground and hope".
b. Supernatural intervention
Key Scripture (2 Kings 19:35-37): That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. 37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.
