A Rally to Prayer (Part A)

You know, sometimes, oh, God's going to do this, and God, we have no idea what God's going to do. Don't go writing checks that, you know, God is not endorsing. There's a biblical example.

His humble approach, he never becomes presumptuous. In fact, again, he's laying out the reality of it all, that God has reason to not bless us. But he also says, but God also has reasons to bless us too. How is that stated in the New Testament?

Where sin abounded, grace did much more. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Second Kings.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the Book of Second Kings Chapter 19, as he begins his message, A Rally to Prayer. If you have your Bibles, please open to Second Kings Chapter 19, Rally to Prayer. Isaiah 37, Second Chronicles 32 both cover this story.

They're parallel accounts. These events take place about 715, give or take, years before the coming of Christ. And we look now at Verse 1 of Second Kings 19. And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh. Now, of course, this just follows what happened in Chapter 18, where Reb Shachar, the commander in the field for the Assyrian army, had challenged and blasphemed the Jewish people, essentially saying, we're going to take your city from you. And when Hezekiah sends out his representatives, they engage Reb Shachar. He is obnoxious. He is foul-mouthed. And again, he has this army that just can't be stopped.

At least no one else has been able to stop them so far. And so this is the news that Hezekiah gets. He tears his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth.

The two practices I'm glad we don't practice. But this sackcloth represents outwardly a display of distress. Somebody is going through something very difficult. It says here at verse 1, and went into the house of Yahweh. Well, this is the kind of behavior that made this king the man of God that he is, that we admire so much. If you're looking for names for boys, Hezekiah would be up on the list. I think most folks go with Josiah. But this king is right up there with him. Just a remarkable man. In verse 2, it continues, Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household of Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. Well, this is a national thing.

These aren't local folks. This is the government, the highest echelons of the kingdom. Now, God will send Isaiah later to Eliakim, declare how faithful he is, and Yahweh will call Eliakim his servant, my servant. That's in Isaiah 22. In the same chapter, God will send Isaiah to this man, Shebna, declaring that he has self-exalting pride, and that he is arrogant, and God will deal with him. Shakespeare said, I charge thee, fling away ambition. By that sin fell the angels. Well, you know, Shakespeare is articulate. You know, I'm not quoting him as though he's Christian or though it's scripture, but it is articulate. He's telling you what ambition can do.

If not careful, if you have the opportunity. Most of us don't get the opportunity that people up in the higher echelons of life get. The devil used self-ambition to trap Eve. You might not want to hear it, but it is there, the promise of divine knowledge. God knows you're going to be like him and have the knowledge of good and evil, and that's what began, you know, what do you mean? There's something to learn? And we all have to watch that we're not learning for the sake of learning, learning to do the wrong thing with what we're learning and become arrogant in the process. And Eve wanted that self-realization. She wanted to come into this divine knowledge, and it got messy from there.

Of course, Adam is no better, not picking on Eve at all, just telling it like it is, because God does. And the elders of the priest. Well, this is the leadership of public affairs and spiritual matters, the elders and the priests, the public affairs and the spiritual matters. And Hezekiah is righteous of a king he is. He was too wise to dismiss the threat or succumb to it.

He's going to stand up to this in spite of all of the terror that surrounds it. That's the tearing of the clothes, the sackcloth, the going to the house of the Lord. And so he immediately goes to the house of the Lord and sends messengers to the prophet Isaiah, and he wants Isaiah to pray to God. Psalm 63, verse 2, So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. And well, that Psalm, of course, talks about the beauty of God's temple.

Here, Hezekiah has a practical approach. He is going to the present where the presence of God is as far as contact goes, direct contact, as close as they could get, and he is going to appeal to the Lord there. I often like coming into the sanctuary during the week and just sitting in one of the pews and just talking to the Lord. Not that this puts me any closer to God, but, you know, we are human and it certainly lends a certain ambiance at times. You know, could you pray on aisle 3 of Food Lion the way you could pray in certain other places?

Maybe if someone is chasing you. But anyway, to the prophet Isaiah. Now, Isaiah knows there is a national crisis.

