I'm eager to come to this chapter with you in Second
Kings, so if you have a copy of God's Word in your hands, please
meet me in Second Kings chapter 18.
Apart from David and Solomon, Hezekiah receives more
attention, more recognition than any other king in Judas history.
Really, all the kings in Israel's history and students of
the Old Testament will recall that there is more than just
three extensive chapters dedicated to Hezekiah's
administration. We also have things about him in
Second Chronicles and even in the prophetic book of Isaiah,
which means at least one thing. It is so obvious that the Holy
Spirit of God longs for us to learn much from this one man's
story. That is why we should be
excited. Because three weeks ago we only
began to uncover the wisdom and the inspiration attached to
Hezekiah's leadership and his walk with the living God.
And thankfully, the Lord has given us another opportunity
tonight to continue with this account.
And I must say, I am excited. I don't know how many times I'm
going to say it, but I'm so excited.
Not just because we were united, but because we're going to learn
a lot about spiritual warfare. If you endure this study until
near the end, you will see what I mean.
We're actually going to discover several insights of how Satan
conquers people's minds. There's much to learn even
before that. And in case we forgot, we only
touched on the 1st 12 verses of Hezekiah's achievements.
And this evening, if the Lord wills, we're going to complete
this chapter together. So we're going to read now
beginning at verse 13. Actually, before we read, I
think it would be good for us to refresh our memories, at least
to recall the main take away from our last study in this
book. The one thing that we were
impressed with concerning Hezekiah is that he was
exceptional in his obedience to the Lord, especially when you
compare him with his predecessors.
We learn earlier in Second Kings 18 that he spearheaded a
wonderful revival, A reformation to Judah in confronting issues,
compromising issues that were widely neglected by former
kings, even good kings. And so we were refreshed by this
man's wholehearted devotion to the Lord.
That is what we left with in our last study.
Now we pick up where we left off.
And this is important to keep in mind as we crack open this study
beginning in verse 13. Now we're going to read, let's
read verse 13 down to verse 16. In the 14th year of King
Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria, came up against all the
fortified cities of Judah and took them.
And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at
Lachish, saying, I have done wrong, withdraw from me.
Whatever you impose on me I will bear.
And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah, 300
talents of silver and 30 talents of gold.
And Hezekiah gave them all the silver that was found in the
House of the Lord and in the treasuries of the King's house.
At that time. Hezekiah stripped the gold from
the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the doorpost that
Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid, and he gave it to the
king of Assyria. We have seen in our study of the
Old Testament many invasions, many threats from foreign
enemies, Have we not? Concerning the people of God?
Absolutely. But the common trend in
Scripture is that these rage and these sieges followed prolonged
disobedience on the part of God's covenant people.
That's the trend. That's what makes this
particular passage so striking to us because as we just heard,
Hezekiah stood out for his bright and strong allegiance to
the true God. He was one of the few that held
fast to the Lord. And so the question that should
come to our minds is how can it be that Assyria encroaches upon
Judah and actually gains partial victory?
How is this possible? And in case there might be any
suspect that there is some hidden rebellion or compromise
in Hezekiah, there is a neighboring account that affirms
his fidelity to the Lord. This is going to be worth it.
You need to turn to the the parallel account in Second
Chronicles 32, just one verse. I'll wait for you.
Second Chronicles 32, verse one. Notice how the chronicler
depicts the same event by the Spirit.
He says in verse one, After these things and these acts of
faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria, came and invaded
Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to
win them for himself. Read slowly.
Notice that Sennacherib did not a camp against the cities of
Judah after acts of faithlessness, but after
Hezekiah's faithfulness. I thought faithfulness led to
prosperity, not problems, to blessings, not burdens, to a
smooth path forward, not surprise attacks.
That's what many Christians believe.
It's not that simple. Understand this, the blessings
of God are often packaged in ways that we would not expect.
And that is true here. And you might be wondering,
well, what kind of advantage is there to a vicious superpower of
a nation harassing the people of God?
This is the best answer I can give you.
Pay attention to this, that as much as Hezekiah did for the
glory of God, there was still so much that God wanted to do and
needed to do in Hezekiah, and it would require this big test in
order to achieve it. I'm reminded of the words of
Jesus in John 15, Two, when he speaks about every branch in him
that does not bear fruit is taken away, whereas every branch
that does bear fruit he prunes so that it can bear more fruit.
Pruning is painful. There is a cutting process.
There is a removing, there is a stripping.
It is uncomfortable. And I believe that is what's
happening here with Hezekiah. Faithful, righteous Hezekiah is
being pruned. And this is something that you
and I have to understand, especially when it comes to
interpreting the trials in our lives.
If you're not careful, you can be quick to see things that are
uncomfortable or painful as expressions of divine
displeasure or punishments. Always keep in mind that as you
are walking obediently, as you are faithfully serving the Lord
Jesus Christ, your Lord your Savior is always ready to prune
you always, as you're bearing fruit.
So pain isn't always our portion because we veer off or because
we're being disciplined for unrepentant sin.
Now, even while you are flourishing in your faith, God
might allow some pain always with a redemptive goal in mind.
And that is precisely what is before us today.
