SermonIndex Audio Sermons
SermonIndex - Promoting Revival to this Generation
Give To SermonIndex
Discussion Forum : Scriptures and Doctrine : ANY KINGS OUT THERE???

Print Thread (PDF)

Goto page ( 1 | 2 Next Page )
PosterThread









 ANY KINGS OUT THERE???

Why I love I and II Kings
Because of the mirror of doctrine.
For example, today (after) I ran errands, worked out, etc., in the middle of the afternoon, whilst cruising home on the Interstate - (Remember, with a full day and afternoon still ahead of me, mind you) on my way home, the Spirit was (lovingly) convicting me about Matthew 6:33 ("But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.")

This is not the first time His still small voice invades my conscious efforts to complete "all these things" when I daily attempt to prioritize ahead of His Kingdom and Righteousness and instead, commence with my own affairs, whilst identifying, disguising / justifying these activities under the deceptive banner of "responsibility"!

"Where is my Word in you?" The Spirit beckons. "When will you join me in picking up where we left off just yesterday afternoon in II Kings 16"

And I'm immediately hit with pangs of guilt and discontent right in the midst of my "activities" which preceded my time with Christ in His Word. Ugh!!! And I missed the smell of the Bible pages, the sound of the Spirit's voice reading and revealing the scripture as though He's speaking it right out of my heart and letting it flow through my bloodstream...so that it is TRULY UNDERSTOOD becomes it is now a part of you. Not to mention the entertainment of God's history as the plot of God's ruthlessly loving pursuit of His everlasting love, Israel, thickens - and my heart fills up with sorrow bursting to break, my eyes water over the pages which violently rip the hearts and minds of the inhabitants of God's beloved Northern and Southern kingdoms right from His bosom - into the merciless talons of...sigh...the Assyrians...enter...the Babylonian Captivity. Oh God, how could I put errand running before this...?

Yet, I know why I avoided promptly returning to my study in II Kings 16 and 17 (as I write this in retrospect) and instead chose to distract myself with "necessary" activities. Why? Because I am just fearful as fascinated with what this intimate encounter with God's Word (Doctrine) does to me, when I submit to it.

I'm mourning over Assyria's capture of the Northern Kingdom under that foolish king Hoshea's reign (II Kings 17: 1-2) - "bribery" of all things...really, Hoshea?. And I am astonished (yet, can totally relate to) at the catalogue of Israel's rebellion, which God lists in harrowing detail. Which compels me to get out my highlighter and ink pen, yet that cannot keep pace with Israel's offenses against the very One True God who led them out of Egypt (II Kings 17: 7)! I can almost hear God's voice quivering with sadness as he metes out His Judgment in response to over ten acts of rebellion committed against Him by His very own (II Kings 17: 8 - 17). And I almost wept at verse 18. I had to look away for several moments.

And it all flows through my own bloodstream which was once in captivity to a fallen, enslaved Adamic nature. And His Spirit reminds me that Israel is a mirror into my own soul when it submits to sin's captivity. A captivity which the league of God's own prophets could not deliver Israel from (II Kings 17: 13), as the divine warnings of Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Micah, Joel ( to name a few) they did not heed.

So, what hope have I when I consider this portion of doctrine in II Kings 17 (which hit me today)? I appreciate this doctrine because it illuminates my hope in salvation from perpetual captivity via the NEW COVENANT of CHRIST'S shed blood on the cross. A salvation which far surpasses and fulfills the work which was attempted with tragic inefficiency under the OLD COVENANT by the Law and the Prophets. Illustrated beautifully by today's (lonely and isolative) study in II Kings 17.

Tomorrow, the Spirit beckons me to join Him in II Kings 18 as He reveals Judah's "comupin's" though delayed (because of King David's example, right?).

Sigh...

I don't expect anyone to read this whole message. I hope so. This is my reality, more than life itself. I am more in touch with reality when immersed in God's Word, than I am during those darn errand runs and aerobics classes, etc.

If so, tell me what's on your mind? As my quest in life is to seek Christ's Body of believers whom, I hope, find this stuff to be the substance of life.

Love-in-Christ

 2016/8/29 5:58









 Re: ANY KINGS OUT THERE???

