The Proven Faith of Hezekiah – Part 2
Isaiah 37:8-20
January 14, 2024
As you know we are currently in the middle of a narrative section in the book of Isaiah which is being used both as an example and a bridge by the prophet.
There are two main stories that are relayed to us here.
1) The Assyrian Invasion
2) Hezekiah’s sickness, recovery, and visit by Babylon
The stories are relayed to us out of chronological order.
Isaiah’s sickness occurred first and the invasion second, but Isaiah reverses their order because he is using them as a BRIDGE from the first half of his book to the second.
Isaiah tells us the story of the Assyrian invasion first
Because it looks back to the events of the first 35 chapters and it gives us a wonderful example of the type of faith that God is looking for.
Isaiah tells the story of the Babylonian visit second
Because it explains the coming Babylonian captivity which Isaiah will address in the second half of his book.
This segment is a bridge.
But it is also a tremendous EXAMPLE of faith.
We learn in these stories what true faith looks like
And we learn the purpose of true faith.
And just to make sure we build on what we started learning last week.
You need to remember that
Your faith is for the glory of God.
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED why God orchestrated salvation that is received BY FAITH ALONE?
Human thinking always seeks to add some form of works to the requirement of salvation.
• Every man-made religion in the world…
• Every corruption of Christianity…
• Has in common some form of works required for sinners to be saved.
• Sinners must “do” something.
But the true gospel is salvation by grace alone through faith alone.
Have you ever wondered why faith is all that God requires?
• Certainly He is free to require more.
• Certainly He is well withing His rights to require some form of religious duty to procure your salvation.
• But He doesn’t. All He requires is faith.
WHY?
Because then there is no room for anyone but Him to receive the glory of your salvation.
If you do anything to earn it, you have a right to boast about it.
Romans 4:1-3 “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
Paul was clear,
• If Abraham does anything to earn his salvation then Abraham has the right to
boast.
But there is no way God is going to allow that to happen,
Which is what Paul means when he says, “But not before God”.
So God offers a salvation where faith is the only requirement
So that no man can boast about anything in regard to being saved.
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”
AND WE ARE LEARNING THIS ALSO WITH HEZEKIAH.
LAST SUNDAY NIGHT we started looking at this narrative in Isaiah and we saw Sennacherib send his army to start taunting Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem.
We learned all about the way Satan attacks.
1. He Mocks Your Strength
2. He Confirms Your Fears
3. He Appeals To Your Lusts
4. He Encourages Your Doubts
But Hezekiah didn’t waiver.
• He denied himself (that is any plan he had for saving himself or the city)
• He cried out to Isaiah to seek God
• And specifically he prayed that God would rise up for the sake of His own glory.
We were reminded that this was the purpose of faith
And the kind of faith that God responds to.
Your faith, my faith, is a tool for the glory of God.
Our faith is like a spotlight that we shine on God
So that the world will see who He is and what He does.
If our faith is only to earn glory for ourselves…
If our faith is only to secure comforts for ourselves…
If our faith is only to maintain a lifestyle like we desire…
WE ARE MISSING THE POINT OF FAITH.
We trust God, not so that God will do what we want.
We trust God, because this is how God glorifies Himself in our lives.
Hezekiah is a great example of that.
• He trusted God with Sennacherib’s threat and God responded.
Isaiah 37:6-7 “Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. “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.”’”
So that is where we are. WE SAW
#1 THE FIRST ATTACK
Isaiah 36:1-20
• That was Sennacherib’s taunt
#2 THE FIRST ANSWER
Isaiah 36:21 – 37:7
• Don’t answer him and pray to God
Well, let’s move on in this story.
#3 THE SECOND ATTACK
Isaiah 37:8-13
• The first attack was Sennacherib’s taunt.
• This second attack is Sennacherib’s letter.
So let’s continue to play out the scene before us.
• Sennacherib had stopped at Lachish and sent Rabshakeh with an army on to Jerusalem to taunt the city and to demand their surrender.
• Hezekiah ignored him, which was the equivalent of a rejection of Sennacherib’s terms.
• In the process God had promised that He would cause Sennacherib to hear a rumor and depart from his siege of Jerusalem.
So when Rabshakeh returns to Sennacherib with Hezekiah’s answer, Rabshakeh finds that Sennacherib has left.
