IN GOD WE TRUST... even in Oklahoma

DAY 141: What makes you think the Lord can rescue? Anyone who has every run to God to save or to help has probably heard that little voice in the back of their head asking that question.  What are you trusting in that makes you so confident? 

This week, as we have watched our fellow countrymen in Oklahoma in desperate need of rescue from a monster tornado, those questions are very relevant. As I watched my home state ripped apart, wondered at the fate of my cousin in Moore, and grieved as children were pulled from the rubble, like millions of Americans, I prayed that God would rescue the suffering.  But what makes us think that we can ask such things, or that He is able to deliver such things?

On this day of disaster when we desperately need a rescuer the voice of God reached out with the answers through the daily scripture reading. They are the answers that will hold up in our own days of disaster.

2 Kings 18 & 19  retell a crisis in the land of Judah under King Hezekiah's reign.  The violent neighboring king of Assyria had surrounded and besieged Jerusalem after having broken a treaty agreement.  Negotiating was not an option, and for the small army of Judah neither was military action.  They were surrounded, cut off and out-manned.  They had zero options available to them.  In their weak and defenseless position, the Assyrian king sent a personal representative with a message to Hezekiah. In part the message delievered for all the people to hear was:

“This is what the great king of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that makes you so confident? ²⁰ Do you think that mere words can substitute for military skill and strength? Who are you counting on, that you have rebelled against me? ²¹ On Egypt? If you lean on Egypt, it will be like a reed that splinters beneath your weight and pierces your hand. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is completely unreliable!

²² “But perhaps you will say to me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God!’ . . .
32 “Don’t listen to Hezekiah when he tries to mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us!’ ³³ Have the gods of any other nations ever saved their people from the king of Assyria? ³⁴ What happened to the gods of Hamath and Arpad? And what about the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Did any god rescue Samaria from my power? ³⁵ What god of any nation has ever been able to save its people from my power? So what makes you think that the Lord can rescue Jerusalem from me?”

No one in all Judah, from the least to the king responded to these taunts. Instead, the king talked to someone else.

19: 1 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the Temple of the Lord.

And Hezekiah called on all the people to pray.  While the king and the people were seeking God, another message, in the form of a letter, came from the Assyrians surrounding them.  

¹⁴ After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord’s Temple and spread it out before the Lord. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord: “O Lord, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. ¹⁶ Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God.

¹⁷ “It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. ¹⁸ And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all—only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands. ¹⁹ Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God.”

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE RESPONSE!  There was no war council called. No army was assembled.   All those in Judah were not asked to take up arms.  A surrender was not planned.  Instead, it was all laid before God with boldness and confidence asking HIM to do the rescuing. 

God responded by being the One who answered first Hezekiah and then Assyria. 

5 ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian king’s messengers. . .

²⁰ “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer about King Sennacherib of Assyria. ²¹ And the Lord has spoken this word against him:

²² “Whom have you been defying and ridiculing?
    Against whom did you raise your voice?
At whom did you look with such haughty eyes?
    It was the Holy One of Israel!

God informs Assyrian that the only reason she ever had victory in any battle is because God Himself planned it for His purposes; but the time had come for a hook to be put in their nose and for them to have defeat.  

²⁹ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah ( from the Lord), “Here is the proof that what I say is true:

“This year you will eat only what grows up by itself,
    and next year you will eat what springs up from that.
But in the third year you will plant crops and harvest them;
    you will tend vineyards and eat their fruit.
³⁰ And you who are left in Judah,
    who have escaped the ravages of the siege,
will put roots down in your own soil
    and will grow up and flourish.
³¹ For a remnant of my people will spread out from Jerusalem,
    a group of survivors from Mount Zion.
The passionate commitment of the Lord Almighty will make this happen!

Back to our original questions - ones we have all asked in our own days of disaster:  What makes you think the Lord can rescue you?  What are you trusting in that makes you so confident?

Hezekiah told us part of the answer and God filled in the rest. Hezekiah knew God could rescue and had confidence for the same reasons he declared before God: You alone are God. You alone created the Heaven's and the Earth. When God moves, it is for His glory, to ensures that all the kingdoms of the earth know that He alone is God.

God is not an unknown quantity.  We can look at what He has already done to grow our trust and confidence in what He can do.  Look at creation.  Look at history.  Look at how He has already worked and answered when we have asked before.  But there is one more reason to have confidence in what we are trusting.  God Himself revealed it to Hezekiah (and us): "THE PASSIONATE COMMITMENT OF THE LORD will make this happen!"

God is passionate 

about those who belong to Him.   

Dwell on that for a moment.  God is passionate about you.  Does that give you confidence that you can ask, that He hears you, and cares about you, and will bring to bear His mighty world-creating power for your good? He alone is God and He is passionate about You - and me.  

That's what makes me think He can rescue me and that is why I know that no matter what besieges me, I can trust Him! 

Days of calamity will come.  Heartache will overtake us. Loss will bear down on us.  God will not keep us from all harm for reasons only He knows.  But we can be sure that God is passionate about us. We can be sure that He is able to rescue. We can have confidence in Whom we trust. 


Be sure to take time to read 2 Kings 18 & 19 and find out what happened. Your confidence will continue to grow!   

Day 141 of 365
2 Kings 18:13-37
2 Kings 19
Acts 21:1-17
Psalm 149:1-9
Proverbs 18:8