2 Kings 19 OCTOBER 11, 2026 Pastor Steven L. Anderson

Man, 2 Kings chapter number 19, we're continuing with the story of Hezekiah.

And if you remember last time, we left Hezekiah in a bad situation.

And here's a guy who finally, after so many kings who were just half in, half out,

not really serving God, then you had one just really bad king, Ahaz,

that just completely ruined the nation spiritually.

Hezekiah comes along and is just doing all the right things.

And the Bible is comparing him even to King David and saying, you know, he did

what was right in the sight of the Lord, like David, his father.

And then it even goes on to say that of all the kings of Judah,

there was never one before him or after him that was like him.

He was such a great man of God.

And so he's making all kinds of changes.

He's destroying idolatry.

He's just succeeding and winning and God's blessing him.

But now all of a sudden his faith is really being tested

because after doing all the right things and serving God and just being blessed by God,

all of a sudden now there's this threat of the king of Assyria.

So the Assyrians have already taken over in the northern kingdom

and taken them captive and they want to do the same thing in the southern kingdom of Judah.

And in fact, they've pretty much conquered Hezekiah's entire kingdom.

All of the fence cities have fallen to the king of Assyria.

And now Hezekiah is just holed up in Jerusalem.

And Jerusalem is like the last stand for them.

You know, it's the final part of the kingdom that he still has control over.

And if you remember, they came last week and they're, you know,

surrounding the city and they're talking all kinds of trash

and trying to get the people inside of the walls of Jerusalem

to rebel against Hezekiah so that the city can fall.

Because in ancient times they would besiege these cities

and the idea is that instead of just fighting a full on frontal assault,

they just kind of wait them out, you know, because obviously the defender

inside the walls of the city has the advantage.

And we know that Hezekiah's got different weapons of war and different things

that he could use to repel a direct invasion.

So what they'll do instead is they'll just camp around the city

and just shut it off to where food and water and supplies can't get in.

And then after just months and months and months,

and then the people inside are getting frustrated,

they're getting stir crazy, they're running out of food

that eventually hopefully they'll fight each other,

somebody will want to surrender, somebody will open the gate to the enemy.

And that's what's going on in chapter 19 here.

It says in verse one, 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.

And he sent Eliachim, which was over the household,

and Shevna the scribe and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth

to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos.

The first thing I want to point out is that when you're in a crisis like this

where your faith is being tested and you're looking at life and you're saying,

God, this doesn't make any sense.

You know, I did the right things.

I kept the commandments and you were blessing me.

And then all of a sudden, why is everything going down the drain

in those kinds of times of crisis and tribulation?

Go to church, right?

He goes to the house of God.

And a lot of times when we're in those difficult times,

we don't want to go to church because we might just feel like

kind of recluting ourselves and just kind of getting away from everybody

and just not wanting to talk to people.

We don't want to see anybody.

But in reality, that's what we need is to go to church,

even if we don't feel like it, even if we're ashamed,

even if we want to just go hide somewhere.

You know, when you're going through difficult times,

you've got to go to church, okay?

That's when you need church more than ever

is when you're in those times of crisis.

And so just drag yourself to church.

And look, sometimes you feel like going to church

and sometimes you don't.

Yeah, I'm not going to get up here and just say,

man, I just always feel like going to church.

I just always feel like going soul winning.

I just love reading my Bible every single day.

You know, there are a lot of days like that,

but then there are other times when you're discouraged,

you're frustrated, you're down,

and you just drag yourself to church.

And especially when things are going bad,

don't withdraw from church.

That's a bad idea.

Okay, you need the fellowship.

And I can't even count how many times I was in a bad mood.

I was doing poorly.

And then I showed up at church

and it turned things around for me.

Singing the hymns, the preaching,

the fellowship can really turn things around.

And so in a time of crisis,

Hezekiah goes to the house of the Lord.

So he's handling this the right way.

Verse number two, he sends to Isaiah the prophet,

the son of Amos.

So he's seeking advice and counsel

from a man of God, not from this world.

He's not looking for worldly,

unsaved people, backslidden people,

the philosophers of this world

to tell him how to handle this.

He's going to church.

He's going to the man of God.

He's leaning into spiritual things.

Even though his faith is being tested,

he is still keeping his faith in the Lord.

Look at verse number three, they said unto him,

Thus saith Hezekiah,

This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke

and blasphemy,

for the children are come to the birth

and there is not strength to bring forth.

So this is how Hezekiah feels.

He's like, man, we're at the birth

and it's like there's just not strength

to give birth.

Now I think this is such a great illustration

of the trials and tribulations that we go through

is this thing of childbirth.

Let's go to John chapter 16.

John 16 · chapter mention

We're going to come back here to Second Kings.

But if you think about childbirth,

women are really going through a lot of pain,

a lot of suffering,

but not only that, they're also risking their lives,

especially in the ancient world.

I mean, even today,

they're still risking their lives

because obviously this is very hard

on the human body to give birth.

And it can often take women right up to the brink

even of death.

And so many women almost bleed to death

or have other complications

that can be scary and difficult.

And the interesting thing about childbirth,

and obviously I haven't experienced it,

but I've been very close to it 12 different times.

And so I've been right there

when my wife gave birth,

12 times she gave birth.

I believe it's nine times at home

and three times at the hospital.

And so I pretty much have seen it all.

