Because you prayed
I’m in Isaiah today. And it’s a book filled with promises and hope for those who return to God. But right in the middle of this, Isaiah starts telling a story about King Hezekiah. Now remember, these days I am looking for clues about God and how He responds not only to Hezekiah, but to me and you. Because that is why God gave us the Bible: so, we can get to know Him and His character!
The king of Assyria is coming after Jerusalem. There are Israelite men sitting on the wall, and the enemy has come to taunt them and create fear and distrust of their king, but King Hezekiah has ordered them not to answer him at all. It’s a desperate and scary situation. But soon after this, he receives a threatening letter from the King of Assyria, goes to the temple, spreads it out before the Lord and prays this prayer:
‘O Lord of heaven’s Armies, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God. It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course, the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all – only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands. Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power, then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God.’ (Isaiah 37:18-20).
And Isaiah the prophet sends this message back to Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘because you prayed about King Sennacherib of Assyria, the Lord has spoken this word against him:’ (Isaiah 37:21b).
Those words jumped off the page! ‘Because you prayed…’ and here are my thoughts:
1.God was ready and waiting to answer His prayer! That’s who God is. Our Answer for everything. It reminded me of a Psalm I memorized recently, where the psalmist says: ‘O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help!’ (from Psalm 86). God is ready and waiting to answer those who come to Him in humility and repentance and admitting their need for him.
2.Hezekiah honored God for Who He is before he made his request. King Sennacherib thought that he was the greatest king ever, but Hezekiah knew the real King and he honored Him in this prayer. When we come before God: do we do that? I find myself praying something similar every day: I remind myself that God is my Creator and that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and my life is in His hands. I never used to do that, but I find that when I see myself as God’s creation, I am suddenly feeling grateful.
3.Hezekiah was honest about Sennacherib’s other conquests. The other nations that were conquered were not relying on the one true God, so of course Assyria could conquer them. In fact, God was the one who ordained that that would happen.
4. Hezekiah’s request was humble. He simply asked to be rescued by the Only One who COULD rescue! And this is a prayer that honors God, and it should be a model for our prayers. And this is what God does: He’s a rescuer of the humble, and delights to honor those who come to Him for help.
5.God quickly gave him assurance, even before He acted. He promised Hezekiah that He would take care of things, and He did. That night, the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers! The enemy that taunted them yesterday was dead. And their king? He went home with his tail between his legs and was murdered by his sons when he was worshipping his own false god.
So, it’s observations like these that have transformed my prayer life. I have had a ‘paradigm shift’ on my understanding of God. He is for me, not against me. He is good! He wants me to get to know Him, and to treasure Him, and He wants to deliver me from my troubles. If God doesn’t seem like that to you, keep seeking Him. Ask Him if there’s anything in your life He wants to change and change whatever He brings to your mind! You can know Him and learn to hear from Him: He wants that for you.
It's been about 7 years since my life fell apart. But when my marriage was falling apart, and addiction was winning the war with my husband, I fell apart too because I didn’t know who I really was: a daughter of the King! But these troubles were a gift, because I got to a place of such desperation, that I finally turned to God. For real. And I sought Him like I never had before. And when He revealed Himself to me, I wanted to know Him even more. In my case, He did the same thing for my husband too. Now we both have a desire to stay close to God, because we have seen His goodness, and never want to drift away again. But we still have problems…because God doesn’t want us to stop needing Him. The other night, we were both up all night. And the next morning, my husband came into my office at home and said, ‘Let’s pray about this: let’s get on our knees.’ I knew immediately what he was talking about because it was a situation that was weighing on both of us. So, we did that, we told God what we were afraid of and worried about and asked Him for His favor. We also asked Him to show us if there is anything in our lives that doesn’t honor Him. We had such a special time together (we never used to pray together much, but now we find that it connects us with each other in a powerful way). And God heard, and He answered. Maybe we need to get to a point of desperation so that we will seek Him wholeheartedly. Maybe this needs to happen in our lives more than once: rather, over and over! His faithfulness in the past grows our trust in Him for the future. We had so many situations that we didn’t see a way out of, but God did! So today, we are praising Him and thanking Him for who He is and what He has done. Don’t be like I used to be and take God for granted: don’t underestimate the power He gives us in prayer. Keep praying, keep seeking Him, keep asking.
Remember these words: ‘…. Because you prayed’.