There is no way he is oblivious to this. The historian is, of course, putting in as many details as he can, without too much, and so they send to him, and we will get to that in verse 4, to pray. The king himself also will continue to pray. That will come out in verse 15 with more details about that. Suppose Moses did not have righteous men around him to fight evil and the evil forces that press on us. What if it was just Moses and he had not Joshua to send against the Amalekites, he did not have the two men that accompanied him on the hill. Exodus 17 verse 10, Joshua did as Moses said to him and fought with Amalek, and Moses, Aaron, and the man named Hur, went up on the top of the hill. And we know they were all part of the spiritual war that took place.

And we do the same thing. When bad news comes our way, we know we call upon certain saints to join us in prayer. James 5 14, is anyone among you sick?

Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him. And so there's instructions in both New Testament and Old Testament alike. Verse 3, and they said to him, thus says Hezekiah, this day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy for the children have come to birth but there is no strength to bring them forth. So this is what they're saying to the prophet Isaiah. And Hezekiah is admitting that Judah has guilt, that there has been apostasy in the land, but he also is saying there's more to the story.

And his reforms demonstrate that. He tried to do his best good to get this stuff out of Judah. And so he's saying yeah we're not squeaky clean, we have sin.

But we also are fighting sin. And he also tried to break free from being a subordinate to Assyria. And the Assyrians came against him and took cities, all the fortified cities in Judah and Hezekiah paid them off. Well this is the second invasion and he's not paying them off this time. He is determined to fight them. Where he says, here in verse 3, there was no strength to bring forth.

He's talking about the reforms. He can't finish the righteous reforms if the Assyrians come and conquer the city. And so he's saying we're trying to do the right thing, but how can we finish cleaning up Israel if we're going to be judged like this? This is a model response against deadly intimidation. Remember, this is emotional. The sackcloth, they're going, this is very emotional for them.

Their lives are at stake. Assyrians are not going to treat Hezekiah well if they do conquer the city. But his optimism is not that blind, reckless kind. You know, sometimes God's going to do this and God, we have no idea what God's going to do. Don't go writing checks that, you know, God is not endorsing. There's a biblical example.

His humble approach, he never becomes presumptuous. In fact, again, he's laying out the reality of it all, that God has reason to not bless us. But he also says, but God also has reasons to bless us too. How is that stated in the New Testament? Where sin abounded, grace did much more.

When we say sin abounded, we say, Lord, sin prevails over us, but grace much more. So his call to Isaiah here to come pray shows where his confidence is, that it's going upward to God. Again, his metaphor of birth proves that he's a man of vision and he is longing for this victory over the apostasy and idolatry. He's longing for an idolatrous free Judah.

Imagine if, you know, a pastor takes over a church that is just, you know, unbiblical again, you know, just doing stuff and he takes the church, he wants to clean it up. He's got this heart to just bring the word in that times of refreshing may come. And well, this is the case for this king, who is a shepherd of the nation. Even the Rab Shaka pointed to Hezekiah's reforms, although he's ignorant about them and misapplied them, but he's still to say it is not Hezekiah taking down your altars. And so we know Hezekiah was very busy.

He also fortified Jerusalem heavily for such a time as this. And where he mentions the remnant in verse four, we haven't gotten to that when I do, you won't have to re-comment. When he mentions the remnant, he is suggesting that he has been paying attention to Isaiah's sermons. Isaiah, in chapter 10, mentioned the remnant of God's people and the benefit of Isaiah in this king's life was not wasted. Do I have people in my life that have influenced me for righteousness?

And if I have, am I going to waste that influence or am I going to do something for the king with it, understanding that it is the king who brought them into my life? Because Isaiah is in the life of Hezekiah because God put him there. He had put Isaiah in the path of the father of Hezekiah, Ahaz, and he wouldn't trust God. And the prophet gave him every chance. Isaiah had been in the presence of many kings.

Hezekiah, he is the one I think does best with the influence. Verse four, he continues, it may be that Yahweh, your God, will hear all the words of the Reb Shekeh, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to reproach the living God and will rebuke the words which Yahweh, your God, has heard. Therefore, lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left. And there's that remnant that I mentioned is connected to Isaiah's sermons and I believe Hezekiah is very conscious of that. And so he says maybe Yahweh is not finished judging Judah.

