2 Kgs 19:1-19, 32-37 · Read 12 min · think and write 15 min
The last lesson stopped on the city wall. When Rabshakeh had finished shouting, “the people stayed quiet, and answered him not a word” (2 Kgs 18:36). Three of the king’s officials “came … to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him Rabshakeh’s words” (2 Kgs 18:37).
This lesson begins as Hezekiah hears those words.
1When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the LORD’s house.
2He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
3They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them.
4It may be the LORD your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”
5So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘The LORD says, “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”
8So Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.
9When he heard it said of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you,” he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,
10“Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Will you be delivered?
12Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?
13Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’”
14Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the LORD’s house, and spread it before the LORD.
15Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, “LORD, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
16Incline your ear, LORD, and hear. Open your eyes, LORD, and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to defy the living God.
17Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,
18and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them.
19Now therefore, LORD our God, save us, I beg you, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are God alone.”
Isaiah sent word to Hezekiah with the LORD’s answer, and with the LORD’s words about the king of Assyria (vv. 20–31).
32“Therefore the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there. He will not come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.
33He will return the same way that he came, and he will not come to this city,’ says the LORD.
34‘For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.’”
35That night, the LORD’s angel went out and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
36So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went home, and lived at Nineveh.
37As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.
Torn clothes. “When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the LORD’s house” (v. 1). He sent men in sackcloth to the prophet Isaiah (v. 2), saying: “Today is a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them” (v. 3). He asked Isaiah: “lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left” (v. 4).
Don’t be afraid. The word Isaiah sent back was: “The LORD says, ‘Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me’” (v. 6).
Another letter. The king of Assyria sent messengers with another letter: “Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria” (v. 10); “Will you be delivered?” (v. 11).
Spread out. “Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the LORD’s house, and spread it before the LORD” (v. 14). He did not write back; he took the letter to the LORD.
His prayer. First he says who God is: “you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth” (v. 15). Then he asks God to hear and to see: “Incline your ear, LORD, and hear. Open your eyes, LORD, and see” (v. 16). He also admits that what the king of Assyria said was true: “Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands” (v. 17); but those gods “were no gods, but the work of men’s hands” (v. 18). At the end he asks: “Now therefore, LORD our God, save us, I beg you, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are God alone” (v. 19).
I have heard you. Isaiah sent word to Hezekiah with the LORD’s answer: “You have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, and I have heard you” (v. 20). Of the king of Assyria the LORD said: “He will not come to this city” (v. 32); “He will return the same way that he came” (v. 33); “For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake” (v. 34).
That night. The passage tells the outcome in a few lines: “That night, the LORD’s angel went out and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians” (v. 35). “So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went home, and lived at Nineveh” (v. 36). Later, as he was worshiping in the house of his god, he was struck down with the sword (v. 37).
Hezekiah prayed in the LORD’s house (v. 14). When Solomon had finished building this house and dedicated it, he prayed here too, asking God to act “that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD himself is God. There is no one else” (1 Kgs 8:60).
Readers can see this: what Hezekiah asked for — “that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are God alone” (v. 19) — is almost the same as what Solomon asked for when the house was dedicated.
Perhaps you, too, have received a ‘letter’ that frightens you: a test result, a notice of dismissal, news that someone in your family is in trouble. You read it again and again, and the more you read, the more afraid you are.
This lesson does not say that once you spread the letter before God, the trouble will disappear. What it shows you is this: a king so afraid that he tore his clothes read the letter, took it to the LORD and spread it out there, and asked God to “Incline your ear … and hear” and “Open your eyes … and see” (v. 16); and he asked someone else to pray for him (v. 4). The New Testament has this line: “casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7).
This week: Write down the thing that frightens you, or find the letter or the paper itself. This week, find a time to ‘spread it out’ before God and pray honestly. Then ask someone you trust to pray for you about it.
Scripture: World English Bible.