What You Need to Know About Daily Devotions

THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2022

TEXT: 2 Kings 19:1-13

1. As soon as Hezekiah heard the news, he tore off his clothes in sorrow and put on sackcloth. Then he went into the temple of the LORD.

2. He told Prime Minister Eliakim, Assistant Prime Minister Shebna, and the senior priests to dress in sackcloth and tell the prophet Isaiah:

3. These are difficult and disgraceful times. Our nation is like a woman too weak to give birth, when it’s time for her baby to be born.

4. Please pray for those of us who are left alive. The king of Assyria sent his army commander to insult the living God. Perhaps the LORD heard what he said and will do something, if you will pray.

5. When these leaders went to Isaiah,

6. he told them that the LORD had this message for Hezekiah: I am the LORD. Won’t worry about the insulting things that have been said about me by these messengers from the king of Assyria.

7. I will upset him with rumors about what’s happening in his own country. He will go back, and there I will make him die a violent death.

8. Meanwhile, the commander of the Assyria forces heard that his king had left the town of Lachish and was now attacking Libnah. So he went there.

9. About this same time the king of Assyria leaned that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was on his way to attack him. Then the king of Assyria sent some messengers with this note for Hezekiah:

10. Don’t trust your God or be fooled by his promise to defend Jerusalem against me.

11. You have heard how we Assyrian kings have completely wiped out other nations. What makes you feel so safe?

12. The Assyrian kings before me destroyed the towns of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and everyone from Eden who lived in Telasar. What good did their gods do them?

13. The kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah have all disappeared.

(Contemporary English Version Holy Bible)

TOPIC: HEZEKIAH SOUGHT HELP FROM THE LORD (I)

King Hezekiah interpreted the condition of his nation correctly which enabled him seek the right solution from the right source. He described the situation as “a day of rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength” and that the king of Assyria had sent a messenger “to ridicule the living God” (vs. 3-4).

Although Hezekiah recognized their helplessness as human beings against the Assyrians, he knew without any doubt that the Lord is the solution. After all, the Assyrian king had clearly shown that he wanted to demonstrate that the Lord was as impotent as other nation’s god!

God honored Hezekiah’s faith as he answered Isaiah’s prayers and declared that He “will have him [king Sennacherib] cut down with the sword” (v. 7). God has never abandoned His children, irrespective of their difficulties, even when His response is not as we desire.

QUESTION: When difficulties and crisis come, where do you run to for help?

PRAYER: Take a few minutes to consider what difficulty you are facing right now. Talk to God about it and watch Him respond.