SCRIPTURE TEACHES ME (I Kings):

I was reviewing I KINGS today during my afternoon stroll. And WOW, WAS I BLOWN AWAY!!!

I want to be a King before I am qualified to be someone's Queen (or anything for that matter...)

Why? Because what I have learned (or rather, the Spirit revealed in my intimate study of I Kings) the following:

The book of 1 / 2 Kings holds the secret of success in reigning over the kingdom of your life. It is the secret of learning to be submissive to the authority and dominion of God in your own life. In other words, man can never exercise dominion over his life unless he first subjects himself to the dominion of God. If you yield to God's dominion, you are given reign over the areas in your own life.

I want to do this very thing. I desire it more than anything. And I am perpetually frustrated because I have not yet placed God's Dominion on the throne of my own "free" will.

I have learned by painful means (and am still struggling with this, right now as I type) that, if you refuse the dominion of God in your own life, you cannot under any circumstances or by any means fulfill your desire to be in authority over your life. It is impossible!

This is what I and II Kings is teaching me. That is why all through this book you will find that the spotlight is on the throne. It is the king that is the important one -- for as the king goes, so goes the nation. In your life your will is king. What your will allows to enter in to control your life, determines how the kingdom of your life goes.



make sense?



Please reply.

 2016/8/29 5:59









 Re: II KINGS 18

Phew!!!

II KINGS 18 today...and I AM ABSOLUTELY TRAUMATIZED by the contents of this portion of Israel's History....!!!!!!!!

I still have yet to absorb it all, saints! I'm no rabbi nor have had the pleasure of studying under a "Hillel" or "Gamiliel". The Spirit within me knows how much my heart and mind can endure...and my initial impressions coupled with the Spirit's very gentle revelation of what I found in this chapter is as follows:

(Pause...sigh...rubbing the enchantment from my eyes...) include:

Is it just me or did Judah get it worst than the Northern Kingdom? Oh...the sickening humiliation which those reptilian Assyrians inflicted on the first of a truly righteous King (Hezekiah) since David.

GOOD THING: I have found the kind of King I want to be like, Hezekiah! I could never be a David. But I'd love to be a Hezekiah, who is the model of what God fashioned as the perfect human will - II KINGS 18: 3 - (submitted to the Dominion of God's Will, yet still very effective, strong and brave in his own right).

Look at how Good and brave and uncompromising Hezekiah was as God outlines the beauty of this KIng's royal yet righteous deeds in II KINGS 18: 4 - 8). What a man. What a King!!!

So, I'll stop here preserving my everlasting appreciation and love for this King. I pray that God fashions my will to model the kingship of Hezekiah! I am confident that He will do this.

Again, I have to stop here, because I start to panic when I consider how it all shifted into the bowels of utter gehenna for Hezekiah (even in the midst of his consistent righteousness under the torrential taunting of that Spawn of Lucifer, Sennacherib the (Ass)yrian. I wonder what his name means, I bet it's something horrific. I'm going to look up the meaning of the name "Sen-nach'-er-ib".

If anyone finds out, please enlighten me.

Will be back soon with more on this devastating chapter. I love you, KIng Hezekiah!!!

LOve-in-Christ

kyp

 2016/8/29 6:01









 Re: The (Ass)yrians

"Sen-nach'-er-ib". You Satanic Rogue!

He and his (Ass)yrian hosts forced, brainwashed, taunted and terrorized the Israelites to the point of consuming their own excrement for God's sake......adding to the unbearable humiliation of Good King Hezekiah who had to witness this utter degradation of his own people.

God, help them? My Spirit too cried out with a loud voice along with Rab'-sha-keh, as he had to endure what he saw as the Jews sat along that cesspool wall of shame (II KINGS 18: 27 - 28). Oh, God! How can a human heart subject another human being to what those poor Jews endured whilst sitting on the wall???

Jeremiah did warn us, "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" (Jeremiah 17: 9). I think the people of Judah found this out in II Kings 18: 27. Does Satan really so hate God's people? Can a man be so possessed with almost supernatural evil to oppress one another to such a devastating extent.

(II KINGS 18: 17 - 27)

There really IS A HELL!!!

