Be Still and Know that I AM God
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· 3,045 views10/17/2021, Evening Worship
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Introduction/Scripture Foucs
Introduction/Scripture Foucs
Good evening and welcome back!
Tonight, we are going to be talking about King Hezekiah and looking specifically at 2 Kings 18, but I want to start out with a couple of verses from Psalm 46, specifically verses 10-11 that state . . .
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
Now, those are wonderful and encouraging verses of Scripture aren't they.
"Be Still and Know that I am God."
"The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."
To the Child of God, these words offer encouragement and comfort in the difficult times we face in life.
When we are down and out and it seems like the whole world is stacked against us, we can draw from our heart the words of the Psalmist.
However, I have the suspicion that for many of us, we forget these words when the times of trouble come.
We forget that God is our refuge, that He is our strength.
We get so wrapped up in trying to solve our own problems and deal with our life's situations that we forget about God.
We forget to acknowledge God and many times, we fail to be quiet, to be still and listen to God.
We fail to let go of control and let God take over and not only reassure us that He is God, but allow Him to show us He is God.
Now, I know what you are probably thinking, "it's easy for somebody to write this in a psalm, when things are going good."
It's easy to exalt God and wait on God when life is smooth and we are up on top, which may seem the case in this Psalm.
However, when you dig into it, that was not the case when this Psalm was written.
To set it in context on what the Psalmist was exalting God for, we have to go back to 2 Kings 18 and 19 and the rule of King Hezekiah.
Hezekiah Starts Out on a Good Note
Hezekiah Starts Out on a Good Note
Here was the situation Hezekiah was faced with . . . .
In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.) Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.
So, Hezekiah was a Godly king who tried to live right and do according to the will of God.
He listened to God and removed the altars and the temples of the false gods.
The Bible says that he "held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him, but kept the commands the Lord had given to Moses."
So, Hezekiah not only said he walked with God, but he actually had a real, relevant, deep, one on one relationship with God.
So much so that the Lord blessed him with success, even to the point that Hezekiah began to rebel against the Assyrians.
You could say that he was going against the grain, following God instead of following man.
He was more concerned about God's will than anything else.
If he would have just went with the flow, bent over and allowed things to continue the way they were, he would have been just fine.
Wouldn't have had any problems.
But that wasn't God's plan and that wasn't God's will.
Hezekiah had a responsibility as a representative of God to stand for what was right.
To stand against the evil of the world, the Assyrians, which were nothing more than a representative of Satan himself.
So, he took a stand against the devil and when you do that the devil begins to push back.
When you go against the grain there is always some resistance.
So trouble begins to brew and it seems like the world begins to close in.
Kind of like what Paul says in Romans . . .
Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
No matter how hard we try to do good and "take care of things" evil is always there present with us.
The problem comes in, when we try to squash the evil within our own power.
When the flesh and spirit (small "s"-meaning our spirit) are at odds, we are left defenseless.
It's only when the Holy Spirit (Big "S") is in control that we have any victory.
Trouble is going to come but we have the power to overcome it at that point!
The Assyrians Lay Siege
The Assyrians Lay Siege
But Hezekiah is out there taking a stand against the Assyrians and the Assyrians don't like it, so they begin to try to push back!
In King Hezekiah’s fourth year, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege to it. At the end of three years the Assyrians took it. So Samaria was captured in Hezekiah’s sixth year, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel.
And . . .
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
So, after only four years of Hezekiah being king the Assyrians attacked Samaria and surrounded and blockaded the city, "laid siege to it."
The city was under siege for three years and finally fell to the Assyrians.
Then seven years later, they did the same to Judah and it fell to the Assyrians.
So, times were dark and things looked bleak for Israel at that time.
So much so that Hezekiah begins to waiver and try to solve his own problems, instead of trusting in God.
So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me.” The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace. At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors and doorposts of the temple of the Lord, and gave it to the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field.
