What We Can Learn From Hezekiah’s Prayer
Encouragement amidst the battle
14 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. 15 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. 16 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
17 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 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. 19 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 NIV)
The thing that was particularly interesting to me when I was reading this morning again was when you read the past verses you would read that the king of Assyria was coming against Hezekiah. And yet he knew it wasn’t about him but that ultimately the accusations were against the Lord.
To follow through with this logic today, if we are believers and we have given ourselves to the Lord, we are not our own. We belong to Him.
So the enemy of our soul, flesh, body, mind is coming against not us really but against God because we are His.
Which takes the battle to a whole different level. I don’t have to take offense, I don’t have to fix it, I don’t even have to fight it. Hezekiah showed us how to deal with it. Spread it out before the Lord and call on Him. It is His battle; His fight and He is way more capable of dealing with it all much more effectively with a much more positive outcome in the end than we could ever hope or imagine. He is the King of true justice and righteousness.
The false claims against us just fall on the floor in front of the throne. I can even envision the Lord stifling a giggle because He knows those things are not even remotely true.
He does not laugh at our pain, but He knows the truth so He can comfort us and at the same time laugh at the feeble attempts of the enemy to discredit us in His eyes, after all, He is EL ROI the God who sees.
All the attacks and accusations brought before the throne He already knows the truth, down to the thoughts and intentions of our hearts.
And this my friend is the God who is in love with us! The God who sent his own Son so that we could be redeemed to himself. He engraves our name on his hand.
Can you imagine the enemy coming before God and saying so and so is blah blah blah…?
And God saying Oh you mean… extending his hand and revealing your name on his hand. You must be mistaken; this is my child.
God doesn’t always deal with things as we would but his judgment and justice are true and thorough and yet if there was any possibility of redeeming the situation and the people involved God would give them every single opportunity to repent.
This is only a glimpse through a glass darkly of who our God is, and when you think of that and know that He is not only on our team but He is for us on every level, the battles we deal with are rather minimized.
No matter what the battle we deal with, He has already won the war! He has the victor’s crown, and He is bringing us into that victory.
One last note, because He is EL ROI, the God who sees, let us ask for His perspective on the things and people who concern us, His perspective is perfect and He will help us to see things as He does and it will bring a greater sense of peace and hope to us and it will even help us love our enemies if we choose to embrace it.
Lift your head, Child, cry out to the only one who is able to save you, who is able to keep you from falling. Don’t be afraid to call on Him. He is the one who sees AND answers prayers. Let us follow Hezekiah’s example and lay it all before the Lord and get His viewpoint on it and then allow Him to fight the battle for us.