At least my comfort and faith in the God - submitted human will and spirit can still prevail, when I consider KIng Hezekiah's divinely noble and beautifully patient and faithful candor whilst standing in the midst of this Hellish and eminent captivity. Hezekiah exhibited more power, virility, wisdom and courage when brought to his very knees at the unresolved conclusion of II King's 18, than the whole host of "Sen-nach'-er-ib" standing tall and wickedly majestic in their unjust conquest.

Again, I love you King Hezekiah!!!

Please help me out with this, saints!

kyp

 2016/8/29 6:03









 Re: Why I Love King Hezekiah

It's said that this is all Hezekiah's fault for removing the high places (18:22). Hezekiah is trying to deceive you, but don't let him do that (18:29). The message was conveyed in the "language of Judah" so that all the people would hear (18:26-28). Assyria even claims that "The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it." (18:25b) So, there's confusion here--Assyria speaking in the name of the LORD as well as Asherah--which is it? Who cares about truth, whatever sticks. Turn away from Hezekiah, and you will have an abundance of good things (18:23,31-32)--visualize horses, olive trees, honey, and you'll live and not die....

I call this "Brainwashing" of the Anti-C hrist...no?

That was the bravest thing Hezekiah could do!!! Hezekiah was "cleaning house" with no interest in political correctness to win the favor of the people at the expense of God;s favor. Do you know of the hideous acts of adominable sodomy and temple prostitution, burning newborn babies in the fire of Molech, which were notorious for taking place on those very "high places" which GOOD King Hezekiah had had enough of. At the risk of losing the favor of a brainwashed and acclimated corruptive vox populi, Hezekiah, instead did what was right mot in the eyes of the comfortably deluded populace, but God's Holy Dominion. That took immensely divine courage to remove the high places which were notorious for pagan worship. Israel had no business worshipping and entering into the elevated planes which illustrated the abominable acts of what those pagans.


Although, there is much stacked against Hezekiah:

- Everything around him is falling down. The Northern Kingdom (Israel) just fell (18:11), following many other kingdoms (18:34), and Judah was next in Assyria's sights, and some fortified cities of Judah already did fall (18:13).

- The King of Assyria is trying to turn Hezekiah's own people against him. It's said that this is all Hezekiah's fault for removing the high places (18:22). Hezekiah is trying to deceive you, but don't let him do that (18:29). The message was conveyed in the "language of Judah" so that all the people would hear (18:26-28). Assyria even claims that "The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it." (18:25b) So, there's confusion here--Assyria speaking in the name of the LORD as well as Asherah--which is it? Who cares about truth, whatever sticks. Turn away from Hezekiah, and you will have an abundance of good things (18:23,31-32)--visualize horses, olive trees, honey, and you'll live and not die....

- Even Hezekiah seems to be faltering and becoming desperate, stripping the gold from the temple to give to the king of Assyria (18:16) and saying, contrary to his earlier defiance (18:7), "...I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear." (18:14a). I could imagine the gold being given away was a momentary respite that ultimately would not satisfy Assyria (18:20,32) who would want yet more and more, and it even might feed his armies.

One thing that seems wise is Hezekiah instructed his people to be silent and not reply (18:36).
Peeking ahead, Hezekiah consults with Isaiah the prophet. Chapter 36 of Isaiah's book tells of this same account of 2 Kings 18.

Who is Hezekiah who arrived here? Hezekiah took down Asherah poles. (Should we do the same? We have no record of Jesus doing this nor Paul (Acts 17:23), not in a physical way, except Mat 21:12.) Hezekiah was said to "not depart" from following the LORD, but he "kept the commandment the LORD commanded Moses" (18:6). Oh, and "he trusted in the LORD" (18:5), and someone needs a ton of that in this situation. He could have said, ok Sennacherib, yes sir, you da man, whatever you want, and give me my horses and olive trees. Luke 4:7 "If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." (ESV)

 2016/8/29 6:05









 Re: More on King Hezekiah (I love this man!)

Here's a recent example of why I refuse to accept that Hezekian commited any folly which contributed the Judah's captvity. Infact, I learned today that Hezekiah's Christ-like kingship actually delayed their captivity.

This morning on my 4 mile workout walk, whilst walking I plugged in my headphones and uploaded the audio version of II Kings 17, 18 and 19. Though I had previously read the NKJV version (at home in the solitude of my chamber, the Holy Spirit was still "reading it to, with and through me).

