Hezekiah the King of Judah was in very great trouble. For some time the forces of the Assyrian had overcome the land and had taken the fenced cities: Jerusalem had been spared only on payment of a ransom that had greatly impoverished it. But that sufficed for a time only: and now the hosts of the enemy had gathered again and demanded its surrender. The city of Samaria had fallen and all the land was possessed by Assyria. It was an insult to the proud conqueror that Jerusalem alone should defy him. Round about the walls gathered their forces, and Rab-shakeh the commander had come near to the city and Cried aloud in the ears of all the people his threats against them and his summons to surrender. To his blasphemies Hezekiah had given no answer. Leaving forces enough behind him to sustain the siege Rab-shakeh had marched off then to join his royal master elsewhere. But now Egypt was marching up to fight the Assyrian. Of that Jerusalem could know nothing; but Rab-shakeh was anxious to withdraw the army from Jerusalem in order to strengthen his own forces; and he wrote a letter, impudent and blasphemous, thinking to frighten Hezekiah into surrender
1. The first thing for us to look at is this,--A king in trouble. Troubled soul, do not think within yourself that your case is peculiar,--all men have their troubles. Do not go envying any man, for no position will bring escape from trouble. But further, here is a good man in trouble. Turn to the beginning of the previous chapter and read the record of this man. The worst thing that could befall us in this world would be for us to have in anything our own way.
3. Again, here was a very great trouble. Net for himself was it that Hezekiah thought only or even mostly, though this was quite enough to think about. A crown and throne and all the proud position of king is quite enough to lose at one blow. But that was swallowed up in his concern about his people and the perils that beset them.
4. And it was a trouble for which there seemed to be no help. Samaria had fallen, and they looked in vain towards the north. (M. G. Pearse.)
Prayer in emergencies
The Christian believes in a revelation from God. Revelation unfolds many things which we could not discover for ourselves, explains or accounts for many actions or events which are puzzling without it. It takes us beyond second causes to the fountain head of all plans and transactions; it deals with what we see not as merely hard dry facts, but facts with a meaning and purpose; it tells of a higher, nobler, state of being belonging to us; and of spiritual powers which have influence over us; it speaks to us of Him “in Whom we live, and move, and have our being.” What is prayer? It is the means of holding communication with the unseen world--all worship may be called prayer, for it is the approach of man to God--the setting on foot a line of connection with our great Invisible Ruler. If we at all understand our real complex nature, the union of an invisible spirit with our outward bodies, we must see that our intercourse with the invisible world is all important, and that an acknowledgment of our dependence upon the Supreme Invisible Ruler is indispensable to our true and complete character. Prayer is a sign of weakness, but an instrument of strength; it is a confession of our own inability, bur’s laying our grasp upon the strong and mighty One, able to do all things. We pray because we feel weak, but by prayer we feel strong. It is not for God’s information, but for our security--not to persuade Him, but to prove our trust in Him--that we pray. It is of use because it thus brings us consciously within the circle of His willing influence. It is of obligation, because it is commanded by Him. Some men object to prayer as if it were useless. They say, “God has laid down certain rules for the government of the world--certain clear laws--and it is not to be expected that He should alter these laws for us, when we choose to ask Him to do so.” But this surely is to make Almighty God a slave of His own creatures. The Lawgiver has always power and the right to suspend His laws if He will, and in this case the Lawgiver is such that it were aninsult to Him to suppose Him unable to suspend the action of His laws in a particular instance without disarranging the whole machinery of the world, and putting it out of gear. Besides, His laws are framed not blindly but with that infinite foresight which would enable Him to foresee all prayers, all claims or entreaties for exemption from the working of His laws. In the case of men we might reasonably think that laws would be inoperative if exemptions were made at every turn, but in the case of Almighty God this conclusion would not hold. He may maintain the principles on which His laws are based, even while He suspends their action in special cases. Infinite Wisdom must needs be allowed elasticity in the observance of His own laws, and He may surely with all justice and consistency make His laws contingent upon man’s actions; and after all, the Supreme Lord keeps in His own Hands the continuance of any laws He makes, He gives force to His laws, His will is the motive power; therefore, if He will, the law must become inoperative, if He will to listen to man’s prayer, the answer must come. Now, prayer is generally to be regarded as a habit. But there is another kind of prayer--prayer in emergencies. Though our life is on the whole monotonous, i.e., the same things happen day after day, the same needs come, and therefore the same prayers are needed, yet occasional occurrences intervene, requiring special attention and immediate thought and help. Then we must seek instant succour. To delay may be fatal; to wait for our morning or evening prayer must be to wait till the special danger has gone by, or has fallen upon us. It becomes us, the moment the peril is recognised, to fall on our knees and call in the intervention of God Almighty. We have in the case of Hezekiah an admirable instance of the power and efficacy of prayer. But supposing the Assyrians had not been destroyed, but had carried on the siege and triumphed, would Hezekiah’s prayer have received no answer? God graciously sent a complete answer for the encouragement of His people, and for the discomfiture of the vaunting Assyrians; but even if so direct an answer had not been given, the prayer of faith would not have been in vain. All that God promises is to answer--not to answer exactly aswe wish. Suppose a danger imminent: sickness nigh unto death; a shipwreck; a fire; an invasion of our country; you would fain extricate yourself from the peril. There may be plenty to volunteer advice: first one and then another specific is suggested; various lines of policy, all conflicting, all perhaps hopeless to all appearance. Yet there is another resource: take your anxieties and spread them before the Lord, take them especially into the house of the Lord. Another form of perplexity arises from mental or spiritual difficulties: you fail to see the truth of some Christian doctrine; or you cannot discover what truth is; opposite opinions present themselves, and there is a temptation to cast off all belief because you cannot come to a decision in your own mind as to which is the true doctrine; some minds, for instance, have a difficulty in accepting the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, because it seems to be inconsistent with common sense that three should in any view be one--remember it is only above, not contrary to, reason. Take the matter quietly before your God, kneel before Him in secrecy, and in faith ask His guidance, and then spread out the conflicting passages before the light of His mercy-seat, and be assured that somehow you will find light to direct you, for “the meek shall He guide in judgment.” (G. F. Prescott, M. A.)
Hezekiah, or prayer in trouble
I. That prayer is the believer’s privilege. Viewing the children of God as participating in the troubles of life in common with others, it is indeed a most important privilege. Prayer has been called “the outlet of trouble, and the inlet of comfort;” it serves as the open window to a heated room, to remove what is oppressive, and admit what is refreshing. Prayer isa duty--not a mere duty, however, but a precious privilege; indeed, all duties are privileges and blessings if rightly understood; God never assigns or commands anything which is not for the good of those on whom it is enjoined. Prayer is the choicest privilege of earth; it is the intercourse with heaven--the speaking to God as to a Father and a Friend; it is not only conformity to Christ’s Spirit, but the joining in very act with Son and Spirit, at the very time and for the very object in which they are engaged. Christ not only prayed on earth, but is gone to pray in heaven, and has sent His Spirit to take His place below. Oh! let us look at Son and Spirit pleading; would they ever have assumed the office, but that they saw the helpless state of man, and volunteered to plead in and for him? They pray for man; it is their pleasure; and if man be permitted to conjoin with them in prayer, is it not a blessed privilege that he may so do?
II. Let us consider Hezekiah’s conduct and prayer as a test of the real state of the heart. We are told, in verse 1, what was his great resource. Prayer was his habit; not the mere exclamation, nor sudden feeling when danger threatened, which men have by instinct, no! we are told “Hezekiah trusted in the Lord,” “he clave to the Lord”; such expressions imply the habit of prayer; when trouble came he had not to commence an acquaintance with God.
III. Let us consider Hezekiah’s prayer as an example of the manner of prayer. But let us take Hezekiah as a model for our imitation. How did he particularise? “he spreads the letter before the Lord”; he takes each part, and reasons on it; and if wecompare the particulars of the letter with what is specified in the prayer, we shall see the meaning of his spreading the letter before the Lord. His was not a general prayer for deliverance, but a specifying of particulars; thus had he abundant matter for his petitions, thus by opening all his case, he disburdened his own heart, thus he put God in remembrance, and involved His glory with His people’s safety. Such should be the manner of prayer, then there will not be wandering orcoldness. (B. Jacob, A. M.)
Hezekiah in trouble
I. First, a specimen of threatening communication is alluded to in my text, and recorded in the verses immediately preceding it. In introducing it to your notice, I admonish you, first, that the historical parts of the Scriptures are the records of Cod’s dealings with His Church mainly, conveying only so much generally of the history of the world, as is needful to illustrate these dealings with the Church; and consequently that every event is to be viewed in accordance with this plan; otherwise we become bewildered and lost in reading the narrative of Holy Scripture, and we lose the object for which that narrative is perpetuated and recorded. If you look into the threatening letter of the haughty Assyrian, you will find it remarkable, as containing three of the topics, which are commonly dwelt upon by persecutors, when they desire to trouble the Church and people of God. The first of these three topics is the mockery of Hezekiah’s faith, as mere fancy. A second particular in the letter is this: here is an attempt to work upon Hezekiah’s fears. For the world, like faithful servants of the wicked one, will try, and do try, experiment after experiment, for the injury of the Lord’s people; if ridicule will not prevail, terror will be used. Here is, further and thirdly, an attempt to confound the true religion with the superstitions of men, and the Lord Jehovah with the idols of the heathen: that So the visitations of judgment, with which the enemies of Cod are often permitted to vex and destroy each other, might be held forth as an additional discouragement from the exercise of faith in those who are “joined to the Lord.”
II. In the second place, my text affords us a specimen of wise demeanour in the people of God, when they are assailed by persecutions or threatenings from the world. No business whatever will detain us from the house and ordinances of God, if we have the fear and love of God in our hearts; because we need His blessing in all our transactions. And if at all other times, then especially we need it in seasons of affliction.
III. In the third place, a specimen of simple faith is also here presented; to which the spiritually-minded among you will do well to take heed, as to that plan whereby we may most effectually remove our anxious cares off our own shoulders, and honour that word of grace and truth, given to every adopted child of God: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee” (Psa_55:22). That phraseology is very remarkable, in the superabundance of the promise above the matter involved in the exhortation--“Cast thy burden upon the Lord”; the answer to that would be--“And He shall sustain it, He will bear it for thee”; but the answer is more--“He shall sustain thee,” thee and thy burden too.
1. Simplicity of faith is shown in the act under contemplation. It is left on record for the instruction of those who in after ages would glorify God in a troublesome world.
2. Faith suggests the efficacy of prayer. The Lord’s people are thereby enabled to judge Him faithful, “who hath promised.”
3. Finally, this faith may be exercised, and prayer presented, and that with good success, in the most apparently perilous circumstances. (W. Borrows, M. A.)
A king in prayer
Prayers have their histories. Their ancestry is trouble, struggle with circumstances, and helplessness. They mark epochs in our lives, They are born in those hours which leave an indelible impression upon us. The sublimest strains which men have uttered have been towards God in moments of agony,
I. Hezekiah prayed to Jehovah as the god of his nation. “O Lord God of Israel.”
1. The nation bore the name of one of its progenitors that “as a prince had prevailed with God.” Names and events around which cluster Divine deliverances may encourage us in prayer. Past manifestations of God’s power may enlarge our faith. What God has been to our forefathers, our churches, our nations in times of trouble, He will be to us amid the perils of our day. History is a handmaid in the service of Faith.
2. His nation was Jehovah’s peculiar dwelling-place--“which dwellest between the cherubims.” The Skekinah, the holy light, as a symbol of the Divine presence, ever shone forth from between those weird and colossal figures which Solomon had carved and placed on either side of the mercy-seat. God will protect where He dwells. While He remains, there is perfect safety. When He departs, there is ruin.
(1) God dwelling in a nation saves it. God now manifests Himself, not by a material brightness, but by righteousness, purity, and truth.
(2) God dwelling in a man saves him. Every Christian is a temple of God. The true cherubim and Shekinah are in the soul.
(3) God dwelling in a Church saves it. No enemies can overthrow a Church that has the Divine glory shining in the midst of it.
(4) We can appeal to the manifestations of the Divine presence to increase our confidence in God in times of danger.
II. Hezekiah recognises, in his prayer, the sole supremacy of Jehovah. “Thou art the God,” etc.; “and have cast their gods into the fire,” etc. Each nation had its gods. Polytheistic ideas and customs prevailed in the nations surrounding Jordan. The gods were often destroyed when the nations fell which they were supposed to protect. The Jews alone asserted the existence of one supreme God.
1. Hezekiah asserted that Jehovah was the only true God. Polytheism was a foolish delusion. It probably arose from men’s innate propensity to materialise spiritual things, from the worship of natural objects as the manifestation of the Divine power, from the sinful and insatiate imagination of men’s hearts, from the deification of departed heroes, or from the attempt to give visible shape to applauded virtues. But there can be but one infinite and eternal God.
2. That He exercised supreme control over all the kingdoms of the earth. He was not only the God of Israel, but of all nations.
III. He appealed to Jehovah as the maker of “heaven and earth.” Heaven and earth to the Jewish mind included all things. In this sublime idea of God is involved--
1. That He is eternal. He existed before all things; delighting in the glory of His own nature before the worlds were made; no material form nor spiritual existence sharing that eternity with Him.
2. That He is separate from His works. The universe is not He, as the ancient pantheists taught, and as some teach now. He is immanent in all His creations, but independent of them. The maker is not His work. God transcends all beings and worlds.
3. That He is omnipotent. He who made the universe must be Almighty. Its greatness is inconceivable, and the power that produced it must be infinite.
4. That He has an absolute right to control an things. The maker has indefeasible rights in His productions.
5. That He has all things under His direct control. As He has created all forces, an laws, an agencies, all worlds, all angels, all men, He has them under His immediate direction, and can turn them “whithersoever He will.” This conception of God afforded solid ground for Hezekiah’s faith.
IV. Hezekiah prayed with great earnestness. Earnestness is needed, not to lead God to observe our condition, or to create a disposition in Him to help us, but--
1. That the strength of our desires may be revealed.
2. That we may be raised from the low condition of formal devotion.
3. That we may have all the spiritual culture which the outcries of real need may impart.
4. That we may be prepared to receive Divine deliverances thankfully. Hezekiah was stirred with the most powerful emotions as he prayed. His trouble heated his soul as a fire.
V. Hezekiah recognised the greatness of the deliverance which he sought. “Of a truth, Lord,” etc. To recognise the greatness of the deliverance we need will--
1. Deepen our sense of helplessness in ourselves
2. Stimulate the exercise of great faith.
3. Prepare us for the manifestation of God’s great delivering hand.
VI. Hezekiah associated the glory of Jehovah with the deliverance which he sought. The reproaches which had been cast upon him had been cast upon God. But it was God’s delivering arm put forth in answer to Hezekiah’s faith and prayer--
(1) that His people might learn to put their trust in Him, and
(2) that all the earth might know that none could defy His power and prosper. (Homiletic Quarterly.)
Spiritual-mindedness a protection
Much constant communion will surround us with an atmosphere through which none of the many influences which threaten our Christian life and our Christian work can penetrate. As the diver in his bell sits dry at the bottom of the sea, and draws a pure air from the free heavens far above him, and is parted from that murderous waste of green death that clings so closely round the translucent crystal walls which keep him safe; so we, enclosed in God, shall repel from ourselves all that would overflow to destroy us and our work, and may by His grace lay deeper than thewaters some courses in the great building that shall one day rise, stately and many-mansioned, from out of the conquered waves. (A. Maclaren,D. D.)
Laying down the burden
Dr. H. Clay Trumbull, the well-known religious leader of America who passed away the other day, related a story about one of his little daughters. “She brought to me a while ago,” he says, “a geography book, having on its cover a picture of fabled Atlas, bearing the globe on his shoulders. Pointing to the overburdened man, with his bowed head, upstrained shoulders, and distended muscles, staggering under the weight that seemed just ready to crush him, she said: ‘Papa! Why don’t that man lay that thing down?’ ‘Well, my dear,’ I answered, ‘it would be a great deal better if he did. But that man has the idea that he must carry the world on his shoulders. There are a good many men of that sort, as you will find when you are older.’ That child’s question is a pertinent one to any of you who are struggling under oppressive burden of personal anxiety of any nature whatosever. ‘Why don’t you lay that thing down?’ ‘Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.’”
