Isaiah chapter 37. You may be aware that there are four chapters right in the middle of Isaiah that aren't so much prophecy as they are history. And this is one of those four chapters. History in which the prophet Isaiah himself was involved. Now these chapters or these verses that we're going to read this evening are verses that are actually repeated in the book of 2 Kings, in chapter 19. 2 Kings, which was written later than the book of Isaiah, likely copied these verses from the prophet Isaiah in its own account. And these are verses that deal with, or that have to do with the king Hezekiah from the southern kingdom of Judah. And so in our evening biographical series of sermons, it is to King Hezekiah that we come this evening. You will recall that after Solomon was king in Israel, the kingdom of Israel split into a northern and a southern kingdom. The northern kingdom, which consisted of 10 tribes, was largely apostate and idolatrous in their worship. Among all of their kings, there was not a single good king. The southern kingdom of Judah, on the other hand, was at times departing from the Lord, but occasionally they would have good kings that would draw them back to the Lord, and Hezekiah was one of those good and godly kings. And during Hezekiah's reign, a number of good reforms were instituted in Judah. Hezekiah removed the high places. He broke down the sacred pillars and the wooden images that celebrated the Assyrian deities. He opened the doors of the temple which his father Ahaz had closed. He led the Levites to sanctify themselves and begin again their ministry in God's house. He reintroduced the Passover feast. He even invited the remnant of some of the northern tribes to worship with the people of Judah in Jerusalem. And he destroyed the bronze serpent called Nehushtan that Moses had made in the wilderness because it had become an idol. So these are some of the reforms that were instituted by Hezekiah. Nevertheless, Hezekiah, though he was a godly man, was also weak in his faith. He often wavered. He frequently compromised with the enemies of God's people. And he was not as thorough going in his commitment to the Lord as he should have been. But the single reality which more than anything else overshadowed everything else during Hezekiah's reign was the threat that Judah was under by the Assyrians. You see, when Hezekiah was king, Assyria was at the height of their power. And they had gone, really, on a worldwide rampage, subjugating various nations. Hezekiah was king in Judah when the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. Assyria was God's instrument to judge those ten wicked tribes. But now, Assyria is also threatening Judah. And the pressure is very intense. The Assyrian king, Sennacherib, and his forces have conquered Judah's fortified cities, and they have advanced to the gates of Lachish, which was a principal city not far from Jerusalem. And from Lachish, Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, sent Rabshaka, Rabshakeh was his emissary to threaten Jerusalem. And so, Rabshakeh came to Jerusalem, and there he blasphemed Judah's God, and he urged the people of Judah to reject Hezekiah's leadership, and to surrender to the Assyrians. Friends, matters had become desperate in Judah. I mean, things were on the brink of collapsing. The city of Jerusalem was, as it were, the last holdout. And it seemed impossible for Judah to withstand the intense pressure from Assyria. Assyria had run through all of the other nations. How was Judah to stand? They were fearful, even, that the people of Jerusalem might revolt against the king. Well, what is it that King Hezekiah should do? It is crisis time. What is it that King Hezekiah should do? Well, it's that that we're going to see in the verses that are before us today. Isaiah chapter 37, and we are going to begin our reading at verse 1. And so it was when King Hezekiah heard it, that is, heard the threats that the Rapshaka was making, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, this day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy for the children have come to birth but there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the 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 lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left And so the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, and Isaiah said to them, Thus you shall say to your master, Thus says the Lord, Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. Then the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libna, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish. And the king heard concerning Terhaka, king of Ethiopia, he has come out to make war with you. So when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah saying, Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands by utterly destroying them, and you shall be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed? Gozin and Harah and Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpod, and the king of the city of Sevarphim, Hena, and Eva?" And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord saying, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim, you are 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 hear all the words of Sennacherib which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations in 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. Therefore, they destroyed them. Now, therefore, O Lord, our God, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord. You. alone. And that ends this reading of God's Word. Let's look again to Him in prayer. Let's pray together. Lord our God, we have now read Your Holy Word. We pray, O Lord our God, that we would look upon King Hezekiah and how You, by Your Spirit, moved King Hezekiah to respond to this crisis. And, O Lord our God, we pray that we would learn things today for how we are to live and to act and to speak. Bless us by your word now, we pray. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if I were to ask you who the most important British Prime Minister of the last 100 years has been, who would you answer? Now, I think that most of you in this room would likely say, well, it has to be Winston Churchill. It has to be Churchill. And why would you answer in that way? Well, Churchill himself was a brilliant and remarkable man. Yes, he was. But more than anything else, his importance hinges on this fact, that he successfully led Britain through days of tremendous crisis. Crisis came upon Britain as it never had come upon them in the 21st century. And Churchill was up to the task. And do you see that that's where Hezekiah's greatness lies as well. Hezekiah himself was thrown into crisis It wasn't a crisis that he had asked for, it wasn't one that he desired, but it was one that he found himself in the middle of. He was king over Judah, while Judah was on the brink of destruction. But the remarkable thing was that Hezekiah responded to this crisis, not just as a great political leader, but more than anything else, as a great man of God. And that's how He stands as an example for us today. For there are times when we also find ourselves in times of crisis. And we are called to respond as men and women of God. I want you to hear what Derek Thomas says in his commentary on the book of Isaiah. He says that battles like these in the Old Testament whereby the Lord's people are faced with colossal forces are meant to encourage us to persevere in faithfulness in our own trials. The odds may be stacked against us from a human point of view. The enemy may appear to be the size of a Goliath. Everything from a worldly point of view may dictate a policy of appeasement and compromise, but faith will always inform us of a better way. And friends, it is that better way that we learn from King Hezekiah in this passage. There are three things that I want us to see as we march our way through this passage today. First of all, we are going to see that Hezekiah seeks the Word of the Lord. Secondly, we are going to see that trouble remains unrelenting. And third, that Hezekiah prays to God in faith. Hezekiah seeks the Word of the Lord. Trouble remains unrelenting. And lastly, Hezekiah prays to God in faith. And so let's look at each of these in turn. First of all, I want us to see that Hezekiah seeks the Word of the Lord. And we find that in verses 1 to 7. I mean, Hezekiah was in trouble. It was indeed days of crisis in the land of Judah. And so what is it that King Hezekiah does? Does he head to the local bar to drown his sorrows in alcohol? Does he go to his astrologist hoping for a fortunate word? Or does he merely head to the decision room seeking a political decision in his own strengths? Well, he does none of those. Instead, we read in verse 1 that he tears his clothes, he covers himself with sackcloth, which was a sign of distress and repentance, and he heads into the Lord's temple. He goes to where the Lord might be found. He humbles himself before God. He realizes that his own sin may be part of the cause for his present distress. And he comes to the Lord in repentance, and he cries out to the living God. Hezekiah, in time of crisis, goes to the Lord. And he also then sends a delegation to Isaiah, who is the prophet of the Lord. And we find that in verse 2. Some of his chief men, Eliakim, Shebna the scribe, elders of the priests, they also go covered in sackcloth and they appear before Isaiah the prophet. Now you have to understand that in these days they didn't have a whole Bible like we have today. They just had the first few books of the Old Testament. And there were still prophets in the land who spoke the Word of God. And so, by going to the prophet of God, to Isaiah, he was really seeking out the word of the Lord. Hezekiah was saying, in this situation in which we find ourselves, we need the word, not just of political wisdom, we need a word from the living God. What is it that we should do? So in Isaiah, or in verse 3, We read that Hezekiah's words were that this is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy, that the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. He uses this metaphor of giving birth and saying it's like the child is part of the way out, but there's no strength to get the child all of the way out. Both the mother and child are in danger. Judah themselves are in deep distress and are in deep danger. And so, Hezekiah says, we need a word from God. And that's exactly what Isaiah gives to them. Isaiah gives to the people a word from Yahweh. He says in verses 6 and 7, Thus you shall say to your master, that is to King Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord. Don't be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Etheria have blasphemed me, because surely I will send a spirit upon him that is going to cause King Sennacherib to respond in a certain way. King Sennacherib's going to become afraid because he's going to hear a rumor and he's going to return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. And so Isaiah prophesies what's going to happen. He says, you don't need to be afraid of these threatening words that Assyria is