Because as much again as Hezekiah obeyed the Lord in
remarkable fashion, there was still things that needed to be
done in him. What what can be done in
Hezekiah? We heard in our last study a few
weeks ago that he, he trusted in the Lord.
He clung to the Lord, he he feared the Lord.
And if you look back at verse 5 again, I just mentioned that
yes, he did trust the Lord, but based on what we just read, it
wasn't a complete trust. That's what I think the Lord is
after here. I believe what the Lord is doing
in Hezekiah is trying to strengthen his faith in a
particular area, what area facing his enemies, facing his
enemies. And so he allows an enemy to
come to his front doorstep. And based on what we just read,
Hezekiah initially failed the test.
Didn't we see that he failed the test since his immediate
reaction was driven by fear and human wisdom?
Instead of crying out to the Lord, instead of coming before
the presence of God, he attempts to appease Assyria and he takes
the glory, some of the glories of the temple and he places it
at the feet of this Pagan king. That is not what David did when
he was threatened by his enemies.
And this man who supposedly mirrored David's faith in many
ways had a lapse of faith right here.
So I believe God exposed something and Hezekiah
particular weakness. And so he tries to make a deal
with the enemy. We read it that he says, OK,
look, I'm sorry that I withdrew from you because we read that
earlier in second Kings 18 that he sees I'm I'm no longer going
to be a vassal nation. I'm going to separate myself
from Assyria. We're called to independence.
We're called to be governed by God.
And then once a threat comes, he goes, oh, I changed my mind.
I'm sorry I stepped on your toes here.
What's the price tag? What do you want from me?
And a demand is made. He coughs it up, and what we're
going to see right here is that the enemy is never satisfied
with just some of who you are. He doesn't just want some of
what you have. He wants everything.
In the same way God wants everything, Satan wants
everything, even if he has to accomplish it step by step.
And that's what we're going to see here.
Can I mention something to you? This is just another testimony,
the validation of the accuracy and the historicity of our
Bibles. If you were to go to the British
Museum today, you would discover a large carving, a narration of
Senecreb and his achievements in this very chapter.
It's huge and it's remarkably detailed.
It's fascinating because what you'll find there again is
exactly what the Bible testifies in this place.
The campaign that we discover here is echoed in history.
It's confirmed, and this piece is massive.
It's about 12 meters wide, 5 meters long, and it was
discovered around or over 2000 years from its original
compilation. This was a wall relief that
Seneca ordered to be made in order to display his success.
And so it was in his palace, and obviously his Kingdom fell.
He passed on and history has preserved this record to our
encouragement, I believe. And the reason why historians
know that what's on those wall reliefs, and it's known as the
Lahish wall reliefs, is because there's this small Acadian
inscription above the chiseled Senekreb.
And here's what it reads. This is fascinating.
Again, Senekreb, king of the world, king of Assyria, sits on
a throne, and the spoils of Lahish are before him.
Lehish, as we just read, is the second most important and
prominent city in the Kingdom of Judah, not many miles far from
Jerusalem. And if you were to look this up,
you will find something of the Bible preserved for all the
world to see, to testify that this book is indeed true.
We're studying history here. We're not starting just, we're
not starting just moral lessons. This is true and it's before us.
So let's read on. What happens?
Verse 17, Are you with me? Verse 17?
And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the rap series, and the
rap shake with a great army from Lakish to King Hezekiah at
Jerusalem. And they went up and came to
Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and
stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the
highway to the washers field. And when they called for the
king, there came out to them a like him, the son of Hilkaya,
who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah
the son of Asaph the recorder. So Seneca the king of Assyria
smelled weakness. Hezekiah was willing to
surrender his treasure. And he goes, I'm after the whole
thing. And so he sends 3 delegates.
Now listen, these are not names what we just read in verse 17.
They're more likely titles. These are different roles.
These are different individuals who fulfilled different parts of
the Kingdom. And they approach, right?
And we know that the Rapshech, as we're going to read the rest
of the chapter, is the main spokesman.
And in response to this, Hezekiah sends his own
representative, three of them, to deal with this confrontation.
Now, when you read these names, you think, OK, OK, let me just
move on. Let me find something more
exciting. But you have to understand that
these names are not insignificant, especially the
names of the ones that we read of in verse 18, because they
reappear in our Bibles. Fact, two of the three names in
verse 18 show up in one of Isaiah's prophecies.
Before we turn there, let's read it again.
You need to highlight in your mind a couple of details that
will enrich your understanding of this passage.
Look back at verse 18 of Second Kings 18.
And when they called for the king, there came out to them a
like him, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household.
Highlight that and Shebna the secretary, highlight that and
Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.
Did you highlight it in your mind?
Good. Now go to Isaiah chapter 22
verse 15 and see this wonderful connection.
In Isaiah 22, the Lord rebukes the complacency and the
misplaced trust of His people in their military strength.
But just over halfway through the prophecy, the Spirit of God
shifts His focus and addresses one of the leaders in Jerusalem.
Tell me if this sounds familiar. Are you in Isaiah 22, verse 15
with me? Let's read it.
We're going to read a few verses.
Pay attention. Give yourself to this.
