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Please take your Bibles and turn
with me to the first chapter that we read together in the
book of 2 Kings. We come in our exposition of
this Old Testament book to the 19th chapter. So 2 Kings chapter
19. And we'll begin with verse 1, reading
verse 1. And it came to pass when King
Hezekiah heard it that he rent his clothes and covered himself
with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. Every Christian who has been
taught the fundamentals of what the Bible teaches know that the
preservation and promotion of God's glory stands at the center
of all of creation. The preservation and promotion
of God's glory is central to everything God does. Everything
he has done in the past is doing in the present and will do in
the future. He is most interested about his
own name, about his own glory, and that is, of course, as we've
often heard, a necessity in being God. He must be interested chiefly
in his own glory. And this is of course a key component
to our understanding really history and understanding our own lives,
knowing that the promotion of God's glory is the centerpiece. We look back on the annals of
history and we see many twists and turns and we see what at
times looks confusing. We see the rise of people and
nations and the precipitous descent that follows, we see wars and
movements and ideologies and so on, and we recognize as we
trace with our finger all that is taking place, we trace in
it the promotion of God's glory, how it is that He is working
through the affairs of men. And what's true in our history
books is true in our own personal history, in our own lives. We know the Lord has taken us
down the windy path into the valley of humiliation, that he's
lifted us up out of it, exalted us, and caused us to at times
ride on the high places of the earth to feast with the heritage
of Jacob. And in all of that, and much
more, We can trace with our finger throughout the lifespan that
the God has given to us the way in which he has been bringing
glory, gathering glory to himself. And so we come to chapters like
2 Kings 18. And we're set on edge, right?
The chapter prior to the one that we're considering this afternoon.
We're set on edge because we're seeing all of the bluster and
all the fomenting and all of the blasphemy that is taking
place. And we know our God is not mocked. that what a man sows, he will
also reap, that God will not, cannot share his glory with another. And so we're set on edge, anticipation,
what all of this means and where all of this is going. We recognize we have to, we as
the Lord's people have to align our thoughts and our pursuits
with God's thoughts. and with God's will in this world. So you come to the end of chapter
18 and we're set, as it were, on the edge of a cliff. And it really looks bleak. If you don't fast forward into
chapter 19, as we've now done in reading this afternoon, if
you just read the passage and allow what is being said to seep
into your soul, to take on board how monumentous the events that
Judah, Jerusalem, Hezekiah were facing were. It is amazing, it
takes our breath away at times. And so we were left, as it were,
in what appeared to be a lurch, and the future looked terribly
bleak. And then we come to chapter 19,
and we open the word of God, and we begin to hear about what
he has done in response to all that has preceded this. We're
gonna note four things this afternoon. as we seek to unpack chapter
19. First of all, we see a promise
in verses 1 to 13. First of all, a promise in verses
1 to 13. Notice, beginning in verse 1,
Hezekiah's response to this looming catastrophe. And really, what
he did, look at verses 1, 2, and 3, what he did that is, he tore his clothes,
rent his clothes, where he went, which was into the house of the
Lord, and what he said, all exhibit the same thing. What he did,
where he went, and what he said, all exhibit the same thing, namely,
humiliation. And more particularly, the humiliation
of repentance. He is humbling himself with repentance
before the Lord. Notice that he sees the rebuke. He sees the rebuke in all that
is taking place here in chapter 19. He recognizes it. He says
in verse 3, this day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and
blasphemy or provocation. He's recognizing what's going
on. He's humbling himself and he's
confessing, Lord, we are being dealt with hardly ultimately
because of our own sins against you. And he confesses at the
end of verse 3, we are devoid of strength. Our tank is empty. We have nothing. He says we've
come to birth and there is not strength to bring forth. But notice that he also puts
his finger on the heart of the matter, namely that all of this
bluster from Rabshakeh is ultimately a reproach against the living
and the true God. In verse four he says, it may
be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom
the king of Assyria, his master, hath sent to reproach the living
God. And it's almost as if Hezekiah
