The Divine Solution: Turn and Trust. 2 Kings 19:1-4

 

The start of the divine solution is to turn to God and to trust in Him. As we look at chapters nineteen and twenty which cover the final stage and years of Hezekiah’s reign there are two things we have to go over before we really understand the writer of Scripture is putting these things together for us. We have a tendency as westerners, because of how we read books and write history, which is primarily out of A Greek or Roman background, to try to take that approach and apply it to Scripture. The writers of Scripture, while they are writing true facts of history, often do not organize those facts in a historical order but they organize them in a way to express certain theologically defined agendas. There is a sort of divine editor here who is making some specific points in relationship to the spiritual life of Israel in the Old Testament. So we need to take a little time to structure this chronologically so that we can understand what is actually going on.

The Jews knew the horrors that would come if they surrendered to Sennacherib. We have focused on the strategy that really underlies this whole approach of the three leaders of the Assyrians. It is not an unusual strategy in history, it is the challenge of the authority and the veracity and the reality of God’s ability to provide and protect us. It is essentially a challenge of even the existence of God because they were cynics, they understood that the gods that they worshipped were probably nothing more than wood and stone and metal, and these were men who were not religious in the normative sense of the word but were brutal in their desire to expand their empires, were dominated by power lust and the desire to control the ancient world. The strategy that they used was to try to remove the spiritual barriers that the Jews would erect in order to refute them.

Their approach was the same strategy that Satan used in the Garden of Eden with Eve by asking her a loaded question: Did God really say that you can’t eat from all the trees in the garden? It was a loaded question because if it is going to be answered it can only be answered by putting yourself in a position to judge God—the creature puts himself in a position to judge and evaluate the thinking of the creator who had made everything and defined everything. But Eve just walked right into that trap like most of us do all the time, and we immediately jump in without any thought, begin to answer the question and validate the presupposition that is behind the question.

In this question we see that Hezekiah prevents that from happening by telling his representatives to not say anything. That represents a lot of wisdom on Hezekiah’s part. He understands principles that we see demonstrated in Scripture in various passages. Such as Proverbs 26:4 NASB “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Or you will also be like him.” The idea here is that when  someone who is operating on a human viewpoint approach to reality then if you answer them according to their assumptions, if you validate their assumptions, then you’ve really lost the battle and are just going to be like them. You are both arguing from either independent experience or independent reason rather than answering according to what God has said. So we have to be very careful how we answer questions, objections and challenges to God’s Word, that we don’t validate or get walked into a trap by validating a contrary or contradictory way of thinking. The New Testament states the same thing. Paul, writing to Timothy says, “Avoid foolish and ignorant disputes.” Just because somebody raises certain objections or questions doesn’t mean we need to answer them. We need to stop, think and evaluate the best strategy to answer them from the framework of biblical truth. Remember the fool is defined in Scripture as the one who has said in his heart [thinking] there is no God. In the way he thinks he operates as if there is no God. Proverbs also says that there is a way that seems right to man but the end thereof is death.

There is a way that almost every single religion comes up with that seems to make sense to people. That is, that you can do certain things to gain God’s approval and blessing. But throughout the Scriptures it is emphasized that the only way to God is to just trust in Him, that it is on the basis of faith. It is in faith alone that we are justified. Abraham in Genesis 15:6 said that his faith was reckoned him as righteousness, that he was justified by faith alone, not by what he did but by trusting God’s promise. In contrast the fool says there is no God. He operates on the presupposition that there is nothing more real than his own experience and his own reason. That is where the Assyrians are as they present this challenge to Judah. Hezekiah has instructed them not to answer.

This kind of thing can happen  to us in many different ways and it is almost associated with the same kind of circumstance that we find here, i.e. some sort of problem or challenge in life. Some of our challenges are small, just the every day challenges of trying to decide when faced with a set of circumstances, am I going to do what I know to be right by trusting in God, trusting in His Word, or am I going to try to handle this situation on my own resources. Any time that we are faced with a set of circumstances where we have to make that kind of choice that is what is meant by a problem. It is more of an academic use of the word “problem.” We are faced with a decision that we have to make, we have to work our way through that decision and make our choice as to whether we are going to resolve it one way or the other. This is why we call certain spiritual skills problem-solving devices. It is not that we are faced with something that is big and huge, many times it is something small but it means we have to choose—divine viewpoint or human viewpoint.