Thus says the Lord God of hosts, come go to this steward, to
Shebna who is over the household.
Pause. Based on 2nd Kings 18.
Was Shebna over the household? No, he was the secretary here.
We learned that He was over the household, and say to him, verse
16, What have you to do here? And whom have you here that you
have cut out here a tomb for yourself?
You who cut out a tomb on the height and a carve A dwelling
and carve A dwelling for yourself in the rock, behold,
the Lord will hurl you away violently.
O you strongman, He will seize firm hold on you, and whirl you
around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land.
There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious Chariots.
You shame of your master's house, I will thrust you from
your office, and you will be pulled down from your station.
Pause. Apparently the Lord's not very
happy with Shebna. There's something here about the
way this man dealt with his position, utilized his
authority, that made God angry. But it doesn't end there.
Let's continue. Verse 20 In that day I will call
my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah.
Did we read of him in Second Kings 18 Now what's going to
happen with him? Verse 21 And I will clothe him
with your robe, and we'll bind your sash on him, and we'll
commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem into the House of Judah.
And I will place on his shoulder the key of the House of David.
He shall open and none shall shut.
He shall shut and none shall open.
So let's put some of this together.
Based on this prophecy, we learned that Shebna was once
over the household. That's a very powerful position
in the Kingdom. But evidently this man Shebna
abused his position. He was so self absorbed and
that's indicated by some of the things that he did.
Notice the language here. He says, you who cut out a tomb
on the height and carve A dwelling for yourself on the
rock. So this man Shebna created
monuments for himself, and more than that, he also purchased and
acquired Chariots. Notice what the Lord says.
He says, I'm going to cast you away and you're going to take
your glorious Chariots with you. It could very well be that this
man even dipped his hand in the treasury in order to purchase
these things and acquire these things.
One thing is for certain, one thing is clear that what we
learned from this prophecy, please pay attention to this, is
that the way someone operates in their position of authority
really matters to God. And when somebody abuses their
authority, especially in God's Kingdom, it brings great
displeasure to Him. This is a good place to pause as
we serve the Lord in different ways and ask ourselves this, Why
do I do what I do for the Lord? Am I motivated for and by self?
If so, take note of this prophecy.
God observes our motives and He sees what we do with the
opportunities that have been given to us.
And especially for leaders, they have a greater accountability to
God because He will see if your service will be for His glory
and to the good of the people, or if you will manipulate it in
order to achieve more for yourself.
Now in contrast to Him, we read that the Lord exalts Eliakim and
that should serve stir us. You know why?
Because Eliakim and God promoting him shows us that the
Lord raises up someone who serves God for God.
Serving God for God and serving in the name of God for the sake
of the good of other people. In fact, did you catch how the
Lord speaks about Shebna in comparison to Eliakim?
Scroll back to verse 15. How does he start this prophecy?
He says. Thus says the Lord God of hosts,
come to this steward. Come to this steward now Scroll
down to verse 20, and when he speaks about like and notice how
there's a different approach in that day, I will call my
servant. So when it comes to shepherd, he
goes, let's deal with this steward, but with a like and he
goes, let me talk to you now about my servant.
More than that. Look what he says at the end of
verse 21, the second part, and he shall be a father to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem into the House of Judah.
Father, true father. A good father is selfless.
He is motivated for the good of his children.
He wants to prosper them, protect them, provide for them.
And what he says about like him is this.
He will be a true leader for my people.
And so again, let's ask ourselves this, am I motivated
in my service to God for God? Am I simply privileged to be
able to be an extension of His love to others, or are their
mixed desires? God takes note of it, and if you
want to be promoted in God's economy, He looks for those who
serve Him for Him. Now there's more.
Would you be shocked if I told you that Eli Kim points to Jesus
Christ? Not because I said so.
You know why Jesus said it? Oh, I love when faces look up.
What are you talking about? Do you remember where Jesus
quotes a part of this prophecy in the New Testament?
Think I'll wait. Very, very good.
The Book of Revelation turned there in chapter 3 who would
have thought that our studying second kings would connect with
our Sunday series in revelation such as the beauty and the
harmony of the Bible. Revelation 37 when Jesus
addresses the church in Philadelphia, notice his
introduction. And to the Angel of the church
in Philadelphia, right? The words of the Holy One, the
true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will
shut, who shuts and no one opens.
That's a direct quotation from Isaiah 22.
Now here's what my question was. How does this man, Eliakam in
his brief appearance in the Bible, foreshadow Jesus?
And I believe there are many answers, many directions we can
take this, but let me leave you with just one thought.
Eliakam means God rises or God raises.
I think that's significant because the love and the care
that alike him showed to God's people pointed to a greater
servant, the greatest servant of all, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
And God raised up Jesus Christ of Nazareth, not just with the
authority of one Kingdom, but with all authority in heaven and
on earth, not just to serve and to save a particular nation, but
the world. Christ with his maximum
unparalleled authority, demonstrates servitude and
humility. I like him, is just a flash in
the pan of a greater servant, a greater leader, a greater savior
who possesses greater authority. When we come to Revelation 37,
we're going to learn more about this, but for now, let's come
back to our study in Second Kings.