I think maybe like 10 out of 12 of those were no drugs.

And then the other two,

she had some painkillers involved.

But so I've kind of seen the whole gamut

of this thing of birth.

And the thing that always stands out to me

is just how my wife,

when she's giving birth,

is just in such utter despair.

I mean, she's so sad.

She's so just in pain

and just sorrowing and struggling

and just wanting it to be over.

And I mean, she's just emotionally pushed

to the very edge,

to the very brink of sanity.

And then she gives birth

and it's just like,

you just flip a light switch

and just everything's fine.

And it's always like this

where as soon as she gives birth,

it's just everything's fine.

The whole atmosphere will change.

You know, you're in this room

and she's laboring.

It's just hours and hours

of just struggle

and pain and heartache.

And then it's just like,

yay!

You know, it just,

it just changes like that.

And the attitude

and the atmosphere totally changes.

And that's the illustration

that the Bible is using here.

Look down if you would

at John chapter 16,

John 16 · chapter mention

verse number 20.

It says,

And of course, this is leading up

to the crucifixion of Christ.

And obviously this is going to be

extremely difficult for Jesus.

He's the one actually going through it.

But even for the disciples,

this is kind of a test of their faith

because they don't really understand

the whole concept of the death,

burial and resurrection

like they're going to understand it later.

And they don't quite get it yet.

And so as they're going through this,

they're a little bit confused,

perplexed, confounded.

I mean, think about Peter.

He's pulling out a sword

in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Like, hey, do we need to fight

these guys off?

Or what?

You know, and then obviously

he's denying Christ.

He's going out and weeping bitterly.

So it's a time of confusion.

Their faith is being tested.

And then if you remember

the two disciples

that are on the road to Emmaus,

they're upset because they're saying,

you know, Jesus of Nazareth died.

And it's like we thought

this guy was the Messiah.

We thought this was the one.

And now he died.

But then we have people telling us

that they went to the tomb

and the tomb was empty

and that he rose again.

And but they didn't.

And then he kind of rebukes them

and says, man, why are you guys

so slow to believe what the Bible

says to understand the scripture?

And then Jesus, of course,

explains it to them.

They didn't know it was Jesus.

But isn't the book of Luke

on the road to Emmaus

with the two disciples and so forth?

So if you think about

the crucifixion of Christ,

this is a sorrowful morning experience,

but the sorrow is going to be

turned into joy

when Jesus rises from the dead

and the victory is there.

Look at verse 21.

It says, a woman

when she is in travail

hath sorrow.

And travail means labor.

Because her hour is come,

but as soon as she is delivered

of the child,

she remembereth no more the anguish

for the joy that a man

is born into the world.

And ye now therefore have sorrow,

but I will see you again

and your heart shall rejoice

and your joy no man

takeeth from you.

And so this is kind of the same thing

that Hezekiah is saying.

You know, it's like

we're in this darkest hour.

We're going through this horrible,

painful, sorrowful experience.

And look, he believes

that there's light

at the end of the tunnel.

He believes that God can deliver him.

And he's saying, you know,

it's like we're in labor

and it's like we're at the birth

and it's just like

there's just no strength to bring forth.

And so he's feeling like

this is going to be a miscarriage.

This is going to be a stillborn baby.

And obviously that's not going to turn into joy, right?

If a woman goes through labor

and she's going through all that pain

and everything,

just to give birth

to a stillborn baby,

that's not going to be joy.

Yay, it's over.

No, it's going to be sad.

It's going to be mourning.

And so Hezekiah,

although he has faith in the Lord,

he's worried.

You know, he's like, man,

I just don't think that we have what it takes

to get across the finish line here.

We're at mile 25 of the marathon here

and there's just no more gas left in the tank.

God, you've got to help us.

God, and the thing is,

God steps in

and helps us out

when we run out of steam.

You know, we are often pushed

to our absolute limits,

just like a woman giving birth

is pretty much pushed to her physical limits.

And we will often be pushed to our limits.

And the Apostle Paul talks about this

in 2 Corinthians chapter 1

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

about them just being troubled

and afflicted

and just pushed over the limit,

beyond the limit.

And they're just despairing of life

and they're just taken to the absolute brink.

And God will often bring us

to our absolute limit.

And then He comes through

for us at the last minute,

you know,

and then He comes through

just like here.

The whole country has fallen to Assyria.

One last city is holding out.

They're surrounded

and the morale is going to be low

and they're struggling.

And Hezekiah is like,

man, it's like we're at the birth,

but there's just no strength

to give birth.

You know, and obviously,

I've seen my wife get to this point too

when she's in labor

where she basically just feels like

I just can't do this anymore.

And it's just like,

well, you don't really have a choice.

You know, and that's one of the things

that my wife has said

like retrospectively looking back

on childbirth

is that one of the hardest things

about it

is that there's kind of just no way out.

It's like,

it's do or die.

It's just,

it's forward.

You just have to just do it.

And there's no easy way out.

You know, you could sit there and say,

oh, I can just get a C-section.

Well, that's not easy either.

You know, that's just

another kind of difficult,

another kind of suffering.

It's never going to be easy

to have a baby.

You know, it's just,

there's always going to be a challenge

associated with it.

And so,

he is just at the brink.

He's at the limit.

He doesn't feel like he has what it takes.

That's where he needs God to step in

and help him out.

