SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/30/2013
11:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Invasion Crisis PT-3 (Repentance)
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah
36:22-37:20
Message of the
verses: “22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over
the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder,
came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
“1 And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes,
covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the LORD. 2 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.
3 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. 4 ’Perhaps the LORD your God will hear 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.’" 5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 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. 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."’"
“8
Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah,
for he had heard
that the king had left Lachish. 9 When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah
king of Cush, "He has come out to fight against you," and when he
heard it he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 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." 11 ’Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done
to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be spared? 12 ’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? 13 ’Where
is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim,
and of Hena and Ivvah?’" 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. 15 Hezekiah prayed to the LORD saying, 16
“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. 17 “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. 18 "Truly, O LORD, the
kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands, 19 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. 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.’”
This is a wonderful section of Scripture that we have
before us today. This is the kind of
Scripture that will increase our faith in the Lord, for we see in this section
that God keeps His Word, for in Isaiah 10:5-34 we saw that God promised that
the Assyrians would not enter Jerusalem to destroy it. He allowed the Assyrians to come within 30
miles of Jerusalem, but that was a far as they would go. It seems to me that Hezekiah was determined
in his mind that he did not think that God would deliver Jerusalem from the
Assyrians for he says “Therefore offer a prayer for the remnant in Jerusalem.” I may be wrong about this, but in John MacArthur’s
study Bible he writes the following about this statement “Only Jerusalem
remained unconquered. Hezekiah asked
Isaiah’s prayer for the city.”
We see in this section that Hezekiah first of all tore
his clothes and put on sackcloth, he then had his people tear their clothes and
put on sackcloth and then he sent them to see Isaiah. Next Hezekiah went to the temple of the Lord
to pray. Dr. Wiersbe points out that he
may have had 2 Chronicles 7:14 in mind as he went to the temple “If my people,
which are called by my name, shall
humble themselves, and
pray, and seek my
face, and turn from
their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their
sin, and will heal their
land.” This is what will happen
as we will see.
The Lord said that “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.” John
MacArthur writes on this verse (7) “The Lord promised to incline Sennacherib’s
attitude in such a way that he would leave Jerusalem unharmed and return home.” This is what happened, but that did not stop
his commander to send a letter to Hezekiah again asking him to surrender the
city to him. What Hezekiah did with that
letter is most interesting to me, for he took that letter to the temple and
spread it out before the Lord, for that letter was blasphemous to the Lord, and
then Hezekiah prayed a wonderful prayer to the Lord. Before we go into the prayer, which is
similar to one found in Acts chapter four, I want to write about what a former
Pastor of mine did. It was very early in
my Christian life, perhaps six or seven years into it that I visited our church
on a weekday and entered into our Pastor’s office. If I remember right it may have been a
surprise to him that we were there, but the point I wish to make is that he had
papers on the floor and I sensed that he was about to begin to pray about what
was on those papers. Now I never thought
too much about it until I read and studied this passage, or a similar one in 2
Kings. This seems to be a wonderful pattern of prayer to me. Dr. Wiersbe writes the following about his
prayer: “Hezekiah’s prayer (Isa.
37:15-20) is saturated with biblical theology and is not unlike the prayer of
the church in Acts 4:24-31. He affirmed
his faith in the one true and living God, and he worshiped Him. Jehovah is ‘Lord of hosts,’ that is, ‘Lord of
the armies’ (Ps. 46:7, 11). He is the
Creator of all things (96:5) and knows what is going on in His creation. His eyes can see our plight, and His ears can
hear our plea (see Ps. 115). King
Hezekiah did not want deliverance merely for his people’s sake, but that God
alone might be glorified (Isa. 37:20; Psalm 46:10).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: A few weeks back
on a Wednesday evening prayer service our Pastor was speaking on the prayers of
Paul and gave the following quote: “Our
chief concern in petition must not be that we might become successful, wealthy,
popular, healthy, brilliant, triumphant, happy or beautiful. Still less does Paul encourage us to pray that
all problems will disappear. Paul’s
prayer is constrained by the framework he brings to it…he pray’s with eternity’s
values in view.” (D. A. Carlson) I believe that the prayer that Hezekiah
prayed to the Lord fit into that viewpoint of Paul’s prayers. If we pray for the Lord’s will to be done in
our lives then even though we may not like the results we will know that as far
as eternities values it will be done, and we can be thankful for that.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Have that kind of attitude in my prayer life.
Memory verses for the
week: 2 Peter 1:1-6
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 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 that
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, 6 and in your knowledge,
self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance,
godliness,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Paul” Acts 17:23).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Why did Solomon ask God to
give him an understanding heart?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/30/2013 12:17 PM
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