is coming and he's saying, Lord, we deserve this. I mean, we are
not getting worse than we ourselves deserve. To have Assyria outside
our gates, to have them breathing down our necks, to have the threat
of our own utter destruction would be one thing. We would
deserve that. But you, O Lord, You do not deserve
the reproach and all that has been hurled at your own honor
and glory. That cannot and must not stand. And so the heartthrob of Hezekiah
is God-centered, isn't it? He has a God-centered perspective,
and he's saying, There's almost, if you will, an element of hope
tucked into that. He's saying, Lord, listen to
what they've said about you. It's a trembling faith, but it's
faith nonetheless. At the beginning of verse four,
he says, it may be the Lord thy God will hear. Right? There's this trembling aspect,
but he's also conscious. They have lifted their hand against
God himself. A line has been crossed as we
saw last week, and it is a line that once crossed is beyond any
hope of return. And so he's going and saying,
tell Isaiah. And notice that Isaiah comes
back with dogmatic promises. I mean, Hezekiah is saying, it
may be that the Lord will hear this reproach against his own
name. Isaiah comes back with no maybes at all. He comes back
with dogmatic promises based, again, on the blasphemy that
has been hurled at the Lord. Verse six, thus shall you say
to your master, thus saith the Lord, be not afraid of the words
which thou hast heard, which the servants of the king of Assyria
have blasphemed me. So God himself is God-centered,
of course. And he is voicing that. And we're
told that Rabshakeh, in verse 8 and following, Rabshakeh, there's
all of this beating of the shields and there's the distractions
of the king of Ethiopia and so on, but Rabshakeh reinforces
his psychological warfare. All of the trends that we saw
in the last chapter are reinforced here. He uses psychological warfare. He comes and on one hand, you
have what Isaiah is saying, and that is God's word. And then
you have on the other hand, in opposition to it, Rabshakeh's
word. And it reminds us of the garden,
right, where the devil comes and says, hath God said? God
said one thing, the devil came with the pseudo word. Here we
have God saying through his prophet one thing, bringing promise,
and we have Rabshakeh coming with the pseudo word. And what
does he do? He now stoops to accusing Jehovah
of being a deceiver. He says, don't let the God of
Israel, don't let Him deceive you into thinking that you are
going to be delivered. Now he's taking a high hand. Earlier he had said that Jehovah
was on his side. Well, he's abandoned that. As
every enemy of God does, he shifts the board. And now he's hurling
accusations against Jehovah himself. In verse 11, he basically uses
emotional appeal. And he says, you know better.
I mean, you citizens of Jerusalem, you know better than all of this. You know the facts of history,
he says, in essence. And he goes on and says, you're
not special. Let's remember where we've been.
Assyria has gone to this country and that country. None of their
gods have saved them. You know the facts. Don't allow
yourself to be deceived by nonsense. You're not any different than
anyone else. No one else has escaped. This
is the circumstances really of chapter 18. So at the beginning
of the chapter, not much has changed. I mean, the scenery
for those that are looking on from the outside is unchanged. Here you have all the same pressure,
all the same threats, and all the same arrogance of the enemies. But there is something that's
changed, and that is God has brought his word of promise to
his people. And so now the people of God
are being squeezed in between providence and promise. On the one hand, they have the
promise, that is, the Word that God's brought through Isaiah.
On the other hand, they're looking out their window at the providence
of God, and where they find themselves. Rabshak is still pounding on
the gate, and still hurling insults at us, and still threatening
to destroy us. They're being squeezed between
providence and promise. And so we often find ourselves,
the people of God often find themselves in very similar circumstances.
Obviously the story is different and the particular details are
very different from what we find in chapter 19, but at root They're
more the same than they are different. We'll have the promises of God
coming to us through his word, and then we look out the window
of our own eyes at God's providence in his dealing with us, and we're
being squeezed between them. We have the promise of God's
presence, and yet the true people of God find themselves at times,
and it seems as if the Lord is absent. You know, like Job, we
search, can't find him before us or behind us, you know, to
the right hand or the left. He doesn't appear to be there.
Same thing in the Song of Songs and throughout the Psalms. We
have the promise that he'll never leave us and forsake us. And
yet there's this sense that the Lord is far off, this distance.
