Sennacherib, the Assyrian king has arrogantly told King Hezekiah of Israel that he is going to conquer Israel and there is nothing that he or the God of Israel can do about it.  Hezekiah does the only thing he knows can make a difference and takes the matter to the Lord.  And I love the visual image of laying the letter out before the Lord.  Hezekiah asks the Lord to look at the problem and asks God to deal with it.

Hezekiah knows that much of what Sennacherib says is true.  The Assyrians are very powerful and have defeated every king that they have come against.  Many of these other nations had gods that they thought protected them but because they weren’t gods but idols of wood and stone, they could not protect them from the Assyrians or anyone else.  Sennacherib did not know the God of Israel so he believed that he would defeat Israel’s God just like he had defeated the idols of the other nations.

Hezekiah knew that his only hope was in the strength of God.  And so, he took his problem to God and laid it out before Him and asked for His help.  Hezekiah knew that without God’s help Jerusalem would be destroyed, and he would probably be killed.

The world that we live in thinks much like the king of Assyria did.  The world believes that it is stronger than our God and they will come against us to take what we have because they believe that they can and because they believe that we have no one to defend us.  God will allow these attacks to come against us to test our response or to train us how to respond.  God wants us to respond as Hezekiah did.

As we lead our families, ministries, and churches forces will come up against us that are much stronger than we are.  These forces can include other family members, governments, other churches or ministries, or even members of your own church.  When the attack comes, do as Hezekiah did, take the matter directly to God and lay it out in front of Him and ask Him to deal with it.  Admit that you are not capable of being victorious in the matter without God and let Him be your defender.

Too often we think that we can handle our circumstances by ourselves.  God will let us do that for as long as we want to.  He will wait until we realize that we are in over our heads and we are sinking and cry out to Him for help.  The longer we wait before going to God with our circumstances the longer it is before God can rescue us.  Don’t wait until the pain and suffering is so great that you can’t stand it any longer.  At the first symptom of pain take it to the Lord and lay it out before Him and ask Him to intercede for you.  Jesus, teach us to come to you quickly with every attack we experience and lay it at Your feet.

2 Kings 18:13-19:37; Acts 21:1-17; Psalm 149:1-9; Proverbs 18:8