He's not, again, not presumptuous. He is submitted to what God wants and he knows that God has allowed the other cities to fall. When some of the other cities are being attacked or invaded, we don't hear them calling out to Yahweh, which I think is significant because I think if they were, it would have entered into the record.

It would have been that important. And when we're not sure of God's will, we're at greater risk of becoming presumptuous as I mentioned. Well, God's going to do this and sometimes we have no basis for that.

I think most of the time we just go, Lord, help! And we just pray and submit. Jesus said, nevertheless your will be done. Giving us the example, those of Judah in the kingdom, God's chosen people had chosen fictitious gods. Hezekiah never loses sight of that. He knows they fabricated images to worship.

He knows that the worship of these false gods, these false religions brought with it immorality and death. And this is what the invention of gods will do. We're living in a time in history where we're seeing it all over the world. The immorality, you know, the so-called transgender, which is just abject perversity.

The murder of the unborn. We're seeing these things and it's their religion behind it, whatever it is. If they consider themselves atheists, that controlling influence in your life is your religion. And in the day of Hezekiah, of course, they were sacrifice, human sacrifices of their own children, the Jewish people. And we scratch our heads and we wonder how could they ever have fallen for such a thing as we do today? Wonder how can people help people be so foolish because it is spiritual.

Satan is very active, goes to and fro, has an army with him to do these things. And the consequence of apostasy is laid out in Deuteronomy 31, the prophet and the king, they didn't lose sight of these things. They knew if God wanted to judge them then there was nothing they could do.

But they're hoping that's not the case. He says whom his master, the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God. So Hezekiah is asking God to deal with these people.

Sennacherib is the Assyrian king. He's out conquering other fortified cities of Judah at this time. Again, he had done it, I don't know, fourteen years earlier and now he's back at it. And Hezekiah is saying, Lord, they're blasphemers, these people.

I mean, I know we're fighting to reform the nation and these guys are just outright evil. And so he asks here in verse 4, and we'll rebuke the words of Yahweh, your God has heard. So what he's saying is, Lord, you've heard what they've said about you and he's appealing to the Lord with facts. And therefore, lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left. And that's what he's asking Isaiah to do. So he's rallying the prophet for prayer. Well, Isaiah's already been in prayer and already has the answer.

And that's gonna, we're gonna get to that in a minute. But there's no name it and claim it here. That's presumptuous sin.

You know, I'm just gonna name it and it's gonna be mine. You're just misguided at the least and presumptuous at the most. We don't hear Hezekiah naming it and claiming it.

Watch out for that. You can see how people get tripped up with these things. I don't think they wake up in the morning, the people, and say, today I'm going to blaspheme and do something like this. They just follow their leaders. I think some of their leaders do wake up and say, you know, look it out at the congregation and see dollar signs and tell the people what they think they want to hear. And the next thing you know, you've got a whole movement on your hands and it's very difficult to wrench someone free from something that they first believe. Well, verse 5, so the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah and Isaiah said to them, thus you shall say to your master, thus says Yahweh, do not be afraid of the words which you have heard with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

This is a good start. So Isaiah, you know, they come and fell on this and Isaiah is saying, listen, I already have the message. I've been praying too.

I don't need a king to tell me to pray. Got an army surrounding the city. He's not saying that, but that's where it comes out.

You can extract that from the story. Again, in Jerusalem, the only fortified city that had not yet been conquered by the Assyrians, Isaiah is not giving a personal opinion. He's not saying something. You get to Jeremiah, you get these false prophets and they're doing that presumptuous stuff. They're saying God's going to do this and he's going to do that. Jeremiah said, no, he's not.

We're going to be going into captivity. That's what God said. And of course they persecuted him for doing it.

They do that today. If you tell some Christians, listen, that's kind of a kooky prayer. You have no right to pray like that. Oh brother, you better jump in a foxhole.

Never mind what the Bible says. Their emotions have already decided the matter. Anyway, he's ready with the reply. Well, news of Reb Shachar, his words circulated. They reached Isaiah 2 and he already has been with the Lord and has the instruction. He says, do not be afraid of the words which you have heard. Well, that's what the king wants to hear.