In this circumstances the southern kingdom of Judah is faced with a major challenge as they are faced with extermination by the army of Assyria. How does Hezekiah respond? We see this in 2 Kings 19:1 NASB “And when King Hezekiah heard {it,} he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the LORD.” This is the starting point of how Hezekiah is going to solve this problem.

Before we can get into this we have to stop and go back and do a little fly-over on chapters 18, 19 & 20 to understand the chronology. Once we understand the chronology some things are going to be more apparent to us. What do we know for sure? In 2 Kings 18 we see that when Hezekiah began to reign in Judah he was a king whose heart was completely devoted to the Lord. God’s assessment of Hezekiah is that he is the greatest king in the southern kingdom of Judah. There was no king in Judah who was more consistent in his trust in God than Hezekiah, but that doesn’t mean that Hezekiah doesn’t have his failures. We see at the beginning of his reign when he is actually co-regent with his father Ahaz that Hezekiah began to cleanse the temple, to restore the priesthood, and he began to take the people of the southern kingdom back to the truth of God’s Word and to move the nation back to a position of obedience to God. So the first part of his reign, probably a period of about ten years when  he was a co-regent with Ahaz, that the northern kingdom of Israel was defeated and deportations began into other parts of the Assyrian empire. This occurred in 722 BC. Six years later, in 715 BC, Hezekiah began his sole reign.

But as happens in many of our spiritual lives as time goes by we begin to trust the Lord less and less, we get our eyes off of the Word and on to the details of life, and we see a problem in our spiritual life. By 701—which we know is when Sennacherib invades into the Levant again and conquers the Philistines and some of the other people in the area—we have the assault on Jerusalem. Hezekiah has quit trusting God. As the threat from Assyrian appears on the Horizon he looks to his own resources rather than God’s resources.

This is a major problem that we have today in America. We face various threats—external threats from external enemies who seeks to destroy us and destroy the west, who hate anyone who is associated with Israel, anyone who is standing for freedom, and they seek to do anything and everything they can to create chaos. There are things we can do in terms of technology and military strategy to strengthen our position but the answer ultimately isn’t military or in technology; ultimately the answer now as then is a spiritual answer. There are also problems that we face domestically from various groups within the nation that seek to attack and destroy our freedoms and the integrity of this nation, and seek to destroy the integrity of our legal system as founded upon the Constitution. Again, the solution isn’t in politics. It is important for every person who is a citizen of the United States to be knowledgeable about what is going on, to be involved in what is going on and to be as active as possible in the process. But what happens again and again and again is that all of a sudden the hope goes to politics. It shifts from God and we think that if we just had this man as president everything would be solved, or if we just changed the make-up of the Congress. Congress is just a representation of the people. The real hope for this nation or for any nation ultimately comes back to that relationship to God, and this is exactly what we see in 2 Kings chapter nineteen.

When Hezekiah and the people get away from God then the nation is threatened, but when they turn back to God they are then protected. That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t strengthen the military, that they shouldn’t fortify the cities, or be engaged in any of the other things that a nation should do in order to protect itself. But that is not the ultimate solution. The same thing is true in our lives. There are many things that we can do in our own lives in order to give some measure of stability and happiness, but that is not the ultimate source of happiness or stability. If we do not have our lives basically governed by the use of what we refer to as the ten problem-solving devices, these basic spiritual skills, then no matter what else we do it is not going to bring us to a position of stability, happiness, peace and hope. So we see this tension here. Do we trust in ourselves and our own resources or do we trust in God? 

Initially what happens is that Hezekiah is no longer dependent upon God, he quits trusting God. Where as before he has refused to pay the tribute to Sennacherib and now that there is going to be a negative reaction to that his courage isn’t quite what it had been because his faith isn’t what it had been. So when Assyria heads south and Sennacherib assesses him with a tribute of 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold (equivalent to eleven tons of silver and a ton of gold), a huge amount of money in that day based on their economy, Hezekiah has an option. It is not do I give him the money or not? The problem is, do I trust God or not? It always comes down to that. Rather than trusting God he decides to handle the situation himself and he empties the treasuries of gold and silver to pay off Sennacherib. 2 Kings 18:15 NASB “Hezekiah gave {him} all the silver which was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasuries of the king’s house.” This is at the beginning of Sennacherib’s invasion of the land, early 701, and Hezekiah is in rebellion against God. Sennacherib sends his three henchmen to propagandize and intimidate Jerusalem. They have their meeting and the representatives from Hezekiah come back give the report to him and Hezekiah, we are told at the beginning of chapter nineteen, humbles himself before God and calls upon Him in prayer.

