Sermon Notes

it out before God. And Hezekiah prayed—oh, how he prayed!
God, God of Israel, seated in majesty on the cherubim-throne. You are the one and only God,
sovereign over all kingdoms on earth, Maker of heaven, maker of earth.
16 Open your ears, God, and listen, open your eyes and look.
Look at this letter Sennacherib has sent, a brazen insult to the living God!
17 The facts are true, O God: The kings of Assyria have laid waste countries and kingdoms.
18 Huge bonfires they made of their gods, their no-gods hand-made from wood and stone.
19 But now O God, our God, save us from raw Assyrian power;
Make all the kingdoms on earth know that you are God, the one and only God.
20-21 It wasn’t long before Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah: God’s word: You’ve prayed to me
regarding Sennacherib king of Assyria; I’ve heard your prayer…. 29 And this, Hezekiah, will be for you
the confirming sign:
This year you’ll eat the gleanings, next year whatever you can beg, borrow, or steal;
But the third year you’ll sow and harvest, plant vineyards and eat grapes.
30 A remnant of the family of Judah yet again will sink down roots and raise up fruit.
31 The remnant will come from Jerusalem, the survivors from Mount Zion.
The Zeal of God will make it happen.
(The Message)

Kiara Sheard sings a song that appropriately functions as a perfect introduction to
this week’s lesson. The opening lyrics are: What you gonna do when your
back's against the wall? How're you gonna smile when it seems all hope is
lost? Tell me. What you gonna do when you need a little more grace? How
you gone respond when they try to test your faith? Essentially, Sheard
compels every Christian to consider what they will do when they face situations and circumstances where human wisdom fails, no help is in sight, and an
existential crisis will likely mean certain destruction. In this week’s lesson,
Hezekiah faces such a crisis. The Assyrian King Sennacherib is bearing down on
Judah, and he means to wipe the kingdom and its capital city off of the map—
literally razing it to the ground. Hezekiah is out of options and he does the only
thing a devout believer can do when all hope is lost. He prays, and in doing so he
sets a worship example of how people should approach the trouble that will come
in their lives. His prayer provides another powerful example of worship within the
covenant community.

BACKGROUND ON THE LESSON
Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, reigned over the southern Kingdom of Judah from around
715 to 687/686 BCE and is unequivocally commended by the Deuteronomic
Historian as an exemplary king who “trusted the LORD” above all else. 2 Kings 18:1 - 20:21 narrates his reign, and according to the writer/editor of the Deuteronomic
History, he did “what was right in the sight of God.” (Other Hebrew Bible/Old
Testament parallels to Hezekiah’s story are found in Isaiah 37:14–20, 30–32, and
2 Chronicles 32:20.) In addition to following Deuteronomic law, he also tore down
the local sanctuaries or “high places” (1 Kings 14:15-23; 2 Kings 17:10), and
removed local cultic symbols like the Asherah poles and bronze serpents
(Numbers 21:8-9) effectively abolishing idolatry of any kind from the Judean
kingdom.
However, despite Hezekiah’s record as a religious reformer and faithful follower of
the Deuteronomic covenant, on the geo-political stage he was repeatedly
challenged by Assyrian aggression. 2 Kings 18 records Sennacherib of Assyria
mounting a campaign against both the northern kingdom of Israel and Judah which
resulted in the deportation of Israelite citizens to Assyria and the total obliteration
of their kingdom in (2 Kings 18:9-12). After defeating Israel, Sennacherib
besieged the fortified cities of Judah, and begins marching his armies toward
Jerusalem. In an effort to intimidate Hezekiah into surrender, Sennacherib sends
a delegation of his highest ranking military officials to confront Hezekiah, his
leadership, and the Judean people. Rabshakeh, Sennacherib’s spokesperson,
berates Hezekiah and the people in their Hebrew language saying they should not
be deceived into trusting the LORD. Essentially, Rabshakeh says Hezekiah should
choose Sennacherib instead of the LORD, because the LORD is ineffectual to
protect Judah.
In 2 Kings 19:8-13, Sennacherib sends Hezekiah a letter where he offers a final
ultimatum: abandon the LORD, pledge fidelity to him, or be destroyed. This is
where the lesson text picks up.

