6/17/2011 8:02:02 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Hezekiah the victor Pt. 1
(Rebuke)
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: 2Ki. 19:20-28; Isa. 37:22-29
Message of the verses: “20 ¶
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, "Thus says the
LORD, the God of Israel, ’Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king
of Assyria, I have heard you.’ 21
"This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ’She has
despised you and mocked you, The virgin daughter of Zion; She has shaken her
head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem! 22
’Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you
raised your voice, And haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of
Israel! 23 ’Through your messengers you
have reproached the Lord, And you have said, "With my many chariots I came
up to the heights of the mountains, To the remotest parts of Lebanon; And I cut
down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I entered its farthest
lodging place, its thickest forest. 24
"I dug wells and drank foreign waters, And with the sole of my feet
I dried up All the rivers of Egypt." 25
’Have you not heard? Long ago I did it; From ancient times I planned it.
Now I have brought it to pass, That you should turn fortified cities into
ruinous heaps. 26 ’Therefore their
inhabitants were short of strength, They were dismayed and put to shame; They
were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, As grass on the
housetops is scorched before it is grown up. 27
’But I know your sitting down, And your going out and your coming in,
And your raging against Me. 28 ’Because
of your raging against Me, And because your arrogance has come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My hook in your nose, And My bridle in your lips, And I
will turn you back by the way which you came.”
.”
21 ¶ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent
word to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ’Because
you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that the LORD has spoken
against him: "She has despised you and mocked you, The virgin daughter of
Zion; She has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem! 23 "Whom have you reproached and
blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice And haughtily lifted up
your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! 24
"Through your servants you have reproached the Lord, And you have
said, ’With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, To the
remotest parts of Lebanon; And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice
cypresses. And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest. 25 ’I dug wells and drank waters, And with the
sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of Egypt.’ 26 "Have you not heard? Long ago I did it,
From ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, That you should
turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps. 27
"Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, They were
dismayed and put to shame; They were as the vegetation of the field and as the
green herb, As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.
28 "But I know your sitting down
And your going out and your coming in And your raging against Me. 29 "Because of your raging against Me And because
your arrogance has come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your
nose And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back by the way which you
came.”
In
these two paragraphs which are virtually the same the Lord is answering the
prayer of Hezekiah that he prayed against Sennacherib and in this answer God is
rebuking Sennacherib for his rebuking of what he has done and especially the
blasphemous words that he spoke against the Lord, the God of Heaven and earth.
This
SD is the first sub-point under the forth main point of this chapter from Dr.
Wiersbe’s commentary on 2Kings and also parts of 2Chronicles. Both of these are written in the heading of
this SD. In this main section there will be seen the answer to Hezekiah’s
prayer and the answer will have three parts or threefold: “1. God would deliver Jerusalem, 2. God would
defeat the Assyrian army and they would depart, and 3. God would care for the
people and they would not starve.”
In
this first sub-point it can be seen that the “great” Sennacherib had done a lot
of bragging and boasting and also blaspheming in his life about his
victories. God has used Sennacherib to
chasten the northern tribes of Israel, but Sennacherib did not give glory to the
Lord. In his victories Sennacherib’s men
would abuse the women that they took captive, and they would put hooks into
their lips and lead them away like horses.
Now God says that he will do the same to them. Sennacherib bragged that his chariots had
climbed the hills of Lebanon, something that probably did not happen because
chariots were not good in the hill country.
He also bragged that he stopped up the rivers in Egypt, but there is no
evidence that he ever defeated Egypt, and he was probably saying this because
God had dried up the Jordan River when Israel was crossing it in their coming
to conquer the land as seen in the book of Joshua. I believe that both Elijah and Elisha also had
dried up the Jordan when Elijah was about to be taken up to heaven.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Bragging is not something that I should ever
do especially over the things that the Lord has done in my life. There is nothing that will count that I have
done that is done in the flesh. The only
things that will really count in my life is what the Lord has done through me
and this illustration can be seen in John 15 the allegory about the Vine and
the branches. At the judgment seat of
Christ the only things that I will be rewarded for are the things that the Lord
has done through me, and even those things will not be counted if I brag about
them. Humility is the order of the day,
and every day.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1.
Be humble and do not brag or boast.
2.
Give myself to the Lord for worship and for service.
3.
Continue to learn contentment.
4.
Trust the Lord to direct my path.
5.
Put on the Spiritual Armor.
6.
Psalm 139:23-24.
6/17/2011 8:39:41 AM
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