We have the promise that God will work all things together
for the good of his people, and yet it seems as if there's so
much that is working for bad in our current affairs and circumstances. We hear about the coming glory,
but we're experiencing the present suffering. And here the Lord's
people are left clinging to his promises. Let God be true, though
all men are liars." And they're clinging to the Word of God and
saying, God will make good on what He has said. And our vision
and sight, the sight that we have through the lens of God's
Word is clearer. than the sight that we have looking
through our spectacles or the eyeballs in our head. We look
out and we say, well, it appears as if there is much that is against
us, much that contradicts what we have been told is true. And
it is safer and wiser and surer for us to view things through
His word, to cling to this word of promise that He's given to
us. So first of all, we have a promise. Secondly, there is
a prayer. And it's not as if these things
are unconnected. God brings His Word by way of
promise, and that provides, if you will, all of the resources
for then going to the Lord in prayer. And so the second thing
we have is a prayer in verses 14 through verse 19. Rabshakeh sends his message back,
which we've just noted. And what does Hezekiah do? He
once again goes to the Lord. Just as we saw at the beginning
of the chapter, he's going into the house of the Lord, and he
formally lays out this letter, this document, before the Lord. He's coming and he's saying,
Lord, this is your business. I mean, this pertains to you. This is what's being said about
you. This is what involves your honor and your glory. And he
spreads it out before the Lord. It's the picture of what we have
in the New Testament where we're told in Philippians 4 that we're
to be, in all things, we're to be coming before the Lord with
our prayers and our supplications. It's what we see in the writings
of Peter, which he's quoting from Proverbs when he speaks
about us casting all our cares upon the Lord. We're coming and
laying them out as it were, spreading them out before the Lord in assurance
that he cares for his people. And so this letter, interestingly,
this letter ends up serving in driving Hezekiah closer to the
Lord. The letter is intended to shove
a wedge between Hezekiah and his God, or between Jerusalem
and their God. And it does the exact opposite.
It ends up being the wind in their sails that blows Hezekiah
toward the Lord, closer to the Lord, seeking the Lord. So there
are people that mean us ill. And there's no question about
it, no qualms about it. They actually intend ill, evil
toward us. Little do they know that the
Lord is so pleased to take what is meant for evil and to transform
it and turn it into something that's good. This is the language
of Genesis 50 where Joseph's looking at his brothers and saying,
you meant it for evil. It's true. Your motives and everything
else that was driving you was sinful and you're culpable for
that. But God meant it for good. And God transforms what looks
to be evil into being a vehicle for good. And that's what's happening
here. Hezekiah is actually driven to his Lord rather than away
from his Lord. And so he comes and he spreads
it all out before the Lord. Prayer begins with a sense of
our helplessness. It's not just these kind of acute
threats. that make prayer that way. All
prayer is that way. All prayer begins with a sense
of hopelessness. The reason you don't pray more
is because you don't have a sense of your need And when you pray,
you're not praying more fervently because you are not weighted
with a sense of your desperation and helplessness, your dependence
upon the Lord. Now, the Lord at times puts you
in circumstances where you feel that far more keenly. And you often pray more fervently
in those circumstances. But we ought to be praying with
this sense of helplessness all the time. And it's a helplessness
that's coupled with hope. It's not despair. It's a helplessness
in ourselves that's coupled with hope in God himself. So look
at this prayer that we have in verses 14 to 19. In verse 15
it opens, as all biblical prayer does, it opens with adoration. So he begins by talking to God
about God. He begins with praise. The Assyrians
are mocking God, deriding God, dishonoring God, blaspheming
God. He begins by praising God, adoring God, extolling and exalting
the Lord. And here he is, he's saying,
Lord, you are exalted, and you are sovereign, and you are powerful. In other words, as Hezekiah comes
to prayer, his mind is being fixed on to whom he is speaking. And this is what we often need. This is certainly what Hezekiah
needed most. He needed to be brought consciously