And you know,

the Christian life's the same way.

Let's say you get to a point

where you're just like,

I just can't do it anymore.

You know,

and that's what my wife has said

to me in labor before.

Like, I just can't do it anymore, right?

But it's like,

yeah, but you can.

You're going to.

There's just no other way.

You just have to go forward.

And that's the way the Christian life is.

Sometimes in the Christian life,

we're just like,

man, I just can't do this anymore.

But then what do you do?

You just put one foot in front of another.

You just say,

okay, I can do one more day.

I can do one more hour.

And you just keep going,

push through one foot in front of another.

And that's what we see here with Hezekiah.

He says,

man, we just don't have the strength.

Look at verse four.

It may be

the Lord thy God will hear all the words

of Rapschakie,

whom the king of Assyria,

his master,

sent to reproach the living God

and will reprove the words

which the Lord thy God has heard.

Wherefore, lift up thy prayer

for the remnant that are left.

So the servants of King Hezekiah

came to Isaiah.

So that's the message that he sends

to Isaiah the prophet,

the author of the book of Isaiah.

He says, look, man,

you need to pray to God.

Maybe God's going to listen to you

because we just,

we just don't have the power.

We just don't have the strength.

I just don't know what to do anymore.

And Isaiah seven of them,

verse six,

does show you say to your master,

does say at the Lord,

be not afraid of the words

which thou has heard

with which the servants of the king

of Assyria have blasphemed me.

Behold, I will send a blast upon him

and he shall hear a rumor

and shall return to his own land

and I will cause him to fall

by the sword in his own land.

Now when the Bible says

he's going to send a blast upon him,

this is like a gust of wind.

This is like a blast of air.

And if you've ever felt

a strong gust of wind,

you know,

it could be a pretty powerful force of nature.

I remember one time I was getting gas

at a gas station in Palm Springs, California.

And it was so windy

and that's a very windy area.

That's why they have all those windmills there.

And I was getting gas

and literally I was almost just knocked over.

I'm just standing there

and it just like boom

and it just almost threw me to the ground

just pumping gas in Palm Springs.

But when we went up to the top

of Mount Humphreys one time,

on an extreme windy day,

it did knock us down repeatedly many times.

And I remember one of the guys

from our church was there

and he got knocked over with a gust of wind

and then he stands up

and he had like blood coming out of his mouth

because he had just been thrown to the ground

and got a bloody lip

just from how hard he was thrown down

just by the wind,

just by air.

Okay.

And here's the thing.

God obviously can just puff

with the breath of his nostrils

and he can knock us down whenever he wants.

He can knock you down.

He can knock down the enemy.

I mean, he has all power

to just make things happen like that.

And so he says,

I'm going to blow upon him.

I'm going to send a gust of air upon him.

I'm going to send a blast upon him.

And he's going to hear a rumor.

He's going to return to his own land

and I will cause him to fall

by the sword in his own land.

That's talking about him personally.

The king of Assyria

is going to be personally punished

for blaspheming the Lord.

Not only that,

God is also going to destroy his army

as well,

as we're going to see later on in the chapter.

But it says in verse 8,

So Rapschakie returned

and found the king of Assyria

warring against Libna

for he had heard that he was

departed from Lakers.

So although Rapschakie,

the leader departs from Jerusalem,

besieged is still there.

The troops are still there.

They're still besieged.

They're still in trouble.

But the leader has to go

deal with something else

because the king of Assyria

is fighting multiple battles

in different places.

He's got all kinds of wars going on.

It says in verse 9,

and when he heard, say,

of Tirhaca,

king of Ethiopia,

behold,

he has come out to fight against thee.

He sent messengers again

unto Hezekiah.

So again, Ethiopia at this time

was a powerful nation.

It was a powerful kingdom

in the world at that time.

There's another story

where it talks about

like 2 million Ethiopian troops

coming and invading

in the regions of Judah

and that Levant region.

And so, you know,

the Ethiopians are a pretty serious enemy

where even the Assyrian king

who Assyria is the big,

powerful superpower at that time,

you know,

it's a threat

when the Ethiopians come up at you

because that was a powerful kingdom

at the time.

And so he hears that.

So then he sends messengers

to Hezekiah in verse 10.

Thus shall he speak to Hezekiah,

king of Judah, saying,

Let not thy God in whom thou trustest

deceive thee, saying,

Jerusalem shall not be delivered

into the hand of the king of Assyria.

What's he saying?

He's saying,

look, just because I'm tied up

over here in Lake Isht,

and just because I'm tied up

with the Ethiopians,

I don't want you to think

that you guys are off the hook.

Don't think that God's going to deliver you.

I am still going to destroy Jerusalem.

He says in verse number 12,

Have the gods of the nations

delivered them, which my fathers have

destroyed as Gozan,

and Heron, and Rezeb,

and the children of Eden,

which were in Telacer?

Where's the king of Hamath,

and the king of Arpad,

and the king of the city of Cepharvah,

of Hina,

and Iba?

He's saying,

Look, your God is no different

than all these other gods.

And that's what the atheists

of this world will say, right?

Hey, what's the difference

between your God and the Muslim God,

or the God of these people over here,

or these Hindus,

or these Pagans over here?

And of course, God of the Bible

is the true God,

the living God,

the real God.

