Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20070107.htm

THE PREINCARNATE MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST
Part XIX: Christ's Work With Hezekiah: Leading Him Wholeheartedly To Trust In God
(2 Kings 19:15-37)
  1. Introduction
    1. God has the will and ability to protect His people from their foes if they wholeheartedly trust in Him.
    2. This truth is dramatically illustrated in Christ's preincarnate ministry to protect Judah from the Assyrian invaders in His dealings with Judah's king Hezekiah (as follows):
  2. Christ's Work With Hezekiah: Leading Him Wholeheartedly To Trust In God, 2 Kings 19:15-37.
    1. The Preincarnate Christ Whom we have learned in this series appeared as the "Angel of the Lord" in the Old Testament appeared in answer to Hezekiah's prayer to God, cf. 2 Kings 19:32, 34-35a, cf. Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., ftn. to Genesis 16:10.
    2. This ministry, in VIEW of the BROADER CONTEXT involved in this event, reveals Christ's will and ability to deliver His people from oppressors if they do God's will and wholeheartedly trust Him:
      1. When Hezekiah had begun to reign in Jerusalem, he had made extensive religious reforms in the nation, and trusted and served God like no other king before or after him, 2 Kings 18:1-6.
      2. God had blessed Hezekiah, giving him prosperity to where he refused to submit to Assyria, 18:7.
      3. This insubordination of his led to an Assyrian reprisal in the form of an invasion, and Hezekiah reacted by apologizing to the Assyrians, and began to pay them tribute, 2 Kings 18:13-16. This change was doubtless caused by Hezekiah's fear over the fall of the nation Israel to the north to Assyria, 18:9-11.
      4. Yet, God had allowed the Assyrians to take that Northern Kingdom of Israel captive due to her sin as 2 Kings 18:12 reveals, so Hezekiah's fear of the Assyrians was unfounded. God thus let the Assyrians afflict Hezekiah to where he finally wholeheartedly had to trust in God's help via intercessory prayer:
        1. God let the Assyrian king, Sennacherib fail to be satisfied with Hezekiah's apology so that he sent officials to Jerusalem with a large force to intimidate Judah's king Hezekiah, 2 Kings 18:17.
        2. At the city wall, an Assyrian official named Rabshakeh countered Hezekiah's trust in God as being a misplaced trust, 2 Kings 18:19, 28-32. Baring the battle of faith that Hezekiah was having in his own heart regarding God's willingness and/or ability to help him against the Assyrians, Rabshakeh boasted that the gods of the peoples the Assyrians had conquered had not been able to save their peoples from the Assyrians, so neither could Judah's God save Jerusalem from them, 18:33-35!
        3. Hezekiah was troubled at this word, and asked for a response from God's prophet, Isaiah, 19:1-2.
        4. Isaiah replied that Hezekiah was not to fear the Assyrian taunt, for God would cause Assyria's king Sennacherib to hear bad news, return to his own land and there die by the sword, 19:5-7.
        5. Though Rabshakeh was temporarily delayed in backing up his threat due to changes in the Assyrian battle plan (2 Kings 19:8-9a), he sent a letter to Hezekiah to renew his threat, 2 Kings 19:9b-13.
        6. Finally, in complete, quiet trust in God, Hezekiah spread open Rabshakeh's letter before God in the temple, and prayed for His help to counter the blasphemy of the Assyrians against God, 19:14-19.
      5. God's prophet, Isaiah then told Hezekiah that the Lord would take vengeance on the Assyrians for blaspheming His Name, and defend Jerusalem for the sake of David His servant, 2 Kings 19:20-34.
      6. That night, the Angel of the Lord, the Preincarnate Lord Jesus Christ, killed 185,000 of the Assyrian host, and the king of Assyria returned home to his capitol city of Nineveh, 2 Kings 19:35-36.
      7. As he was worshipping in the temple of his own god, the Assyrian king's own sons assassinated him in fitting judgment so that his own god could not protect him from judgment by the God of Judah that he had blasphemed as being unable to protect Jerusalem against his army, 2 Kings 19:37 with 19:12-13!
Lesson: Though Hezekiah initially heeded the Lord, when his faith in God proved to be a partial one due the threat of the invading Assyrians, God LET that Assyrian threat so AFFLICT Hezekiah that he had to CONFRONT his OWN WEAK FAITH and CHOOSE to TRUST GOD FULLY for VICTORY!

Application: (1) May we FULLY trust and obey the Lord in all challenges we face in life. (2) If we find ourselves facing an entity that we tend to APPEASE because we FEAR it, know that we have a LIMITED FAITH in GOD that does NOT SATISFY Him, and He is thus LETTING us FACE what we FEAR until we finally GIVE the matter UP in TOTAL trust in HIM for VICTORY!