Isaiah chapter 37 and reading
from 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. And he
sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shedna the scribe,
and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, unto
Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. And he said unto him, Thus
saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and
of blasphemy. For the children are come to
the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. It may be the
Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of
Assyria his master had sent to reproach the living God, and
will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard.
Wherefore, lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left. So the servants of King Hezekiah
came to Isaiah, and Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say
unto your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the
words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria
have blasphemed me. Behold, I will send a blast upon
him, and he shall hear a rumour and return to his own land, and
I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. So Rabshakeh
returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libna,
for he had heard that he was departed from Lashish. And he
heard say concerning Terhaka, king of Ethiopia, he has come
forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent
messengers to Hezekiah, saying, Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah,
king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest,
deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand
of the king of Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard what
the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them
utterly. And shalt thou be delivered?
Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers
have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Zezeph, Rezeph, and
the children of Eden, which were in Telassar? Where is the king
of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sirphavaim,
Hena and Eva?' And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the
messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went up unto the
house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. And Hezekiah
prayed unto the Lord, saying, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel,
that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone,
of all the kingdoms of the earth. Thou hast made heaven and earth. Incline thine ear, O Lord, and
hear. Open thine eyes, O Lord, and
see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent
to reproach the living God. of a truth, Lord. The kings of
Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their countries,
and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were no gods,
but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they
have destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God,
save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may
know that thou art the Lord, even thou only. Then Isaiah the
son of Amos sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God
of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib
king of Assyria, this is the word which the Lord hath spoken
concerning him. 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 hast thou reproached
and blasphemed? And against whom hast thou exalted
thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? Even against the
Holy One of Israel? By thy servants hast thou reproached
the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots am I
come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon,
and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice
fir trees thereof, and I will enter into the height of his
border, and the forest of his carmel. I have digged and drunk
water, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the
rivers of the besieged places. Hast thou not heard long ago
how I have done it, and in of ancient times that I have formed
it? Now have I brought it to pass that thou shouldst be to
lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps. Therefore their
inhabitants were of small power. They were dismayed and confounded.
They were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb,
as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it
be grown up. But I know thy abode, and thy
going out, and thy coming in. and thy rage against me. Because
thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore
will I put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and
I will turn thee back by the way which thou camest. And this
shall be a sign unto thee. Ye shall eat this year such as
groweth of itself, and the second year that which springeth of
the same. And in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards,
and eat the fruit thereof. And the remnant that is escaped
of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit
upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go
forth a remnant, and they that escape out of Mount Zion, the
zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this. Therefore thus saith
the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come
into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before
it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he
came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this
city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city,
to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. Then the angel of the Lord went
forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and
fourscore and five thousand. And when they arose early in
the morning, Behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib
king of Assyria departed, and went and returned and dwelt at
Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was
worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Ardrammech Melech
and Shazrezer his sons smote him with the sword, and they
escaped into the land of Armenia. and Esarhaddon, his son, reigned
in his stead. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this rather extended portion of his word. Today we're going to spend some