Yet, during my stroll, I craved more understanding, I channeled these chapters AGAIN, but via a clearer translation (Eugene Peterson's "The Message" - plain english translation) AND via listening to the chapters being read to me via an audio device.

There was no interpretation nor exposition, just a repetition of the same three chapters I had already read but from an auditory receptive method and with a different translation.

AND BOY!!!! Was my mind blown. When reading the scripture, there is a risk and tendency (especially regarding my ADHD brain) for crucial elements of God's revelation to ill-adapt to the brain's (mind's) anatomically large grooves, fissures; small creases called sulci, and outward folds, called gyri.

When I listened to the three chapters via an audio translation of "The Message" instead of reading (after all, I was walking whilst listening) it...my mind, heart and spirit flowed...no...floated...(I say "floated" because even my body became engaged in this refreshed clarity right in spite of commencing with my habitual and routinely dis-associative outdoor walking workout. Though totally irrelevant to what was happening as I submitted my ears to heat...my feet even felt as though they were levitating above the paved walking trail because I could not feel the soles of my sneakers making contact with the pavement.

But in listening to II Kings 18, I could certainly feel and connect with every single thought, action, and prayer, and even confusion which that blessed Christ-like King Hezekiah endured as he fearfully "put his whole trust in the God of Israel" as he faithfully "kept to the standards of his ancestor David" (II KIngs 18: 1-4)...

...and bravely denounced the spiritually destructive appeasement of his own deluded nation (Judah), whom had grown accustomed to and dependent upon compromising with the very pagan idols which (just one chapter prior in II KIngs 17: 7-12) brought about Jerusalem's downfall and captivity under the evil king Hoshea of Israel, who, unlike Hezekiah, tolerated and allowed the Israelites to " do all kinds of things on the sly, things offensive to their God, then openly and shamelessly built local sex-and-religion shrines at every available site. They set up their sex-and-religion symbols at practically every crossroads. Everywhere you looked there was smoke from their pagan offerings to the deities?the identical offerings that had gotten the pagan nations off into exile." (II Kings 17: 7-12)

I know this sounds crazy and esoteric. Yet, it is more true and real than what I ate for breakfast this morning (which was a very bland and uneventful Iso-protein shake).

I have more to say on this euphoric revelation received after reviewing this chapter again but instead via the audio listening to another translation ("The Message")...

In the meantime...tell me what you think...

 2016/8/29 6:07









 Re: More on King Hezekiah (I love this man!)

Here's a recent example of why I refuse to accept that Hezekian commited any folly which contributed the Judah's captvity. Infact, I learned today that Hezekiah's Christ-like kingship actually delayed their captivity.

This morning on my 4 mile workout walk, whilst walking I plugged in my headphones and uploaded the audio version of II Kings 17, 18 and 19. Though I had previously read the NKJV version (at home in the solitude of my chamber, the Holy Spirit was still "reading it to, with and through me).

Yet, during my stroll, I craved more understanding, I channeled these chapters AGAIN, but via a clearer translation (Eugene Peterson's "The Message" - plain english translation) AND via listening to the chapters being read to me via an audio device.

There was no interpretation nor exposition, just a repetition of the same three chapters I had already read but from an auditory receptive method and with a different translation.

AND BOY!!!! Was my mind blown. When reading the scripture, there is a risk and tendency (especially regarding my ADHD brain) for crucial elements of God's revelation to ill-adapt to the brain's (mind's) anatomically large grooves, fissures; small creases called sulci, and outward folds, called gyri.

When I listened to the three chapters via an audio translation of "The Message" instead of reading (after all, I was walking whilst listening) it...my mind, heart and spirit flowed...no...floated...(I say "floated" because even my body became engaged in this refreshed clarity right in spite of commencing with my habitual and routinely dis-associative outdoor walking workout. Though totally irrelevant to what was happening as I submitted my ears to heat...my feet even felt as though they were levitating above the paved walking trail because I could not feel the soles of my sneakers making contact with the pavement.

But in listening to II Kings 18, I could certainly feel and connect with every single thought, action, and prayer, and even confusion which that blessed Christ-like King Hezekiah endured as he fearfully "put his whole trust in the God of Israel" as he faithfully "kept to the standards of his ancestor David" (II KIngs 18: 1-4)...

