Scripture: 2 Kings 18:17-25; 19:14-19, 35
Have you ever known anyone who had a cool job? I’ll give you three people I’ve known who’ve had cool jobs, in order of coolness: Number one, I knew a retired major league all-star pitcher for the L.A. Dodgers and New York Yankees. Rick Rhoden. I guess it doesn’t get any cooler than that! Number two, growing up, I was a friend and high school classmate of Steve Van Wieren, the son of Pete Van Wieren, who for years in the ’70s through ’90s was one of the legendary broadcasters for the Braves. Super cool.
And finally, cool job number three… I was friends with a man named Brad. We’ve lost touch over the years… But Brad was—and still is, I guess—a “voiceover artist.” For example, he’s the announcer that you might hear on TV and radio commercials, saying things like, “With a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good.” At one time he was the “official voice” of an automobile manufacturer in a series of nationwide commercials. For a couple of years he was the announcer on a syndicated daytime TV talk show. Chances are, he’s done something we’ve all heard over the years.
But Brad was also a worrywart. As an independent contractor, voiceover work wasn’t steady; he would sometimes be “in between” jobs; and he was constantly auditioning for one ad campaign or another. It all sounded pretty cutthroat to me.
But Brad would worry when he didn’t have the next job lined up… Oh, and heaven help him when he was occasionally hoarse, or his throat was sore, or he’d have laryngitis… He just knew his career was finished. Poor guy!
Of course, I wanted to say to him, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Matthew 10:29 to 31.
But I didn’t expect Brad to see things that way… Unlike me, he wasn’t a believer.
But what about me? I’m a Christian… I’m a man of faith… I have all the promises of God’s Word at my disposal. “God said it, I believe it, end of discussion.”So what’s my excuse? One thing our Lord is emphatic about, after all, is that we don’t worry… that we trust in the Lord… that we trust that our Father will take care of us!
Yet… in spite of our Lord’s frequent words to the contrary, I do worry… How about you?
Therefore, I find the question in verse 19, asked by this Assyrian official called “the Rabshakeh,” to be incredibly relevant: “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours?’”
This question is the theme of today’s sermon. I want to make three points: Point Number One: I need to give necessary background information so you can know what’s going on… Point Number Two: I want to talk about the test of comfort and prosperity… And Point Number Three: God’s sovereign purposes for this crisis that Hezekiah is facing, and what it means for us today.
But let me first briefly outline the crisis that King Hezekiah and the southern kingdom of Israel, Judah, are facing in today’s scripture. Eight years earlier, the Assyrian Empire had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. Meanwhile, the southern kingdom, Judah, had avoided being conquered—not because they were a superior military power to Israel; they weren’t. Militarily speaking, Judah was far weaker than the northern kingdom. But they had survived the way all small nations survive when a powerful neighbor threatens them: by paying them off… Bribing them, essentially… Paying tribute money to them.
God doesn’t want Judah to do this. In Isaiah chapter 7, for instance, the prophet Isaiah admonishes Hezekiah’s predecessor, Ahaz, not to be afraid—there’s that theme again—not to enter an alliance with Assyria, and to trust in the Lord, instead. Of course Ahaz doesn’t listen.
But Hezekiah is on the throne now, and he is a far more faithful king than his predecessor. So he bravely refuses to pay the tribute money… at least at first! Poor Hezekiah eventually caves in. And earlier in this chapter, chapter 18, we’re told that he even removes much of the gold and silver from the Temple in Jerusalem in order to afford the tribute money that King Sennacherib is demanding!
As with most efforts to placate and appease, however, it doesn’t work anyway. The Assyrians still invade. And Hezekiah is still facing a world of trouble!
Before today’s scripture, the Assyrians have captured all the fortified towns and cities of Judah… only the capital, Jerusalem, remains. It would probably take many months to conquer it—it’s a well-fortified city—but an Assyrian victory seems inevitable. All the same, the Assyrians would prefer to avoid all the trouble and negotiate terms of surrender with Hezekiah.
That’s what the Rabshakeh and his delegation of Assyrian officials—not to mention a large Assyrian army—have come to Jerusalem to do… to persuade Judah to surrender before the costly war comes to the capital city. “The Rabshekeh,” by the way, isn’t a proper name; it’s an official title that means something like “secretary of state” or “chief of staff”—a powerful official who speaks on behalf of Assyria’s King Sennacherib.
This is the context in which he asks the question, “On what do you rest this trust of yours?” And that’s Point Number One.