For the rest of the study, it's going to look different.
I hope that's OK with you, because the rest of Second Kings
18 is a monologue. More specifically, it's a
demoralizing speech. The Rap Shaka, the spokesperson,
is going to give a lecture. He is going to say many, many
things to Hezekiah, his leaders, and the citizens of Jerusalem in
order to break down their morale, ultimately break down
their faith. In essence, what we're going to
discover with the rest of this chapter is an exhibition of
psychological warfare. And when I was looking at this
the other day, I thought to myself, why is there so much
dedicated to this man's speech? Why can there have been a, you
know, summary? Instead?
There's around 16 verses of this one man speaking to intimidate
and threaten this people. And before he shoots an arrow,
before he climbs a wall, before he does anything physical, he
goes for the mind. And here I believe is the wisdom
of God concerning our walk with Christ and how this relates.
Because if you really dissect what the rapture has says, you
will discover that it mirrors what Satan often says to God's
children. In fact, I want to look at 7
things. Seven things that the enemy does
in order to build a stronghold in your mind and mind.
For what purpose? To discourage you, to disorient
you, and to eventually conquer you so that you would give up,
surrender, and step outside of the will of God.
I suggest that you take notes because this will equip us and
make us aware of the schemes of the evil 17 things, and they're
not limited to these things, but let's not be overwhelmed
tonight. 7 main observations with the rest of this chapter
that relates to how Satan whispers notions into our minds,
which is the main arena of spiritual warfare.
By the way, where's the main battle between the forces of
evil and the forces of righteousness take place?
Here, here, here, here. This is where it happens.
And we have a wonderful look into how it takes place for many
of us #1 the enemy will make you question God's trustworthiness.
Let's look at verse 19 and the rapture Case said to him, Say to
Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria.
Pause there. Notice that he doesn't call
Hezekiah king Hezekiah, and he boasts in arrogance of the
greatness of the king of Assyria.
Did you see that? Say to Hezekiah, Thus says the
great king, the king of Assyria. And what do you rest this trust
of yours? Do you think that mere words are
strategy and power for war? And whom do you now trust that
you have rebelled against me? Behold, you are trusting now in
Egypt that broken Reed of his staff, which will Pierce the
hand of any man who leans on it, such as Pharaoh king of Egypt,
to all who trust in him. But if you say to me, we trust
in the Lord our God, is it not he whose high places and altars
Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, You
shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?
The essence of this tactic is to undermine the foundation of
Hezekiah's confidence, and this is a primary ambition of Satan's
he he wants you to doubt your trust in God.
And at first, the Rapture kid begins by highlighting the
futility of forming an alliance with Egypt.
But his main point is attacking Hezekiah's trust in God, and
he's going to come back to this thing with Egypt in a moment.
We're going to look at that. But notice how the power of this
persuasion hinges completely on Hezekiah is supposed limited
understanding. Here's what I mean.
Look back at verse 22. Consider the argumentation.
But if you say to me, we trust in the Lord our God, is it not
he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to
Judah and to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar
in Jerusalem? What is he trying to say here?
In essence, what he wants to show is that Hezekiah was in the
wrong by removing the high places, that in his reform, in
his desire to clean the Kingdom of Judah, he actually displeased
God. So who's misinformed here?
The rapture. He thought that Hezekiah was
actually in the wrong by doing this.
And if Hezekiah was ignorant of what God actually desired, he
might have believed it. Was it wrong for Hezekiah to
remove the high places? No, it was good.
It's actually, it was actually in accordance with God's will.
But notice that if Hezekiah was in the dark about this
particular facet of his faith, he could have gotten himself in
a lot of trouble. And so I want you to see right
away how the enemy capitalizes on our ignorance of the truth.
Please, I say this in love. The less you know the Bible, the
more vulnerable you are to Satan's lies.
The less you know, the more susceptible you are of not just
being confronted with deception, but digesting it, poisoning you.
And so Hezekiah was able to dismiss this because he
understood wholeheartedly that God asked this of me.
God put this in his word. But what the enemy is doing here
is essentially misrepresenting the character of God.
You did something that God did not like, and in fact, it was
something that the Lord totally wanted.
There's something else here though, that we also find that
the enemy loves to discourage us about our own obedience.
Right? Hezekiah gave his heart totally
to the Lord. He did what most kings would not
do. They would not even entertain
removing the high places. And yet this man did just that.
And the enemy loves to loves to point out how our obedience is
sometimes misplaced or maybe not enough or ineffective.
And so he loves to make us second guess what we did for the
Lord. Oh, you pray.
But come on, did you read about this revivalist, How much he
prays? Look at you.
What are you doing? Oh, you serve in the church.
Nobody cares. Nobody would even notice if you
left. Oh, you preach.
You preach week after week after week after week.
Nothing's happening, though. When people fall asleep, people
are distracted. People are familiar.
You've lost your edge. Satan loves to whisper and to
discourage us about what we do for God, and we see more.
As much as he wants us to question the value and whether
or not what we do brings the light to God's heart #2 He will
intimidate you by highlighting your weaknesses.
