The Faith of Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:8-19)
The Faith of Hezekiah
2 Kings 19:8-19
This is now the fourth time we have turned to the Scriptures
And found Hezekiah as our subject.
The writer of Kings purposely spends a great deal of time on him,
Because Hezekiah makes the point of the value of trusting God.
2 Kings 18:5 “He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.”
There was never another king like Hezekiah.
He trusted God.
And this morning we get what the writer of kings chooses as
The pinnacle example of Hezekiah’s faith.
One could have easily titled this sermon “The Prayer of Hezekiah”, but if you do that, you miss the point of the text.
The writer is not giving us an example of how to pray,
He is giving us an example of how to trust.
And the best way to see Hezekiah’s faith is to examine one of his prayers.
Commonly we hear talked about “The Power of Prayer”
And I certainly do not wish to refute that title.
James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”
And so I in no way wish to tarnish at all the power of prayer,
But I do want to clarify a few misconceptions about it.
We must make sure not to put too much emphasis on prayer
And not enough on the faith in which it is offered,
Or the God to whom it is offered.
In other words, Prayer is powerful, but only because it is given to a great God who responds to the faith of His children.
To simply say that prayer is powerful can be very misleading.
For prayer to Muhammad is not powerful, nor is prayer to Buddha,
Nor is prayer to the trees, or to any other created thing.
And so you understand that prayer only works
Because of the power of the God to whom we pray.
Furthermore the power of prayer is not in the actual prayer,
But in the faith in which it is offered.
In other words, what you say is not nearly as important as why you say it.
Remember Jesus teaching?
Matthew 6:7-8 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”
The point there is that prayer has no great power in and of itself.
Prayer does not force God to do anything.
There is no group of words so convicting, or so moving, or so eloquent, or so nagging even, that they would force God to move on our behalf.
The power is not in the words.
In fact at times Jesus even rebuked people for this type of nonsense.
Mark 12:38-40 “In His teaching He was saying: “Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, and like respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, who devour widows’ houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation.”
Just because a prayer is long, or eloquent, or even emotionally moving
Doesn’t mean it is more effective.
Prayer in that sense has no power at all.
THAT’S WHY I’VE NEVER LIKED “THE SINNER’S PRAYER”
Jesus accepts a person based upon their faith,
Not because they said the right words.
The point is that prayer apart from faith is nothing.
I don’t care how eloquent or persistent or emotionally moving.
Some would argue then about the midnight caller.
Luke 11:5-8 “Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.”
Or the widow.
Luke 18:1-8 “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. “There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘ Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
And it appears that the only reason either was answered
Is because they were a nag.
But to only see that is to miss the point in both cases.
The point of Jesus is not that they were persistent,
But that they believed this was the only hope,
And so they would not leave.
That is why Jesus ends with the question, “However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
He didn’t ask if He would find “persistence”.
Both were exhibiting the kind of faith in their request
That is necessary if prayer is to be effective.
Consider the Sidonian woman:
Matthew 15:21-28 “Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.” But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.” But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.”
And so I hope you understand the point.
That prayer in and of itself has no power at all.
However faith offered to God in prayer is extremely powerful.
WHY DO I TELL YOU THIS?
Because I don’t want you thinking
That there is some magic in what Hezekiah said.
(As though you can repeat it in a fix and God will have to deliver you)
The writer did not include this prayer to teach you what to pray. The writer included this prayer to teach you how to trust.
So this morning we are not studying “The Prayer of Hezekiah”,
We are studying “The Faith of Hezekiah”.
And the hope is that as we study you will also see the faith he had
Which made his prayer effective before God.
There are two main divisions in our text this morning.
#1 SENNACHERIB’S TAUNT
2 Kings 19:8-13
You will notice now that our story has progressed.
Last time we met, the king of Assyria (Sennacherib) had brought his army to Lachish, and from there he sent his chief commander, his chief eunuch, and his chief cupbearer to Jerusalem with a large army to call of her surrender.
Rabshakeh spoke a taunting message to the citizens of Jerusalem
• He Mocked their Strength
• He Confirmed their Fears
• He Appealed to their Lusts
• He Encouraged their Doubt
His aim was to get Jerusalem to surrender without a fight.
Hezekiah then took this dilemma to the LORD,
And the LORD promised that the king of Assyria would not conquer Jerusalem.
2 Kings 19:7 “Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”‘”
And that is actually beginning to unfold.
For while the three spokesmen are at Jerusalem,
They get word that the King of Assyria is no longer at Lachish,
But that he has moved on.
(8) “Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.”
It is apparent that this left Rabshakeh shocked, for this was not the plan.
The question then becomes, why did Sennacherib move from Lachish without coming to attack Jerusalem?
(9) “When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you,”
Sennacherib had actually heard that Cush (Ethiopia) had come out to fight
So he pulled his forces from Jerusalem and focused on fighting that battle.
This was the rumor that God spoke of.
But you will notice that as Sennacherib is leaving to fight Cush,
He sends a letter to Hezekiah in order to assure him that he will be back.
And his threat is two-fold.
1) GOD WILL NOT DELIVER (10)
He actually calls God a liar.
God is deceiving you by making you think He will deliver you.
(Not much different from Satan saying the same to Eve)
2) GOD CAN NOT DELIVER (11-13)
Here he states that even if God desired to deliver
He would not be able to do so, for no god thus far has been able to do so.
And his taunt is again filled with the fingerprints of Satan.
• He attacks God’s mercy (God won’t)
• He attacks God’s power (God can’t)
Satan longs to get us to quit trusting God and to pull away from Him,
For then we are extremely vulnerable.
And that is precisely what Sennacherib is doing.
He has had to pull away from Jerusalem,
But doesn’t want them to think this means he is leaving.
He promises to get them later if they don’t decide to surrender.
And that is so Satan.
He’s already defeated, it’s already over.
But he can’t seem to see it and he is still offering up idle threats.
It is a call for Christians to take up the shield of faith
And to defuse all those flaming arrows.
And that is precisely what we see happen with Hezekiah.
First – Sennacherib’s Taunt
#2 HEZEKIAH’S TRUST
2 Kings 19:14-19
Notice the first thing Hezekiah does with this letter.
(14) “Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.”
I love the imagery there.
Hezekiah didn’t reopen that house for nothing.
He did not intend it to be looked at, He intended it to be used.
He takes this letter directly to God and spreads it out before Him.
WAS IT BECAUSE GOD WAS UNAWARE?
No, God knew what the letter said before Hezekiah did.
This was done by Hezekiah as a symbolic act of faith.
Hezekiah had already determined to trust God.
He had given his throne and this city to God.
This letter was intended to be read by the one
Who was in charge of the city.
And just as Hezekiah’s messengers delivered the letter to him,
He now delivers it to God.
Sennacherib was not attacking him, Sennacherib was attacking God.
And therefore it was not Hezekiah who had to decide what to do,
It was God.
That is the beauty of trusting God.
When we give everything to God,
We no longer have to worry about what to do with it.
We just pass our problems on to the One who said He could handle it.
This city belonged to God.
So Hezekiah takes the letter to Him.
AND THEN COMES HIS PRAYER.
This prayer is much more of a DECLARATION
Than it is a cry for help.
It is almost as though Hezekiah is having the victory party
Before the battle has even been fought.
Hezekiah is not TRYING to trust God, he IS trusting God.
God had already told him that Assyria would leave,
And that was good enough for him.
Look at the difference between the two encounters.
Last week Rabshakeh taunted Jerusalem
And look at how Hezekiah responded.
2 Kings 19:1-4 “And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the LORD. Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and rejection; for children have come to birth and there is no strength to deliver. ‘Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.'”
Now that was a man in despair wasn’t it?
He was in agony.
But look at him after this threat.
• He didn’t tear his clothes
• He didn’t cover himself with sackcloth
• There are no words of despair or distress
The point is, Hezekiah is not in a panic.
Hezekiah is not overcome with fear.
This prayer is not about a desperate man hoping God will deliver.
This is the prayer of a man of faith who is no longer worried
Because God already promised to deliver.
DO YOU SEE THE FAITH HERE?
Now let’s look at what he actually prays.
3 ways to summarize it.
1) HE DECLARED THE GREATNESS OF GOD (15)
Those are not the words of a man in doubt.
“the God of Israel”
“who are enthroned”
“You are the God”
“You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth”
“You have made heaven and earth”
This is not a king who HOPES his God is great.
This is a king who KNOWS his God is great.
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Furthermore that is the type of faith that makes prayer effective.
James said:
James 5:16b “…The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”
We are not just looking for prayer, but “effective” prayer.
That is the type of prayer Hezekiah gives,
Because it is a prayer offered in faith.
One could almost deduce that Hezekiah has come
To tell God why he is not worried.
Such is a necessary element of effective prayer.
Matthew 21:20-22 “Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
James 1:5-8 “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
Hezekiah had no such problem.
He was certain who his God was.
Hezekiah declared the greatness of God.
2) HE DEFENDED THE GENUINENESS OF GOD (16-18)
Here again, we don’t find a man in despair and agony
Over whether or not God will deliver.
Here we find a man of confidence and certainty.
Just look at the confidence.
(16) ”Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.”
A declaration that while other gods are dead, his God is alive.
His God can hear, his God can see.
Psalms 115:4-7 “Their idols are silver and gold, The work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; They have eyes, but they cannot see; They have ears, but they cannot hear; They have noses, but they cannot smell; They have hands, but they cannot feel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; They cannot make a sound with their throat.”
But that wasn’t Hezekiah’s God.
He was supremely confident that his God could both hear and see.
And that is important because his God
Needed to hear and see what Sennacherib said about Him.
Notice Hezekiah isn’t complaining that Sennacherib reproached him.
He was just telling God that Sennacherib has reproached You.
There is that element of faith again.
He has given this city to God.
“God, I just thought you should know that there is a problem
You are going to have to deal with.”
It almost carries a “passive” or “nonchalant” tone.
REMEMBER WHEN WE FIRST TALKED OF HEZEKIAH
AND SAID THAT HE TRUSTED GOD?
And we said that the word “trusted” translated BATACH
And we said the meaning was: “to attach oneself, to trust, confide in, feel safe, be confident, secure; to be careless…”
Remember the word was even translated “COMPLACENT” at times.
I would say that is exactly where we find Hezekiah.
It’s almost like a man who has come to God with his golf clubs on his arm and says, “Oh God, by the way, there is a tyrant out there who says You aren’t God and he’s about to destroy the city. I guess you’ll have to handle it, I’m going to play golf.”
That was Hezekiah.
He was certain that his God was both great and genuine.
And notice, he even gives explanation for why Sennacherib has had so much success against tall those other gods.
(VERSES 17-18)
His God is GENUINE and so he isn’t concerned.
What faith to bring to God in prayer!
He is taking his burden to God,
But he most certainly is not trying to help God carry it.
Peter said:
1 Peter 5:6-7 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”
That is what Hezekiah has done, and it is a key to effective prayer.
He Declared the Greatness of God He Defended the Genuineness of God
3) HE DESIRED THE GLORY OF GOD (19)
And again, I love his wording.
In verse 15, he referred to God as “the God”
But here he calls Him “our God”
Hezekiah has more than conviction, he has allegiance.
And he has come to ask his God to deliver.
But please notice why he wants God to deliver.
“deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”
It’s not about comfort or deliverance,
It is all about the glory of God.
It reminds of Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego who declare to Nebuchadnezzar,
“Our God will deliver, but even if He doesn’t, we will not bow.”
This is faith at a whole new level.
This is faith that says I am in Your hands to such an extent
That I am not concerned about what You choose to do.
Deliver me if You desire.
Destroy us if You desire.
ALL I AM CONCERNED ABOUT IS THAT WHATEVER YOU DO,
THAT IT BRINGS YOU GLORY.
It takes an enormous amount of faith
To put yourself in God’s hands to that extent.
• Hezekiah wasn’t here pleading with God…
• Hezekiah wasn’t here wrestling with God…
• Hezekiah wasn’t here trying to wear God out by nagging Him…
HEZEKIAH WAS HERE TRUSTING GOD
And it was his faith, not the words he spoke, that spoke volumes to God.
This was God’s city and so Hezekiah gave the problems to Him.
And God WILL deliver.
That is the type of faith God wants from you.
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
The aim is not to teach you what to say, or how often to say it.
The aim is that you see the type of faith
That must accompany your prayers to God.
That is what Hezekiah had.
• No great literary skills…
• No great poetry…
• No great emotion…
Just great faith
And God responded.
The call is for you and I to trust God like Hezekiah did.
To know that He is “the God” and to know that He is “our God”
And to give Him your burdens and let Him bear them.
Just like He said He would.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. “For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.”
