The fact of the matter

Xanthe Galanis

Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” Isaiah 36:18-20

King Ahaz dies and King Hezekiah, who loved the true God, is now on the throne of Judah. The problem is, as you will recall, that Ahaz had made a deal with the Assyrians. The Assyrians decide they will not simply take Ahaz's bribe money, they want his whole country! Now Hezekiah has the might of the Assyrian army on his doorstep, and their field commander has called a meeting to negotiate Jerusalem’s surrender. This field commander gets up and starts talking to the people of Jerusalem, in Hebrew to make sure they understand. And essentially, he tells them that Hezekiah cannot save them, God cannot save them, so their best bet is to surrender. He even promises to treat them nicely if they do.

It’s not an idle threat. The Assyrians have a perfect win rate. Hezekiah has lost every battle. There’s no doubt that the Assyrians have the military strength to crush Jerusalem as they have crushed many others. Those are the facts.

But there’s one important fact this commander ignores - these are the people of God and God has something to say about what happens to them.

In the decisions we make we also need to remember that we’ve surrendered our lives to the Lord and, even though some facts aren’t apparent to us, they’re clear to him. If we’re going to be truly reasonable, we must carefully listen to the Lord, and not to what other around us are saying.

Prayer: Sometimes, Lord, I look at the facts of my impossible problems and, like Hezekiah, there seems to be no way out. Teach me to turn you, even when everyone around me thinks I’m foolish. Amen