(8-9) “Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “He has come out to fight against you,”
Now, when Sennacherib heard that rumor and left,
At the same time he left a letter for Hezekiah.
And “he sent messengers to Hezekiah”
So now we’re ready for the second leg of the attack.
• God said Assyria wouldn’t topple this city.
• God said Assyria would hear a rumor and depart.
• And so far, God is 2 for 2 at honoring His word.
BUT SATAN ISN’T FINISHED WITH THE BATTLE.
Now we get another strategy of Satan.
HE ATTACKS THE CREDIBILITY OF GOD’S WORD
(10) “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
You’ll notice that Satan has focused his attack.
• Earlier it was an announcement to the people on the wall not to let Hezekiah deceive you.
• Here it is don’t let God deceive you.
(Interesting how the deceiver is always warning everyone else about being deceived)
Boy have we seen this tactic before.
Genesis 3:1-5 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Satan tried the same with Jesus,
• Actually trying to quote Scripture to Jesus to convince Him to throw Himself off the temple.
It is an all-out attack on the credibility of the word of God.
• God won’t do what He says.
• God can’t do what He says.
• God’s word shouldn’t be taken so literally.
• God’s word is outdated.
• God’s word is no longer relevant.
• God’s word is allegory.
We’ve heard the arguments throughout the years
AND WE STILL HEAR THEM TODAY.
It is one of the main ways Satan seeks to destroy your faith.
If He can shatter your confidence in the character of God revealed in His word, then you are well on your way to no longer believing God.
So first let’s just make it clear that GOD’S WORD IS CREDIBLE.
WHY?
I know for years (and some of you may have heard it) there has been an acronym for remembering why we trust the Bible.
MAPS
Manuscript Evidence, Archaeological Evidence, Prophecy, Statistics
And I don’t have a problem with that as people have worked it out in that fashion.
But let me show you where I hang my hat.
Hebrews 6:18 “so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.”
Romans 3:4 “May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, “THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED.”
One thing that is clear is that God always tells the truth.
• He never lies, indeed He can’t lie.
• And therefore His word never needs to be deleted or disregarded.
Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”
So anything that God says is true.
He cannot lie.
Some would say, But how do you know that the Bible is trustworthy?
How do you know that the Bible is God’s word?
Well, it says it is.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
I realize you may not put much stock in the Bible’s own self-testimony,
• But before you deny what the Bible says about itself
• You’d better ask if anyone has ever been able to prove any part of it false?
Or how about this verse?
John 10:35 “If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),”
Jesus calls the Bible there first “the word of God”
And then says it “cannot be broken”.
That’s a pretty good endorsement.
Jesus quoted from or referenced the Old Testament
Some 180 times in His discourses in the gospels.
The point is: Jesus clearly believed the Scriptures were credible and the words of God.
And we could go on and on and on with passages and messages
About the credibility of the word of God,
But just know that you can trust what God says in His word.
And this is a definite place Satan attacks.
This is in fact one of the ways you are able to test the spirits.
• If the spirit you are listening to attacks the credibility of Scripture then run!
• If the Spirit you are listening to clarifies the message of Scripture, then you
are in the right place.
But you have here Satan attacking God’s word.
“Don’t listen to God, He’ll lie to you” – says Satan.
AND HERE IS WHERE SATAN GETS EVEN MORE CRAFTY.
We might ask:
Well, if Satan doesn’t want you to listen to the word of God, what does he want you to listen to?
AND HERE IS SATAN’S LIST.
Here is Satan’s recommendation
Of what should guide your thinking and your decisions.
There’s 3
1) THE REPORT (11a)
“Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely.”
Today we might say it like this.
“Listen to the News”
“It has been well-documented what is happening all over the world
And so you can be certain what is coming into your life.”
“These are facts and you need to let facts like this guide your thinking.”
Now, WE ARE NOT SAYING that a Christian should just bury their head in the sand and be totally uninformed about what is going on in the world.
BUT WE ARE SAYING that you should be very careful basing all their decisions on what is being reported to them by someone from this world.
• Is it possible that men ever embellish?
• Is it possible that men ever exaggerate?
• Is it possible that men ever “spin”?
• Is it possible that men over omit or mislead?
Be careful when man’s report
Becomes the sole basis for why you do anything.
Satan would far rather you listen to man’s report than the word of God.