But chronologically there are several things that happen in between. As we go through chapter nineteen what we see in vv. 1-7 is the description of Hezekiah humbling himself before God, going to the temple, sending his representatives to Isaiah to seek the guidance of God’s Word as it comes through the prophet, and then there is a promise from God given through Isaiah in verse 6: “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. [7] “Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.” So this is the first promise that we see in the order of Scripture that God is going to give them victory and that Sennacherib is going to leave. This is followed by a second return of the Rabshakeh in the hope that Hezekiah will hurry up and surrender so that he can put all of his attention on the Egyptians coming up from the south. Then we have Hezekiah’s second prayer, 2 Kings 19:16 NASB “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.” So Hezekiah is defining the real issue in terms of the character and the integrity of God. That is what is at stake. These pagans had come along and said that God couldn’t protect Judah, He can’t exist, and therefore Hezekiah is saying to God, You have to stand up for your integrity.

Then there is a second answer from God, given to Isaiah, 2 Kings 19:20 NASB “Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard {you.}’” Prayer changes things. He concludes with a promise, and this is going to be the second promise that God gives to Hezekiah—second in the order in which we are reading in the text, but actually it is the third promise. 2 Kings 19:32 NASB “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. [33] By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,’ declares the LORD. [34] For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake [an allusion to the Davidic covenant].’” He protects Jerusalem because of His plan and purposes and because of His integrity, not because of Hezekiah’s piety or what he did; He does it for His own sake. God does not deal with us on the basis of who and what we are but on the basis of His character.   

Then we are told about the defeat of Sennacherib in vv. 35-37 where the angel of the Lord comes and during the night slaughters 185,000 Assyrians. Sennacherib has already left after getting wind of a rumor and he is headed home. His army is destroyed after he left by God. This is reminiscent of the plagues of Egypt and how God delivered Israel during that time. It was a tremendous miracle. But there are going to be consequences for Sennacherib and some twenty years later he will be assassinated by two of his sons.

When we come to chapter twenty it seems from the way we read Scripture that it comes after chapter nineteen. But the reality is that chapter twenty comes before chapter nineteen. Chapter twenty fills in some blanks that we didn’t know about in chapter nineteen. There apparent problem: 2 Kings 20:5 NASB “Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD.” God answers the prayer of Hezekiah. Hezekiah is desperately ill; he is under the sin unto death. He has disobeyed God and this occurs before the events of chapter eighteen, verse 17. He is in carnality and God strikes him with this illness and tells him that he is going to die. Notice in the answer to prayer the emphasis on David. God is going to be faithful to His promise to David, to keep one of David’s seed in Jerusalem. [6] “I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.” This event has to have taken place before the defeat of the Assyrian army in verse 35. This is the first promise and it comes to Hezekiah when he is under the sin unto death for his refusal to trust God when the Assyrian problem first generates back in chapter eighteen, between vv. 16 & 17. That is the first hint of this problem.

So Hezekiah is under the sin unto death, he turns back to God and God promises to lift the penalty of the sin unto death and give him another fifteen years, and He also says He will deliver the city from the king of Assyria and defend it for His own sake and the sake of His servant David. Note the similarity of that language with 19:34. This is actually the first promise that God made. Then when  Hezekiah sends his team out to listen to the propaganda of the Rabshakeh and they return to Hezekiah, Hezekiah tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth and goes to the temple, this is his response of faith and trust. He is executing the faith-rest drill, trusting in a promise that has already been given, and that is this promise from 20:6.

If we go on in chapter twenty there is one other episode that is covered. In verse 12 we are told about another situation that occurs at approximately the same time. 2 Kings 20:12 NASB “At that time Berodach-baladan a son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick.” That tells us that first Hezekiah is sick and then Merodach-baladan is going to come and visit. 2 Kings20:13 NASB “Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and the house of his armor and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.” What do we learn here? In 18:15 Hezekiah gave the king of Assyria all of the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and the treasuries of the king’s house. That means that this episode in 20:12-19 had to happen before 18:15, before Hezekiah gives all the silver and gold to Sennacherib. If the event at the end of chapter twenty occurs before that then the sickness had to have occurred before that. So there is a chronological conundrum that has driven people nuts over the years but the best solution is that chapternineteen chronologically occurs in the time period of chapter eighteen when Hezekiah is going to turn back to the Lord.