time considering the actions and specifically the prayer of
Hezekiah, King of Judah and Jerusalem. The prayer that he made upon
receipt of a threatening letter from Sennacherib, King of Assyria. Our time spent thinking about
Sennacherib will be minimal. Our time spent thinking about
Hezekiah will actually as well be rather small because most
of our time will be spent thinking about the Lord to whom Hezekiah
prayed, his characteristics and the faithfulness that Hezekiah
drew upon in the prayer that he offered. And I trust that
this structure to our thoughts today will yield most benefit
to our souls. Let me just say, however, in
introduction regarding Sennacherib, he was a cruel, vile, and idolatrous
man. He was proud of himself, he was
insulting to Hezekiah, and he was contemptuous of God. I said all I need to say about
him, really, in my little note yesterday, which wasn't much,
but I will mention this. Sennacherib is typical of the
temptations and tests of the Lord's people. And this is what
I want us to realise today. Sennacherib is, as it were, a
vehicle to teach us lessons. He's typical of the trials that
the Lord's people face. He's the bully who makes our
life hard. He's the trial that trips us
up. He's the sin that shames us. He's the sickness that racks
our bodies. He's the shadow that darkens
our minds. And throughout the history of
the church and the experience of God's people, individuals
like Sennacherib have been highlighted as the enemies of God's covenant
people. Individuals such as Pharaoh. who imposed slavery upon the
Lord's people, Haman who threatened to slaughter the covenant people,
Balaam who endeavoured to foster disobedience amongst them, Herod
who murdered the infants, and here Sennacherib who surrounded
and besieged and worried the inhabitants of Zion. All these
we may consider to be examples in the context of Satan's efforts
to harm and destroy the line of Christ. They are scourges against the
Lord's elect, troublers of the church of Jesus Christ and enemies
to the people of covenant grace. so that Sennacherib typifies
the fears and the anxieties, the troubles and the trials that
beset God's elect in this world. And when Sennacherib sends his
letters against us, he disturbs and he disquiets our spiritual
peace. just as he did Hezekiah's. He threatens our comfort and
our rest in the Lord, just as he did the people of Jerusalem,
the city of Zion in that day. And in that context, we are like
Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a man of faith. and I hope that we know something
of faith in Jesus Christ. Hezekiah knew he was a sinner. He knew by himself that he was
too weak to withstand the enemy of his kingdom and the enemy
of his soul. Sennacherib troubled the city
of Jerusalem but Sennacherib also troubled Hezekiah in the
depths of his own experience. Hezekiah wasn't a lazy man, he
wasn't a foolish man. Hezekiah indeed had protected
that city to the best of his ability. He had strengthened
its walls. He had ensured a good supply
of water into the city. He prepared the city for siege. He set his house in order as
best he could. but he knew that without the
Lord it was all to no avail. He knew that without the Lord
to defend him, he was lost. And when Sennacherib's threat
reached Hezekiah, the faithful but fearful king
mourned for his sin and the source of all his troubles. Hezekiah
took off his rich, kingly robes, his robes of state, and he humbled
himself in sackcloth before God. He went into the presence of
the Lord to pray. And it's a lovely picture, I
think, that Isaiah the prophet gives us here, as it were, an
example of God at work in a believer's experience. It's a lovely picture. Remember, we're talking about
an event that took place somewhere in the region of 2,500 years ago, 2,600 or 2,700 years
ago, Hezekiah took his fear and his
trouble to the Lord. And I propose to you today that
we follow Hezekiah's example. And we all try to see ourself
in Hezekiah today. that he might lead us by his
example also into the temple, also to spread our concerns before
the Lord. Here are five reasons why bringing
our troubles to the Lord, to spread before him, is a wise
and profitable thing for the Lord's people of every age to
do. and under all circumstances. The first one of these wise reasons
is this. Hezekiah had a hearing, seeing,
living, approachable God. And so do we. The gods of the
nations were wood and stone. They were rubbish. They were futile to worship and
to hope in. They neither heard, nor acted,
nor saw. But we worship the living God,
who is says Hezekiah in verse 16, the Lord of hosts. That means that he is the commander
of the army of heaven. Such is his power, such is his
majesty, such is his glory. Here is a king prostrating himself
in sackcloth before the Lord of hosts. recognising the power,
the dominion, the glory and the majesty of his God. And he is our God too. Hezekiah
continues, he says, not only is this the Lord of hosts, but
he is the God of Israel. And this is such an important
little phrase in the context of Hezekiah's prayer, because
it is stating Hezekiah's belief, his confidence in the covenant
that God had made with his chosen people. God had made a covenant
with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He had made a covenant with David.
He had made these covenants or he spoke of these covenants as
his commitment to deliver the people. Now there was a context,
there was a significance in this as far as obedience was concerned. But all of these covenant promises
looked beyond the immediate obedience of the individual to the obedience
of Christ. and to the accomplishment of
the terms of the everlasting covenant. And therefore, by Hezekiah
declaring that this is the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
he is reminding us that this is a covenant God who is powerful
and who is glorious. Hezekiah goes on and he says
that he dwells between the cherubims. Now what does that mean? Well,
I'll tell you what it means, and it's brilliant. Do you remember
where the cherubims were placed in the tabernacle? Remember when we were going through
the young people's accounts of the building of the tabernacle?