And so a lot of times,

doubts will creep in

and the devil will come at us

and try to get us to think,

Hey, God's not real.

God's not going to help you.

You got to just take things

into your own hands.

You got to do it yourself.

God's not going to go to bat for you.

He's a band.

You did all the right things

that you're holed up in Jerusalem

and the king of Assyria

isn't going to back down.

But here's the thing.

You know, Hezekiah is seeing

a little bit of an answer to prayer here

because, you know,

the fact that he's tied up

with the king of Ethiopia

and the fact that he's fighting over here,

you know,

it's kind of like a little bit

of a partial fulfillment

where maybe Hezekiah can see,

okay, God's working a little bit,

right?

God's doing something here.

And so that's encouraging

for Hezekiah.

So then basically the devil

wants to basically come out and say,

no, no, no, no, don't,

you know,

don't look at this little small victory here.

Don't look at this little blessing here.

That's nothing.

It's just an illusion.

You're still going to get destroyed.

But here's the thing.

You know,

we want to do the opposite

of what the king of Assyria

is telling us to do.

When God does something small

in our lives,

when God does throw us a bone,

when God does help us out

a little bit in our time of trouble,

you know,

we need to stop

and recognize that

and be grateful

and say,

hey,

this is the beginning.

God's going to do more.

But here,

God's already starting to help me out.

He's starting to go to bat for me.

And so I can push through.

I can get through this.

You know,

we got to look at those little victories in life

and we got to savor them

and give God the glory for those things

and realize,

okay, God gave us a little bit.

He's going to give us more.

He's going to take care of us more.

We've just got to hang in there

and get through it.

So

it says in verse 14,

Hezekiah received the letter

of the hand of the messengers and read it

and Hezekiah went up

into the house of the Lord

and spread it before the Lord.

So again,

time of crisis.

Hezekiah leans into the house of God,

leans into church,

and then he brings the letter

and the letters attacking Hezekiah.

But really,

it's an attack on God

at the end of the day saying,

hey,

God's just like the God of our pad.

He's just like the God

of the city of Seafarvayim.

He's no different.

And so he lays the letter out in front of God

and says, okay, God,

look, this letter,

it's not really about me.

It's about you.

And he's asking God to go to bat for him.

So he lays out the letter before the Lord.

And by the way,

the persecution that we will experience as Christians,

don't take it personally

because it's not about you.

It's not about me.

It's about the Lord.

What they're really mad about

is the Word of God.

It's not that they just don't like

my personality or your personality

because here's the thing.

I could have a totally different personality

and say all the same things

and I would get all the same persecution.

Here's the proof.

Look at other preacher friends of mine

that are dramatically different,

that have very different personalities,

very different styles,

very different presentations.

And yet by teaching the same doctrines,

they get the same flack.

They get the same attacks

because all that will live godly in Christ Jesus

shall suffer persecution.

And so it's not a personality thing

don't take it personally.

It's just that there is a war

between good and evil.

And so it's not that Hezekiah

is the problem.

It's just that they're really just mad at the Lord.

They want to take the place of God.

They want to have,

you know, all the power and everything,

the Assyrian empire that is.

And so it says here

that he lays it out before the Lord.

And in verse 15,

Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said,

Oh Lord God of Israel,

which dwells between the cherry-bimps,

thou art the God,

even thou alone of all the kingdoms of the earth.

So it's not like, well,

the God of Jerusalem

versus the God of Cepharvahem,

it's like, no, no, there's just God.

There is only one God.

He's the God of the whole earth.

Thou art the God, even thou alone

of all the kingdoms of the earth.

Thou hast made heaven and earth.

Lord, bow down thine ear

and hear open, Lord, thine eyes and see,

and hear the words of Sennacherib,

which hath sent him to approach the living God.

And by the way, you know,

I've talked about this before,

but as you study the Old Testament,

there are so many times

that the Old Testament claims

that God is the only God,

that he's the only true God.

Before him there was no God formed.

Neither shall there be any God after him, right?

He alone is God.

And that there is no other God.

And that he's the creator of the world.

All the gods of the nations are idols.

They're just images,

but the Lord made the heavens.

And also the Old Testament

frequently makes the claim

that the whole earth is going to be filled

with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

Now, here's the thing about this,

is that not every religion in the ancient world

is making these claims.

You know, in the ancient world,

the vast majority of their gods

are just regional gods,

and none of them is really claiming

to be the creator of the whole earth

or the God of the whole world.

You look at all the gods of Greek mythology,

Roman mythology,

none of them is the creator of the universe.

They're all limited.

They're all regional.

They're not omniscient,

omnipresent, omnipotent gods.

And it's interesting that, you know,

the God of the Hebrews

is the one God who's making this claim

that he is the God of the whole earth.

Every other God is fake.

He is the only true God.

He's the creator.

And that ultimately,

he's going to dominate the entire planet

and that the whole world is going to know him.

And you're not even going to have to tell

people about him

because the whole world is going to know who he is.

And then isn't it interesting

we fast forward to 2026?

And in many ways,

this has already been fulfilled

because obviously,

the God of the Hebrews

is now known on every continent,

every country of this world,

right, all over the planet,

millions and millions and millions

of people are worshiping the true God,

the God of the Bible,

you know,

with out of 8 billion people on this planet,

2.3 billion of them claim to be Christians.

