Bible Lesson: Answered Prayer:
Hezekiah Sought Help From The
Lord.
Subject Of Prayer: Hezekiah
Prays For Deliverance From Sennacherib.
Bible Text:
II Kings 19:1-37 NLT
1 When King Hezekiah heard their
report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the
Temple of the Lord.
2 And he sent Eliakim the palace
administrator, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests,
all dressed in burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
3 They told him, “This is what
King Hezekiah says: Today is a day of trouble, insults, and disgrace.
It is like when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no
strength to deliver the baby.
4 But perhaps The Lord your God has
heard the Assyrian chief of staff, sent by the king to defy
The Living God, and will punish him
for his words. Oh, pray for those of us who are left!”
5 After King Hezekiah’s officials
delivered the king’s message to Isaiah,
6 the prophet replied, “Say to
your master, ‘This is what The Lord says: Do not be disturbed by
this blasphemous speech against Me from the Assyrian king’s
messengers.
7 Listen! I Myself will move against
him, and the king will receive a message that he is needed at home.
So he will return to his land, where I will have him killed with a
sword.’”
8 Meanwhile, the Assyrian chief of
staff left Jerusalem and went to consult the king of Assyria, who had
left Lachish and was attacking Libnah.
9 Soon afterward King Sennacherib
received word that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was leading an army to
fight against him. Before leaving to meet the attack, he sent
messengers back to Hezekiah in Jerusalem with this message:
10 “This message is for King
Hezekiah of Judah. Don’t let your God, in whom you trust, deceive
you with promises that Jerusalem will not be captured by the king of
Assyria.
11 You know perfectly well what the
kings of Assyria have done wherever they have gone. They have
completely destroyed everyone who stood in their way! Why should you
be any different?
12 Have the gods of other nations
rescued them—such nations as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people
of Eden who were in Tel-assar? My predecessors destroyed them all!
13 What happened to the king of
Hamath and the king of Arpad? What happened to the kings of
Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”
14 After Hezekiah received the
letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to The Lord’s
Temple and spread it out before The Lord.
15 And Hezekiah prayed this prayer
before The Lord: “O Lord, God of Israel, you are enthroned between
the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the
earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth.
16 Bend down, O Lord, and listen!
Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of
defiance against the living God.
17 “It is true, Lord, that the
kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations.
18 And they have thrown the gods of
these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the
Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all—only idols
of wood and stone shaped by human hands.
19 Now, O Lord our God, rescue us
from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you
alone, O Lord, are God.”
Isaiah
Prophecies of Judah’s Deliverance
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this
message to Hezekiah: “This is what The Lord, The God Of Israel,
says: I have heard your prayer about King Sennacherib of Assyria.
21 And The Lord has spoken this word
against him: “The virgin daughter of Zion despises you and laughs
at you. The daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head in derision as you
flee.
22 “Whom have you been defying and
ridiculing? Against whom did you raise your voice? At whom did you
look with such haughty eyes? It was The Holy One Of Israel!
23 By your messengers you have
defied The Lord. You have said, ‘With my many chariots I have
conquered the highest mountains— yes, the remotest peaks of
Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars and its finest cypress
trees. I have reached its farthest corners and explored its deepest
forests.
24 I have dug wells in many foreign
lands and refreshed myself with their water. With the sole of my foot
I stopped up all the rivers of Egypt!’
25 “But have you not heard? I
decided this long ago. Long ago I planned it, and now I am making it
happen. I planned for you to crush fortified cities into heaps of
rubble.
26 That is why their people have so
little power and are so frightened and confused. They are as weak as
grass, as easily trampled as tender green shoots. They are like grass
sprouting on a housetop, scorched before it can grow lush and tall.
27 “But I know you well— where
you stay and when you come and go. I know the way you have raged
against Me.
28 And because of your raging
against Me and your arrogance, which I have heard for Myself, I will
put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth. I will make you
return by the same road on which you came.”
29 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah,
“Here is the proof that what I say is true: “This year you will
eat only what grows up by itself, and next year you will eat what
springs up from that. But in the third year you will plant crops and
harvest them; you will tend vineyards and eat their fruit.
30 And you who are left in Judah,
who have escaped the ravages of the siege, will put roots down in
your own soil and will grow up and flourish.
31 For a remnant of My people will
spread out from Jerusalem, a group of survivors from Mount Zion.
The passionate commitment of The
Lord Of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!
32 “And this is what The Lord
says about the king of Assyria: “His armies will not enter
Jerusalem. They will not even shoot an arrow at it. They will not
march outside its gates with their shields nor build banks of earth
against its walls.
33 The king will return to his
own country by the same road on which he came.
He will not enter this city, says
The Lord.