before the eye of God himself. Why? Because if his mind is being
filled with the glory, the sovereignty, the exaltation, the power of
this God, then what's going to happen? His sight of Rabshakeh
and all the Assyrian army will be eclipsed by it. All of a sudden,
they're going to seem smaller and smaller and less significant
and less threatening and less important. The sight of that
threat shrinks under the sight of God himself. And so he comes
rehearsing God's majesty. Now this is characteristic of
all biblical prayer. I mean, you can flip through
your Bible, especially the many, many, many prayers that we have
recorded in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament as well,
they are all heavy on adoration. talking to God about God, extolling
and praising Him. And this is, again, it's not
a surprise because, you know, eternal life is the knowledge
of God, Father and the Son. And the heart's hope of every
Christian is to see and know God. The best part about prayer
is not bringing our laundry list to Him for all the things we
need, it's meeting with Him, seeing Him, beholding Him, adoring
Him. That's the main business of prayer. And so, in contemporary prayer,
right, the prayers that proliferate in the modern world are devoid
of this. There may be the slightest reference
of adoration, but they are heavily weighted on, here's our grocery
list, and our wish list, and everything else that we have
need of, and please, Lord, do it quickly. They're man-centered
prayers. They're not God-centered prayers. The prayers we find in the Bible
make much of God Himself. This is crucial to prayer. So
there's adoration in verse 15. In verses 16, 17, and 18, He expresses his need, his need,
as the text says, for God's ear and for God's eye. He's saying,
Lord, we need you to hear. We need you to see the reproach
that Sennacherib is bringing against the living God. And notice
that he puts here two things back to back. He's quite matter-of-fact. He says, Lord, it's true. Assyria
has gone on a rampage. And everywhere they've gone,
they've left wreckage in their path. It's true. Assyria has
destroyed the nations and has destroyed their gods. That's
the first thing he says. But then notice the second thing.
The second thing eliminates the first thing. The second thing
he says is, but they were not real gods. They weren't real
gods. And so, no wonder they destroyed
them. They've never faced the only,
the one and only living and true God. They have never yet come
up against the true God. You see here, biblical argument,
biblical thinking before the Lord. He's saying, this is our
concern. They're making all these threats.
It's unnerving your people. But Lord, we acknowledge all
the track record that they boast of was against nobodies who had
nothing. And now they're standing outside
the gates of the city of the only living and true God, the
creator of heaven and earth. And that leads him in verse 19
to his petition. And notice there is urgency in
the petition. He's beseeching the Lord to save
them. I beseech thee, save thou us
out of his hand. So there's a sense of desperation.
They are, after all, outside the walls. But notice that's
not all. He also brings with that urgency
motivation, motive. And this too is God-centered. He says, Lord, come save us. Why? The word that is giving
us the purpose. So that all the kingdoms of the
earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only. He's saying, Lord, save us, not
just for the purpose of making us feel better, preserving us,
but do it, O Lord, to vindicate your name. Do it to teach the
kingdoms and nations. Do it to make clear before the
entire watching world that you only that you and you alone are
the true God. And so, just as with Moses in
dealing with Israel, so now we find Hezekiah doing the same
thing. He's saying, Lord, magnify your
own name. He's saying, Lord, I'm interested
in your reputation, not just the skin off of our own backs. And so he is pleading for the
sake of God's glory. And of course, given what we
were reminded of in the introduction, since God's glory, the promotion
and preservation of his glory is God's main business, our prayers
are being aligned dead center with God's own will. when we
appeal rightly to his glory. So we see a promise, we see a
prayer. Thirdly, we see a prophecy. Again, these things are not disconnected.
It opens with a promise, God's word. That is what provides the
basis for prayer and petition. Having offered that prayer, God
returns his word. He brings prophecy to his people
in verses 20 through verse 34. Verses 20 to 34, we see a prophecy. In verse 20, the Lord says, I
have heard. I've heard your prayer. Now,
people talk about the power of prayer. Prayer is not powerful.