Now, just to break down what’s going on here a little bit, Hezekiah sends a message to the Assyrians that in exchange for withdrawing their forces, he will pay them whatever they require.
In other words he will bribe them and give them a pay off to leave the Israelites alone.
In our terms it is like the church saying "we won't preach this message or that message, if you will just leave us alone."
"We won't take a stand against this evil or that evil, just leave us alone devil."
"Just leave us alone and let us go on pretending life is good and there are no problems, wandering in our own little world and we'll play along."
We won't raise a stink or a stir.
We'll pretend like the rest of the world.
However, the church like the Israelites, don't realize they are still in bondage!
They are still under the control of the Assyrians.
Still captive and doomed.
Walking after the flesh and not the Spirit.
Let me read something out of 2 Peter 2 and this is a pretty long passage . . .
This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish. They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—a beast without speech—who spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”
Hezekiah knew the right way, was following after God, but was taken up by the moans of the people.
Influenced by the draw of the flesh.
Decided to take the "easy road," the "safe path."
Refused to step out on faith and trust God for provision.
How many of us are like that?
How many of us are afraid of the unknown, the uncertainty of fully trusting God?
That's why things are the way they are for us.
Refusing to trust in God, trying to solve our own problems!
Thinking that it will just go away or we can take care of it.
It's not going to go away.
So, Hezekiah pays them the "hush money." 300 talents.
The Bible goes on to say that he even took all the gold and silver from the Temple and gave it to the Assyrians.
Stripping those pure and fine things of God that had been sacrificed for and instilled in the Temple and just handing it over to the devil.
Chapter 18 goes on to describe the result of Hezekiah's attempted bribe.
It doesn't get the Assyrians to leave them alone and to turn over the cities back to them.
Quite the opposite. The army still comes and still marches on them.
Not only that, but they sense the fear of Hezekiah and the people.
They begin to mock and ridicule them, antagonizing and tormenting them.
Enough is Enough
Enough is Enough
Hezekiah finally has enough and comes to his senses. He does what he should have done in the very beginning.
When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”
Hezekiah goes into mourning and approaches God with a repentant heart.
Open to God's command now.
Hezekiah realizes that he's done nothing but make a mess out of things and he wasn't going to be able to fix it.
He did like many of us do, waits until he realizes that he can't fix it, then goes to God wailing, crying, and begging God to fix his problems.
Problems that would have never gotten as big as they did if he would have stayed the course and just listened to God throughout, trusting God for his provision and protection.
But none the less, Hezekiah goes to God in prayer with the right heart and right attitude now.
God answers Hezekiah's prayers.
Even though Hezekiah messed up and made a mess out of things, He repents and God hears the prayers of the repentant heart.
And, God sends Isaiah to Hezekiah with this message . . .
Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Listen! I am going to put such a spirit in him that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’ ”
The rumor was that the King of Egypt was forming and army against the Assyrians and was going to march against them.
However, this still did not stop the arrogant Assyrians.
Again the Assyrians send mocking messages to Hezekiah . . .
“Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’ Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my forefathers deliver them: the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah?”
This time though, Hezekiah did not waiver.
He did not give in.
Rather he took it to God in prayer and put it in God's hands.
And God delivered . . .
That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.
That night, God sent His angel and wiped out 185,000 of the Assyrians.
When they got up the next morning there was nothing left but dead bodies.
The Assyrians withdrew, knowing they were no match for God.
They retreated all the way to Nineveh.
The king didn't even escape.
He was killed by his own sons.
Altar/Challenge
Altar/Challenge
The hand of the enemy was crushed, not because Israel had a great army and power to destroy them.
It was because Israel, (Hezekiah) realized that all they had to do is wait on God.
They did not have to fight their own battles, solve their own problems.
All they had to do is trust in God and He would deliver them.
Remember the Psalm I started out with . . .
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
The question is, where do we put our faith and our trust?
Let’s pray . . .