bringing upon you. The Lord Himself is mightier than Assyria. He has Assyria in His hand. And in fact, what's going to happen is something that at this point seems entirely improbable, But the king is going to be turned back to his own land, and there even King Sennacherib himself is going to die by the sword in his own land. And these are words that will eventually be literally fulfilled. So Hezekiah here is reminded that God is sovereign, that mighty Assyria is a pawn in God's hand, that God is ultimately going to gain the victory for Him and for His people, and it's these truths that are then going to fortify Hezekiah, and give him the courage to press forward, and to persevere, and to fight. For Hezekiah now knows that God is with him, and that no one can be against him. Hezekiah is now given the courage of Psalm 56 and verse 11, and God I will trust, I will not fear, what can man do to me? But the thing that I want you to notice from these first seven verses is this. How is it that Hezekiah receives this needed encouragement? How is he fortified for the battle that yet ensues. And it comes in one way. It comes by listening to the Word of the Lord. You see, if he had never sought out God's Word, he would have no reason to hope. But by going to the Word of God, he is given promises to fortify him for the battle. And I simply ask, is there a lesson in that for us? You better believe that there is. Because trials sometimes come upon us. Days of crisis hit. Where are you going to receive any encouragement and support? Where are you going to receive promises that will strengthen you and fortify you? Where will you have insight into God's saving purposes? Where will you come to grasp God's sovereignty over this trial of yours? Where will you be able to see God's intense, intimate care for His people? Where will you be reminded that God is bigger than any threat that you face? How will you be assured that God is with you? And I say to you, these things only come to you through God's Word. It is through no other way. And so, in times of distress, the first place that we need to go is to the Word of God. It's to sit under the preaching of the Word. You know, I cannot begin to understand it. How it is that when people sometimes are undergoing the severest trials, they absent themselves from the worship of God. That's the one time more than anything else that we need to be here and need to hear a Word from God. We need to immerse ourselves in the Scriptures. Thy Word is like a garden, Lord, with flowers bright and fair, and everyone who seeks may pluck a lovely cluster there, Thy word is like a deep, deep mine, and jewels rich and rare are hidden in its mighty depths for every searcher there. Thy word is like a starry host, a thousand rays of light are seen to guide the traveler and make his pathway bright. Thy word is like an armory where soldiers may repair and find for life's long battle day all needful weapons there. Every weapon that you need to fight the battles of the Lord are given to us in the pages of His Holy Scripture. And it's as we know and hear and begin to understand the Word of the Lord, friends, that we will be strengthened for the day of battle. Isn't that what 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 is saying? That great proof text of inspiration. All Scripture is inspired by God. But it doesn't stop there. It's not only that Scripture is a word that is given to us by God, but it is then also the only word that we need, because all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto every good work." Every good work that the Lord has called you to, in good days and in bad, in days of brightness and in the dark, deep midnight of crisis. Every good work that the Lord calls you to, you can be furnished for out of the Word of God. That's what Hezekiah did. He went to the prophet Isaiah. And in going to the prophet of the Lord, he found strength and encouragement for the coming battle. So that's the first thing that we see in the midst of this crisis, Hezekiah seeks a word from the Lord. But now the second thing I want us to consider is this. It is how trouble remains unrelenting. How trouble remains unrelenting. Verses 8 and 9 provide for us a progress report on the Assyrian army. It says that the Rabshakeh returns from Jerusalem to the Assyrian army, and he finds that the army has moved on, that they've departed Lachish, and now they are warring against Libna, another city that belongs to Judah. The army is progressing in their fight against Judah. But then in verse 9, we hear that Assyria was facing a threat on another front, that the king heard concerning Terhaka, the king of Ethiopia, that he has come out to make war with you. And so, while Assyria is fighting these battles, In the region of Judah, he hears that way down in the south that this king of Ethiopia is going to threaten the Assyrian army. And so you can imagine that the people of Judah, if they had heard of this, that they might have some sense of expectation and hope that maybe they are going to relent in their war against us. They are now going to redirect some forces from the north down to the south and defend themselves against this potential threat. Well, that's what you might think, right? But then you read verses 10-13 and you find that that's not happening. That's not happening at all. But instead, the king of Assyria sends a letter now. The face-to-face diplomacy didn't get very far and so they now decide we're going to send a letter to the people of Judah. In verses 10-13, tell us what the letter contains. It says, Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying that the Lord Himself is deceiving the people of Judah. When the Lord says, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria, and then He says, your God's not going to protect you. Why is that? Well, it's because none of the other gods of any of the other nations have protected those nations against mighty Assyria. Verse 11, Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them. Shall you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed?" And then he runs through the whole list of those nations. So, the message is simple. You are going to fail. It is inevitable. Your God is not going to protect you. Surrender. Judah, surrender while you have a chance. And so, Hezekiah receives this letter. And he reads it. And you know what he realizes? He realizes things have not gotten any better. You know, Ralph Davis, in his commentary on this passage, helpfully points out that, you know, by the end of verse 13, essentially nothing has changed at all in this story. Now, Isaiah has made promises that Sennacherib is going to leave, but Sennacherib has not left yet. Pressure is still on Jerusalem. Assyria's arguments haven't changed. They're as arrogant as ever. Jerusalem is still very much in danger. If anything, the Assyrian army has further advanced. There is no indication at all, other than indication from the Word of God, that Judah is going to be delivered. All that Hezekiah has at this point is the Word of God, that's it. The situation itself has gotten no better since he's gone to Isaiah, it's only gotten worse. And again, doesn't that happen in our lives? We face trials. We face temptations. We think, I'm going to go to the Lord. I'm going to go to the word of the Lord. Surely things are going to get better. And then things don't get better. They get worse. They don't change according to our timetable. So we say to the Lord, OK, Lord, now it's time for you to relent. I've learned my lesson. I think I've been taught by this trial. Thank you, Lord, for sending this. But this is enough now. Let's move on. And it doesn't happen. Trouble does not relent. God's timetable is not ours. Things haven't changed. The pressure is as intense as ever. The prospects from a human standpoint seem as gloomy as ever. That's exactly what Judah was facing. That's often the way that the Lord works. So, that's the second point that we see, is that the trouble remains unrelenting. But now, third and lastly, I want us to consider again how Hezekiah responds to this unrelenting trouble. How Hezekiah responds as a man of God. And we see here that Hezekiah prays to God in faith. He prays to God in faith. Hezekiah turns to prayer. We see that in verse 14. After receiving the letter from the hand of the messengers, Hezekiah reads it and Hezekiah goes up to the house of the Lord and he spreads the letter before the Lord in the temple. He spreads the letter before the Lord in the temple. What a beautiful indication that is of his dependence upon God, of his helplessness in the face of this attack. He takes it to the Lord. I want you to think for a moment just about the particular nature of this struggle, of this trial that Hezekiah was facing. The people of Assyria were mocking his faith. They were saying, your God is useless. He can do nothing. How futile it is to continue to believe in this God of yours. You know, people continue to mock our faith today. That's often where temptation lies. It's when the world around us looks at you and says, how futile it is for you to continue to hold on to this God that you're holding on to. What good has it ever done in your life? Why are you remaining faithful to Him? The devil can suggest such things to our ears. And you know, when faced with that kind of trial, our options are several. We have several options. We could say, you know, that's right. God hasn't done anything for me. And so you apostatize. Or you could say, you know, My faith is a little bit foolish. I'm going to hang on to my faith, but I'm going to accommodate to the world. And so we compromise. Or we could say, in the face of all of this, you know, I'm scared. And we retreat. Or, we can have the confidence that our God is strong enough to defend himself and to protect his glory. And so we don't apostatize, we don't compromise, we don't retreat in the face of trial, but rather what we do is to commit ourselves to the Lord in prayer. Boldly take it to God and say to God, God, this is your cause. Defend your cause. That's exactly what Hezekiah does. He does two things in his bold prayer that we find in verses 16 to 20. The first thing that we see for Hezekiah is that God's character is the ground of his confidence. As he comes to God, he prays to God about God's character. He reminds God who he is. He says, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, you are the one who dwells between the cherubim. This refers to God dwelling between the angels above the Ark of the Covenant in the temple. The temple was the sign of God's dwelling with his people. So he is reminding God, God, you are the God who is near to your people. You have committed yourself to us. But he goes on to say, you are God. You are you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth. That is, he speaks there of God's sovereignty, God's sovereignty over all kingdoms and nations, that there is not a single square inch of ground that falls outside of the kingship of God. That all of it is his, and he is reminding the Lord that you are the sovereign one who owns all. But then he thirdly reminds God of his