II KINGS 19-21 OBSERVATIONS

CHAPTER 19
Isaiah Assures Deliverance

· When Hezekiah heard this challenge to God, he:

o tore his clothes

o covered himself with sackcloth

o went into the house of the Lord

§ COMMENT: He humbled himself and headed directly to where he would find God and His people.

§ PRAYER: God help me when people challenge You in my life to make sure to humble myself and then run towards the church and Your body, instead of away from it.

o Sent word to Isaiah

§ This is a day of trouble

§ Pray for the remnant that is left

· Isaiah responded:

o Do not be afraid … of the words you heard

o I will send a spirit on him

o He will hear a rumor

o He will return to Assyria

o He will die by a sword in his own land.

Sennacherib’s Threat and Hezekiah’s Prayer

· Sennacherib get’s distracted with reports that the king of Ethiopia was coming to war against him

· So he sends a letter back to Hezekiah threatening the Hebrews…telling them how could their God save them…none of the gods of the neighboring nations were able to save them, how did Hezekiah think his God could?

· Hezekiah’s response was to

1) Read it

2) Immediately go up to the house of the Lord

3) Spread out the letter before God

4) Prayed

a. 2 Kings 19:15 - 19 (NASB) ¹⁵Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁶“Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. ¹⁷“Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands ¹⁸and 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. ¹⁹“Now, O LORD our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”

b. Basically he says: You are the only real God. Now see and listen to how Sennacherib is reproaching You. Some of what he has said is true…he has devastated other nations and their gods were not able to stand against him…why? Because they were phony gods to start with. But now Lord, save us from him for Your glory!!

· So how did God respond? God sent Isaiah to tell Hezekiah:

1) Because you prayed to Me

2) Against Sennacherib

3) I have heard

4) Here’s My response

a. 2 Kings 19:21 - 28 (NASB) ²¹“This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘She (note what a put down this is to Sennacherib) has despised you and mocked you, The virgin daughter of Zion; She has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem! ²² ‘Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? (Sennacherib…you have reproached the living God…this is a dangerous thing for you to have done!!) And against whom have you raised your voice, And haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! ²³ ‘Through your messengers you have reproached the Lord, And you have said, “With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, To the remotest parts of Lebanon; And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I entered its farthest lodging place, its thickest forest. ²⁴ “I dug wells and drank foreign waters, And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of Egypt.” ²⁵ ‘Have you not heard? (No Sennacherib…it’s not all about you, it’s really all about Me!!) Long ago I did it; From ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps. ²⁶ ‘Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, They were dismayed and put to shame; They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up. ²⁷ ‘But I know your sitting down, And your going out and your coming in, And your raging against Me. ²⁸ ‘Because of your raging against Me, And because your arrogance has come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose, And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back by the way which you came.

b. God actually says that Sennacherib thinks he (she) has done all these things…but she doesn’t know that it is I who have done all this and guess what? I’m going to put a “hook in your nose…a bridle in your lips and I’m going to make you go where I want you to go…I AM GOD, NOT YOU…note: this is a very ‘Calvinistic’ statement.

5) And just so you know, Hezekiah, that I am in control, here’s what I am going to make happen…watch for it.. here’s the signs:

a. You will eat what grows of it’s own self this year

b. Next year you’ll also eat what springs up of it’s own accord as well

c. In the 3^rd year…sow and reap…plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

d. The remnant who has escaped the house of Judah will again take root downward and ear fruit upward.

i. Note this is a prophecy and again…this sounds very Calvinistic in it’s slant.

6) So what does God say about Sennacherib?

a. He will not come to this city

b. He wont’ shoot any arrows here

c. He won’t come with shields here

d. He won’t build a siege mound here

e. He’s going to go back the same way he comes to you.

f. He will (again) not come to this city

7) Why?

a. I (God) will defend this city

b. I will save it

c. Why? For MY sake

d. And for DAVID’s sake

Sennacherib’s Defeat and Death

· An angel of the Lord went into his camp and killed 185,000 soldiers (that’s nearly twice the population of Ventura!)

· When morning came, Sennacherib immediately headed back home…(he must have really lost heart when that many people died!

· When he got back home he went to worship his god

· While doing that, two of his sons came into the temple and killed him

CHAPTER 20

Hezekiah’s Life Extended

· Hezekiah got sick

· He prayed that he would not die and that God would heal and extend his life.

· God answered him and did it because he had a loyal heart to God.

· The sign God gave him was his request that the shadow go backwards 10 degrees (this is the equivalence to 40 mins)

· Isaiah called out to God and God did this because Hezekiah had been loyal to God.

· However…the extended time gave opportunity for him to do a foolish thing..

Hezekiah Shows Babylon His Treasures

· King of Babylon sent envoys to Hezekiah because he had heard he was sick.

· Hezekiah became very attentive to them…and in the process…

· …showed them all the gold, sliver, spices, armory, and all his treasures…in fact ALL that was in the house.

· The Lord then told Isaiah to tell him….because of this…a day is coming when all that you showed them will get carried away into Babylon, including some of your sons whom you will father.

· Hezekiah’s response, however, was very short-sighted…since he felt good that none of this would happen during his lifetime.

· This was very bad thinking, however, on Hezekiah’s part…since he was not showing the proper care for his future generations that a patriarch or king should show, whom God has placed in that kind of authority.

Hezekiah then Dies.

· Hezekiah was remembered for the tunnel he built carrying water from outside the city into the city.

· He died

· ‘Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

CHAPTER 21

Manasseh Reigns in Judah

· 12 years old

· Reigned 55 years in Jerusalem

· Did evil

· God says

1) I am going to bring calamity on Jerusalem

2) I’m going to essentially do the same to Jerusalem that I did to Samaria

a. You would have thought they would have learned from the example of Israel

b. Lesson: He who does not learn from history is doomed to repeat it

3) WHY?

a. BECAUSE: they have done evil in My sight and have provoked Me to anter since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.

Amon’s Reign and Death (642-640 BC)

· 22 years old

· Reigned 2 years

· Did evil