Hezekiah – Part 10
Mercy and truth preserve the king: and his throne is upholden by mercy. (Proverbs 20:28)
The Nighty Dew and The Angel of Death
2 Kings 19:34-37
For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. (2 Kings 19:34)
And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. (2 Kings 19:35)
So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. (2 Kings 19:36)
And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. (2 Kings 19:37)
In the dark hours of night, the angel of God descended out of heaven; silently he came over the hills of Galilee, sweeping down the Jordan and around mount Zion, quietly not to wake the sleepers before him. Jerusalem was at rest in the night, but light flickered of those praying for deliverance. He swept down the streets of Jerusalem leaving a trail of God’s mercy behind him. Over the wall that surrounded the city, and before him lay the army of the arrogant Assyria king, Sennacherib. Their tents covered the ground so that a man could barely walk between them. Their bright spears ready for the battle stood in their racks. The quivers were full of arrows, the swords were sharpened and polished so that the stars reflected in them. The shield’s of steel and brass caught the light of the moon as it raised itself over the hills of Judeae, and swept over the shields one by one. All the men ready for battle in the morning now slept with a deep slumbering sleep sent from God. Line upon line over the hills, as far as one could see, the Assyrian hosts filled the horizon. Their horses neighed and stamped their hoofs, the smell of the blood of Israel would be in the air tomorrow, as their steeds sensed the upcoming battle. We have come to ‘veni, vidi, vici,’ ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’
The people of Israel were a weakened people, but little did they know that Hezekiah had called unto his God, and presented this huge host and their king before the Almighty God. Hezekiah prayed for deliverance, and God was about to show him great and mighty things which he knew not. Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. (Jeremiah 33:3) God is able in any age, or in any time period to open the windows of blessings, and to deliver His people from any tyrant or tyranny. Do we cry out to God in our day when the ruthless systems of this world perform all kinds of wickedness against their own people, and against the people of other nations? Sennacherib had destroyed all the nations around him, he had destroyed their nations, and their idolatry, and replaced it with his brand of idolatry, or religion. Scripture constantly reminds the child of God that we live in a present evil world. No matter what time period, or mark in history the world has always been an evil place because of sin. The convulsions that we see in the creation is the overthrow of creation by sin. God in His infinite wisdom cast a curse on the creation as well as upon Adam.
For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. (Romans 8:19)
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, (Romans 8:20)
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8:21)
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. (Romans 8:22)
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)
Man wonders why the creation rebels against him in storms, in droughts, in pestilence, in earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions; all these forces do not portray a vindictive God, in fact, these calamities only reflect the sin of Adam. Someone once told me that God took their son, because of the circumstances I told him, ‘it was not God but Adam took your son.’ Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:. (Romans 5:12) We are without excuse before a Holy and Righteous God, there is absolutely nothing that we can do ourselves to right the ship that Adam sailed in sin. Hezekiah brought his plight before the One God of heaven and earth. His heart was righteous before God, he didn’t come to God with a heart of self or deceit as Esau did. There are so many today who have a heart of Esau, and not the heart of a Hezekiah. Hezekiah had taken the place of death by clothing himself in sackcloth, this is how he approached the Almighty God. We, who are justified, must take the same position as Hezekiah; for in Christ we are dead to this world and alive unto God. Right now whether saved or unsaved God has His finger on your pulse. It may be a pulse of 59 or 64 or 79, or by whatever manner God counts them, and for God it is quite simple to stop the count. The mighty king of Assyria did not understand this, nor his great swelling army; therefore, men of great nations today do not understand the mighty power of God. I ask you to count the nations who have ceased to be; their number would be uncountable. For there are nations who have dropped out of all recorded history and man has no recollection of their existence. Even the kingdom of Sennacherib and his mighty city of Nineveh has ceased to exist, only a dusty plain remains of a once great city.
I have an old atlas, the copyright is 1935, and there are many nations missing today that are listed in this atlas. These nations were once led by kings and other forms of government, they have been divided, renamed, and no longer have their original thriving territorial power. In their infancy they thought that their nation would stand forever. This is a continual fallacy of man. Even the great nations of our age will pass away into history, as they vanish in the same dust as Nineveh.
