Slices
Prepare
When we come to the end of ourselves and find God is all we have, he is enough. Ask the Holy Spirit to enable you to believe this is true.
Bible passage
Sennacherib’s fall
21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word the Lord has spoken against him:
‘Virgin Daughter Zion
despises and mocks you.
Daughter Jerusalem
tosses her head as you flee.
23 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 By your messengers
you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,
“With my many chariots
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tallest cedars,
the choicest of its junipers.
I have reached its remotest heights,
the finest of its forests.
25 I have dug wells in foreign lands
and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”
26 ‘Have you not heard?
Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planned it;
now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
into piles of stone.
27 Their people, drained of power,
are dismayed and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
like tender green shoots,
like grass sprouting on the roof,
scorched before it grows up.
28 ‘But I know where you are
and when you come and go
and how you rage against me.
29 Because you rage against me
and because your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you return
by the way you came.
30 ‘This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah:
‘This year you will eat what grows by itself,
and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah
will take root below and bear fruit above.
32 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
33 ‘Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:
‘He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came he will return;
he will not enter this city,’
declares the Lord.
35 ‘I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!’
36 Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning – there were all the dead bodies! 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
38 One day, while he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.
Explore
There are walled cities all around the world. They were designed with the security of their inhabitants in mind. They have slits in the ramparts through which weapons can be fired against the enemy, who are kept from the citizens within by impenetrable barriers of rock.
The problem was that all an attacking army needed to do to achieve victory was camp out long enough for the food in the city to run out. The Assyrians not only had Jerusalem under siege, but they had also created conditions for a famine on a far larger scale by confiscating the crops ready in March and April and preventing the farmers from sowing in September and October. If they weren’t to die of starvation, surely their only option was to submit to Assyria (2 Chronicles 32:11)?
God is not going to let that happen. Through Isaiah, Hezekiah learns that there will be a harvest of food that has planted itself (v 30). A remnant of his people will come through this horrific situation, taking root and bearing fruit (vs 31,32). In some sense, we, citizens of God’s kingdom in the twenty-first century, are their fruit. The Lord Almighty will always accomplish what he says he will.
Respond
Are you under siege and in need of a miracle? Take heart! Your God can do more than you could ask or imagine.
Deeper Bible study
Rise up, O God, and defend your cause’.1 Reflect on this verse and let it shape your prayers for the world today.
Think of the bad actors on the political stage in your country or in the world today. It’s frustrating and unsettling to read about the destructive things some leaders do, egged on by the divisive cheers of their supporters. Our readings in Isaiah have given me an odd sense of encouragement. As we’ve learned over the past two weeks, the evil leaders of today are not a new phenomenon. God knows what they’re up to and is able to deal with them. That’s the storyline of our reading today.
In response to the existential threat from Assyria, Isaiah shares an extended message from the Lord with Hezekiah, which we might paraphrase, ‘I know what Sennacherib has been up to, but you can be sure that long ago I planned to punish him and protect Jerusalem’ (vs 23–35). That’s exactly what happened in the most unexpected way (vs 36,37). What other examples of God’s intervention in world history are you aware of? Did you notice what triggered Israel’s deliverance? Hezekiah prayed and God acted (v 21), which is both a mystery and a source of hope for our prayer lives.
In the United States we seem to have exceeded our quota of divisive leaders over the past few years. This has prompted me to pray, ‘Lord, either change their hearts or remove them’. As a Christian, I must believe, in fact, I must desire, that God could change the heart of even the worst leader, but eventually evil must be stopped, eventually justice must prevail, especially because innocent, vulnerable people often suffer the consequences of evil. So, I also pray that God will remove bad leaders, leaving the particulars of how and when it happens to him.
Think of the most divisive leader you know and pray that they may have a Damascus Road experience.
1 Ps 74:22
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Joel 1,2; Psalm 139
Pray for Scripture Union
Bookings for the 2024 holidays will open soon. Pray that children who went on our holidays in 2023 will be keen to sign up, and that new children will discover what the holidays have to offer too. Pray for the Mission Events team as they work on the website and the brochure.
Have you discovered our brand new children’s book?
The Grumpy Owl and the Joy of Christmas is a brilliant storybook that makes the truth of Christmas accessible to children, young people, and families who may never have heard the story of the nativity before.
Follow the adventures of a very grumpy owl as, in his search for some peace and quiet, he discovers what Christmas is all about!