Obviously, I'm not saying that they're all saved,

but as far as just claiming

the name of Jesus Christ,

you got 2.3 billion people.

Then you have 1.6 billion people

who are basically saying like,

well, we believe that the Old Testament

God's real,

we believe Jesus is real,

but, you know,

it's all about Muhammad and Islam and whatever,

but they're still claiming to be

somehow picking up the torch

from this Old Testament God

and even from Jesus Christ himself.

Obviously, they're a fraud,

they're liars,

they're false prophets,

but that's like half the planet,

if you think about it,

that's just a professing Christian or Muslim.

And then, you know,

the other half of the planet

has still heard of him,

you know,

they know who he is,

the Bibles,

everywhere,

it's in every language,

it's in every country,

it's all over this planet.

So, you know,

it's like there's these really

big claims being made

in the Old Testament

and then you see that they have come true

and that we've seen the fulfillment

where the earth is full

of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord

through Jesus Christ,

the whole world

now knows the God of the Bible

through Christ.

And in the millennium,

this is going to be fulfilled

in an even more literal and dramatic way

during the actual millennial reign of Christ.

But even in 2026,

we can already see how this book,

Second Kings,

which, you know,

this book is written like

probably approximately 2500 years ago,

2500 years ago,

this book saying,

hey, this is the only God,

the true God,

the right God,

these other gods are fake,

they're pieces of wood,

they're metal,

they're stone,

and here we are 2500 years later

and of course,

the God of the Bible

dominates the entire earth.

And if there's one God

that we believe in

that even the atheists would say

is their biggest enemy

is the God of the Bible,

you know,

because he's the true God, amen?

And so, you know,

don't let atheists come at you like,

what's the difference

between your God

and these other,

it's like,

well, first of all,

that's exactly what

somebody's saying 2500 years ago

in the story.

There's nothing new under the sun.

What's the difference

between the God of Jerusalem

and the God of Arpad?

Well, the difference is

that one of them is right

and one of them is wrong.

One of them is real

and the other was fake.

That's the difference.

And also,

no gods of the ancient world

made these claims.

So it's not like

a hundred different gods

said they're the only God

and then one of them

got super popular

and it just happened to be

Jehovah God.

No, no, no,

there's only one God

making these claims

and he's the one who ends up

becoming

because he's real,

because the Bible's true,

because God really exists,

because in the beginning

he created the heaven

and the earth

and he's the one true God.

And so it says here,

Lord, bow down thine ear,

verse 16,

and hear, open, Lord,

thine eyes and see,

and hear the words of Sennacherib

which had sent them

to reproach the living God,

verse 17,

of a truth, Lord,

the kings of Assyria

have destroyed the nations

and their lands

and have cast their gods

into the fire,

for they were no gods,

but the work of men's hands

would and stowed,

therefore they've destroyed them.

Now therefore,

O Lord, our God,

I beseech thee,

save thou us

out of his hand

that all the kingdoms of the earth

may know

that thou art the Lord God,

even thou only.

And of course,

that is what we now know today

in 2026,

but, you know,

he's saying,

look, man,

we've got to show the world,

answer prayer, Lord,

show yourself mighty,

defend Jerusalem

so that we can see

that there's a true God

in the earth

and that these other gods

are bogus.

Verse 20,

then Isaiah,

the son of Amos,

sent to Hezekiah saying,

thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel.

So here's the answer

to his prayer.

Thou which thou hast prayed

to me against

Sennacherib,

king of Assyria,

I have heard.

This is the word

that the Lord

has spoken concerning him.

The virgin,

the daughter of Zion,

has despised thee

and laughed thee to scorn.

The daughter of Jerusalem

hath shaken her head at thee.

What hast thou reproached

and blasphemed?

And against whom

hast thou exalted thy voice

and lifted up,

thine eyes on high?

Even against the holy one

of Israel,

he's like,

oh, look,

who are you really

making fun of?

You're not making fun

of Hezekiah.

You're making fun

of God Almighty.

That's who you're really

reproaching.

And you know what?

The joke's on you, buddy,

and the daughter of Jerusalem

is laughing at you.

By thy messengers,

verse 23,

thou hast reproached the Lord

and has said,

with the multitude

of my chariots,

I'm come up to the heights

of the mountains,

to the sides of Lebanon,

and will cut down

the tall cedar trees

thereof,

and the choice fir trees

thereof.

And I will enter

into the lodgings

of his borders

and into the forest

of his car mill.

I've digged and drunk

strange waters,

and with the soul of my feet

have I dried up

all the rivers of besieged

places.

So he's saying,

like, man,

look at all the things

that I've accomplished,

you know,

the Assyrian armies

on the move,

and we're just conquering,

and we're redirecting

waterways,

you know,

to cut off

water supplies

from the enemy,

and we're just

treading our foot

on the soil

of all these kingdoms

and lands,

and he's basically

just bragging

about his achievements.

But what God's about to

explain it to him

is that he's the one

who actually

gave those things

into the king of Assyria's

hand,

and that the only reason

that the king of Assyria

is even winning

is because it was

God's will for him to win,

and God's allowing him

to win.

I mean,

why was the king of Assyria

able to defeat

the northern kingdom

of Israel?

Because God wanted

to punish the

northern kingdom of Israel,

and so he's allowing

him to win,

and see,

here's the thing,

a lot of times

the things that we think

that we have achieved

in our lives,

those things are really

done by God,

and we should always

make sure to give

God the glory

for whatever we achieve.

