Scripture Daily

Context No. 3239 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 19:8-13: in context

8So Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. 9When he heard it said of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you,” he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, 10“Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Will you be delivered? 12Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? 13Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’”

The Assyrian king Sennacherib, still threatening Jerusalem, sends Hezekiah a letter designed to shatter his faith. Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, it says, promising that Jerusalem will not fall. Look what the kings of Assyria have done to every land; did the gods of those nations deliver them? Where are the kings of all these cities we destroyed?

The letter is a direct assault on faith: do not let your God deceive you. It lists nation after nation whose gods could not save them, and dares Hezekiah to think his God any different. It is the voice of overwhelming worldly power mocking trust in God, and it poses the question every believer eventually faces: is your God really able to save you, or is your trust in him a delusion? Hezekiah's response, in the verses to come, is to take the letter into the temple and spread it out before the LORD. When the world's power taunts our faith and asks, can your God really deliver you?, the answer is to bring the very taunt before God in prayer.

When circumstances or voices mock my trust in God, asking "can he really save you?", do I take the taunt straight to God in prayer rather than letting it crush my faith?

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