He will intimidate you by highlighting your weaknesses.
Look at verse 23. Now come now, make a wager with
my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you 2000 horses, if
you were able on your part to set riders on them.
How then can you repulse a single captain among the least
of my master servants when you trust in Egypt for Chariots and
for horsemen? So as you and I wait for the
Lord for anything, Satan loves to highlight how impossible it
seems. And the one way he does is by
reminding us of what we're not and what we lack.
Look at these taunts once again. Hey, you want to go to war?
You think you actually have a chance?
I'll do you a favor. I'll give you 2000 horses.
Oh, but I don't even think you have enough trained men to ride
them. Actually, now that I think about
it, I don't think you can even put up a challenge against one
of my weakest captains of the lowest of the ranks in my army.
So what is he doing here? He is trying to under score and
try to point out where Hezekiah is deficient, where he is weak
and the enemy does does this with many of God's servants.
You're not smart enough, you're not attractive enough.
You don't have the personality or he might highlight your lack
of resources. You're not able to do anything.
A great effectiveness, a great reach.
You don't have enough. Where's your spiritual support?
Who? Who are the people with you that
are backing your vision, your ministry, who appreciate you,
who partner with you? Where are they?
You're insignificant. You always come short.
You do nothing of worth for God's Kingdom.
You're no threat to the Kingdom of darkness.
Speaking of weakness, notice how He brings up Egypt again.
Now, we can't pinpoint the extent of Hezekiah's willingness
to partner with Egypt. Was it just a thought?
Was there actually talks of it? Either way, it was wrong for
Hezekiah to even consider partnering with Egypt.
We've seen this throughout our study of the Old Testament.
God always wanted to be the primary and exclusive help to
His people, and it was a constant temptation for the
Israelites to reach down to Egypt and ask for some aid.
It could be the Hezekiah actually opened up the
possibility and how humiliating would it have been for him to
hear from another enemy that he placed his trust and something
or someone apart from God. If we go with that Hezekiah
actually did this, then this was another mistake on his part.
This is where he fell short in his faith.
But here's what we have to understand in the context of the
enemy approaching Hezekiah with this, it teaches us that Satan
loves to bring to your attention your past failures.
He enjoys it to rub it in your face as a constant reminder, not
just for you to remember it, but but to bring it to your
attention and showing how it affects how God will relate to
you. You failed.
You're stained. This is a blemish on your
reputation forever. God doesn't want to deal with
you. God will never forget what
you've done, what you said. And so don't expect him to come.
Don't expect him to intervene. Don't expect him to show you the
same strength of love. You blew it.
It's over. So he keeps bringing up Egypt,
Egypt, Egypt. And the way I see it is he
always, the enemy, loves to rub in your face something that
you've done wrong. And that weakens us, that
paralyzes us, that discourages us from trusting God and having
the boldness to serve God. So many people are tormented by
their past and we see it being played here.
Let me say one more thing. The enemy enjoys coming to us
and not just highlighting our weaknesses, but when we are
weak, we're going to do some very basic math.
Now is that OK? Go back to Second Kings 18 verse
2. We read about Hezekiah.
He was 25 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abby, the
daughter of Zechariah. So how long did he reign?
For? A total of 29 years, right?
When did Assyria invade Judah? Scroll down to verse 13 again.
This is what we opened up our study with.
In the 14th year of King Hezekiah, Seneca, king of
Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and
took them. Now, I believe most of us in
here are familiar enough with Hezekiah's story to remember
that at some point in his account, we learned that he
became deathly ill. Remember this, right?
And in great desperation, he turns.
He faces the wall while he's laying in bed.
He cries out to God. God graciously responds to his
plea and grants him what? 15 years more of life?
15 years more of life. So are we making the connection
here? So we know thou that if the
total of years of his reign was 29 years and the 14th years when
Syria invaded and when he was sick God promised him 15 more
years, then what year was Hezekiah deathly sick?
What year? The 14th year that Hezekiah was
terminally ill, the same time Assyria came to invade him.
And in case you doubt that conclusion, go to chapter 22nd
Kings. This is the chapter that we will
look at together in a few weeks that unveils this testimony of
his healing. But look at what he is told in
Second Kings 20, verse 6. And I will add 15 years to your
life. I will deliver you and the city
out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend the
city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.
So while this man is in bed, not knowing if he's going to live
another day, God also promises that he's going to see victory
over the Assyrians who are surrounding Jerusalem.
Was Hezekiah in the early stages of his sickness?
Here in Second Kings 18, perhaps we don't know what phase, but I
wouldn't be surprised that if this man was dealing with his
sickness when Assyria came to threaten him.
Because the enemy is vicious, he is merciless.
He will bring his greatest force when you are at your lowest,
even if your weakness is physical, he will take advantage
of that to assault your mind, to discourage your spirit, to beat
you up. So this man is dealing with a
lot and it makes us aware of how the enemy works.
We only dealt with two. We still have 5 more.
I hope you're OK with that. Let's come back to Second Kings
18, verse 25. Moreover, is it without the Lord
that I have come up against this place to destroy it?
The Lord said to me, go up against this land and destroy
it. Here's point #3 the enemy will
make it seem that God is the one turning against you.