You go out

and make a bunch of money,

you better remember

that it is the Lord

that gives you

the power to get wealth.

You go out

and have a great

soul-winning campaign,

a great mission strip,

you're able to

be used greatly

in the local church,

realize that that is

God that works in you,

both to will

and to do

of his good pleasure,

and whatever successes

that you've had

athletically,

you know what?

God's the one who allowed you

to be healthy,

because let's face it,

anybody who plays

a lot of sports

knows you get hurt a lot,

and the guy who wins

is basically the guy

who didn't get hurt,

you know,

because you can keep training.

You know,

how many athletes

do you know

who are sidelineed

by injuries?

You know,

how many times have you said,

okay, I'm going to train

for a marathon?

You know,

why do you not

get to the finish line?

It's not just a matter of,

oh,

if I show up for training

every day,

I'll run a marathon

in six months

or something like that?

No, because

there are so many injuries

and problems

and things

that stop you

from getting there.

I mean,

it's not like,

well,

everybody who doesn't make it

to the marathon

starting line

is just lazy.

No,

because you could show up,

I mean,

one time

I did the whole

marathon training plan,

went through

the whole training plan,

and you know,

the final week

of the marathon training plan,

you do your final

long training run

is a 20 mile run,

you know,

because the marathon's

26.2 miles,

so the final training run

is 20 miles,

because then

if you recover

and relax from that,

if you can do 20,

on race day,

you can push it to 26.

That's the mentality.

So most marathon training plans

have you do a big final,

you know,

grand finale

training run

of 20 miles,

like three weeks

before the marathon,

and then you rest

for those three weeks.

So I did this training plan,

I do my final

20 mile training run

and it felt good.

I was doing great,

feeling great.

I was so excited,

I'm like,

three weeks from now,

I'm going to run

my very first marathon.

What happened?

A couple days later,

all of a sudden,

I just started getting the sharp pain

on the inside of my ankle.

What in the world?

And it was post tibial tendinitis

and then I look it up online

and it's like,

do not run through the pain.

You're going to do permanent damage

because some things

you kind of push through,

push through the pain.

This was like,

no,

you could do damage

and it's just like,

you know what?

God can just snap his fingers

and just ruin your marathon.

And just,

just oh,

your little post tibial tendon,

I'll just mess with it

and it's over for you.

You know,

so if you do make it to the marathon,

if you do make it

to the basketball game,

if you do make it to the big football game

or the big baseball game,

whatever,

you know,

you got to glorify

and thank God,

God's the one who allowed you to get there

and he prevented the injuries

that so many people get

all the time.

Overuse injuries

or just other dumb little things that happen.

You know,

we are all

responsible for what we do,

but guess what?

At the end of the day,

God can either blow on it

or God can bless it.

And so at the end of the day,

like you got to give praise

and glory to God

for anything you achieve

because God gave you the health.

Well, I'm smart.

Well, God's the one who made you smart.

God's the one who gave you the brains

to be able to do that.

And you know what?

God could snap his fingers

and take away your mental facilities as well

because I've seen a lot of people

lose their minds.

I've seen people go crazy.

You see people as they get older

and they get senile

and they have a stroke

and they have,

you know,

look,

thank God every day

for the health

and the smarts

and whatever else

that allows you to succeed.

And so he's not giving God the glory.

He's just like,

oh, I did all this stuff.

And God's like,

no, I just allowed you to do that

because it was my will.

Let's look at it now.

He says in verse number 25,

Has thou not heard long ago

how I have done it?

God's saying like,

look, you didn't do all that.

I did it.

I've done it.

And of ancient times

that I have formed it.

Now have I brought it to pass

that thou shouldst be

to lay waste-fenced cities

into ruin as heaps.

Therefore their inhabitants

were of small power.

They were dismayed and confounded.

They were as the grass of the field

and as the green herb,

as the grass on the housetops

and as corn blasted

before it be grown up.

But I know thy abode

and thy going out,

my coming in

and thy rage against me.

He's saying, look,

the reason that those cities

were so easy to conquer

is because I wanted you to conquer them.

It was my will.

The reason

that the Northern Kingdom of Israel folded

is because they weren't right with God

and God wanted to punish them.

Judah is different

because Hezekiah is a man of God.

Hezekiah has got his faith in the Lord.

He's not going to be forsaken

like the Northern Kingdom.

And he says, look, man,

I know you.

I know everything about you.

And I know your rage against me.

He's saying to the king of Assyria

that he knows the wickedness of his heart,

that he has rage and anger

and hatred toward the God of the universe.

Verse 28,

because thy rage against me

and thy tumult

is come up into my ears,

therefore I will put my hook

in thy nose

and my bridle in thy lips

and I will turn thee back

by the way which thou camest.

And this shall be a sign unto thee.

You shall eat this year

such things as grow of themselves

and the second year that

which springeth of the same

and in the third year

sow ye and reap and plant vineyards

and eat the fruits thereof.

Now he's talking about, of course,

Judah.

So this can be a little confusing.

He's switching subjects here

because in verse 28,

he's rebuking the king of Assyria.

Now he begins to say,

this is a sign unto you Hezekiah.

You're going to eat the fruit of the land.

You're going to be blessed.

