Seize the Moment – Day 1415
The Book of Hezekiah!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, January 31.
Just like Isaiah 6-8 described the historical situation of Isaiah’s prophetic ministry at the time of King Uzziah’s death, so Isaiah 36-39 narrate the crisis of King Hezekiah’s kingship when Assyria invaded Judah. That is why these four chapters are nicknamed, “The Book of Hezekiah;” they are different than the rest of Isaiah. Isaiah 36:1 places you immediately into the drama, “Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.” The parallel accounts of this historical event are found in 2 Kings 18:13-20:19 and 2 Chronicles 32, as you will find connections between these devotions in Isaiah and the ones done on those chapters in the history books.
In Isaiah 36:10, Rabshakeh, the emissary of Sennacherib, delivered a message to Hezekiah, speaking to the men on the wall of Jerusalem in their own language, “Have I now come up without the Lord’s approval against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’” He wasn’t lying! As we have already learned, God did send Assyria against Israel to be “the rod of My anger and the staff in whose hands is My indignation” (Isaiah 10:5), but in his greed and pride, Sennacherib reached too far – God did not intend for Assyria to take Jerusalem from His people; it was not yet the appointed time for the destruction of Jerusalem, which wouldn’t come for another 125 years at the hands of Babylon. God had placed a godly king, Hezekiah, on the seat of David. The defenders of Jerusalem did not allow themselves to be intimated; rather, they went to Hezekiah to report to him the words of the emissary (21-22). Together, the leaders sought God’s guidance (see Isaiah 37).
Seize the moment and seek God for the courage you need to stand up against evil (James 4:7).
God bless you!
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YOUTUBE:
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