Rēad to Read …Again
Daily Reading: II Kings 18-19
II Kings 19:1
And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD.
When Peter wrote …for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble (I Peter 5:5) truer words were never spoken. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.
He did in the case of Hezekiah. The great and horrible Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent his chief of staff, Rabshakeh, to Hezekiah, king of Judah, warning him of swift and ultimate destruction. Prior to this Hezekiah had tried to appease Sennacherib with a bribe, but as he learned, there is no peace to be had with a tyrant. Now, the Assyrians are at the gate of Jerusalem spewing threats of all kinds toward Judah. To these threats, Hezekiah rent his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord to pray.
He humbled himself before God and God answered the king through Isaiah.
To Hezekiah God said;
I have heard, vs. 20
The fields that the Assyrians have destroyed will be resown, replanted, vs. 29
The remnant of those in Jerusalem shall …take root downward, and bear fruit upward. vs. 30
To the Assyrians God said;
Zion is not afraid of you, vs. 21
Their past military success was because He allowed it, vs. 25
He, the Lord God, knows all about them, vs. 27
He will drag them away as a beast of the field, vs. 28
You will not do as much as shoot one arrow into Jerusalem, vs. 32
Sennacherib would go back to his own country and die there, vs. 33 (fulfilled in vs. 37)
God will defend Jerusalem for His sake, and David’s, vs. 34
This all happened just like the Lord said. A king humbled himself before the Lord and received mercy.
This thing of humbling oneself is reminiscent of the story that Christ told of two men that went to the Temple to pray (Luke 18:10-14). One was self-righteous, one was humble. Both were in the temple, both prayed, but only one, the humble man, went home justified.
Hezekiah was humble, Sennacherib was proud. Hezekiah was blessed, Sennacherib was murdered by his own sons. Yes, indeed, God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. James, dealt with this also writing: Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up (James 4:10). In a world wherein pride seems to be king, those truly blessed of God are those who humble themselves before Him, the One and Only Lord God of Heaven.
Dr. William T. Howe
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