Consider the source. It's the great prophet Isaiah. Well, if he says it, then that's going to be reassuring. Hezekiah is going to then, as leader of the people, take that and tell the people.

Second Chronicles 37, as I mentioned, Isaiah 37 and Second Chronicles 32 have the parallel story. Here's what the king says to the people. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria, nor before all the multitude that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. Well, Isaiah told him first, don't be afraid. And that's all he needed. And now he's connecting this to, you know, Elisha, you know, those who are with us are more than against us. Open the eyes of my servant.

He's got it now. He is strong in the Lord at this point and he's bringing the people with him and they will not have to swing one sword. He continues in this sixth verse, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed.

Now here's the interesting thing. Servants here in the Hebrew is a different word than servant in verse five, this one in verse six. In verse five it is the typical word for a servant. But here it is often translated a lad or a child without insult. But the context here, contextually, this is disparaging.

He's insulting. He's saying those boys, those little foot boys of the king, those little lackeys of Assyria, that's how he's using it. I think the context makes it, that's why the historian changes words. If he wanted to say they're the servants of their king, he would have used the other Hebrew word.

But no, he calls those boys over there. I kind of like those human touches when they, they're all over scripture. You got to, you know, dig for them. But when you get them, they glow, you know. It's like, yeah, that's what I would have said.

I'd call them punks, too. But, you know, that's why God didn't let me write scripture. You would have been in the flesh. You wouldn't have been scriptures.

The writings of Rick and they would be, don't read that. Anyhow, God knew they were blasphemous. Verse seven, surely I will send a spirit upon him and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. You know, God can lead us not into temptation, but he can also allow the wicked to be channeled into temptation.

Just, it's in Romans, it's other places, many places, but I'll just take the one that we might be most familiar with, 2 Thessalonians. For this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie. Well, only because they didn't have the love for the truth. They want lies. Well, God's fine. You think lies are better than truth? Well, here's your lies. Because I'm not going to let you run the insane asylum.

You will think you're running it. This is the sovereignty of God. You are either going to serve the Lord or you're going to serve the enemy, but you will not be sovereign.

He is and he alone. The influence upon them, this extraordinary divine impulse or persuasion, God is in control. That's what the prophet is telling the king and the leaders who have come to him. These prophetic words came true. So, Necharab will hear of the defeat of his army that we won't, we'll get to in verse 35, and return to Assyria. That will be the end of his Judean campaign. And there will be some interference by the Egypt slash Ethiopian kingdom, but they'll never really cross swords.

I'll come back to that later. He says here, and he shall hear a rumor, verse 7, and return to his own land. Rumor, I think, is an unfortunate choice of words. Report would have been better. Because, you know, you hear a rumor, you think of an unsubstantiated report. Well, the reports he gets are substantiated. They're not, what?

Really? They're like, oh no. He's going to get the report that, well, the Ethiopian-Egyptian alliance is moving that way. That's one report he will get. But the main one that Isaiah is talking about will be, you just lost 185,000 troops in one night.

I think either they all died from acute food poisoning, or God just miraculously wiped them out. Either way, that's the report that will return him to his land. We have other cases of this in scripture, but that's for future kings, future other events. Here with this Assyrian army, it will put an end to their invasion. That, it's an angelic slaughter. And he says, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

And that's an by the way. So, God is telling Isaiah these things, and then he gives Isaiah a little more. Oh, and by the way, because that doesn't happen for another 20 years or so. The king gets assassinated, Sennacherib. But, you know, you just, you trust the prophet Isaiah. It turns out right. We come back, we Christians look at this and say, look at that.

If I were living then, I would be looking for this guy to die when he went back to Assyria. Thanks for joining us for today's edition on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We trust that what you've heard today in the book of 2 Kings has been something to remember. If you'd like to listen to more teachings from this series, go to crossreferenceradio.com. What's more, that's crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. Our time is about up, but we hope you'll tune in again next time as we continue on in the book of 2 Kings. We look forward to that time with you, so make a note in your calendar to join Pastor Rick as he teaches from the Bible right here on Cross Reference Radio.