2) YOUR OWN REASON (11b)
“So will you be spared?”
In one sense, Satan wants you to take the world’s report and then logically apply it to what will also happen in your own life.
“If it happened to them, then it must happen to you.”
Satan loves to hold people in bondage here.
BUT NOT ONLY THAT, what we also see here is Satan appealing for you to apply your own logic for a solution to the situation.
It is as though Satan questions
Whether or not God is really seeing clearly.
“Surely you, who are actually in the middle of this situation,
Can clearly see what should be done. God isn’t paying attention.”
Consider Satan’s temptation of Jesus.
Matthew 4:3 “And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
• There is more than just an appeal to Jesus’ hunger there.
• There is also an appeal to His logic and reason.
There is a suggestion
• That perhaps God has not had Jesus’ best interests in mind.
• That Jesus, who is actually hungry and who actually has the power to turn stones into bread, should follow His own thinking.
Satan will do that again when seeking to get Jesus to jump off the temple.
(Insinuating that Jesus has a better plan for making Himself known than God)
Aren’t we tempted to do this any time we forsake God’s word because we think we know a better way?
• Will turning the other cheek really work?
• Will submitting to my husband really fix anything?
• Will confessing my sin actually help?
Satan constantly calls you to sit in judgment
Over the commands of God and to be the final authority
On whether or not God’s commands will actually work or not.
THAT IS WHAT ASSYRIA IS ASKING.
• God told you not to worry because He would handle it.
• Well how did that work out for all those other nations?
• You’re smarter than to listen to God on this aren’t you?
Satan would far rather you listen to your own reason than the word of God.
3) ACCEPTED REALITY (12-13)
“‘Did the gods of those nations which my fathers have destroyed deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? ‘Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”
Now we’re just talking about basic facts.
• This isn’t just a report.
• This isn’t your own reason.
• This is reality.
Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, Eden, Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, Ivvah
• They all trusted in their gods.
• They are all dead.
And the basic consensus of all is that
Rebelling against the king of Assyria gets you killed.
Everyone knows this.
This is undeniable law.
This is just the way things are.
This is reality.
And Satan will have you lean on that too.
If you want it spelled out clearly,
Satan’s advice is basically the antithesis of Proverbs 3:5-6
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”
Satan basically tells you that those two verses are absolutely absurd.
• Do not trust what God says.
• Do lean on your own understanding.
• Do not expect God to intervene.
• Do not trust His path.
YOU NEED TO open your eyes, get an informed report,
Trust your heart or your gut or your intuition,
See what everyone else is doing, and follow suit.
“If you try to break from the status quo of worldly logic and thinking you’re going to look like a fool and you’re going to get yourself killed.”
THAT IS HOW SATAN WORKS.
AND THAT BATTLE STILL LOOMS TODAY.
We are constantly in a battle to believe God
Instead of our own logic or wisdom.
THIS IS A BATTLE YOU NEVER STOP FIGHTING.
The very first step of conversion is REPENTANCE.
• You’ve been told that the word for repentance is METANOIA which means “to change one’s mind”.
• The very first thing you have to do to be saved is to abandon your own thinking about sin and God and judgment and start believing what God says.
When Jesus calls you TO FOLLOW Him
• He calls you to “deny yourself” and that includes your own logic and way of thinking.
Certainly when we get into the realm of SANCTIFICATION
• We are called to “be filled with the spirit” or as Paul told the Colossians, to “let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.”
• The very process of sanctification is to be “washed with the water of the word”.
• It is to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
• Sanctification is very much the ongoing process of repentance in which God changes your mind from believing your own logic to believing His word.
Spiritual MATURITY is seen
• In being “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.”
• It is when one is more than just a “forgetful hearer” of the word, but when one is a “doer”.
Effective MINISTRY is
• To see Scripture as “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;”
THIS IS A CONSTANT BATTLE.
Every part of your Christian life is a battle
To stop leaning on your own logic,
Stop basing decisions on the reports and realities of the world
And shift your thinking to believe what God says.
It is what we talked about to the youth at this past Disciple Now.
• This world is filled with voices and pieces of advice and logic and reasons, etc.
• You are being bombarded with counsel.
• But there is only one that comes from God and that is His word.
• “Be careful how you listen”
That is a real battle that you face every day.
And it is the battle that Hezekiah is facing here.
