SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/28/2013
8:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Invasion Crisis PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah 36:1-3
Message of the
verses: Warren Wiersbe entitles his
eight chapter from “Be Comforted” is “God Save The King” and the king that he
is speaking of is King Hezekiah, who was one of Judah’s bests kings. This chapter covers Isaiah 36-39 and in this
chapter we will look at three crisis that King Hezekiah has, of which two he
successfully handles and one was not so good.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “Hezekiah was a great and godly man, but he was still
a man and that meant he had all the frailties of human flesh. However, before we find fault with him, we
had better examine our own lives to see how successfully we have handled our
own tests.”
2 Chronicles 32:1 says “After all that Hezekiah had so
faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah.” What was it that Hezekiah had done so
faithfully? Hezekiah had taken care of
the problems of idols by getting rid all the idols, especially the ones on the
high places that had been there for a very long time. He had restored the temple and the temple
worship, and what we see is a revival in Judah.
Dr. Wiersbe writes that “crisis often come when circumstances seem to be
at their best.”
It may seem that God had let His people down after all
that they had just done, but it was the plan of God for them to trust Him
alone, and not to trust in the treaties and treasures that they had used to
solve the problem of the Assyrian’s, for Hezekiah had made a treaty with Egypt
to have them help Judah which was wrong, and he had paid the Assyrians not to
attack them, but they kept the money and attacked them any way. God want their complete trust to be in Him.
Let us see what this first crisis is all about by looking
at the first three verses of Isaiah 36. “1
Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came
up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. 2 And the king of
Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large
army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the
fuller’s field. 3 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household,
and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to
him.” These Assyrians names in this
section are military names. They came
from Lachish which was 30 miles from Jerusalem and wanted Hezekiah to surrender
Jerusalem to them. The place where the
meet with the leaders of Judah was the same spot that Isaiah had meet with the
father of Hezekiah, Ahaz about thirty years before as we looked at in Isaiah
7:3. Isaiah told Ahaz that this would
happen because he did not trust in the Lord and now his prophecy is being
fulfilled. We see this prophecy in
Isaiah 7:17-25, “17 ‘The LORD will bring on you, on your people, and on your
father’s house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim
separated from Judah, the king of Assyria." 18 In that day the LORD will
whistle for the fly that is in the remotest part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land
of Assyria. 19 They will all come and settle on the steep ravines, on
the ledges of the cliffs, on all the thorn bushes and on all the watering
places. 20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor, hired from regions
beyond the Euphrates (that is, with the king of Assyria), the head and the hair
of the legs; and it will also remove the beard. 21 Now in that day a man may
keep alive a heifer and a pair of sheep; 22 and because of the abundance of the
milk produced he will eat curds, for everyone that is left within the land will
eat curds and honey. 23 And it will come about in that day, that every place
where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a thousand shekels of
silver, will become briars and thorns. 24 People will come there with bows and
arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns. 25 As for all the hills
which used to be cultivated with the hoe, you will not go there for fear of
briars and thorns; but they will become a place for pasturing oxen and for
sheep to trample.”
We will continue to look at Isaiah 36 in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I wish to focus
in on what we learned about the time when crisis’s can come, and that is when
all seems to going well. When things are
going well in my life and a crisis comes then how am I suppose to handle
it? I am to trust the Lord, knowing that
He loves me and that there is a purpose for the crisis coming into my life, and
even though I probably will not like it I can choose to trust the Lord wanting
to see what the Lord will teach me through it.
These can be tough times but for me not to trust the Lord it times like
this would not be right even though the first thing in my mind would be to
complain about it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord and not to lean
upon my own understanding.
Memory verses for the
week: 2 Peter 1:1-5
1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus
Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the
righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the
knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 Seeing that His divine power has
granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true
knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His
precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of
the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by
lust. 5 Now for this very reason also,
applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your
moral excellence, knowledge,
Answer to our last Bible Question:
“Elijah” (1 Kings 18:31-35).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Who wrote Ecclesiastes?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/28/2013 9:25 AM
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