Verse number 30,

and the remnant that has escaped

of the house of Judah

shall yet again take root downward

and bear fruit upward

for out of Jerusalem

shall go forth a remnant

and they that escape out of Mount Zion

the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

Therefore, thus saith the Lord

concerning the king of Assyria

He shall not come into this city

nor shoot an arrow there

nor come before it with a shield

nor cast a bank against it

by the way that he came

by the same shall he return

and shall not come into this city

saith the Lord for I will defend this city

to save it for my own sake

and for my servant David's sake.

And so he's going to save us.

He's going to preserve us

for his own sake

and for Jesus Christ's sake.

He's going to keep us safe as Christians.

And you know this idea of like,

man, he's not even going to shoot an arrow at it, you know.

God uses this kind of language a lot

just talking about how completely

he can protect and deliver his people

where he talks about in the book of Exodus,

you know, against the children of Israel,

a dog is not even going to move his tongue,

you know, against you.

Or like he says in Luke 21,

you know, a hair of your head

is not even going to perish, right?

And so God is able to fully protect us

and keep us safe.

Safety is of the Lord

and sometimes we'll feel like

we're just about to crash and burn.

We're right there at the brink

and the enemy is storming the gates.

But God is saying, look,

I can fully protect you.

I can keep you totally safe.

At the end of the day, I'm in control.

And you know, if God wants to,

he can make it to where

not even a single arrow gets fired, you know.

And so God has the ability

to totally deliver us

from the enemies.

And if the enemy does come in,

you know, it's because God's

allowing the enemy to come in.

And sometimes God has a reason

why he allows them

to take over the fence cities.

You know, and that's what he just said.

Hey, the reason the king of Assyria

could conquer all these towns

is because I wanted him to.

And you know what?

God has a plan.

We don't always know what God's plan is.

We don't always understand why

things happen the way that they do.

But we just have to trust

that if we follow the Bible

in the end, we're going to be blessed.

We're going to be safe.

Many are the afflictions

of the righteous.

But out of them all,

the Lord delivers him.

He keepeth all his bones.

Not one of them is broken.

Right?

So it's like you feel like,

oh man, I'm taking so much damage.

But at the end of the day,

you know, God can preserve you

from even breaking a single bone.

You know, you can make it through

the trials and tribulations

unscathed.

I mean, look at Job.

I mean, Job went through

horrible things.

But he really took no permanent damage.

You know, he comes through at the end of it.

He's doing better than ever.

You know, and it's like, yeah,

he was covered in horrible skin disease

and he was in excruciating pain.

But in the end, it's all over.

And God delivers him.

You know, you see Jeremiah,

as we preached about this morning,

Jeremiah's down in the muck

in the mire in the filthy outhouse.

And you know, there's all kinds

of disease down there.

And he thought he was going to die.

He thought he was going to starve to death.

He thought he was going to die of thirst.

He could pick up diseases down there.

But you know what?

But did you die though, Jeremiah?

No, you didn't.

You made it.

You survived.

And in the end, when the country

falls to Babylon ultimately,

the captain of the host, Nebizar Adan,

is coming up to Jeremiah

and giving him money and saying,

hey man, the world's your oyster, Jeremiah.

You want to come back with us to Babylon?

You can come with us to Babylon.

We'll set you up in Babylon.

Things are going to be great there.

Or if you want to stay here, you can stay here.

You know, it's up to you.

But in the end, other people are getting smoked.

Other people are getting their eyes poked out

and dying and going into slavery.

And in the end, Jeremiah is a free man.

So it's like the tables turn

because Jeremiah's in prison

and they're all laughing at him

and they're free and he's down sinking in the muck.

But God turns it around to where they're all imprisoned.

They're getting their eyes poked out.

They're getting led off into slavery

and Jeremiah's just a free man.

And Nebizar Adan's just like, all right, you're free to go.

Here's some money.

You know, do what you want, man.

Go to Babylon.

Stay here.

Go to Egypt.

He ends up ultimately going to Egypt.

But that's another story

that shall be told at another time.

Look at verse 35.

We're almost done with the chapter here.

And it came to pass that night

that the angel of the Lord went out

and smote in the camp of the Assyrians

104 score and 5,000.

And when they arose early in the morning,

behold, they were all dead corpses.

So basically just 185,000 men mysteriously die

in the camp of the Assyrians.

You know, and who knows,

they might have just thought,

hey, this is some kind of a disease outbreak.

And maybe God, maybe that's what God did.

Maybe God sent a deadly plague

or a deadly disease that killed them.

Or maybe it's just a supernatural

just killing of people.

But either way, it's supernatural

because either way,

God sent the angel of the Lord,

the death angel to go through

and to just kill 185,000 troops.

And so this is obviously just super

demoralizing to the troops.

And they're obviously completely shocked by this.

And so Sennacherib, the king of Assyria,

departed and went and returned and dwelt in Nineveh.

And so, you know, this isn't what you expect.

I mean, you think like,

there's no way out, I'm surrounded.

There's all these troops.

You don't expect 185,000 troops to just fall over dead.

You know, but God can do anything.

And sometimes God will shock us

with how he delivers us

and what he does in order to fix our situation.

And a lot of times we might just be on the brink

and we're like Hezekiah where we're like,

man, we've come to the birth

and there's just no strength to bring forth.