The cherubim stood and overshadowed the mercy seat. So Hezekiah is here saying that
the God to whom he prays dwells between the cherubims, literally
upon the seat of mercy and glory. And so Hezekiah is here calling
upon the mercy of God in his covenant relationship with his
people. he says he is uniquely God holding
dominion over all the kingdoms of the earth and he confesses
that he made heaven and earth. That is he is the all-power powerful
creator and ruler. What a tremendous statement of
faith this is on the part of Hezekiah and this so many years
before the Lord Jesus Christ ever came into the world and
fulfilled and made known the fullness of the revelation of
God. It's a wonderful description
of our sovereign, powerful, merciful God and yet God with us, approachable,
reachable, accessible, a God that Hezekiah knew could be met
and engaged with in the temple. Hezekiah knew where to meet the
Lord. He went to the temple because
it was where the Lord agreed to meet his people. And today
we have no physical building because God meets his people
at the cross of Jesus Christ by faith. And every child of
God is a temple of the Holy Spirit in ourselves. We have a friend
who sticketh closer than a brother and to him we go to be received
and admitted and heard in the very courts of heaven. Brothers
and sisters, the Lord will have us go to Him with our questions,
with our doubts, with our fears, with our requests. The Lord said, ask and it shall
be given. He tells Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter
36, Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do it for them. That is simply
saying this, the Lord will have his people ask for help. He is going to do his people
good. and he will have his people ask
for that good before he does it. That's our first lesson from
Hezekiah, that here we have a hearing, seeing, living, approachable
God. Second lesson that Hezekiah teaches
us is this. The Lord knows what we need even
when we can't explain it ourselves. I think there's something lovely
in the phrase, spread it before the Lord. Hezekiah took this
letter from Sennacherib and he spread it before the Lord. Now, likely that letter was a
scroll of some sort. But there's more to it than that.
Whatever else it may mean, I think it means this. Lord, I'm lost
for words. I don't even know what I should
be asking for here. I just know that this piece of
paper, this matter, this problem, this anxiety has got right inside
my head and my soul and it is getting me down and I need your
help. That's what it means to spread
our problems before the Lord. Sometimes I wonder if the finest
prayer is the one that doesn't get spoken in real words, but
just discharges from our hearts as a groan before the Lord. Paul says in Romans 8, 26, Likewise
the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought. How true that is, we know not
what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit itself
maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. How blessed is our God for the
weakness of his people. I write that little introduction
each week and I include items for prayer in it. And some of
us are sick. And some of us are sad. And some
of us are hard pressed. And some of us aren't quite sure
what the problem is but we just know something isn't right. And
I have no problem personally praying for healing, though I
know we all must die. I have no problem praying for
peace and security and comfort, but I know that a believer's
life is a battle in so many ways. And I confess to being overwhelmed
sometimes with a sense of need for myself and for those around
about me. At times like those, all we can
do is to spread our need before the Lord and leave it there. One of the most comforting Statements
the Lord gave us in the context of prayer is Matthew chapter
6 verse 8. Your father knoweth what things
ye have need of before ye ask him. That doesn't deter us from asking. Indeed it encourages us to ask.
But it reminds us that even when we ask for the wrong thing in
the wrong way, for the wrong reason, the Lord intercedes and
intervenes and works all things together for good for his people. So, we have a hearing, seeing,
living, approachable God. who knows what we need even when
we can't explain it ourselves. And the third thing is this,
we bring our concerns to that Lord who cares for our every
need. 1 Peter 5, verse 7 says, cast
all your cares upon him, for he careth for you. And this injunction
from Peter is straight from his epistle, but it's echoed throughout
scripture. God's love for his covenant people,
the Saviour's care over us, is the great impetus, the moving
cause for all God's dealings with us. God deals with us as
he does because he loves us. and that is something that we
hold to be true. Now we hold that to be true in
our heads. Would God that we could always
apply it as our trials unfold. God never deals with us in anger,
never in wrath, never in judgment, never in a temper. It is always
goodness, gentleness, kindness and love that brings us to and
through the hard times of this life. The grace of God and the
love of the Lord Jesus Christ sweetens our hardest trials. The Father's love upon the Son
the son of his pleasure, is also the portion that flows to the
elect in Christ. And it is true that we carry
with us still this body of sin. And the Lord has yet to rid us
of this body of sin. But soon he will. It must be
sown in weakness that it might be raised in power. It must be
