Isaiah 37:1-5: a reflection

1When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the LORD’s house. 2He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 3They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to give birth. 4It may be the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’” 5So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

When the Assyrian commander's defiant threats reach King Hezekiah, blasphemies against the living God and demands for Jerusalem's surrender, Hezekiah's response is telling. He tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth, and goes into the house of the LORD. And he sends to the prophet Isaiah with a request: lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left. Faced with a crisis beyond his power, Hezekiah's first move is not to the war council or the negotiating table but to God, and to prayer.

Notice where Hezekiah turns in his distress. The threat was real and overwhelming, a vast empire defying his God and besieging his city. He could have turned first to strategy, to alliances, to panic. Instead he went to the house of the LORD and sought prayer, bringing the crisis and the blasphemy straight to God, and asking others to pray with him. His instinct under threat was to turn Godward.

That is an instinct worth cultivating for our own crises. When trouble comes that is beyond our power, when we are threatened, overwhelmed, or afraid, our first move is often to worry, to scheme, to try to handle it ourselves. Hezekiah shows a better first response: to go to God, to take the trouble into his presence, to seek prayer. When a crisis larger than you bears down, do as Hezekiah did. Before anything else, turn to God; bring the threat into his presence, and ask others to pray with you. The first response to what is beyond you should be to take it to the God for whom nothing is.

Lord, when the Assyrian threats and blasphemies reached him, Hezekiah tore his clothes and went straight into your house, sending for prayer, turning first to you before anything else. Give me that instinct in my own crises. When trouble comes that is beyond my power, when I am threatened, overwhelmed, or afraid, keep me from turning first to worry, scheming, or handling it alone. Help me go to you first, bringing the trouble into your presence and seeking the prayers of others. The first response to what is beyond me should be to take it to you, for whom nothing is too great. Teach me to turn Godward before all else.