And this tactic is much more common in the Christian
experience than most realize. Notice that he's not just
persuading Hezekiah that his success in overtaking these
fortified cities was permitted by the Lord.
He goes further and says, I've been commissioned by the Lord.
God told me to do this. Are you going to fight against
God? Are you going to resist the
Lord? Well, you know, I just surrender
and realize that this is a court in accordance to His sovereign
will. And in like manner, the lesson
here is that Satan loves to confuse us by making it seem
that his ways are God's ways. More specifically, this is how
it's going to resonate now that his voice is God's voice.
I can't tell you the amount of people that I've talked with who
have allowed Satan's condemnation to be understood as
God's conviction. What's the difference between
the two, by the way? Because both remind you of your
sin. Both touch on some area in your
life that is not in accordance with God's will.
But one offers hope in the other doesn't.
One offers reconciliation, the other doesn't.
One offers relief in the other doesn't.
So if there's any guilt that I feel, let me just use this for
an example. If there's any guilt I feel of a
particular sin in my life, and though I have confessed and
though I've repented of it, I am still feeling that guilt, You
can be sure that that's not God pressing that on your chest.
That's not the Holy One keeping you awake at night.
And what we love, what Satan loves to do here by way of
demonstration, Demonstration. An example, an illustration is
that he loves to make his voice seem like it's gods.
For you to be more ready to accept it and to deal with it
and to live with it, burdened and bothered for the rest of
your pilgrimage on earth, suffocating you, stealing your
song, disorienting you and how you understand His pleasure and
His delight. Now you're serving God to try to
win His approval instead of from the place of approval #4 He will
instill fear in you with a range of threats.
Look at verse 26. Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah
and Shebna and Joah, said to the rapture, K, please speak to your
servants in Aramaic, for we understand it.
Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the
hearing of the people who are on the wall.
So now they interrupt this man's monologue.
The leaders there who were sent out by Hezekiah stop him.
They've had enough. They realize that what he is
saying is detrimental to the faith of the people.
And so they say, listen, can you do us a favor?
Were were those who deal with international conversations and
trade and politics? We know how to speak Aramaic.
Can you speak to us in Aramaic instead of Hebrews so that these
people don't have to endure this?
Can you have some grace? Or how wrong they were to think
that they can get some mercy from the enemy.
And so they make that request and it's quickly shut down by
what we read in verse 27. But the Rapture has said to
them, has my Master sent me to speak these words to your master
and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall who are
doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own
urine? Is he being vulgar here?
I think it's more than that. He's actually telling them
what's going to take place if they don't surrender.
Because if you are under a siege, you tend to do desperate
things in order to survive. In many cases, when a city is
surrounded for such a long time, people will even eat their own
filth. We've even seen how the people
got even come down to the point of eating their own children.
So this is not so extreme. And so he says this is what is
going to happen. I'm actually here to speak to
all of them. In fact.
He raises his voice. He speaks in their presence in
verse 28. Then the rapture gets stood and
called out in a loud voice. Oh, you don't want me to talk to
them? Let me, let me.
Let me do you a favor, OK? Hey, I'm here for you all.
Merciless, vicious, cruel. Let me remind you what this
point is. Number 4.
The enemy loves to instill fear in us with a range of threats in
an effort to keep us from honoring God and staying on the
path of faithfulness. Satan will often direct his
intimidation toward what we care about the most.
I remember how hearing the testimony of a minister who
planted a church in a very difficult area and it was
thriving. It was growing.
So many testimonies of people being delivered from the most
incredible things. And at some point, as this
ministry was climbing in success, this man's child, one
of their children went off into the world and lived in deep grow
sin. And there were so many fears and
frustrations that developed because of that, to the point
where this minister's wife began to try to persuade the husband,
let's just quit the ministry. Why continue in this?
And she was primarily afraid of of her other children following
in the same direction that Satan would grab a hold of them.
And so in her rationale, she thought the best way to do this
is just to remove ourselves from the front lines and just move on
and protect our family. And this is what this man was
dealing with. And even his own spouse was
already captivated by a lie. You keep serving God and watch
what I'm going to do to your family.
Watch what I'm going to do to your spouse.
Watch what I'm going to do to your kids.
I'll destroy them. I'll destroy you.
And Satan loves to threaten us by bringing to mind what we,
what we love, what we cherish, the people that we feel so
strongly about. You want to trust God.
You'll never have enough money to support your family.
Oh, oh, you want to, You want to serve the Lord?
Watch how your spouse will be deprived of a meaningful
marriage. Watch.
Oh, you really want to honor God?
You, you, you. You don't just want to make
money. You actually want to be in the
church and do things for the Kingdom of God.
You know your health is going to decline, right?
And so on and so on and so on. He's so clever.
He is so insightful that he will bring to your mind things that
you care about the most and threaten you in that area.
That's what he does here. The, the leaders, these are good
leaders. They were worried about the
people. And they said, just just deal
with us. Said no, no, no, I'm after them.
Oh, you, you care about them. Watch #5 Let's read verse 28
down to verse 30. Then the rapture has stood and
called out on a loud voice in the language of Judah.
Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.
Thus says the king, do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he
will not be able to deliver you out of my hand.
Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, The
Lord will surely deliver us, and the city will not be given into
the hand of the king of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah, for
thus says the king of Assyria, make your peace with me and come
out to me. Then each one of you will eat
his own vine, and each one his own fig tree, and each one of
you will drink the water of his own cistern #5 #5 #5 The enemy
will try to divide God's people with false assumptions and
accusations. Now this is warfare.
We've been dealing with personal warfare, but we are now looking
at an insight of warfare on a corporate level.
And this is still just as important to understand because
God has called us to live this faith with the body of Christ.
We're not called to do this in isolation.
In fact, to be in isolation is a tactic of Satan himself.
We're called to do this as a unit, as a family, as an army.
So what is he doing here? Notice three times in a row he
says what? Do not let Hezekiah in rapid
fire succession. Do not let Hezekiah, do not let
Hezekiah. Do not let Hezekiah convince
you, lead you, promise you, comfort you.
What is he doing here? He's trying to divide the people
from their leadership division. Division is one of Satan's
favorite weapons, but it doesn't just happen like that.
I argue that this teaches us at least one way comes about before
division even begins. Satan fosters tension.
Tension and the way tension emerges is sowing doubt about
one another without any substantial evidence.
The same thing happened with the Corinthians and the Apostle Paul
when these false teachers were trying to pull the Corinthian
church away from the leadership of Paul.
And by doing so, they did so rather by mocking his
credentials, belittling him, but more viciously putting into
question his motives for ministry.
And one of the things that they tried to tell the Corinthians
was, you know, Paul, he's actually doing all this for
money. He actually just wants to make a
buck off of you. Paul had to defend himself in
the 1st letter to the Corinthians in that specific
regard. And so the enemy loves to pin US
against one another. And one of the ways he does that
is especially when there's a lack of communication and loving
confrontation. So and so.
See the way they looked at you, Oh so and so they didn't answer
your message. They don't really care about
you. Oh, Pastor so and so.
Oh, yeah, yeah. That he's really all about this.
Oh, oh, the people that you serve, they, they don't really
want true faith. They don't really want the word
of God. They're, they're they're
actually in your church For these reasons.
And so he wants to do exactly what we see here, make enemies
from within, divide and conquer. And in this way he could weaken
them. If he can get the people to not
listen to Hezekiah, then they would try to persuade him to
surrender. Come on, let's just give up.
Do you know what the Assyrians do to their victims?
He is so clever and unfortunately, he has succeeded.
And many churches just with this lie, just by using slander and
gossip and backbiting and trying to assess people's motives.
And here's a person who might be going through hell at home.
And the way you're interpreting is that person's rude.
Be discerning church. Be careful, church.
Be loving church. Love hopes all things love,
believes all things. Love is not quick to make
conclusions about people's characters.
Love investigates and is patient.
This is why knowing God's word is important.
We're we're looking at Satan's playbook.
We're not done yet. Number six, let's read verse 31
again down to verse 32. Do not listen to Hezekiah for
thus says the king of Assyria, make your peace with me and come
out to me. Then each one of you will eat of
his own vine, and each one of you will eat of his own fig
tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own
cistern. Until I come and take you away
to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land
of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that
you may live and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah
when he misleads you by saying, the Lord will deliver us number
six. If the enemy can't get you to
surrender with fear, he will persuade you with exaggerated
and deceptive promises. There's two phases to this
appeal, and it's an attractive one.
Did you hear the catalog? Did you hear of the way of life
that was made possible for these citizens of Jerusalem?
Notice in verse 31 he says, come out to me.
That's the first step. Come out to me and make your
peace. And then the verse 32 until I
come and take you away to a land like your own land.
So just just start with one step, just one compromise.
Entertain this one thing that you know is wrong.
And I'm going to give you something if you do that.
And more than that, I'm going to give you so much, so much more.
It only gets better and better the more you believe me, the
more you step away from God's will, God's word, you indulge
the flesh. You believe the things that God
says don't believe. I'm going to make this better
and better for you. And cloaked in this, He says,
I'm going to take you away from your land.
But it's sandwiched between all these promises and all these
rewards and all these blessings. Here's what I discovered when I
looked at especially verse 31, the first step, he brings up two
specific things that are echoed and other places in the Bible.
Here's the difference that God promised them.
Here's an example. In Micah there's a prophecy of
what's going to take place when Messiah comes to take over the
throne of David successfully and eternally.
And here's how he describes this reign.
It's what we know to be the millennial reign.
And Micah 4, three to four. He, being the Messiah, shall
judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong
nations far away. And they shall beat their swords
and the plowshares and their Spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation either.
Shall they learn war anymore? Verse four, Look at this.
But they shall sit, every man under his vine and under his fig
tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the
Lord of hosts has spoken. So this picture really describes
a time of unusual peace and prosperity.
You actually find a similar description when Solomon was
ruling and reigning in Israel. And this prophecy says the one
greater than David, the one greater than any other king, is
going to bring an unusual peace and prosperity again that will
outshine any other era. What were the two things?
