2 Kings 19: Give Ear, Lord, and Hear!

¹⁴ Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁶ Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God. -2 Kings 19:14-16

King Hezekiah faced the most difficult moment of his life. His enemies sent a letter declaring their intent to destroy his city. What could he do? He did not have the military might to confront his opponents, leaving him no hope for success. No hope but God.

He prayed before the Lord and begged him to respond. Did God hear? Yes. Did he reply? In power. At the end of the chapter we are told this about Hezekiah’s enemies:

³⁵ That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! ³⁶ So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

³⁷ One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.

God intervened powerfully and clearly. He still does today. When we face impossible situations, he is there. Our challenge is to cry out to him, and him alone, for the strength to endure and to thrive through all of life’s challenges.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.