sown in dishonour to be raised in glory. It is this transforming
process that we observe in the mortality of our bodies and the
hardest times of our life. But it is always good for us. When Hezekiah brought his letter
from Sennacherib to the Lord, the Saviour knew that Hezekiah
was one of His dearly beloved children. Hezekiah was justified,
sanctified, reconciled and redeemed by the blood of the cross. Hezekiah
through that atoning act was one with Christ. And though that
atoning act was still to be effected in time, yet the same everlasting,
unconditional, adopting love that brought Christ from heaven,
from glory to Calvary, was settled there that day on the head of
the King of Judah. His forefather, David, had been
beloved of God, and so was Hezekiah, and so are we when we bring our
needs to Christ and spread them before the Lord. And let me add this. Here's our
fourth point. The one who loves us also understands
how and what we feel. He sympathises with our feelings. We have a high priest who is
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Now I really don't
want us to miss this. Our union with Christ is not
simply a forensic, transactional, positional switch around that
is void of feeling. that is empty of sentiment or
empathy or emotion. I do believe that one of the
principal reasons for the passage through this world of the Lord
Jesus Christ as the God-Man was to expose Christ's human soul
to all the feelings that ever his people would feel. Did you
hear what I said? To expose Christ's human soul
to all the feelings that ever his people would feel. All the
hurt, all the regret, all the confusion, all the fear that
we experience, Christ truly, really identifies with us in every experience. Now argue with me if you will,
but this is what I deduce by Christ our High Priest being
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. This is what I understand
by him being in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Who can tell what all was included
in Christ being made sin for us? Who can tell what he encountered
and endured as he fought our battles and descended into hell? We often say the Psalms speak
deeply to our soul and resonate with our feelings during the
most trying periods of our life. Yet are these very Psalms not
the soul-breathings of Jesus? Are they not connected intimately
with our Saviour's own soul-sufferings? Do not ever imagine that the
Saviour doesn't know what you're going through. And should we struggle to express
what we're feeling and can't find the words to describe it,
know this, the Lord is already there and knows exactly what
we're going through. So this is my final thought. Hezekiah took his troubles to
the Lord. because the Lord has strength
to save and power to deliver us from all our need. Hezekiah prayed, O Lord our God,
save us. What a prayer that is. What simplicity
in that little phrase and yet what profound power it contains. Oh Lord our God save us. What beautiful words to grace
a sinner's lips. What blessed sentiments to endear
a needy people to the sovereign God. and urge him to come quickly
in strength and power to heal and to save. Are you the woman with the issue
of blood? Are you Daniel in the lion's
den? Are you Jonah in the whale's
belly? Are you the thief on the cross?
Are you Peter on the Sea of Galilee in the midst of the storm? Lord save me is the cry from
a heart in need and a plea that cannot go unanswered and unmet. Christ says in John 6, 37, All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. We take that so often in
the context of salvation and I say a sound Amen to that. but let us come to the Lord every
day. Let us come to the Lord every
day, in the sure and certain knowledge that as we spread it
before him, he will in no wise cast out. Isaiah says in chapter
55, verse 6, seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye
upon him while he is near. No one ever failed who called
on Christ by faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world to save his people from their sins. Don't tell me
he failed. Don't tell me he fell short.
Don't tell me one of his people shall ever be denied the cry
of help. Jesus Christ went to war for
us. He came and did battle with sin
and with Satan and with death and with hell. He beat all our
greatest foes. He gained victory. He satisfied
the demands of the Holy God and he rose triumphant from the grave. He ascended into glory and he
is seated at the right hand of God on high. I say again, don't
tell me he failed to save his people from their sins. Sin is the source of all our
trouble, all our fear, all our sickness and anxiety and death
itself. But Christ has delivered us from
it all. If Christ saved us from the cause,
he will save us from the symptoms. He will give us grace to endure
to the end and promised glory to follow. The Lord told Jeremiah,
behold. Behold is such a beautiful word.
Look at this. It's a word of exclamation. Look at this. I will save thee
from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity.
And Jacob shall return and be in rest and at ease, and none
shall make him afraid, not even Sennacherib, whoever or whatever
that might be. May the Lord give us grace to
copy Hezekiah and to spread it before the Lord. May the Lord
give us wisdom not to pursue our own way or to fight in our
own strength, but give us faith to come and to ask and to trust
and to rest and to receive and to thank the Lord for so great
deliverance and so great salvation. Amen.