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Context No. 4200 of 4322 · Sirach

Context · Reflection

Sirach 48:17-25: in context

17Hezekiah fortified his city, and brought water into its midst. He tunneled through rock with iron, and built cisterns for water. 18In his days Sennacherib invaded, and sent Rabshakeh, and departed. He lifted up his hand against Zion, and boasted great things in his arrogance. 19Then their hearts and their hands were shaken, and they were in pain, as women in labor. 20But they called upon the Lord who is merciful, spreading out their hands to him. The Holy One quickly heard them out of Heaven, and delivered them by the hand of Isaiah. 21He struck the camp of the Assyrians, and his angel utterly destroyed them. 22For Hezekiah did that which was pleasing to the Lord, and was strong in the ways of his ancestor David, which Isaiah the prophet commanded, who was great and faithful in his vision. 23In his days the sun went backward. He prolonged the life of the king. 24He saw by an excellent spirit what would come to pass in the future; and he comforted those who mourned in Zion. 25He showed the things that would happen through the end of time, and the hidden things before they came.

Sirach recalls the days of King Hezekiah, when the Assyrian army under Sennacherib invaded and his commander boasted arrogantly against Zion. The people's hearts and hands trembled; they were in anguish, like a woman in labor. Their situation seemed hopeless before the boasting enemy. But then they did the one thing that mattered: they called upon the Lord who is merciful, spreading out their hands to him in prayer.

And the response was swift and decisive. The Holy One, Sirach says, quickly heard them from heaven and delivered them by the hand of Isaiah; the Assyrian camp was struck down. When the people, terrified and outmatched, turned to God in prayer, he heard them quickly and saved them. Their deliverance came not from their own resources against the boasting army, but from crying out to the God who hears.

When we face what seems overwhelming, when arrogant threats make our hearts and hands tremble, the faithful response is not to trust our own resources but to spread out our hands to God in prayer. He is merciful, and he hears; as he quickly heard Hezekiah's people and delivered them, he attends to the cry of those who turn to him.

When I face something overwhelming that makes my heart and hands tremble, do I turn, like Hezekiah's people, to cry out to the merciful God who hears, spreading out my hands to him in prayer, rather than trusting my own resources against the threat?

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