READING: 2 Kings 19:1-19, Isaiah 37:1-20, 2 Chronicles 32:9-19, 2 Kings 19:20-37, Isaiah 37:21-38, 2 Chronicles 32:20-23
It was really a dumb question for Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, to ask as his forces laid siege to Jerusalem. King Hezekiah of Judah rightly turned to the Lord, recognized the Lord’s power over the enemy king and his armies, and challenged the people to trust the Lord who would fight for them: “He [Sennacherib] has only human strength, but we have the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles” (2 Chron 32:8).
The Assyrian king’s response was to point out the fact that no gods of the peoples had yet been able to protect people from Sennacherib’s power: “Have any of the national gods of the lands been able to rescue their land from my power? Who among all the gods of these nations that my predecessors completely destroyed was able to rescue his people from my power, that your God should be able to deliver you from my power?” (2 Chron 32:13-14). Hezekiah’s God would fall in the same line—at least according to Sennacherib’s thinking. He could not protect His people from their powerful enemy.
You know what happened. God sent an angel to deliver His people from the Assyrians. Then, Sennacherib too would learn of the powerlessness of his own god when his sons killed him even while the king was worshiping that “god.” Hezekiah worshiped a God who delivered His people, but Sennacherib was honoring a god who could not even protect him.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do you let God fight your battles?
DAILY PRAYER: “Thank You, Lord, for victory You grant.”
TOMORROW’S READING: 2 Kings 20:1-11, Isaiah 38:1-8, 2 Chronicles 32:24-31, Isaiah 38:9-22, 2 Kings 20:12-19, Isaiah 39:1-8