34 For My own honor and for
the sake of My servant David, I will defend this city and protect
it.”
35 That night The Angel Of The Lord
went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers.
When the surviving Assyrians woke up the next morning, they found
corpses everywhere.
36 Then King Sennacherib of Assyria
broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital
of Nineveh and stayed there.
37 One day while he was worshiping
in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and
Sharezer killed him with their swords. They then escaped to the land
of Ararat, and another son, Esarhaddon, became the next king of
Assyria.
Hezekiah:
II Kings
18:3,5-7 NLT
3 (King Hezekiah) He did what was
pleasing in The Lord’s sight, just as his ancestor David had done.
5 Hezekiah trusted in The Lord, The
God Of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of
Judah, either before or after his time.
6 He remained faithful to The Lord
in everything, and he carefully obeyed all the commands The Lord had
given Moses.
7 So The Lord was with him, and
Hezekiah was successful in everything he did.
Why had Assyria
come to siege Jerusalem?
II Kings 18:7
NLT
"... He (
King Hezekiah) revolted against the king of Assyria and
refused to pay him tribute.
Israel had already
fallen to the Assyrians...
II Kings 18:11
NLT
"...the king of Assyria exiled
the Israelites to Assyria..."
Why had Israel
fallen?
II Kings 18:12
NLT
For they refused to listen to The
Lord their God and obey Him. Instead, they violated His covenant—all
the laws that Moses The Lord’s servant had commanded them to obey.
Now King
Sennacherib and his mighty army had invaded Judah. Sennacherib
exacted tribute money from Hezekiah...
II Kings 18:14
NLT
"...The king of Assyria then
demanded a settlement of more than eleven tons of silver and one ton
of gold."
But even that was
not enough...
King Sennacherib
Threatened Jerusalem
II Kings
18:19-37 NLT
19 Then the Assyrian king’s chief
of staff told them to give this message to Hezekiah: “This is what
the great king of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that makes
you so confident?
20 Do you think that mere words can
substitute for military skill and strength? Who are you counting on,
that you have rebelled against me?
21 On Egypt? If you lean on Egypt,
it will be like a reed that splinters beneath your weight and pierces
your hand. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is completely unreliable!
22 “But perhaps you will say to
me, ‘We are trusting in The Lord our God!’ But isn’t He the one
who was insulted by Hezekiah? Didn’t Hezekiah tear down His shrines
and altars and make everyone in Judah and Jerusalem worship only at
the altar here in Jerusalem?
23 “I’ll tell you what! Strike a
bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you 2,000
horses if you can find that many men to ride on them!
24 With your tiny army, how can you
think of challenging even the weakest contingent of my master’s
troops, even with the help of Egypt’s chariots and charioteers?
25 What’s more, do you think we
have invaded your land without The Lord’s direction? The Lord
Himself told us, ‘Attack this land and destroy it!’”
26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah,
Shebna, and Joah said to the Assyrian chief of staff, “Please speak
to us in Aramaic, for we understand it well. Don’t speak in Hebrew,
for the people on the wall will hear.”
27 But Sennacherib’s chief of
staff replied, “Do you think my master sent this message only to
you and your master? He wants all the people to hear it, for when
we put this city under siege, they will suffer along with you.
They will be so hungry and thirsty that they will eat their own dung
and drink their own urine.”
28 Then the chief of staff stood and
shouted in Hebrew to the people on the wall, “Listen to this
message from the great king of Assyria!
29 This is what the king says: Don’t
let Hezekiah deceive you. He will never be able to rescue you from my
power.
30 Don’t let him fool you into
trusting in The Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will surely rescue us.
This city will never fall into the hands of the Assyrian king!’
31 “Don’t listen to Hezekiah!
These are the terms the king of Assyria is offering: Make peace with
me—open the gates and come out. Then each of you can
continue eating from your own grapevine and fig tree and drinking
from your own well.
32 Then I will arrange to take
you to another land (Captivity,
as they did to Israel.) like this one—a land of grain and
new wine, bread and vineyards, olive groves and honey. Choose life
instead of death “Don’t listen to Hezekiah when he tries to
mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us!’
33 Have the gods of any other
nations ever saved their people from the king of Assyria?
34 What happened to the gods of
Hamath and Arpad? And what about the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and
Ivvah? Did any god rescue Samaria from my power?
35 What god of any nation has ever
been able to save its people from my power? So what makes you think
that The Lord can rescue Jerusalem from me?”
36 But the people were silent and
did not utter a word because Hezekiah had commanded them, “Do not
answer him.”
37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the
palace administrator; Shebna the court secretary; and Joah son of
Asaph, the royal historian, went back to Hezekiah. They tore their
clothes in despair, and they went in to see the king and told him
what the Assyrian chief of staff had said.
