Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20040606.htm

1 AND 2 KINGS: ENJOYING GOD'S BLESSING IN AN APOSTATE ERA
Part LVI: Responding To God's Allowing Trials To Grow Our Faith
(2 Kings 18:7-19:37 with 2 Chronicles 32:1-23)
  1. Introduction
    1. The greatest of God's saints are nevertheless imperfect in the faith: the great Moses faithlessly failed the Lord and had to die in the wilderness and the godly Elijah faithlessly fled from a threatening Jezebel.
    2. Yet, because God's blessings in life are in direct proportion to our faith in Him (cf. Hebrews 11), God in grace may allow trials to arise for an opportunity for us to see our faith perfected as 1 Peter 1:6-7 reveals. Such a trial of faith was used by God to increase the faith of the good, godly king, Hezekiah as follows:
  2. Responding To God's Allowing Trials To Grow Our Faith, 2 Kings 18:7-19:37 with 2 Chron. 32:1-23.
    1. King Hezekiah was a very good, godly king: there was no king before nor after him in Judah, including the great king David, who trusted and clung to the Lord as he did, cf. 2 Kings 18:5-6.
    2. Yet, Hezekiah had a weak spot in his faith, for he trusted to some degree in alliances with other Gentile nations contrary to God's Word, a fact that led to God's allowing him a great trial in this area of his life:
      1. Scripture forbade Israel's making alliances with foreign kingdoms for national protection: the nation was to trust the Lord rather than depend humanly acquired powers, Deuteronomy 17:16; 28:1, 10.
      2. However, in rightly ending Israel's alliance with Assyria, Hezekiah vacillated in this decision when Assyria threatened him with destruction for this move, 2 Kings 18:7b, 13-16 with 2 Chronicles 32:1-8:
        1. After Hezekiah rightly ended Israel's alliance with Assyria out of trust in God (2 Kings 18:5-7a, 7b), Assyria's king Sennacherib came down to threaten war against Hezekiah, 2 Kings 18:13.
        2. According to the 2 Chronicles 32:1-8 account, Hezekiah responded to this action by setting up his defenses and encouraging his people to trust the Lord versus human power.
        3. However, the 2 Kings 18:14 account ALSO reveals Hezekiah apologized to Sennacherib, offering to pay tribute to him were Assyria to end its threatened siege against Jerusalem! Hezekiah thus gave Assyria all the silver in the Lord's temple and his palace and stripped off the gold from the temple doors and pillars to make such a ransom payment, 2 Kings 18:15-16.
    3. God who according to Proverbs 21:1 moves the hearts of kings according to His will arranged for the king of Assyria not to be satisfied with Hezekiah's ransom, but to press him for a surrender, 2 Kings 18:17-20.
    4. However, Sennacherib's attitude was filled with great disrespect for the God of Israel upon Whom Hezekiah had told His people to trust, and this gave Hezekiah a chance to decide if he would trust God in opposition to Assyria or if he would give in to Sennacherib at the price of faith in God, 2 Kings 18:21-37.
    5. In RESPONSE, Hezekiah overcame his fear of Assyria by pouring his heart out in faith to the Lord in God's temple, a very moving and wonderful event in Judah's history, 2 Kings 19:1-4, 8-13, 14-19.
    6. Accordingly, the Lord sent word to Hezekiah through the prophet, Isaiah that He had heard Hezekiah's prayer and would indeed cause Jerusalem to be delivered from Assyria without a fight, 2 Kings 19:20-34.
    7. That night, the Pre incarnate Lord Jesus, the Angel of the Lord, put to death 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, 2 Kings 19:35. Greek historian, Herodotus relates that field mice destroyed the weapons of the Assyrians in this event, but "since mice are a Greek symbol of pestilence and since rats are carriers of the plague' (J. Finegan, Light From the Ancient Past (Princeton, 1946), pp. 178f.)," we hold Herodotus' account was describing death by what was thought by pagans to be a plague, Unger, Arch. and the O.T., p. 269, ftn. 12.
    8. Consequently, Sennacherib withdrew from Jerusalem to his homeland in Assyria, 2 Kings 19:36.
    9. Then, in a fitting end due to his blasphemy of Israel's God through his official, Rabshakeh, Sennacherib who had sought to intimidate Hezekiah and Jerusalem from trusting in their God was put to death by his own sons in his own false god's temple where his false god could not protect himself, 19:36-37. These events are even verified by the annals of Assyria's next king, Esarhaddon, cf. Unger, Ibid., p. 269-270.
Lesson: Though Hezekiah was a good king who trusted God as had no other king before or after him, he STILL had room to GROW in his faith; GOD thus let him FACE a trial that gave him the chance for such a faith to be developed. When Hezekiah overcame in that trial, He experienced great blessing.

Application: If we find ourselves facing a trial of our faith, we must take ADVANTAGE of it to trust the Lord ABOVE what we fear so our faith can be PERFECTED! May we overcome as did Hezekiah!