Prayer is not powerful. God is powerful. And prayer is
calling upon and giving us access to the God who is powerful. And so, here's Rabshakeh's word
on one hand, God's word on the other, and the Lord comes and
he addresses all of their main points. All of the things that
have to be addressed. He addresses, by way of prophecy,
first of all, in verses 20 to 28, he addresses the pride and
arrogance of Rabshakeh, Sennacherib, and the nation of Assyria. He turns the tables, and Jehovah
says, listen clearly to me. Zion, that is the people of God,
Zion is scorning you, Assyria. We are deriding you and your
arrogance. And we are gonna hold you in
contempt as you drag your sorry selves back to your land after
you've been decimated. Here's the truth. Here's all
of your pontifications and bluster. Here's the real story. Here's
what's going to happen. You're going to be humbled. Notice
that God identifies the specific sin in verse 21, the beginning
of verse 21. The Virgin, the daughter of Zion,
hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn. The daughter of
Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee, whom thou hast reproached
and blasphemed, against whom hast thou exalted thy voice,
and lifted up thine eyes on high. He's saying, you've been, in
verses 22 and 23, you have reproached Jehovah. You have been ridiculing
the God of heaven. And he says in verses 23 and
24, you need to beware because God is listening to your words.
God has heard your words. all of this nonsense about how
unstoppable you are, how undefeatable you are, how no one and no thing
and no God can possibly turn you back. God has been listening. Every letter, syllable, word,
sentence that's fallen from your mouth, God's recorded it. And you need to know it. And
then he exposes his ignorance in verses 25 and 26. Hast thou
not heard long ago? He's saying, are you so dumb? Are you so dull? Are you so ignorant? Haven't you heard? This is old,
old news. Where have you been? You are
dense, spiritually dense. And then he goes on to say, God
is the one who sovereignly disposes of everything. God is the one
who gives victories to whoever has victory. I mean, you can
read about this by way of parallel in Isaiah 41. Speaking of Cyrus
the Persian, the Lord says, I am the one. I'm the first and I'm
the last. I'm the one who accomplishes all of these things. He's in
essence saying to Assyria, God predestinated all of this. Yes,
the victories that you have attained over these other nations in the
past all came about as God's plan. God's the one who's ordered
it. God's the one who's raised you
up. God's the one who's defeated the enemies before you. It kind
of takes all of the glory of their boasting away. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you've had
victory here and there. By the way, that was the unfolding
of God's plan. You did exactly what he wanted
to happen, and he's the one who's made it happen. In verses 27
and 28, he says, and now listen to what I have predestined. Now
listen to what I have willed to happen. He says, I'm going
to put a hook in your nose, and I'm gonna put a bridle in your
mouth, And I am going to drag you off into exile. In other words, you think that
you are glorious in your pride. I am reducing you to an ass.
I'm reducing you to a dumb mule. And you will be drug back with
your tail between your legs. In other words, amidst all of
this pontification and bluster, God is saying, let's take a look
at reality. Sennacherib, you are a blip on
the radar screen. That's what you are. You are
a blip on the radar screen of history, and you have only done
what I have chosen to have done for my own purposes and my own
glory. Now you can take all of this
and pause for a moment and think to yourself, well, when you are
tempted to bluster, or to use a colloquial expression, when
you are tempted to talk smack, You need to remember that God
is listening to every one of your words. God's recording it. Whether it's whispered or whether
it's shouted, God hears it all. And we are taught to fear him
and to walk lowly and humbly before him. But it also gives
us perspective to the world at large because there are those
who strut back and forth on the stage of history and they can
be politicians and military leaders and they can be other superstars
and heroes and so on. And there's a lot of chest thumping
and there's a lot of boasting. And there's a lot of strutting.
And we need, as God's people, to have a clear grasp of reality. Men are men. They are a blip
on the radar screen. They are of no consequence. And God is sovereignly ruling
and overruling in all the affairs to bring in a pass His will,
His way. And he will humble the proud,
those who now look to be strongest, those who now look to be so invincible,
those who now are so full of themselves, will in due time,
they will sow what they've reaped, and God will put a hook in their
nose and lead them where he wants them. Let's make sure we are
thinking biblically. We are thinking as God would
have us. So he addresses the pride. He
also addresses the discouragement of his people. In verses 29 to
31, he says, I'm going to give a sign to you, Jerusalem. so
that you can see what's going to happen here. I'm making provision
for you. You're going to eat. This looks
like a siege. That means there's massive amounts
of dirt that's going to be piled up, and there's going to be the
cutting off of all supplies, and there's going to be famine,
and there's going to be the reduction of resources, and you're basically
going to be tied up until either your walls cave in or you die
from starvation. The Lord says no. you're gonna
eat. And there's this first year,
second year, third year, really, it's coming at the end of one
year, which is counted as the first year, and you have then
the spring of the following year, would be then the second year,
and so it's not as far off as even it seems, but he's saying,
this is going to happen, you're gonna sow, and you're gonna reap,
and you're gonna sit, and you're gonna enjoy the fruits that God
has given to you. But don't lose sight of what's
happening here. Nothing in the world looks more
unlikely. You know, this kind of description
would sound to most of them like a pipe dream. They can look over
the walls of Jerusalem and see this gigantic, massive army like
locusts covering the land. And they're running around, recreating
and playing and waiting to destroy them. Nothing in the world looks
more unlikely than what is taking place here. It sounds rather outrageous.
