Scriptural text: 2 Kings 19:1-34
Lesson Context:
The reign of godly King Hezekiah (716- 687 BC) over the southern kingdom of Judah was a time of trouble. In 722 BC, the Assyrian Empire annexed the northern kingdom of Israel. In 702 BC, the Assyrian ruler Sennacherib invaded Judah, destroyed the major city of Lachish, and besieged Jerusalem. Jerusalem only survived after Hezekiah agreed to pay tribute to the Assyrian king (2 Kings 18:13- 19:13).
The text under consideration reports a conversation between Hezekiah and God, with the prophet Isaiah as a go-between. In 2 Kings 19:1-5, the king sent messengers to the prophet asking for his help communicating with God. Isaiah’s answer promised that God would create a distraction to the Assyrians (19:6-7).
l. Hezekiah’s Prayer: (2 Kings 19:14-19):
A. Preparation (v. 14).“14a. “And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it.” The Assyrian king, Sennacherib, sent a letter to Hezekiah, a railing letter, a blaspheming letter, to persuade him to surrender Jerusalem, because it would be to no purpose to him to think standing it out.
14b. “And Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.” The house of the Lord is the temple in Jerusalem. Upon receiving the letter, he was not so careless as not to read it; when he had read it he was not in such a passion as to write an answer to it in the same provoking language, but he immediately went up to the temple, presented himself, and then spread the letter before the Lord., not as if God needed to have the letter shown to him, but hereby he signified that he acknowledged God in all his ways. (Matthew Henry Concise Bible Commentary)
B. Adoration (v. 15):15a. “And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwelleth between the cherubims.” Hezekiah addresses the God whom Sennacherib had blasphemed (v. 15), calls him the God of Israel, because Israel was his peculiar people, and the God that dwelt between the cherubim, because there was the peculiar residence of his glory upon earth; but he gives glory to him as the God of the whole earth, and not, as Sennacherib fancied him to be, the God of Israel only, and confined to the temple. (Matthew Henry Concise Bible Commentary)
15b. “Thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.” In recognizing God as Creator, Hezekiah saw that the Lord had all power and all rights over every created thing. Hezekiah acknowledged God as being not the God of Israel but overall the kingdoms of the earth. (Enduring Word Bible Commentary)
C. Supplication, Part 1, (v. 16): 16. “Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear; open, Lord, thine eyes, and see, and hear the words of Sennachrerib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God.” He appeals to God concerning the profaneness and the insolence of Sennacherib. Had Hezekiah only been abused, he would have passed it by; but it is God, the living God, that is reproached, the jealous God. (Matthew Henry Concise Bible Commentary)
D. Agreement (vv. 17- 18)17-18. “Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, 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 have destroyed them.” In his prayer, King Hezekiah drew the contrast between the living God and false gods of the nations the Assyrians had already conquered. Those false gods were not gods, but the work of men’s hands-wood and stone, so they were not able to save them from the Assyrians. But Hezekiah prayed confidently that the living God would save them, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord God, You alone. (Enduring Word Bible Commentary)
ll. God’s Response (2 Kings 19:20, 29-31): A. Prayer Heard (v. 20).20. “Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.” This verse notifies Hezekiah that God had heard. For God to “hear” also implies a willingness to “heed”. (International Sunday School Lessons, KJV 2024-2025)
B. Sign Promised (vv. 29-31):29. “And this shall be a sign unto thee, ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same, and in the third year sow ye and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.” “The invasion prevented sowing in 702 b.c., but when the threat lifted in 701 they would find sufficient growth to preserve life; in 701 the withdrawing Assyrians still inhibited agriculture, yet in 700 there would still be enough through ‘chance growth.’ Thus the Lord would confirm retrospectively that it was his hand that dispersed the threat.” (Motyer Commentary on Isaiah)