Translation: ESV
As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD.
In a crisis, going into the temple—going before God—should be the believer's first response.
▸Hezekiah's first response: he goes into the temple.
Hezekiah's first response: he goes into the temple. Tearing his clothes and wearing sackcloth is an expression of crisis and repentance. Hezekiah's choice was to go before God rather than seek a human solution.
They said to him, 'Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.'
When one honestly acknowledges one's own powerlessness, God's help comes.
▸Hezekiah sends envoys to Isaiah, describing the situation.
It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'
The believer sees crisis not as merely a human problem but as connected to God's honor.
▸The core of Hezekiah's request: 'to mock the living God'—he recognizes that this is not merely a political or military issue but a theological one.
Isaiah said to them, 'Say to your master, Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me.'
God's prophet conveys God's voice—'do not be afraid'—in the face of crisis.
▸Isaiah's response is immediate: 'Do not be afraid.
Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
Bringing the problem before God is the believer's way of praying.
▸Having received Sennacherib's second threatening letter, Hezekiah goes to the temple and spreads it before the LORD.
And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD:
Praying directly to God in a crisis is the most important action of the believer.
▸Hezekiah's prayer begins.
"O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth."
Prayer begins with the confession of who God is.
▸The beginning of Hezekiah's prayer: confession of God's identity.
"Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God."
Prayer is made in the faith that God hears and sees.
▸He appeals to God's ear and eye.
"Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands."
Faith is not the denial of reality but seeing God above reality.
▸Hezekiah honestly acknowledges the reality.
"And have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed."
The essential difference between gods made by humans and the living God is the ground of Israel's faith.
▸The reason Assyria defeated other nations is revealed: the gods of those nations were nothing but wood and stone made by human hands.
"So now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD."
The ultimate purpose of the believer's prayer is God's glory.
▸The purpose of Hezekiah's prayer: not merely the survival of the individual or nation, but that all the kingdoms of the earth might know that the LORD alone is the true God.
Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it.
No enemy can invade where God's protection is.
▸God's response: Assyria will not enter Jerusalem.
And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
God can change history in a single night. God's salvation transcends human timelines.
▸God's promise is fulfilled in a single night.
Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh.
God's prophecy will surely be fulfilled, and even the most powerful enemy retreats before God.
▸Sennacherib returns empty-handed to Nineveh.
And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
All of God's prophecies will surely be fulfilled. This is the ground for the authority of the prophet Isaiah.
▸The fulfillment of Isaiah 37:7's prophecy that 'I will make him fall by the sword.