https://youtu.be/FTYX7yHfXzQ

 

Hello!

I’m David Petts and this is the first of a few talks I’ve been asked to give to encourage you at this difficult time.

As many of us are in isolation at the moment, I’m going to be looking at some Bible passages where God’s people were in isolation.

Today we’ll be looking at Isaiah 36 and 37 which is one of the most exciting passages in the Bible.

The Challenge
 

Sennacherib king of Assyria has invaded Judah and captured all the fortified cities with the exception of Jerusalem.

Most recent to fall is LACHISH 36:2 just a few miles from Jerusalem.

From a bas-relief in British Museum we know they were being decapitated, impaled on stakes, and even skinned alive!

Now Jerusalem itself is surrounded by a great army of the Assyrian forces and threatened with a similar fate.

The entire city is cut off from the outside world.

Its inhabitants are in fact in isolation. Defeat seems inevitable.

Sennacherib’s field commander tells the people to surrender.

It’s your only option.

It’s the only way to escape the horrors of Lachish.

There’s no one who can help you.

 

What are you basing your confidence on? 4

 

Your own strength? 8

You haven’t even got 2,000 men left, even if we gave you the horses for them!

 

Other countries? 6

Egypt

 

Your leaders? 14

Hezekiah

 

All the enemy has said so far is true! And the broad principles remain the same for us today.

 

But what does he say about God?

This is the crux of the matter and brings us to the first aspect of the answer to the challenge.

 

The Answer to the Challenge

 

Discerning the truth from the lies of the enemy

 

Notice how the enemy combines truth:

Hezekiah has annoyed God by taking down the high places (7) T&F
God is on MY side - he has told me to come and destroy you (10) F
The gods of the nations haven’t saved them (18-19) T
So your God can’t save you F

 

Doing what our leaders tell us

 

Look at 36:20-21

 

“Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'"

But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, "Do not answer him."”

 

Hezekiah wanted to hear what God had to say rather than letting the people give an answer to the enemy.

 

Hearing what God is saying

 

When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah,
Isaiah said to them, "Say to your master, 'Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me.
Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.'"”

 

He was in tune with God. His answer was ready

 

Knowing how to pray 37:16-20

 

16 "O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.

17 Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.

18 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire.

19 For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed.

20 So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord."”
 

worship (16).   Recognition of God’s sovereignty

request (17)

statement of fact (18)

statement of faith (19)     understanding truth from fiction

motive (20)

 

Trusting the supernatural power of the true and living God

 

Isaiah 37:21-36

 
21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying,

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