Will he believe God or will he believe the reports, his own reason, and what seems to be the prevailing reality of his day?
Well, if you think Hezekiah did good in the first battle, look at this one.
He knocks this one right out of the park!
#2 THE SECOND ANSWER
Isaiah 37:14-20
That is one of the most amazing scenes of faith in Scripture.
I hope you notice how much Hezekiah’s faith has solidified
Even since that first battle.
That first time he heard the taunt of Rabshakeh we remember how he responded:
Isaiah 37:1 “And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the LORD.”
• We remember that broken, probably scared, helpless man.
• He couldn’t even pray, but he sent word for Isaiah to pray.
• He was a fearful man.
But this time you see a confident man.
(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 told you before that the final estimation of Hezekiah’s life is that he trusted 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.”
Something interesting there.
That word for “trusted” is actually (BA-TACK)
And you have seen it before.
Isaiah 32:9-10 “Rise up, you women who are at ease, And hear my voice; Give ear to my word, You complacent daughters. Within a year and a few days You will be troubled, O complacent daughters; For the vintage is ended, And the fruit gathering will not come.”
There it is translated “complacent”
It is a word that means “to feel safe, to be confident, to feel secure, to be careless”.
• Isaiah actually reproached the women of Jerusalem for having such feelings
since they felt safe in the midst of their sin.
But it is interesting that Hezekiah now has that same peace and feeling of safety in the midst of the battle because he is trusting God.
I love him taking that letter to God.
That letter was meant to be hand delivered to the ruler of Jerusalem.
• The people brought it to Hezekiah.
• Hezekiah took it to the real leader.
And he takes it with such quiet confidence.
• It’s almost like he walks in there with golf clubs on his shoulder and says, “Oh, God, by the way, you got a letter from the king of Assyria. See you later.”
And then look at this great prayer.
(15-20) “Hezekiah prayed to the LORD saying, “O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. “Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. “Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. “Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD, are God.”
Ok, now let’s make sure we understand the point.
• This is NOT a story about prayer.
• This is NOT a story meant to teach you how to pray a prayer that God will answer.
THIS IS A STORY ABOUT FAITH.
So when we read that prayer,
I don’t want you to analyze how Hezekiah prayed.
Here’s what I want you to do.
Read that prayer and tell me this:
WHAT DID HEZEKIAH BELIEVE?
• We want to examine his faith.
• We want to know what it was he believed, and it becomes evident in his prayer.
We want to know what true faith looks like.
We want to see THE OBJECT of his faith.
• Hezekiah is not leaning on his own understanding.
• Hezekiah is not trusting in the circulating reports.
• Hezekiah is not believing Sennacherib’s reality.
Hezekiah believes something different.
In this prayer you see what he believes.
1) GOD IS OUR GOD (16a)
“O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim,”
It begins with a simple conviction that
Yahweh of hosts is in fact “the God of Israel”
Hezekiah is speaking in a covenantal sense here.
“He is our God, He is not their God.”
While in one sense you can say
“That He is the God of all the world and we are all His children”
In a saving sense, He is the God of His people alone.
He is for us, in a way in which He is not for the world.
(Romans 8:28 certainly bears that out)
Take Jesus in His High Priestly prayer.
John 17:9 “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;”
IT IS THE BELIEF THAT GOD IS FOR US.
• He is our God, by reason of His covenant which He made with us.
Hezekiah is confident that when looking at Assyria
And then looking at Israel that God is for us.
• Not because we deserve it more than they.
• Not because we are somehow more righteous.
• But because He has chosen us to be in a saving relationship with Him.
• We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
• We are His bride, His chosen, His elect.
It is purely by grace, but it is real none the less.
GOD IS FOR US
Hezekiah believes that.
2) GOD IS SOVEREIGN (16b)
“You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.”
While He is the God of Israel in a saving sense.
In a sovereign sense He remains the God of the whole world.
• Every nation rises and falls at His command.
• He determines “the when” and “the where” of every man.
• He appoints every man’s times and the boundaries of their habitation.
Isaiah 40:22-24 “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble.”
• All creatures answer to Him.
• All nations answer to Him.
• All rulers answer to Him.
And if God declares that a nation is finished, they are finished.
If God declares Satan can’t have you, he can’t have you.
Hezekiah believes that
3) GOD IS LIVING (17-19)
“Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. “Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.”
