"Pray for Deliverance" Sermon: Isaiah 37:1-20 (manuscript)

“Pray for Deliverance”

February 9, 2020 YouTube

[Isaiah 37:1-20]

            We remember, Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, decides to conquer Jerusalem, so he sends a massive army headed by the Rabshakeh – a high-ranking officer.  The Rabshakeh tries to weaken the resolve of the leadership of Jerusalem by reminding them that King Hezekiah sinned by making an alliance with Egypt – trusting in their power and horses and chariots instead of trusting in God alone.  And the Rabshakeh goes further, pronouncing two lies of the devil:  The God of Jerusalem cannot be trusted, and there is no difference between the God of Jerusalem and all the other gods of the nations.

            King Hezekiah stays in Jerusalem while three of his officials meet with the Rabshakeh and hear his taunts and lies, and they return to King Hezekiah and tell him everything the Rabshakeh has said.

            And we see first, we are to abhor our sin, repent, and pray God will deliver.

            The men Hezekiah sent out came to him with their clothes torn, and as Hezekiah hears what the Rabshakeh said, he tears his clothes and puts on sackcloth and Eliakim and Shebna and all the senior priests of the Temple cover themselves with sackcloth as a sign of abhorring and repenting of their sin – recognizing the desperate place their actions have brought them.  They acknowledge that Egypt and horses and chariots cannot save them.  But as it appears that Jerusalem will be ruined, they do what they ought to have done all along – they pray to God for deliverance.

Hezekiah sends Eliakim and Shebna and all the senior priests to the Temple to find Isaiah to ask him to pray to God for Jerusalem – for the deliverance of Jerusalem.

Here again how Hezekiah describes their situation:

“This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.”

            “Isaiah, this is a day of distress for Jerusalem – a day of rebuke for our sins – a day of disgrace before the nations of the world that we did not trust in God, our God, alone.  It is as though a pregnant woman goes into labor and pushes and pushes and then runs out of strength and is unable to deliver the baby.”

            What an image!  It is probably more horrifying and desperate an image for any woman who has given birth – thinking of the birth pangs, remembering all the strength and pain to push the baby through the birth canal and into the world.  And now think that she pushes and pushes and then falls back as though dead – with no strength left in her – but the baby is stuck in the birth canal – unable to move.  That’s how Hezekiah rightly understands their position with the army of the Assyrians upon them.

            Have you ever gotten yourself into a situation where you felt like that?  Have you ever sinned, and the sin brought forth fruit for you in such a way that you felt trapped?  As though the walls were closing in around you and there was nothing you could do?  As though you were stuck in a tube and could not move forward or back?  As though you were losing the ability to catch your breath as you realized this is all your own doing and you start to panic?

            We sin.  And any sin can blossom into a situation where we find ourselves feeling crushed, in pain, immobile.  And the first thing that we must do is acknowledge our sin, and repent of our sin, and bemoan and wail about our sin, confessing first and foremost that we have sinned against our God – the One True God – and we must repent – swearing never to follow after sin again – God help us.

            And then, we pray for God to deliver us.  Hezekiah says, “Maybe God heard the blasphemy – the lies about God – that the Rabshakeh spoke.  Maybe God will rebuke the Rabshakeh and take vengeance upon him.  Maybe God will save His remnant.”

            Now, Hezekiah knows very well that God will hear him and – in His time – take care of the lying Rabshakeh.  He prays in this way to acknowledge that God acts according to His timetable, not ours, though Hezekiah would very, very much like God to act now!

            David praises God after acknowledging His attributes, saying, “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.  He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. The LORD preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy” (Psalm 145:18-20, ESV).

            And Paul assures us, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, ESV).

            And that is true!  God is working everything together for the good of those who love Him – Hezekiah – you – me.  But the promise does not give us a time or a day or even say that all will be worked out for our good in this lifetime.

            Hezekiah knows he sinned against God.  He knows the character of God.  He knows it is right to wholeheartedly repent and pray to God for deliverance.  And then he – and we – must wait until our loving Father acts in the right time – the best time.  We just don’t know when that will be.

            Second, nevertheless, we are not to be afraid, because God is mighty to deliver.

            Isaiah prays on behalf of Jerusalem, and God answers:

            “Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”

            God – through the prophet – tells Hezekiah not to be afraid of Sennacherib’s threats or his blasphemy for God is going to send a spirit to possess Sennacherib, and Sennacherib will go home and die there.

            God tells Hezekiah not to be afraid.  God knows exactly what’s happening, and God is going to take care of it right now.  God is going to send the Assyrian army away, and God is going to have Sennacherib murdered.

            As we read, “Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place” (Isaiah 27:37-38, ESV).

            God promised to send Sennacherib away and have him murdered, and we read that his own sons murdered him in the temple of his god.

            Have you ever sinned?

            The Christians musician, Larry Norman, says that he has asked people about sin and gotten this response: “Sin?  Yea, I’ve heard of it.  I even know people who have done it.”

            John tells us, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (I John 1:5-10, ESV).

            When God decides to act regarding sin is His business.  He promises that all will come together for the good of those who love Him.

            We are to confess our sin and pray for deliverance from the results of sin that we have brought upon ourselves.  And we have this promise for all those who believe that Jesus is God the Savior:  by His life and the shedding of His blood, He will forgive us each time we confess our sins.  He will cleanse us from all our unrighteousness.  We are forgiven in Him when we truly confess our sin, because He is faithful – always.

            As we confess our sins and go to God in prayer and study His Word, we see we are not to be afraid:  He is faithful and we are forgive to the uttermost, and God is the Sovereign Almighty Who is mighty to deliver – today, tomorrow, and always to His glory.

            While Isaiah prays to God and delivers God’s message to Hezekiah, the Rabshakeh takes the army and goes to Libna to help Sennacherib fight against the Egyptians and the Ethiopians who allied together in a failed attempt to conquer the Assyrians.

            Sennacherib sends a letter to King Hezekiah, and Sennacherib has the Rabshakeh read the letter to Hezekiah as well:

“Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?”

            Sennacherib understands that Hezekiah has made a turn in his life – he is no longer trusting in Egypt and chariots and horses, but only in the Lord God.  And the word that is used in the letter to Hezekiah telling him not to “trust” God is a word that shows that – it means a strong trust – something greater and more focused than he had had before.

            So, Sennacherib is only left with the lies of the devil that we looked at last week:  you can’t trust your God, and your God is the same as all the other gods.  But it is too late!  Hezekiah learned his lesson – he has repented of his sin, he is praying that God will deliver him, he is not afraid of what Sennacherib will do – even if God does not save the remnant – but he holds on with great trust to the fact that God is the Sovereign Almighty – and if it is His will to deliver Hezekiah and the remnant – and you and me – in this lifetime, He can.

            Finally, we see we are not to be afraid, but to be preoccupied with God.

            Hezekiah reads the letter and he takes the letter and spreads it out before God in the Temple, and he prays:

            Hezekiah prays acknowledging Who God is.

            He begins by praying to God, the Sovereign God, the God of Israel, “enthroned above the cherubim.”  We will remember that the cherubim are one group of angels, and the Ark of the Covenant has a lid on it with a cherubim on each side of the lid.  The space between the cherubim is called “the mercy seat” or “the seat of the atonement.”  It is where God descended on the Day of Yom Kippur to hear the cries of His people and forgive their sin for His sake – based on His merits.  (Despite the sacrifices of Israel, it was never enough – it was symbolic of the Great Atonement – the Great Sacrifice which would be made by Jesus – God Incarnate.)

            As Hezekiah prays to God – the God of the Atonement – the God Who forgives His people based on His Sacrifice of His Son to merit Justification, Hezekiah also recognizes God as the one and only God, the God Who reigns over every kingdom, the God Who created everything that is.  The Sovereign Ruler over Israel and Assyria – the United States – and every other kingdom that has been and will ever be.

            Hezekiah prays to the God of Israel Who is not like the other gods – He created everything, He providentially rules everything, and He alone makes the Sacrifice that makes us able to come into His Presence forgiven for our sin.

            Hezekiah continues by asking God to avenge God’s Name.

            Hezekiah seeks God to see and hear the words of Sennacherib through the Rabshakeh – God cannot be trusted – all the gods are the same.  Therefore, your God will fall, and Jerusalem will fall at the hand of Sennacherib.

            “Lord, do you see and hear Sennacherib – I know you do.  He has taken Your Name in vain – He has mocked you and tried to get Your people to doubt You.  Lord, You know how powerful the Assyrians are.  You know they have conquered kingdom after kingdom.  You know they have taken the gods of the nations and burned them in the fire – which proves they are not gods, but the work of human hands – wood and stone – and that is why they could be defeated.  But not You, Lord, You are the Living God Who is self-existent and cannot be thwarted by any man.”

            Hezekiah concludes his prayer asking God to deliver the remnant from Sennacherib “that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD.”

            As we consider Hezekiah’s prayer, he does ask that Jerusalem be delivered, but it is in the midst of being preoccupied with God.  So, let us lift our eyes from whatever our sin has brought us to – let us lift our eyes from whatever army is taunting us – able to destroy us – unless the One True God says, “no.”

            Let us lift our eyes, repenting of our sin and praying to God for deliverance.

            Let us not be afraid but know that God is mighty to deliver.

            Let us not be afraid but be preoccupied with God.

            Humans can only kill our flesh, but our God is the God of Creation and Salvation.  He sovereignly rules everything now.

            Our God’s Name is Holy, and we should seek to protect it and pray that God will avenge its abuse.

            Our God is able to deliver us, and whether He chooses to in any given moment, let us be a witness to Him so the whole earth will know Him.

            Let us be preoccupied with God and trust Him with our deliverance, because He sits above the cherubim.

            Let us pray:

            Almighty God, in love You elected a people for Yourself, and You will save them and sanctified them and bring them into Your kingdom.  Help us to trust You, to pray to You, to seek deliverance from our sin and evil, holding fast to Your promise to bring all things together for good to those who love You, no matter how things may now look on earth.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.