19 14-15 Hezekiah took the letter from the envoy and read it. He went to The Temple of God and
spread it out before God. And Hezekiah prayed—oh, how he prayed!
In the opening verses of the lesson text Hezekiah responds to Sennacherib’s letter
by taking the letter, going into the temple, and spreading out before the LORD, and
he prays. However, before we can get to the content of his prayer, we cannot
gloss over how this presents a change in Hezekiah’s posture from the first verses
of chapter 19. In 2 Kings 19:1-4 Hezekiah is expecting the prophet Isaiah to
intervene on behalf of the Judah:
1-3 When Hezekiah heard it all, he too ripped his robes apart and dressed
himself in rough burlap. Then he went into The Temple of God. He sent
Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and the
senior priests, all of them dressed in rough burlap, to the prophet Isaiah
son of Amoz. They said to him, “A message from Hezekiah: ‘This is a black
day, a terrible day—doomsday!
Babies poised to be born,
No strength to birth them.
4 “‘Maybe God, your God, has been listening to the blasphemous speech of
the Rabshakeh who was sent by the king of Assyria, his master, to
humiliate the living God; maybe God, your God, won’t let him get by with
such talk; and you, maybe you will lift up prayers for what’s left of these
people.’”
Notice when Hezekiah first hears the news of the worsening threat from
Sennacherib he tears his clothes in mourning and goes into the temple. However,
he does not yet pray. He asks the prophet Isaiah to intercede for him. Perhaps
Hezekiah thinks his prayers will not be effective, or that the LORD is more likely to
listen to Isaiah instead of him. Either way, he is shucking his personal responsibility
to intercede in prayer for himself and the people of Judah. As the king and primary
worship leader it is not acceptable for Hezekiah to let someone else do the heavy
spiritual lifting for him. He must humble himself and pray to the LORD for himself.
Hezekiah’s actions remind every Christian that it is not enough to ask other people
to pray for us. We need to learn how prostrate ourselves before God and talk to
the God for ourselves.
15 He went to The Temple of God and spread it out before God. And Hezekiah prayed—oh, how
he prayed!
“God, God of Israel, seated in majesty on the cherubim-throne. You are the one and only God,
sovereign over all kingdoms on earth, Maker of heaven, maker of earth.
16 Open your ears, God, and listen, open your eyes and look.
Look at this letter Sennacherib has sent, a brazen insult to the living God!
17 The facts are true, O God: The kings of Assyria have laid waste countries and kingdoms.
18 Huge bonfires they made of their gods, their no-gods hand-made from wood and stone.
19 But now O God, our God, save us from raw Assyrian power;
Make all the kingdoms on earth know that you are God, the one and only God.”
In
verses 15-19, Hezekiah’s prayer offers adoration of the LORD, an
acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty and singular place as the God of Israel
and the King over all other earthly kings, and highlights God’s identity as the
creator of the cosmos. It also responds specifically to Rabshakeh’s political
rhetoric and a particular portion of Sennacherib’s letter:
10-13“Don’t let that god that you think so much of keep stringing you along with
the line, ‘Jerusalem will never fall to the king of Assyria.’ That’s a barefaced
lie. You know the track record of the kings of Assyria—country after country
laid waste, devastated. And what makes you think you’ll be an
exception? Take a good look at these wasted nations, destroyed by my
ancestors; did their gods do them any good? Look at Gozan, Haran, Rezeph,
the people of Eden at Tel Assar. Ruins. And what’s left of the king of Hamath,
the king of Arpad, the king of Sepharvaim, of Hena, of Ivvah? Bones.”
When Hezekiah says the “facts are true oh God, the kings of Assyria have laid
waste to countries and kingdoms,” he acknowledges the reality of the threat that
is before him and the people of Judah. The Assyrians mean to destroy the
kingdom of Judah. They have laid waste to kingdoms before and, if they have their
way, they will do it again. However, Hezekiah also acknowledges Sennacherib’s
obvious weakness—he is not the LORD! There is only one LORD God who created
the heavens and the earth, who is control of all the kingdoms on earth. Therefore,
when Hezekiah prays, “make all the kingdoms on earth know who You are God,”
he is saying Sennacherib, and his no-gods, are no match for the LORD.
20-21 It wasn’t long before Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah: God’s word: You’ve
prayed to me regarding Sennacherib king of Assyria; I’ve heard your prayer…. 29 And this,
Hezekiah, will be for you the confirming sign:
This year you’ll eat the gleanings, next year whatever you can beg, borrow, or steal;
But the third year you’ll sow and harvest, plant vineyards and eat grapes.
30 A remnant of the family of Judah yet again will sink down roots and raise up fruit.
31 The remnant will come from Jerusalem, the survivors from Mount Zion.
The Zeal of God will make it happen.
In the final verses of the lesson text, upon Hezekiah completing his prayer,
receives a word from the prophet Isaiah that God has indeed heard his prayer.
Further, Isaiah delivers a prophetic oracle concerning Sennacherib’s downfall. In
verses 29-31 the prophet offers Hezekiah a sign that God will not only ultimately defeat Sennacherib, but the LORD will also heal Judah’s land that has been
ravaged by Assyrian aggression. In the first year, Judah will have to forage for food
by eating what grows without cultivation. However, within three years they will be
able to plant and harvest because the land will have recovered. Further, what is
key is that the people of Judah will survive! This crisis will not destroy them.
For 21st century Christians, Hezekiah’s prayer should cause us to consider that
prayer—as a consistent component of our worship practice—makes a difference!
When committed faithful believers turn to God in faith, humble themselves, and
seek God’s face, the LORD will answer and meet our every needs. While impending
crisis can make us wonder if God is concerned about what we are going through,
the writer/editor of 2 Kings 18 says God will have the last word because the LORD
is in control.