I just can't do this last few centimeter of dilation.

I just can't get from the seven to the 10 or whatever.

But you know what?

God comes through.

You just got to push through.

You got to hang in there,

just do a couple more contractions and get through it.

So then he gets back and it came to pass, verse 37,

as he was worshiping in the house of Nisrach, his God.

And it's like, have you guys ever heard of Nisrach?

You ever go soul-winning and be like,

hey, do you go to church anywhere?

And somebody's like, hey, I'm a worshiper of Nisrach.

Because here's the thing, these gods of the ancient world,

nobody cares.

How many people have you run into at the door out soul-winning

who are followers of Zeus and Apollo and Thor and Odin?

And they're following Artemis and Athena

and these different things.

How many of them are like, oh, a molek is my God?

You know, Kimosh, actually, you know,

a dramalac and enamelac are my two favorite gods.

You know, you don't run into it.

Why?

Because these gods don't pan out.

These false religions all get destroyed in the long run

and the Word of God endures forever.

You know, there have been other cults and movements

and things and they come and go,

but the Word of God abides forever.

And so he's worshiping his false God Nisrach

and while he's in the process of worshiping a false God,

because he thinks, oh, well, my God's no different

than your God and Jehovah God is just like the gods

of Arpad and so forth,

that while he's worshiping Nisrach as God,

that a dramalac and Shirizer, his sons,

smote him with the sword and they escaped

into the land of Armenia

and Ezar had in his son reigned in his stead.

So he ends up getting murdered by his own children

in the house of his false God, you know?

And so all of his bluster, all of his talk,

what good does it do you when you're dead?

You can't take any of that stuff with you.

All of his exploits, all of the conquering that he's done.

And here's the thing, you know, even in 2026,

you know, we might think about every once in a while,

you might think about someone like Alexander the Great,

you know, but it's like most people,

yeah, they kind of vaguely know who Alexander the Great is,

but it's kind of like, okay, whatever.

And maybe they might think of some other famous,

you know, hey, Julius Caesar or whatever,

you know, they've got a few of these names,

they're mine, but like, unless you're,

unless you're pretty into history,

you're probably not really thinking that much

about Sennacherib as being like,

oh man, Sennacherib is so awesome.

And you know, they talk about how many times a day

men think about the Roman Empire or whatever,

but how many times they think about the Assyrian Empire

and Sennacherib, you know, probably not very often.

And I know some of you guys that are really into

ancient history are just like,

what are you talking about Sennacherib?

It's really important.

Yeah, but I'm saying like the average Joe doesn't care,

you know, and this guy thought he was big stuff,

didn't he?

Oh man, I'm just conquering the whole world

and I'm so powerful and I'm so great.

And you know what, God just smokes his troops

and then he smokes him personally.

And at the end of the day,

I guarantee you that a lot more people know who Hezekiah is

even though Hezekiah from a worldly perspective

is just running a small kingdom.

I mean, what's a bigger kingdom at this time?

Is it the king of Assyria that's like

in the process of conquering a huge part of the world

or this little kingdom of Judah that's down to one city,

one walled city, just Jerusalem.

But here's the thing, if we fast forward to 2026,

we know who Hezekiah is.

We know who Isaiah the prophet is.

We know who Judah is.

More people could tell you more about Judah

and Hezekiah and Isaiah

than could tell you about Rapschakie

and Sennacherib and the Assyrian Empire.

And so little as much when God is in it.

You know, it's like, oh, that's a small church over there.

Yeah, but a small church could do great things for God.

You know, oh, but look at this much bigger church

a Assyria community church over here.

Yeah, but here's the thing,

down the road, they're not going to matter

because they're not real.

You know, the real ones,

it doesn't matter whether they're big or small.

And look, sometimes the real ones do have a big kingdom.

Solomon had a pretty big kingdom and he was for real.

But you know what, a lot of times

it's the little things, the little kingdom,

the little church, the little guy, the little gal

that can be used greatly by God.

And the big important people of 2026,

10, 20, 30 years from now, they're not going to matter.

You know, because at the end of the day,

you got to be on the Lord's side

if you want what you do to last for eternity.

And so Hezekiah has got the Lord on his side.

He was pushed to the absolute limit, the absolute brink.

He's like, man, I'm just at the edge.

I don't know what to do.

I'm just, I'm just going to just go to church.

I'm just going to drag my butt to church

and just I'm just going to take my problem

and just lay it out before the Lord to say,

okay, God, take care of this, God, you got to help me out.

And you know what, God came through for him.

And so if you're at a point in your life

where you served God, you got blessed,

and then now you've had a setback,

major setback to Hezekiah's kingdom is what this is.

When you hit that setback, push through and then God will bless.

And then again, you'll be on top once again.

You'll be doing well once again.

Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.

Father, we thank you so much for the example of Hezekiah,

Lord, help us to also have faith.

And when we're going through those times that test our faith

and make it seem like you're not there

or you're not going to bat for us, Lord,

help us to be able to push through those difficult times

and have faith that you're going to come through, Lord,

that weeping may endure for the night,

but joy cometh in the morning.

And Lord God, help us to follow Hezekiah's example

of just being steadfast and leaning into church

and leaning into your word and prayer instead of going to this world

and throwing in the towel, Lord,

help us to lean into our walk with you in difficult times.

And in Christ's name we pray, amen.