...and bravely denounced the spiritually destructive appeasement of his own deluded nation (Judah), whom had grown accustomed to and dependent upon compromising with the very pagan idols which (just one chapter prior in II KIngs 17: 7-12) brought about Jerusalem's downfall and captivity under the evil king Hoshea of Israel, who, unlike Hezekiah, tolerated and allowed the Israelites to " do all kinds of things on the sly, things offensive to their God, then openly and shamelessly built local sex-and-religion shrines at every available site. They set up their sex-and-religion symbols at practically every crossroads. Everywhere you looked there was smoke from their pagan offerings to the deities?the identical offerings that had gotten the pagan nations off into exile." (II Kings 17: 7-12)

I know this sounds crazy and esoteric. Yet, it is more true and real than what I ate for breakfast this morning (which was a very bland and uneventful Iso-protein shake).

I have more to say on this euphoric revelation received after reviewing this chapter again but instead via the audio listening to another translation ("The Message")...

In the meantime...tell me what you think...

 2016/8/29 6:07









 Re: King Hezekiah Trembling Bravery

It's said that this is all Hezekiah's fault for removing the high places (18:22). Hezekiah is trying to deceive you, but don't let him do that (18:29). The message was conveyed in the "language of Judah" so that all the people would hear (18:26-28). Assyria even claims that "The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it." (18:25b) So, there's confusion here--Assyria speaking in the name of the LORD as well as Asherah--which is it? Who cares about truth, whatever sticks. Turn away from Hezekiah, and you will have an abundance of good things (18:23,31-32)--visualize horses, olive trees, honey, and you'll live and not die....

BECAUSE IT WAS AN ABOMNIABLE PAGAN IDOL WHICH COMPETED WITH THE WORSHIP OF THE ONE TRUE GOD, WHICH ALSO HAVE A TEMPLE, WHICH HEZEKIAH REFUSED TO DESTROY BECAUSE IT WAS THE ONLY LEGITIMATE TEMPLE AS IT REPRESENTED (NOT MANY GODS) BUT THE ONE TRUE GOD, IN WHOM HEZEKIAH WAS TRYING TO RESTORE HIS PEOPLE TO WORSHIPING THE ONE TRUE GOD.
G
COME, LET US REASON THIS OUT AFTER YOU READ WHAT WAS REVEALED AFTER OFFERING MY EARS TO HEAR AND REVISIT THIS CHAPTER ON HEZEKIAH:

YOU BLAME HIM FOR DESTROYING THE IDOL WORSHIP PLACES... WHAT GOD SUBMITTED KIND WOULDN'T DO THIS?!?

Remember in 2 Kings 18:4: "He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan."

?Removed the high places?: Hezekiah was the first king of Judah to totally eradicate the high places, i.e., the WORSHIP CENTERS BUILT CONTRARY TO MOSAIC LAW (Deut. 12:2-7, 13-14).

?Brake the images ? the groves?: Hezekiah destroyed the IDOLS USED IN THE WORSHIP OF THE SEX GODS BAAL and ASHERAH (Jezebel's God's whom destroyed the prophets in I Kings!!!!).

AND WHAT ABOUT THAT SACRED BRASEN SERPENT?!? ONE THE SURFACE, THIS MAY SEEM LIKE BLASPHEMY, YEAH! BUT THE SPIRIT IS ANYTHING BUT "SURFACE". ?The brasen serpent?: That supernatural "look and live" pillar of power and healing, yeah?

Hezekiah broke the Nehushtan into pieces i.e., the bronze snake made by Moses in the wilderness (see notes on Numbers 21;4-9), because JUDAH HAD COME TO WORSHIP IT AS AN IDOL, (perhaps influenced by Canaanite religion, which regarded snakes as fertility symbols) when it was only intended to remain a symbol of deliverance and healing. However it had become a source of spiritual confusion and idolatrous worship, possibly associated with the worship of Asherah. Therefore, it had to be destroyed.

The ?bronze serpent? was a statue Moses erected to save the Israelites from deadly biting snakes (Num. 21:5-9). According to Jesus, it pictured how he would be lifted up on the cross (John 3:14-15). Over time, however, it had become an object of worship called the ?Nehushtan (a word that sounds like the Hebrew words for both bronze and snake. The current symbol of our idol manufacturing industry of pharmacopeia which has become the source, not of healing but addiction.