It’s called anthropomorphic language.
• Hezekiah speaks of God’s ears, His and His eyes.
• He is the God who sees and the God who hears.
• He is “the living God”
See there’s a reason why Sennacherib was so successful in mocking the gods of all those other nations.
• There’s a reason he got away with it.
• There’s a reason none of those other gods rose up to stop him.
• They weren’t real.
• They couldn’t hear.
• They couldn’t see.
• They weren’t alive.
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 Sennacherib has never come against a God like this.
HE IS THE LIVING GOD.
Jeremiah 10:6-10 “There is none like You, O LORD; You are great, and great is Your name in might. Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? Indeed it is Your due! For among all the wise men of the nations And in all their kingdoms, There is none like You. But they are altogether stupid and foolish In their discipline of delusion—their idol is wood! Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, And gold from Uphaz, The work of a craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith; Violet and purple are their clothing; They are all the work of skilled men. But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, And the nations cannot endure His indignation.”
You can walk into a wax museum and slap a fake gorilla with very little consequence, but if you try the same thing in a zoo you’re liable to find yourself in trouble.
Sennacherib never tangled with a living God before.
See, HIS REALITY IS SKEWED,
And it left out some very important information.
• He did wipe out all those other nations.
The reports and the reality he threw at Hezekiah weren’t false,
They just weren’t totally true.
He omitted the fact that none of those nations had real and living gods.
Hezekiah knows he is in a different category than all the rest.
4) GOD IS JEALOUS (20)
“Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD, are God.”
Exodus 34:14 “for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God”
GOD IS JEALOUS.
• I know jealousy is considered a sin for us
• And we are told not to demonstrate it.
But that is because our jealousy is rooted in envy and pride.
But when God is jealous it is a righteous jealousy
Because He is jealous for what is rightfully His. GLORY!
Isaiah 42:8 “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.”
Isaiah 43:10-13 “You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. “I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me. “It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, And there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And I am God. “Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”
Isaiah 44:6-8 “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me. ‘Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, From the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming And the events that are going to take place. ‘Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.’”
Hezekiah knows that
• God is jealous for the glory of His name
• And He is not about to be compared to some false god,
• Nor be mocked by some created lump of dirt.
SO HEZEKIAH CRIES OUT TO GOD.
Now TONIGHT we’ll look at God’s response to this prayer,
But THIS MORNING can you see what Hezekiah believes?
How do you know Hezekiah believes that?
• Because he prays? No
• It is because he doesn’t take his problem to anyone else.
If God is really our God
And if God is really sovereign
And if God is really living
And if God is really jealous
Then why would you need to take this letter anywhere else?
Raymond Ortlund wrote:
“Sometimes Christians live a creedal faith rather than a daring faith. And Isaiah is talking bout an audacious faith that the world cannot understand. A creedal faith says, “I believe in God the Father Almighty” and so forth. That’s good. What if we didn’t believe that? We’d really be in trouble. But a creedal faith is a beginning point only. After all, if people who not believe in God the Father Almighty often live like people who do believe in God the Father Almighty, then living by faith must be more profound than a creed. God is calling us to live by a daring faith because the world is daring us to live by faith in God.”
(Ortlund, Raymond [Preaching The Word Commentary: Isaiah, God Saves Sinners; Crossway; Wheaton, IL, 2005] pg. 206)
Do you see the difference between a creedal faith and a real or daring faith?
We can sit in a pew all day long and AFFIRM THE TRUTHS Hezekiah just revealed about God in his prayer.
THAT IS A CREED.
• We can affirm that He is our God.
• We can affirm that He is Sovereign.
• We can affirm that He is living.
• We can affirm that He is jealous.
But if we never trust Him in the battle, our faith doesn’t amount to much.
HEZEKIAH TOOK HIS LETTER TO GOD.
• Not to Egypt
• Not to Ethiopia
• Not even to Isaiah this time
• Hezekiah approached God and God alone.
God alone was his hope
God alone was his trust
God alone was his salvation
God was not just a creed, God was his savior.
Do you see the difference?
Is it any wonder God responded to save?
Hezekiah, by faith, gave God the opportunity to glorify Himself
And God will seize that opportunity.
That is the purpose of your faith.
It is the glory of God, not so that you or I can boast.
May we all be encouraged to trust God.