power. He says, you are the ones, you are the one who has made heaven and earth. If the Lord created distant galaxies at a word, surely he can overturn this Assyrian power. And so he reminds God, as it were, of who he is. And in reminding God, he's reminding himself. God doesn't forget, but we forget. And so he's reminding himself, this is the God to whom I am praying. Where does my confidence lie in the midst of this intense pressure that I'm feeling from Assyria? My confidence remains firm and it rests upon my God, my rock. That's what he says. He rests, his confidence is found in the character of God. But the second thing about his prayer is this. It is that God's glory is his great desire. God's character is the ground of his confidence. Secondly, God's glory is his great desire. It's fascinating to see this in verses 17 to 20. The substance of his prayer is this. Lord, the Assyrians have reproached you, the living God. Sennacherib is saying that you are no better than all of the other idols of the other nations. Lord, that is not true. You alone are God. So, Lord, I pray to you. open your eyes, hear the words of Sennacherib, listen to the reproach that has been issued against you, and then, Lord our God, save us from His hand, not just for our sake, save us from His hand, verse 20, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord, You alone. What's driving this prayer is Hezekiah's zeal for the glory of God. This wasn't a foxhole kind of prayer. A foxhole kind of prayer is when we are in a state of desperation. And we cry out to Lord, Lord deliver me, if you just deliver me this one time, I promise that I'm going to serve you all the rest of the days of my life. But then such prayers often are very self-centered. The only thing that we're focused is getting out of the pickle that we're in. We have no concern for God and for His glory. And the vast majority of the people who pray those kind of prayers, the moment that they are delivered, they forget the God who has delivered them. And so we ought to pray, not with eyes, first of all, focused on ourselves and our need. We do take our needs to God, yes. But we do it with an eye, first of all, to His glory above all else. Lord, it is my desire that You would get the glory in my life and among all of the peoples of this world. The Assyrians were reproaching the living God, and that's what got Hezekiah fired up. Lord, might your name be honored. Deliver us so that the nations will no longer reproach you, but will say it is the Lord who has done this. Well, we're not going to look at the verses that follow this, other than to say, you know what? God did deliver the people of Judah. It all looks so improbable, didn't it, from a human standpoint, but the Lord was faithful to His Word. You can read about it in verses 36 and 37. In fact, a great number of Assyrians are destroyed. God ultimately delivers His people. And that's a lesson for each one of us to remember. In days of crisis, let us respond like Hezekiah. Let us respond with this confidence that God does deliver His people. God is faithful to His own. God's promises do not fail. That's what motivated Paul, as Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 1, verses 6-10. You see, the believers in Thessalonica were believers who were under tremendous pressure and tremendous persecution. Paul himself had been driven out of the town of Thessalonica. To be a believer in Thessalonica meant to be unpopular, to be in danger even of death. And Paul writes these words to them in 2 Thessalonians 1. He says this, beginning in verse 6. It is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you. And to give you who are troubled rest with us. when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. In flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, these shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power when He comes in that day to be glorified in His saints. and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed." Do you see what he is saying? He is saying that God does deliver His people. Often He delivers in this life, that as we entrust ourselves to God, God answers our prayers in strange and miraculous and wonderful ways, where we say it is only the hand of the Lord that could have done this. But friends, each of us can have this confidence above all else that there is coming a day when the Lord Jesus Christ appears in the clouds of heaven and each one of His own is going to be vindicated on that day. We are going to receive rest from all of our enemies. Those who have opposed the Lord and persecuted His people Vengeance is going to come upon them. But for us, as it says in verse 10, the Lord Himself is going to be glorified in His saints. He's going to be admired among all of us who believe. We, friends, as it says in verse 7, are going to receive rest when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. And that ultimately is our confidence, that in the end, the Lord wins. God wins. He is victorious. And if God is for us, who can be against us? And so in days of crisis, when the crisis comes, we have but one response. It is to be a man or a woman of God, like Hezekiah. Would God help us? to do just that. Let's pray together. O Lord, our God in heaven, we thank you for Hezekiah's godly response in the day of trouble. We pray, O Lord, that we might respond in the manner in which he did, receive strength and encouragement from his example, and that we might be enabled in our entire lives So to live for Your glory in all things, we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.