The very first thing that Hezekiah did, when he took office, was open the temple in Jerusalem back up for worship. GOOD FOR HIM!!!

More to come...

 2016/8/29 6:09









 Re: Assyrian Captors Send a Jewish Priest?

One thing I hadn't realized before is that the king of Assyria commanded one of the Hebrew priests to teach God's law to the non-Jewish people that he brought into the land. What a remarkable outcome and grace, though wasted: for those people to that day "feared the LORD but also served their own gods" or, in other words, "They do not fear the LORD..." For them too, sin took them so far as to burn their children in the fire for another god. Fast forward hundreds of years, did these become the Samaritans in Jesus' day? Those whom inspired the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:33), the discussion about Mount Gerizim (John 4:9), the reminder that Jesus came to save lives not destroy (Luke 9:55) and who received the Holy Spirit in Acts 8:14-17? In our own day, we sometimes hear of a small Samaritan religious community in Israel.

It was revealed to me during my review of ii Kings 17: 24 the following:

This poor and unciviclized remnant was left, chiefly however of the poor and lower classes, with whom these foreign colonists mingled; so that the prevailing character of society about Samaria was heathen, not Israelite. For the Assyrian colonists became masters of the land; and, forming partial intermarriages with the remnant Jews, the inhabitants became a mongrel race, no longer a people of Ephraim (Isa 7:6). These people, imperfectly instructed in the creed of the Jews, acquired also a mongrel doctrine. Being too few to replenish the land, lions, by which the land had been infested (Jud 14:5; 1Sa 17:34; 1Ki 13:24; 20:36; So 4:8), multiplied and committed frequent ravages upon them. Recognizing in these attacks a judgment from the God of the land, whom they had not worshipped, they petitioned the Assyrian court to send them some Jewish priests who might instruct them in the right way of serving Him. The king, in compliance with their request, sent them one of the exiled priests of Israel [2Ki 17:27], who established his headquarters at Beth-el, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. It is not said that he took a copy of the Pentateuch with him, out of which he might teach them. Oral teaching was much better fitted for the superstitious people than instruction out of a written book. He could teach them more effectually by word of mouth. Believing that he would adopt the best and simplest method for them, it is unlikely that he took the written law with him, and so gave origin to the Samaritan copy of the Pentateuch [Davidson, Criticism]. Besides, it is evident from his being one of the exiled priests, and from his settlement at Beth-el, that he was not a Levite, but one of the calf-worshipping priests. Consequently his instructions would be neither sound nor efficient.

Also,

These settlers were, after a short time, incommoded by lions, which increased upon them, and diminished their numbers (ver. 25). The idea arose that the visitation was supernatural, and might be traced to the fact that the newcomers, not knowing "the manner of the God of the land," displeased him by the neglect of his rites or by the introduction of alien worship (ver. 26). A remedy for this was sought in the sending to them from Assyria one of the priests who had been carried off, from whom it was thought they might learn how "the God of the land" was to be propitiated. This was the orion of the "mixed religion" which grew up in the country. While the nations who had replaced the Israelites brought in their own superstitions, and severally worshipped their own gods (vers. 30, 31), there was a general acknowledgment of Jehovah by all of them, and a continuance of Jehovistic worship in the various high places. Perhaps to develop a more civilized, productive and highly adaptable culture, as would be more likely the evolutionary blessing of having one's nature fashioned by the teachings of the one true and wise God Jehovah, as opposed to the Cave-man nature often produced by humans who evolutionary potential is stunted by inadequate pagan superstition. Like the paralyzing belief they attributed to the attack of the lions?!?
Edit

 2016/8/29 6:11









 Re: Sennacherib: A Bramble of Destruction

Sannacherib's high crime was in mocking God (Isa 37:4,23). But what is interesting is he sometimes seems to claim to speak for God, causing doubt and confusion about whether Hezekiah really is the good guy here. Compare to Satan in Gen 3:5."

*MY RESPONSE:

Listen...I found out what Sennacherib's name means: "BRAMBLE OF DESTRUCTION"

Sin (the god) sends many brothers, son of Sargon, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria (B.C. 705), in the 23rd year of Hezekiah. "Like the Persian Xerxes, he was weak and vainglorious, cowardly under reverse, and cruel and boastful in success."