They will each have their own vine and sit under their own fig
tree. Look again at verse 31 of Second
Kings 18. What did the enemy promise?
He said, OK, come to me then each one of you will eat of his
own vine and each one of his own fig tree.
But he doesn't stop there. And each one of you will drink
the water of his own cistern. What is he saying here?
Oh, God will give you this. I'll give you more.
Oh, your God is all about joy and peace.
Yeah, I'll give you real ecstasy.
I'll give you real purpose. I'll give you a real sense of
desire and delight. And that's what people are
believing about temptation this very hour.
They believe that if they step away from the Lord that they're
going to gain, that whatever they are looking for is going to
be far greater than what God offers.
This is how the enemy lies. Don't wait for marriage.
Just let yourself loose. You're, you're an animal.
You have instincts. Just have as many partners as
you want. Fulfill your fantasies.
And we're all familiar about the different temptations that he
brings to us. Lastly, you've been so patient.
Verse 33 down to verse 35, the rapture case says, Has any of
the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the
hand of the king of Assyria? Where the gods of Hameth and
Arpad, where the gods of Sephar, Vayim, Hina, and IVA, have they
delivered Samaria out of my hand?
Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands
out of my hand? That the Lord should deliver
Jerusalem out of my hand #7 Finally, the enemy will
frequently return to his favorite lie, make you doubt,
and question the trustworthiness of God again and again.
This time it looks a little different.
First, he dares to put the God, the true God, the Lord, on the
same level as other deities. This is where he really crossed
the line. He's going to get himself in a
lot of trouble for doing this, but that's what Satan is telling
many people today. But there's something more
strategic than that, because these Israelites could have
easily just that. Those are fake gods.
They're false deities. They have no power.
They can't compare to the true God.
But this spokesman brings it closer to home.
What does he say? Look again at verse 34.
The last question, have they delivered Samaria out of my
hand? Samario is the neighbor up North
Samaria at one point. Was attached to the Kingdom of
Judah. They were once one nation with
the same God. And though yes, they did give
themselves over to idolatry and false gods, If this people were
so overwhelmed by these lies, if they were not informed, if they
were not aware, they could have began to rationalize in the
following way. Well, yes, Samaria, essentially
their histories in the truth. Their history is in the covenant
keeping God. Why?
Why didn't the Lord deliver them from Assyria?
How did God allow them to be taken captive and removed from
the land? If it happened with the northern
Kingdom of Israel? What makes us think that it
can't happen to us? I'm going to tell you how slimy
Satan is that he will even at times.
Look at you. Look at me, turn your attention
to others who supposedly bear the name of Christ, who might
even genuinely bear the name of Christ, and say if God couldn't
do it for them, what makes you think he'll do it for you?
Look at so and so in the church. Look what happened to their
children. What makes you think it won't
happen to yours? Look at so, so struggling with
this disease and this sickness and here you are believing God
to do something in your body. Did he do it for them?
What makes you think that God's going to answer your prayer?
If God was a successful for that church, what makes you think
he'll make your church prosperous spiritually?
He loves to compare. He he loves to do these things.
So by bringing up Samaria, I think he wanted to really make
it seem as though we're hopeless and again, to doubt the
trustworthiness of God. How does this story end?
Let's look at the last two verses, verse 36.
But the people were silent and answered him.
Not a word for the King's command was do not answer him.
Then Ally came, the son of Helkaya, who was over the
household and Shovement, the secretary, and Joe, the son of
ASAP the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn
and told him the words of the rap shaky.
If you have the King James, the new King James, you know how
verse 36 would read. But the people held their peace
either way. This is what it means that not
one soul inside those walls made any decision based on what they
were being told by the enemy. They stood firm, they were
careful. They were slow.
Did it impact them? Clearly they ripped their
clothes. But this is just the beginning
of how Hezekiah and his people will respond to these threats
and how they will overcome. You have to come next week to
see it though. Let's pray,
Lord, if there is even one of these lies that resonate with
any of us in this place, we pray that today it would lose its
clutch, it would lose its power. We pray today for freedom, that
we would be totally liberated from any lie, any deception, any
trick of the evil 1 And Lord, help us be reminded, help us be
able to call to our own attention these truths when we
are engaged with warfare, when we are confronted with with
things that we know are not from you.
So Lord, we give you glory and thanks for how you have equipped
us tonight, and we pray that we would never forget it.
We pray that these things would be etched on our hearts for the
rest of our warfare with the Evil 1.
And Lord, tonight as your church, we stand in victory and
we choose to rejoice in Thanksgiving for how You have
spoken to our hearts. Lord, you are good, and we do
trust in You. We've sang so much of it before
the study, and Lord, we want to say it in prayer.
We trust in You, we trust in your forgiveness, we trust in
Your provision, we trust in Your promises, We trust in everything
that Your word has to say, and we pray that we would never
lapse in our faith. We want to be always pleasing to
You in every season, trusting You in every sphere of our
lives. And we believe Lord, that you've
spoken to us for this goal, for this end in mind, that we would
be complete in our reliance on you.
In Jesus name we pray these things, Amen and Amen and Amen.
Let's stand and worship the Lord and give him glory.