Sennacherib thought Jerusalem would be his prize on the morrow. He had even planned how he was going to disperse the remnant of Judah throughout his nation. As his predecessor, Shalmaneser, had done to the ten tribes of the northen kingdom. All was going as planned until the sun went down on that proud monarch, and his mighty hosts. As the moon rose in the sky, and the dew began to fall, the angel of God was sent in the power of God. He would sweep through the Assyrian hosts as God had swept over the land of Egypt nearly 800 years ago, and now the angel of God visits the hosts of the Assyrian king as they slept, and one by one they drew their last breath. Their hearts stopped beating, and there was one last gasp of air. The angel of God passed over 100 then 1000, then 50,000, then 100,000, and in the end 185,000 valiant men lay still on the ground on the morn. There was no sound just the eerie presence of death. The trumpet would not sound, the drum would not beat, the sword would not strike, the lance would not be thrown, the bow would not be strung, and the arrows would not fly. The saddles laid empty on the ground for death had come without a sound. A single angel with the power of God had shut the eyes of 185,000 valiant warriors in a moment of time. Sennacherib’s day, however, was not over for he heard a rumor of an attacking army, and was forced by God to return to Nineveh, his capitol. It is recorded in the process of time that Sennacherib went into the temple of his god, and it was there that the children of his own loins killed him as he worshiped his god. And the LORD sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his god, they that came forth of his own bowels slew him there with the sword. (2 Chronicles 32:21) It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The angel of God had destroyed Sennacherib’s mighty men of valor, the leaders, and the captains, and had defeated his mighty army. God uses the term ‘men of valor’ to inform us that these were the mightiest men of the army of Sennacherib, and now they laid still upon the ground. In Jerusalem, however, was the peace of God. God had delivered Hezekiah and his people. God through His Spirit adds that He delivered Hezekiah from all others, and guided them on every side. Thus the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all other, and guided them on every side. (2 Chronicles 32:22)
From within the walls of Jerusalem, as the sun broke upon the streets, one could hear no loud sound of the army in the plain beneath them. The sentries upon the wall could see no cloud of dust, no rivers of men, no lines of steeds, just tents still sealed, and full of the corpses of the Assyrian army. There were those who had prayed fervently throughout the night, and now as the dawn came upon them, they would rejoice in the deliverance of their God. They would walk among the tents of death, and see without doubt the work of the great I AM. He finished the work that was before Him in the day of Hezekiah and delivered His people from the Assyrian hosts.
Let’s just reflect; when Hezekiah was just 25 years old he came to the throne, a throne that was under much tribulation, but he sought the God of David his father, and walked in the ways of David. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. (2 Chronicles 29:21)
The hearts of all men wax weak and are distracted by the world, for what one of us has not made decisions that have taken us out of the will of God? When king Hezekiah, however, was in great distress, he sought the only one he could trust, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. The answer of his cry, therefore, was complete deliverance from Sennacherib, and it was also the beginning of the demise of the Assyrian kingdom. The Almighty God always answers faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. God moves through all nations, and has His finger on the very pulse of every nation, whether it be an evil, or a just nation; God will move accordingly to bring judgment, or blessing. Hezekiah understood this and the evidence of things not seen. This writer is convinced that the unseen world of creation is mightier than that which is seen. It’s vastness is only fathomable in knowing that an Omnipotent God holds all things together by the Word of His power.
Let’s consider Sennacherib . . . I will call him the destroyer, for he had destroyed all the nations around him, and cast their false gods into the fires of their own altars; however this king also honored and worshiped gods of wood, hay and stubble, the works of man’s hands. Who is there amongst the false gods of men who can say to the proud waves, ‘thus far and no further,’ or set the stars in the sky, and form them as an Orion, or a Sagittarius or other constellations? Where are the gods of men who have cast an earth or created a world, or designed a being that no other could? A being standing upright and able to understand that there is one God of heaven and earth, the very fiber of the being has come from dust, and yet life and breath are contained within him.
When Sennacherib was in the dark tents of his army making the decision to go up against Jerusalem, the city of the Great King, he was setting in motion the course of his own history and his approaching death. This decision was to be the ruin of his army, it would be the ruin of his nation, it would be the ruin of his city, and the ruin of himself. God used the sword of his very own children to destroy him. It is truly a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Amen.
© Copyright 2015, Michael Haigh
Article may be used, but not for gain. Freely ye have received, freely give.
All Scripture references are from the Authorized King James Bible. (KJV)