And the Rabshakeh continues: “Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war?”
Mere words… by which he means, “the words of the Egyptians.” It’s likely that Hezekiah is counting on Egypt to come to the rescue, which the Rabshakeh is well aware of. So he calls Egypt’s king “that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.”
And he’s not wrong in saying so. That’s the interesting thing about the Rabshakeh’s speech: his clever words are often true, or nearly true… or only barely false. He knows just what to say to make both Hezekiah’s officials and these Israelites deeply uncomfortable.
But the Rabshakeh isn’t wrong! Of course Judah shouldn’t trust in the Pharaoh or in any human. If these Israelites are going to survive this invasion, their only protection—their only hope—will be God and God alone.
And what about us? Does our faith in Christ amount to mere words—words, for example, that we affirm every week when we recite the creed, or when we sing hymns, or read scripture.” We say, “I believe these words. I believe all these words are true.”
And yet every time God sends a good crisis our way, we panic. We fall apart. We feel afraid. We worry. We lash out at others.
“Oh Lord, make our faith much deeper than mere words. Give us the power to trust you when you tell us, over and over, Don’t worry. I’ve got this. You can trust me.”
Well… it seems likely that Hezekiah himself, alongside his subjects, are also having a hard time trusting in the Lord.
Hezekiah wasn’t always like this: fourteen years earlier, when he first became king, he got off to a great start… which you can read about earlier in 2 Kings chapter 18. He is a relatively righteous king. He seemingly does everything God wants him to do—things that his predecessors were too afraid to do—like removing all the idols and shrines and unauthorized worship places from the land of Judah. That took faith and courage on Hezekiah’s part! But he does it! And his kingdom prospered!
Verse 13 tells us that Hezekiah has enjoyed 14 years of relative peace and prosperity before this invasion. Fourteen years!
And now things in Judah are seemingly worse than ever. After doing everything God wanted him to do, things seem worse than ever! It hardly seems fair, doesn’t it?
It hardly seems fair for Hezekiah to be put to the test like this… after so many years of faithful service to God. Sure, Hezekiah may not be perfect, but he’s better than literally every previous king, scripture says, except for David. And now he’s facing a terrible test—the worst that Judah has ever faced.
So… Fourteen years of no test… and now a major test…
Is that right?
Not at all… Hezekiah was actually being tested the whole time. But let me explain…
In Philippians chapter 4—a letter Paul wrote while enduring intense suffering in prison—he said the following in verse 12: “I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.”
Now, let’s be clear about what Paul is saying… He’s not only learned the “secret” of living with “almost nothing,” and with an “empty stomach,” and on “little.” That’s a good secret to learn, of course… we all agree we would benefit from learning that secret.
But that’s not all Paul says… He also says he’s learned the secret of living “with everything,” and with “a full stomach,” and with “plenty.” In other words, he’s learned the “secret” of living with with abundance, and with prosperity, and with success, and with comfort, and with good health.
Let’s confess that we don’t really understand what Paul means by this… We don’t think we need to learn any “secret” concerning prosperity! None of us imagines that there’s any kind of test related to our abundance! “We’ve got that covered. We already know how to handle that, Paul, thank you very much!”
From our perspective, there are no potential problems associated with good things like abundance, prosperity, success, good health, safety, and comfort.
Sure, there’s a huge potential problem with the opposite of those things—with suffering, with privation, with physical want… all that stuff that Paul is dealing with…
But abundance, prosperity, success, peacefulness, comfort, luxury, good health, safety… I’ll take those things any day of the week and twice on Sundays!
Bring it on… we say! We can handle that stuff just fine.
So let’s be honest: we don’t understand Paul here.
But if that’s the case, it’s not just Paul we don’t understand!
Jesus agrees with Paul! Remember the Parable of the Sower? Jesus describes a farmer sowing seed. Some fell on the footpath. Birds came and ate it. Some fell on shallow soil. Took root quickly and then withers and died. Some fell among thorns… the seed sprouted and grew but then got choked out by the thorns. Never bore fruit.
When Jesus explains the parable, he says that the message of the gospel—including the message that because of what Christ has done, we can be confident that God will always love and cares for us and we don’t have to worry—that message gets “crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced.” 1 Notice: “the lure of wealth and the desire for other things.”
How is Jesus not referring not only to the trials that Paul was facing in that Roman prison, but also to the trials that most of us face in our relatively comfortable, prosperous, peaceful, safe, healthy, abundant lives here in 21st-century America?
