(REFLECTIONS ON 2 Kings 19:1-37)

In today’s Scripture, Isaiah the prophet enters the narrative. As the prophet through whom God had spoken to Judah for many years, his appearance reminds us that in Judah’s greatest crisis, God was not silent. The Lord answered His king through His prophet.

After hearing the threat from the messenger of the king of Assyria, Hezekiah tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord. Yes, the people were silent, because Hezekiah told them “Do not answer him,” but Hezekiah himself was not silent in word or action, but rather turned to the Lord.

After entering the house of the Lord in humility, he sent Eliakim and the elders of the priests, also covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet.

This is the message from the Lord, through Isaiah the prophet, to Hezekiah,

“Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the kings of Assyria have blasphemed Me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”

Although the king of Assyria continued to defy God by sending a letter to Hezekiah again questioning his trust in the Lord, Hezekiah again responded not to the king of Assyria, but in prayer to God.

19 “Now, O Lord our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdom of the earth may know that You alone, O Lord, are God.” The word of God again came to Hezekiah through Isaiah the prophet and indeed the king of Assyria departed, returned home and fell by the sword in his own land.

In today’s Scripture we again have the voice of Assyria, trying to create doubt, fear, confusion in Judah, the voice of Hezekiah praying to the Lord, and the voice of the Lord to Isaiah the prophet.

The voice of Assyria symbolically still surrounds us each day. That is the voice of doubt, fear, and confusion. However, where is the voice of prayer to the Lord, and the voice of the Lord through the Holy Scriptures and His prophets in this day? Who is speaking the word of the Lord?

Who lifts a voice to the Lord rather than trying to speak with defiance against the voices of the world? Brothers and sisters, let us hear the words of God through His Holy Scriptures, and through the voice of His prophets, and let us lift up voices of prayer to the Lord.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: 2 Kings 19