But notice the end of verse 31. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
shall do this. However outrageous and unlikely
it may seem, it is the zeal of the Lord of Hosts that will bring
this to pass. He will ensure This is where
our consolation lies, my friends. It's in knowing that the Lord
of hosts, the God who rides in the armies of heaven and whose
name is holy, the one whose no man can question and whose arm
no one can stay. This is where our consolation
is. that nothing is outside of his
hand and that God is powerful in all that he brings to pass
with that hand. Notice that he also addresses by prophecy their
fear in verses 32 to 34. He says, no arrows are gonna
fly into this city. None of the Assyrians are gonna
set one foot in the entrance into this city. There's not gonna
be cast a bank. That is, there's not gonna be
any siege. They will go home. All of your fears are appeased,
are pacified, are alleviated by the Lord. The question is,
who's surrounding the city? Who's surrounding the city? Well,
if you look over the wall, it appears as if Sennacherib and
the host of Assyria is. And they're basically being told,
no, who is surrounding the city? Jehovah is surrounding the city. The Lord is their shield. The
Lord is their defender. That is what quiets their fears.
God, after all, is the only Redeemer and Savior of His people. And
we look to scientists and medicine, and we look to loved ones and
resources and jobs and houses and all sorts of other things
for the solution to our dilemmas. And it appears as if everything
is surrounding us is against us. And the Lord is saying, my
dear Christian, he stoops with love and he says, I am your shield
and defender. I'm your savior. The one who
saves, Christ saves us from our sins and the Lord delivers us
from that which threatens to destroy us. We're not to look
elsewhere. for what only God can provide. So we see a prophecy. Fourthly, and lastly, we see
the display of power in these last verses. There is a display
of power in verses 35, 36, and 37. It's all described rather
curtly. It comes in an abbreviated form.
It's all a matter of fact. We're told that in one night,
one night, A single night, the angel of the Lord comes into
the camp of the Assyrians, and 185,000 warriors, seasoned warriors,
are slain. They wake up in the morning,
and we're told at the end of verse 35, they're all dead corpses. Now, think, if it weren't the
angel of the Lord, the ability from sunset to sunrise for anyone
to wipe out 185,000 warriors. And yet the Lord comes, the angel
of the Lord comes and does that very thing without Jerusalem
raising a single sword. This is the power of God himself. And it's really rather breathtaking.
The numbers kind of numb our brain. We get lost in them. It's
hard to comprehend them. But I mean, you picture a hundred
people. stacked up in this room, dead
corpses laid out on the pews and in the aisles of the church
here. It would look huge. That's a
hundred people. Think of a thousand, right? Ten
times that. What would that look like? What
would it look like in the city of downtown Greenville? You know
what it looks like at Fall for Greenville. You know, 10,000
people packed into that city standing upright. Now imagine
10,000 dead people, the kind of crowds that we're accustomed
to on that occasion when we do open air preaching and so on. 10,000 people. My friends, we're
only at 10,000. 185,000 corpses littering four miles the area
around Jerusalem. This is the power
of God. The greatest army on the planet
at the time. The single greatest world superpower. Military giant is reduced to
rubble in an instant. They're basically annihilated
nearly instantly. You think of You think of 185,000
trained men. They grow up. They're little
children. They get to adolescence. They're being trained to shoot
the bow, to fight with the sword. There's physical exercise. There's
all the mental development. There's a lot of work and a lot
of time and a lot of investment that goes into preparing one
seasoned soldier. All that's gone. 185,000 taken
away. And we're told that Sennacherib
slinked home with his tail between his legs. And if that's not bad
enough, he arrives at home Notice he's in the act of worship in
the house of his false god, which he said was so much better than
any other, but indeed was a false god. He goes in to worship this
false god and he dies. His two sons, his own flesh and
blood, assassinate him. And so here you see God arising
in His power, the greatest army in the world at the time, and
this great blasphemer, both corporately as a nation and individually
as a leader. They are judged. They are weighed
in the balance and found wanting and are destroyed. So really,
verses 35, 36, and 37 are the theological interpretation of
the whole text, right? All of chapter 18 and 19. You have, at the end of chapter
18, Assyria's at its height, Jerusalem's at the bottom, in
its depths. You get to the end of chapter
19, Assyria's in the depths, and Jerusalem is in the heights.
And it is the Lord that has made all the difference. Those who
mock God are destroyed by God. And that's
the simple truth. We listen to those who blaspheme
and deride and mock God. You don't have to have brilliance. You just have to know the basics
of your Bible. That man is marked. That man
is marked. And it is only a matter of time
before what he is sown will be reaped. and the mouth and mind and military
and whatever else of those who raise their high hand against
the Lord will have it broken. We need to let this seep down
into our souls, this view of the glory of God, the power of
God, the matchless splendor of the Lord. His glory is so precious. It's not to be impugned, not
to be dishonored, not to be derided, not to be shared by any. God
is the one who's being set before us in real history in this text. And the Lord is saying to his
people, I am the savior and there is no other. I have the power
to deliver and to destroy. The Lord is the one. Yes, we
are weak. Yes, we are sinful. Yes, we are
broken. Yes, we have much guilt and all
the else that comes with it. But the Lord, our savior and
redeemer is the one who's invincible and is able to save us with a
strong arm. And He is able to come to those who are transgressors,
and to those who are rebellion, and is able to subdue and draw
them by His sovereign power, and to bring them, and to reconcile
them unto Himself, to redeem them from all of the domination
of the devil, and of sin, and of the kingdom of darkness, and
to liberate them by His grace. And the Lord is able to take
those same people in all of their Christian pilgrimage and the
corporate people of God as a whole, in the church of God, and to
say, yes, you remain weak, but God does remain invincible. And
His enemies, who come boasting with all of their bluster, will
be cut down at the knees and will be drug away with a ring
in their nose, a hook in their nose. This is our God. This is our God. And He is found in this text
in the midst of His people. This is our God who is found
in the midst of His people to the present hour. We sing in
the Psalms, in places like Psalm 48, go about Zion, counter towers. Tell of her bulwarks. Do you
see the glory that belongs to the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ? The Sennacheribs, the Rabshakas, the Assyrians of the
world have long stood out the gates of Zion. But look, the
bulwarks are there. And the towers are there. And
because God dwells in the midst of his people, Zion is preserved
and goes forward. The gates of hell cannot stand
against it. You look at the passage that's
given to us in First Chronicles chapter 29, and we'll close with
this. In verse 11, listen to these
words. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness
and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for
all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine. Thine
is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Let's stand together for prayer. O Lord, our God, indeed, thine
is the glory and thine is the victory, for
thine is the kingdom. O Lord, we come rejoicing that
you are the God of heaven and earth, the only, the living and
the true God, and that you are our God, the God of your people. what comfort there is, and what
fear and trembling there is, both coupled in these sublime
truths. Teach us, O Lord, to be humbled. Teach us to be raised with a
sense of strength from the promise of the divine presence that is
with us. O Lord, we do pray, arise and
scatter all of thine enemies. and vindicate your own honor,
glorify your own name, and humble nations and princes and people,
that they would learn that they are dust, and that you alone
are God, who is exalted in all the earth. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
Jehovah's Vindication
Series The Book of 2 Kings
| Sermon ID | 114181647536 |
| Duration | 47:51 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | 2 Kings 19 |
| Language | English |
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