Isaiah 36-37 (click here to read the passage)
Ok, a bit of a longer reading here, but we need the whole to get the picture of what’s happening. Remember that for the last 35 chapters, we’ve been dealing with the question, “With whom will you place your trust?” Remember that Ahaz (A king of Judah) decided to place his trust in other kings and nations, and the result was that he fell.
Then we had several chapters of prophecies, all pointing to the fact that trusting in anything or anyone other than the Lord will ultimately fail you.
Now King Hezekiah is facing the Assyrians at the height of their power, and they are literally knocking on the door of Jerusalem. They have defeated fortified city after city, and now they come to the walls of Jerusalem. They speak in Hebrew so that the message is clear: “Surrender and come out. Do you think that the Lord will save you?” and in 36.5 the question is asked, “Do you really trust the Lord to save you?”
Hezekiah inquires of the Lord through Isaiah, and the word from the Lord is, “Trust Me. I, the Lord, will deliver you.” After this, the Assyrian representatives again declare that God cannot save them and that God sent them, and Hezekiah comes to the tipping point where he must make a decision: trust the Lord or surrender.
Unlike Ahaz, who merely gave lip service to the Lord, Hezekiah chose to trust the Lord, and the result is that God delivered in a spectacular way, wiping out the army of the Assyrians (185k Assyrians destroyed!).
Wow. What an awesome moment, and it all comes to the point of the king trusting God.
Every day, we must make choices to trust or not to trust the Lord. Sometimes it’s with the little things, and at other times we’re challenged to trust the Lord with things that deeply matter or are quite precious to us. What we must acknowledge in all of this is that the Lord’s ways are better than ours, that His ways are higher than ours, that He can see so much more than we can even conceive of, and so we trust in His will and plan for our lives and not the limited things we can perceive.
Hezekiah asked God for deliverance. What do you think he envisioned? I guarantee you that God did something greater than Hezekiah ever imagined.
We don’t know what form or direction we will be given when we trust God with our lives, but it is wiser, better, and greater to trust the One who can see everything, who knows everything, who is all-powerful, and who graciously gave and sent His Son Jesus to us. Or would you rather trust in your limited abilities or the limited abilities of others? God is unlimited, and His love for you is unlimited, so who will you trust?
God bless you, and know that you are constantly in my prayers!
Scott