King Hezekiah
having heard the news, went up into the temple to pray.
1 When King Hezekiah heard their
report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the
Temple of The Lord.
14 After Hezekiah received the
letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to The Lord’s
Temple and spread it out before The Lord.
15 And Hezekiah prayed this prayer
before The Lord: “O Lord, God of Israel, you are enthroned between
the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the
earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth.
16 Bend down, O Lord, and listen!
Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of
defiance against The Living God.
17 “It is true, Lord, that the
kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations.
18 And they have thrown the gods of
these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the
Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all—only idols
of wood and stone shaped by human hands.
19 Now, O Lord our God, rescue us
from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you
alone, O Lord, are God.”
Isaiah
Prophecies of Judah’s Deliverance
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this
message to Hezekiah: “This is what The Lord, The God Of Israel,
says: I have heard your prayer about King Sennacherib of Assyria.
21 And The Lord has spoken this word
against him: “The virgin daughter of Zion despises you and laughs
at you. The daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head in derision as you
flee.
22 “Whom have you been defying and
ridiculing? Against whom did you raise your voice? At whom did you
look with such haughty eyes? It was The Holy One Of Israel!
23 By your messengers you have
defied The Lord. You have said, ‘With my many chariots I have
conquered the highest mountains— yes, the remotest peaks of
Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars and its finest cypress
trees. I have reached its farthest corners and explored its deepest
forests.
24 I have dug wells in many foreign
lands and refreshed myself with their water. With the sole of my foot
I stopped up all the rivers of Egypt!’
25 “But have you not heard? I
decided this long ago. Long ago I planned it, and now I am making it
happen. I planned for you to crush fortified cities into heaps of
rubble.
26 That is why their people have so
little power and are so frightened and confused. They are as weak as
grass, as easily trampled as tender green shoots. They are like grass
sprouting on a housetop, scorched before it can grow lush and tall.
27 “But I know you well— where
you stay and when you come and go. I know the way you have raged
against Me.
28 And because of your raging
against Me and your arrogance, which I have heard for Myself, I will
put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth. I will make you
return by the same road on which you came.”
29 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah,
“Here is the proof that what I say is true: “This year you will
eat only what grows up by itself, and next year you will eat what
springs up from that. But in the third year you will plant crops and
harvest them; you will tend vineyards and eat their fruit.
30 And you who are left in Judah,
who have escaped the ravages of the siege, will put roots down in
your own soil and will grow up and flourish.
31 For a remnant of My people will
spread out from Jerusalem, a group of survivors from Mount Zion.
The passionate commitment of The
Lord Of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!
32 “And this is what The Lord
says about the king of Assyria: “His armies will not enter
Jerusalem. They will not even shoot an arrow at it. They will not
march outside its gates with their shields nor build banks of earth
against its walls.
33 The king will return to his
own country by the same road on which he came.
He will not enter this city, says
The Lord.
34 For My own honor and for
the sake of My servant David, I will defend this city and protect
it.”
35 That night The Angel Of The Lord
went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers.
When the surviving Assyrians woke up the next morning, they found
corpses everywhere.
36 Then King Sennacherib of Assyria
broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital
of Nineveh and stayed there.
37 One day while he was worshiping
in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and
Sharezer killed him with their swords. They then escaped to the land
of Ararat, and another son, Esarhaddon, became the next king of
Assyria.
God answered King
Hezekiah's prayer!
A good question
today is, will God keep Jerusalem? And of course the answer is a
resounding, YES!
II Kings 18:34 KJV
For My own honor and for the
sake of My servant David, I will defend this city and protect it.
Now a most
important question, will God answer your prayer? If like King
Hezekiah, you are serving
The Lord, with all
your heart and soul, the answer is, yes! Trust Him, He sees and He
knows.
Matthew
7:7,8 KJV
7 Ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh
receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it
shall be opened.
DOES GOD ANSWER
PRAYER?
Joshua 10:14 KJV
And there was
no day like that before it or after it, that The Lord hearkened unto
the voice of a man: for The Lord fought for Israel.
Nehemiah 9:27
KJV
in the time of
their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them
I Chronicles
16:11 KJV
Seek The Lord
and His strength, seek His face continually.
Nehemiah 9:27
KJV
in the time of
their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them
Job 22:27 KJV
Thou shalt make
thy prayer unto Him, and He shall hear thee..."
Psalm 6:9 KJV
The Lord hath
heard my supplication; The Lord will receive my prayer.
Psalm 55:17 KJV
Evening, and
morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear
my voice.
Psalm 65:2 KJV
O thou that
hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.
Psalm 66:19 KJV
But verily God
hath heard me; He hath attended to the voice of my prayer.