MY QUERY:

"I wonder what's going on in 2 Kings 18:14-16. But maybe it was brief because if you look at 2 Chr 32 shortly after, Hezekiah seems far stronger, stopping his own water and "encouraging" his people to be "strong and courageous." When a bully comes, I think we try to find a peaceful way around it until we figure out that normal rules don't apply."

*MY RESPONSE:

This "Bramble of Destruction" first set himself to break up the powerful combination of princes who were in league against him. Among these was Hezekiah, who had entered into an alliance with Egypt against Assyria. He accordingly led a very powerful army of at least 200,000 men into Judea, and devastated the land on every side, taking and destroying many cities ( 2 Kings 18:13-16 ; See Isaiah later 2 Chronicles 32:1-8 ).

His own account of this invasion, as given in the Assyrian annals, is in these words:

"Because Hezekiah, king of Judah, would not submit to my yoke, I came up against him, and by force of arms and by the might of my power I took forty-six of his strong fenced cities; and of the smaller towns which were scattered about, I took and plundered a countless number. From these places I took and carried off 200,156 persons, old and young, male and female, together with horses and mules, asses and camels, oxen and sheep, a countless multitude; and Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem, his capital city, like a bird in a cage, building towers round the city to hem him in, and raising banks of earth against the gates, so as to prevent escape...Then upon Hezekiah there fell the fear of the power of my arms, and he sent out to me the chiefs and the elders of Jerusalem with 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver, and divers treasures, a rich and immense booty...All these things were brought to me at Nineveh, the seat of my government."

(Compare Isaiah 22:1-13 for description of the feelings of the inhabitants of Jerusalem at such a crisis.)

Hezekiah was not disposed to become an Assyrian feudatory. He accordingly at once sought help from Egypt ( 2 Kings 18:20-24 ).

Sennacherib, hearing of this, marched a second time into Palestine ( 2 Kings 18:17; 2 Kings 18: 37; 19 ; 2 Chr 32: 9-23; Isaiah 36:2-22 . Isaiah 37:25 should be rendered "dried up all the Nile-arms of Matsor," i.e., of Egypt, so called from the "Matsor" or great fortification across the isthmus of Suez, which protected it from invasions from the east).

Sennacherib sent envoys to try to persuade Hezekiah to surrender, but in vain. (See TIRHAKAH .)

He next sent a threatening letter ( 2 Kings 19:10-14 ), which Hezekiah carried into the temple and spread before the Lord.

MY FAVORITE ENDING to THIS HEART-STIRRING CHAPTER SUMMAY OF THIS PORTION OF HEZEKIAHS UNFIISHED HISTORY IN II KINGS 19 INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING EVENTS:

Isaiah again brought an encouraging message to the pious king ( 2 Kings 19:20-34 ).

"In that night" the angel of the Lord went forth and smote the camp of the Assyrians. In the morning, "behold, they were all dead corpses."

The Assyrian army was annihilated.

[This great disaster is not, as was to be expected, taken notice of in the Assyrian annals]

Though Sennacherib survived this disaster some twenty years, he never again renewed his attempt against Jerusalem.

He was murdered by two of his own sons (Adrammelech and Sharezer), and was succeeded by another son, Esarhaddon (B.C. 681), after a reign of twenty-four years.

INFACT, I CANNOT DO JUSTICE TO THE ACCOUNT OF HOW THE ONE TRUE LORD GOD JEHOVAH CONSOLED THE PRAYER OF KING HEZEKIAH
(II KINGS 19: 14-19) - (I MUST LEARN TO PRAY LIKE THAT), EMOWERED HIS PROPHETS WITH A DIVINE MESSAGE WHICH DUG UP THE ROOTS OF THAT ASSYRIAN BRAMBLE, Sennacherib...

Please bear with me as I ecstatically recount what absolutely rocked my world at the end of II KINGS 19. And I'd love to get the feedback of the saint whom have read this chapter.

MORE TO COME...

Love-in-Christ

 2016/8/29 6:14





©2002-2024 SermonIndex.net
Promoting Revival to this Generation.
Privacy Policy