2 Chronicles 32:9-20 –
Later, when Sennacherib king of
Assyria and all his forces were laying siege to Lachish, he sent his officers to Jerusalem with
this message for Hezekiah king of Judah and for all the people of Judah who
were there: “This is what Sennacherib king of Assyria says: On what are
you basing your confidence, that you remain in Jerusalem under siege? When Hezekiah says, ‘The Lord our God will save us from the hand of the
king of Assyria,’ he is misleading you, to let you die of hunger and thirst. Did not Hezekiah himself
remove this god’s high places and altars, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You
must worship before one altar and burn sacrifices on it’? “Do you not know what I
and my predecessors have done to all the peoples of the other lands? Were the
gods of those nations ever able to deliver their land from my hand? Who of all the gods of
these nations that my predecessors destroyed has been able to save his people
from me? How then can your god deliver you from my hand? Now do not let Hezekiah
deceive you and mislead you like this. Do not believe him, for no god of any
nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or the hand of my
predecessors. How much less will your god deliver you from my hand!”
Sennacherib’s officers spoke further against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah. The king also wrote letters ridiculing the Lord, the God of Israel, and saying this
against him: “Just as the gods of the peoples of the other lands did not rescue their
people from my hand, so the god of Hezekiah will not rescue his people from my
hand.” Then they called out in Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem who
were on the wall, to terrify them and make them afraid in order to capture the
city. They spoke about the God of Jerusalem as they did about the
gods of the other peoples of the world—the work of human hands. King
Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out in prayer to heaven about this.
2
Kings 19:4,25 – 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.”…“‘Have
you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I
planned it;
now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified
cities into piles of stone.
Application:
- · Intercessory prayer was an important aspect of the ministry of the prophets.
- · The God of Israel is the ruler of all nations and history. The Assyrians attributed their victories to their own military superiority. However, Isaiah said that God alone ordained these victories.
All Scripture verses taken from NIV
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