Psalm 88:1,2 KJV
1 O lord God of
my Salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:
2 Let my prayer
come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;
Psalm 91:15 KJV
He shall call
upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will
deliver him, and honor him.
Psalm 99:6,8 KJV
6 "...they
called upon the Lord, and he answered them.
8 Thou
answeredst them, O Lord our God: thou wast a God that forgavest
them..."
Psalm 102:17 KJV
He will regard
the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.
Psalm 122:6 KJV
Pray for the
peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
Proverbs 15:8,29
KJV
8 The sacrifice
of the wicked is an abomination to The Lord: but the prayer of the
upright is His delight.
29 The Lord is
far from the wicked: but He heareth the prayer of the righteous.
Isaiah 38:5 KJV
“...I have
heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears...”
Isaiah 56:7 KJV
"... for
Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
Isaiah 58:9 KJV
Then shalt thou
call, and The Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say,
Here I am...:"
Isaiah 65;24 KJV
And it shall
come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they
are yet speaking, I will hear.
Jeremiah 29:13
KJV
And ye shall
seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your
heart.
Jeremiah 33:3
KJV
Call unto Me,
and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which
thou knowest not.
Zechariah 13:9
KJV
And I will
bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver
is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on My
name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is My people: and they
shall say, The Lord is my God.
Joel 2:32 KJV
And it shall
come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of The Lord shall
be delivered..."
Matthew 5:44 KJV
But I say unto
you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and
persecute you;
Matthew 6:6 KJV
But thou, when
thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy
door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which
seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Matthew 7:7,8
KJV
7 Ask, and it
shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened unto you:
8 For every one
that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that
knocketh it shall be opened.
Matthew 18:19,20
KJV
19 Again I say
unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any
thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father
which is in heaven.
20 For where
two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the
midst of them.
Matthew 21:22
KJV
And all things,
whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
Matthew 26:41
KJV
Watch and pray,
that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but
the flesh is weak.
Mark 11:24,25
KJV
24 Therefore I
say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe
that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
25 And when ye
stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your
Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
Luke 11:9,10 KJV
9 And I say
unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
10 For every
one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him
that knocketh it shall be opened.
Luke 18:1,7,8
KJV
1 And He spake
a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and
not to faint;
7 "...don’t
you think God will surely give justice to His chosen people who cry
out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off?
8 I tell you,
He will grant justice to them quickly! But when The Son Of Man
returns, how many will He find on the earth who have faith?”
Luke 21:36 KJV
Watch ye
therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape
all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before The Son
Of Man.
John 14:13,14
KJV
13 And
whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that The Father
may be glorified in The Son.
14 If ye shall
ask any thing in My name, I will do it.
John 15:7,16 KJV
7 If ye abide
in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it
shall be done unto you.
16 Ye have not
chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go
and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that
whatsoever ye shall ask of The Father in My name, He may give it you.
John 16:23,24
KJV
23 And in that
day ye shall ask Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Whatsoever ye shall ask
The Father in
My name, he will give it you.
24 Hitherto
have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that
your joy may be full.
Romans 10:12
KJV
For there is no
difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all
is rich unto all that call upon Him.
Ephesians 2:18
KJV
For through Him
we both have access by one Spirit unto The Father.
Ephesians 6:18
KJV
Praying always
with all prayer and supplication in The Spirit, and watching
thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Philippians 4:6
NLT
Don’t worry
about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you
need, and thank Him for all He has done.
Colossians 4:2
NLT
Devote
yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
I Thessalonians
5:17 KJV
Pray without
ceasing.
I Timothy 2:8
KJV
I will
therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without
wrath and doubting.
Hebrews 4:16 KJV
Let us
therefore come boldly unto The Throne Of Grace, that we may obtain
mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 10:19
KJV
Having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by The Blood
Of Jesus,
James 1:6 KJV
But let him ask
in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of
the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
James 4:8 KJV
Draw nigh to
God, and he will draw nigh to you
James
5:13-16 KJV
13 Is any among
you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick
among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them
pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of The Lord:
15 And the
prayer of faith shall save the sick, and The Lord shall raise him up;
and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess your
faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be
healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much.
I Peter 4:7 KJV
But the end of
all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
I John 3:22 KJV
And whatsoever
we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do
those things that are pleasing in His sight.
I John 5:14,15
KJV
14 And this is
the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing
according to His will, He heareth us:
15 And if we
know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions that we desired of Him.
Revelation 8:3-5 NLT (Prayers heard and kept)
3 Then another
angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a
great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of
God’s people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne.
4 The smoke of
the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s holy people, ascended
up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out.
5 Then the
angel filled the incense burner with fire from the altar..."