2 Kings 19:1 NASB “And when King Hezekiah heard {it,} he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the LORD.” So at this point he is turning to God and is following the proper procedure that we see in Scripture. This begins with confession of sin, which is also described in Scripture as humbling ourselves before God—an expression for the believer submitting to the authority of God. In submitting to the authority of God when we come into His presence we have to first of all acknowledge our sins. To illustrate: Psalm 32:5 is David’s confession after the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the conspiracy to kill Uriah. NASB “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.” To confess means to acknowledge or to admit what we have done. Remorse is not part of the semantic meaning of confession. It might be there but that is not what it means to confess; it means to admit wrongdoing. It is a legal concept. Psalm 51:3 NASB “For I know [acknowledge] my transgressions…” That is what confession is. Then God forgives is. Psalm 103:12 NASB “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

There is another concept that goes with this and that is the one alluded to by “humbling ourselves before God.” This is the word that is used in a very well known passage in 2 Chronicles 7:14. In the chapter preceding this we have the dedicatory prayer of Solomon when he dedicated the temple. It is interesting prayer because in it he goes to God and says basically, These people are really going to screw up. At some point they are going to turn to idols, defame the sanctuary, and they are going to be removed from the land. But Solomon asks in his prayer that when they do this, when they have disobeyed the Lord and have been removed from the land, that when they turn back to the Lord that He will restore them to the land. He is basing this prayer on the promise of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28-30 where God foretold that at some point Israel would disobey God and be removed from the land. But God also said that they would turn back to Him and that when they did He would restore them to the land. Solomon is his prayer is simply calling upon God to do what he said he would do in those passages. In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God answers his prayer. NASB “and My people [always refers to the Jews] who are called by My name [only Israel] humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn [shub] from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” This verse can only be interpreted in relation to Israel and can only be applied to Israel. 2 Chronicles 6 & 7 has to do with the land.       

Hezekiah’s thinking in 2 Kings 19:1 is to apply this principle: humble ourselves (submit to God’s authority) and turn back to Him. Hezekiah is going to lead the way and then maybe God will deliver them from Sennacherib. This is the point. He understands the right procedure.  

2 Kings 19:2 NASB “Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.” They have to demonstrate their humility also to Isaiah. In terms of application today he is going to confess his sin and then turn to the Word of God to see what God has to say to him so that he can apply the Word in his own life. [3] “They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and rejection; for children have come to birth and there is no strength to {deliver.}” In other words, we are at the point of deliverance but there is no way we can deliver ourselves. [4] “Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.” They are putting the issue in the prayer in terms of God’s character.

When we see effective praying in the Scripture it is because the one who is praying is stating a case which demonstrates that it is the character and integrity of God that is at stake. They argue from promises and make a case to God why He should answer the prayer the way they want Him to: If you don’t answer prayer, if you don’t deliver us, then your reputation is no better than any other god in the ancient world.

What are they doing? They are going back to the very promises of God and calling upon Him to fulfill the promises he has made because His reputation is at stake. This is the same way that Hezekiah will frame the next prayer where the issue is reproach to God.

2 Kings 19:6 NASB “Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. [7] Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.” He is going to hear a rumor that there is a coup in process back home and so he leaves.

What is the solution to the problem? First of all, the solution is to turn to God. We do that through humbling ourselves, putting ourselves under the authority of God, confessing sin and focusing on His Word. The second component is then to trust His Word and to rely upon His Word, and to then relax and let God solve the problem and not try to do it in the energy of our own flesh or our own abilities. This is exactly what is demonstrated at the cross. God solves the problem of sin at the cross by putting the penalty completely and totally on Jesus Christ. So that is faith we trust Him and Him alone and then relax, not trying to gain the favor and merit of God by doing good deeds on our own. That doesn’t mean that there is not a role and a place for obedience and good deeds. For as Paul says in Ephesians 2:10 NASB “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” But the works come as a result of our spiritual life and spiritual growth, not to gain the merit and favor of God.

Illustrations