I’m including myself here… I’m preaching to myself… When our lives are characterized by relative comfort, prosperity, peacefulness, health, safety, and abundance, make no mistake:we are still being tested… every bit as much as if we were facing what Paul was facing! Paul thinks so. Jesus thinks so.
And what does this man named Agur, who wrote Proverbs 30, think? Verses 8 and 9: He says, “[G]ive me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’”
Prosperity is also a test… And that’s Point Number Two…
Point Number Three… Let’s talk about God’s sovereign purposes for this test that Hezekiah and Judah are enduring at the hands of the Assyrians… and see how it applies to us. Let’s look at verse 25. The Rabshakeh, speaking on behalf of his king, says:
Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”
Is the king telling the truth? Did the Lord really tell Sennacherib to do this? It wouldn’t be the first time that God spoke through one of Israel’s enemies: Remember when God used the wicked Balaam to prophesy on God’s behalf and to bless Israel… multiple times… when he intended to curse them!
But in a sense it doesn’t matter whether God literally told King Sennacherib to do this… We know that God was using Sennacherib for his purposes. We know because Isaiah chapter 10 tells us so! Verses 5 and 6:
“What sorrow awaits Assyria, the rod of my anger.
I use it as a club to express my anger.
So the Lord is going to judge Assyria for their evil, by all means… but he’s also going to use them to judge Israel:
I am sending Assyria against a godless nation,
against a people with whom I am angry.
Assyria will plunder them,
trampling them like dirt beneath its feet.
This “godless nation” includes the “southern kingdom of Israel.” God says, “I am sending Assyria…” It sounds like God might have revealed this to King Sennacherib. But whether he did or not, Sennacherib isn’t wrong: God is using Assyria for his sovereign purposes.
For all I know, God may have had 376,403 reasons for permitting Assyria to do what they’re doing in today’s scripture. Isaiah, as I said, describes one of those reasons. But in today’s scripture we see one more reason.
We see it in the next chapter: Hezekiah receives the same threatening message that the Rabshakeh shares in chapter 18, except it’s in the form of a letter addressed directly to him. And what does Hezekiah do? Chapter 19, verse 14: “Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord.” And prayed…
I love that he spread out the letter before the Lord. See? See this problem I’m having, Lord. I don’t know what to do about it. God, of course, didn’t need to read the letter, but I’m sure it helped Hezekiah to show it to him in this symbolic way. And it honored God that Hezekiah showed it to him.
In our own prayer lives, we might try doing something similar: maybe a bill we can’t pay… a message or email that upset us… something in the news that upset us… a photograph of a loved on who’s in need…
Don’t just worry about it! Show it to God—he wants to see it. Unload your burden onto him—his hands are strong enough to hold it. Unload your burden and pray! And we don’t have to pray long, ornate prayers. In one sermon I heard on this text, the preacher emphasizes how short Hezekiah’s prayer is. Like three times he says, “For the sake of a 25-second prayer,” look what God accomplished! 185,000 enemy soldiers were struck down by the angel of the Lord.”
One of 376,403 reasons that God sent Assyria to Judah was in order for Hezekiah to pray this prayer. One wishes that he would have prayed a prayer of faith like this earlier in Chapter 18 when he was stripping gold and silver out of God’s holy Temple, but he likely wasn’t trusting very much in the Lord at that point… But he is now, so better late than never!
So God was allowing this Assyrian invasion in part to strengthen Hezekiah’s faith, to enable Hezekiah to trust in the Lord more and more, to enable him to overcome his fear, to enable him to stop depending on Egypt and start depending on God… all of which would bring glory to God… which is what life is all about in the first place.
That’s often how God uses crises that come our way, trials that come our way, pain and suffering that comes our way. God could stop it if he wanted to… But if he doesn’t stop it then we can trust that he’s allowing it for good reasons. And we can be sure that strengthening our faith in Christ, enhancing our love for Christ, enabling us to depend more and more on Christ, enabling us to treasure Christ more and more, and glorifying his holy name…
Well… those are very good reasons indeed!
Now I want us to consider this question: Without Hezekiah’s prayer, would God have given him and Judah this victory over the Assyrians?
We have no reason to believe that God would have!
God can do whatever he wants, but often what he wants more than anything else is for his people to get on their knees and pray before he takes action!
With that in mind… consider this question: What victories in our lives could we be missing out on right now in our lives, and in the life of the church, because we’re not praying?
[Invitation:]
Maybe you have your own version of a threatening letter from the king of Assyria… Bring it to the altar as we come forward for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper…