(Thursday, 10-25-07) Prayer 19 - Hezekiah's Prayer for Deliverance

Read first:
2 Kings 19:14-19

In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib, King of Assyria came against Judah. In a bold political move designed to detour any possible religious zealousness that might produce armed resistance, he sent messengers to warn King Hezekiah and his people not to rely on treaties with Egypt, nor even to rely on the protection of God. Rabshakeh, the messenger forcefully put forth the terms of surrender.

Hezekiah’s response was to tear his clothes and cover himself with sack cloth and ashes, a display of grief and mourning. Hezekiah sought the help of Isaiah, the prophet, who revealed that God would solve the problem.

What Can We Learn?
1. Note Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord which was a house of prayer
2. He took the offending letter from the Assyrians and “spread it out” before the Lord. It’s as if he opened it up for God to examine.
3. Hezekiah’s prayer emphasizes one thing in several ways: he speaks to God as the “only” God, in direct contrast to the way the Assyrians perceived him to be.
4. Hezekiah’s prayer was very specific, that God might deliver them from the Assyrians.
5. Note also, the specific reason Hezekiah gives for asking for deliverance: that all the kingdoms of the earth might know that only God, was God.
6. This prayer focuses our attention to the one thing that God has always desired for human beings to acknowledge — that there is only one God.

Questions to Ponder
1. Not that we need a “temple” in which to pray, but do we ever think of a “place” to pray?
2. Why would it be helpful to take whatever problem we’re trying to solve and “spread it out” before the Lord? How might we do that?
3. Can you think of some ways we might neglect the idea that there is only one God?
4. Why is it important to be specific in our prayers?
5. Hezekiah understood the fundamental motive for God to act in the lives of human beings. Do you think we’re aware of that reason? How do you think we might increase our own awareness of that primary motive?