10/15/21

 Hezekiah’s Prayer

            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.  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.  Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.  It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands.  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.  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.”

2 Kings 19:14-19

             

                 King Hezekiah is in a tough spot.  The Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel eight years earlier.  Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel captured and exiled throughout the world to live as slaves and immigrants.  Then the king of Assyria turned his eyes towards the kingdom of Judah.  The army mowed through the nation’s fortified cities and finally came to the gates of Jerusalem.  They demanded an unconditional surrender and mocked the size and strength of the Hebrew army.  The General of the army declared that no other people had been able to stop them.  No other gods had been able to stop them.  It was time to give up and accept their fate.

            At the same time, God was speaking through Isaiah, His prophet, and urging Hezekiah to believe that God would save His children.  God would do miracles and deliver the nation from the greatest army that the ancient world had yet seen.  Hezekiah just had to choose.

            Faith or Fear?  To trust what your heart hears or what your eyes see?  These were the choices that weighed on Hezekiah’s mind.  If he chose wrong, he was facing the slaughter of his people.  If he chose wrong, he would suffer and his family would suffer and his people would suffer and that would be the end of the Jews.  That is so much pressure.  Hezekiah staggers to the temple under the weight of the moment and calls out to God.  He believes, or at least he wants to believe.  But the cost of being wrong is unimaginably high and he needs to know for himself.  He needs God to speak to him and reassure him that the Lord will save them.  Not metaphorically save them.  Not save their souls for eternal life…really, are You going to come through this time or not?

            I feel this fear all the time.  If the choices that I make only impact me, I don’t care a whole lot whether they work or not.  If the choices that I make impact my family, I lose sleep.  Are they going to be okay?  There is nothing quite as nerve-wracking as gambling with the futures of your children.  I felt this every time I transitioned to a new job.  The last time I left a company, it was clearly time to go.  The Board and I were ready to move on from each other.  We had a nicely constructed transition plan and gave everyone the best chance for taking on new responsibilities.  I had interviews and great prospects for other positions, but I was not hired yet.  I was miserable and I was grumpy and I was anxious all the time as fear gnawed at my heart.

            Was I risking a good life for my children?  Was my son going to freak out over a significant life change?  Was God going to take care of us?  Was there something better that He had for us?  I was pretty sure that the answer was yes…but pretty sure was nowhere near enough to calm my nerves.  My prayers were a lot like Hezekiah’s.  I prayed for help and a job and peace and help and direction and help.  My prayers were all over the place because my emotions were so strong and so close to the surface.  They were not my most articulate prayers, but they might have been my most honest.  The need that I felt was so real and I did not have it in me to pretend that I had everything put together.

            God does not recoil from strong emotion.  He is not put off by crisis.  He does not see us as needy and clingy and whiny.  When we are real with God, He can be real with us and speak peace and hope and wisdom to our chaotic hearts.  He delivered Hezekiah.  He took care of my family.  He is worth trusting.

A moment to reflect:

What do you feel panicky about when you think about it?