Today’s Devotion
Topic: When The Enemy Threatens (Part 6)
(Self Assessment 191)
Background:
Last week, we saw that when Hezekiah received the letter containing Sennacherib’s threats, he went into the temple and prayed to God Almighty. Let’s see what happened after Hezekiah prayed to God against the threats of Sennacherib.
Text: Isaiah 37: 21- 35
21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: “The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you. The Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee.
23 Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! 24 By your messengers you have heaped insults on the Lord. And you have said, `With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests.
25 I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’ 26″Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone.27 Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up.
28 “But I know where you stay and when you come and go and how you rage against me. 29 Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came. 30 “This will be the sign for you, O Hezekiah: “This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31 Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. 32 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.33 “Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the LORD. 35″I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!” Amen
Questions:
1. Kindly read verse 21 again. How, in your opinion, does it reveal or confirm God’s desire that we bring everything to Him in prayer? Secondly, why will that be necessary when God already knows everything that we go through?
2. Between verse 23- 25, the Lord revealed that all of Sennacherib’s threats and insults were directly against Him (Jehovah). Why do you think that was so? And what can we learn from this in the way we treat eachother, especially the people of God?
3. In verse 26- 27, the Lord revealed that He ordained all of Sennacherib’s victories from the very beginning. Implying that it was He who permitted and allowed Sennacherib’s conquests for a purpose. The Assyrian king had no reason to even boast, let alone blasphem against the very great God by whose divine providence he had come thus far. What can we learn from this?
4. Kindly read verse 28 again. What does the Lord mean when He says, “But I know where you stay and when you come and go and how you rage against me”?
5. In verse 29, the Lord declared in the prophecy against Sennacherib that He (the Lord) will make Sennacherib return home. It didn’t say what will happen to him when he gets home. Remember, Sennacherib was already on his way home at the time of the prophecy. Do you think he would have seen it as a threat even if he heard it, or he would have thought Hezekiah was just trying to deceive his people? Secondly, how does this reveal that the Word of the Lord is often deeper than it may appear?
6. Kindly explain verse 30- 32.
7. What does it mean to say “the zeal of the Lord shall accomplish a thing”?
8. In verse 33- 34 the Lord assured His people that Sennacherib was neither going to be able to enter the city, nor even shoot an arrow there, because He the Lord will defend it. Yet He still didnt say how. How does this confirm the importance of faith in our walk with the Lord?
9. What have you learnt from today’s Bible study?
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