February 27, 2016
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

God Acting for Us

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Opening Prayer

Gracious Father, You are the Prince of Peace and the great I Am. I praise You, my helper and my redeemer.

Read 2 KINGS 19:20-37

[20] Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. [21] This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: “‘Virgin Daughter Zion despises you and mocks you. Daughter Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. [22] Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! [23] By your messengers you have ridiculed the Lord. And you have said, “With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its junipers. I have reached its remotest parts, the finest of its forests. [24] I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.” [25] “‘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. [26] Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up. [27] “‘But I know where you are and when you come and go and how you rage against me. [28] Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.’ [29] “This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: “This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. [30] Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. [31] For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. “The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. [32] “Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: “‘He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. [33] By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the LORD. [34] I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.'” [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! [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.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

It is an encouragement to know our God acts, for us, for good!

“Throughout the Bible, judgment upon other nations and rulers is rarely because of their religious views alone, but rather because of their arrogance and injustice” (John W. Olley). Sennacherib has certainly shown arrogance as well as blaspheming “the Holy One of Israel” (22). This self-styled “great king” (18:19) of Assyria even presumes to have already conquered Egypt (24). The Lord’s response through the prophet Isaiah is a very strong rebuke (21-28) bringing great comfort to the embattled Hezekiah (29-34).

Hezekiah’s story is important and his healing, the extra 15 years and his final act of pride and its consequences are still to be told. Despite the disappointing ending, he is highlighted as a model of trusting God. His seeking God’s direction through Isaiah, the prophecy of deliverance and the specific word “the Lord has spoken” against Assyria’s king (21) are recorded not only in 2 Kings but given verbatim in Isaiah as well as in the parallel retelling in Chronicles, written 400 years later for the exiles finally allowed to return home (Isa. 36; 37; 2 Chron. 32).

Over the past two weeks, as is often the case in Western societies, we have applied most of the lessons from these chapters to our individual journey with God. This is a very narrow understanding of Scripture, however. We should also be asking how they translate to the church, which, like the Gentiles, has been grafted (Rom. 11:11-24) as a wild olive branch onto the Hebrew people. What does relying on God mean for our family of faith? How do we corporately demonstrate our trust by obeying? Are we praying specifically as congregations to know what God wants? Are we preaching “cheap grace” and forgetting the Master’s commands which flow from our new relationships as his disciples? Are we asking for enough?

Apply

What does it mean for your church family to rely on God? How can your church avoid proclaiming a gospel of “cheap grace”?

Closing prayer

Lord, my prayer is for my church family. Enable us as Your people, to demonstrate to those around us the difference Jesus Christ makes in life and relationships.

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