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Day 185: Hezekiah's Prayer
Chapter 19: Hezekiah Consults the Prophet Isaiah
2 Kings 19:1-7 ~ Hezekiah sends his ministers to the prophet Isaiah
Tearing one's clothing and wearing sackcloth was a sign of grief and mourning. The king went to the Temple to pray while his ministers and the most senior chief priests were sent to consult Isaiah. The ministry of the prophet Isaiah began in c. 740 at the end of the reign of King Uzziah, Hezekiah's great-grandfather. His name meant "the Lord is salvation." He is considered the first of the four Major Prophets and the Book of Isaiah is attributed to him. His ministry lasted over a 40 year period during the reigns of kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah of Judah (Is 1:1). He must have belonged to a leading family in Jerusalem and he might have been related to the aristocracy since he held the position of royal advisor to the kings of Judah (see Is 3:1-17, 24; 4:1; 8:2; 31:16). He was married to a "prophetess" and had two sons (Is 8:3-4). Isaiah was a contemporary of the Prophet Micah. His mission was to proclaim the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and to preach repentance to Judah.
Question: Why did Hezekiah describe the people of Jerusalem as a "remnant"?
Answer: They are only a portion of the original twelve tribes, consisting of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and even the tribes of Judah and Benjamin have been diminished by the Assyrian invasion and the destruction of so many Judean towns.
Question: What prophecy does Isaiah make concerning King Sennacherib?
Answer: He predicts the death of the Assyrian king.
2 Kings 19:8-13 ~ Sennacherib's message to Hezekiah
Sennacherib had moved from Lachish to attack Libnah, a Levitical city in Judah. The citizens of the town of Libnah were devout and had revolted against King Jehoram of Judah when he had apostatized from the covenant (2 Kng 8:16-18, 22). Sennacherib and his army left Libnah when he heard that Tirhakah king of Cush was on the way to attack him. Tirhakah later became the Pharaoh of the XXVth Egyptian dynasty. After receiving his ministers' report on Hezekiah's reply to their demands, Sennacherib sent another series of threats in a letter to Hezekiah similar to the first threats delivered by his ministers.
2 Kings 19:14-19 ~ Hezekiah's prayer to Yahweh
According to God's word to Moses, He resides among His covenant people above the cherubim on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant (Ex 25:18-22; and see the same form of address in 1 Sam 4:4; 2 Sam 6:2; Ps 80:1:99:1). Hezekiah's prayer is a testimony to his complete faith and trust in Yahweh. His statement in verse 15 is a direct rebuttal of the arrogant words in Sennacherib message in verse 12.
2 Kings 19:20-34 ~ Yahweh's response to Hezekiah's prayer through Isaiah
Also see Isaiah 37:21-35.
Question: What are three prophecies are in the poem?
Answer:
- God will send the Assyrian king back to his own lands (verse 28, 33b).
- The remnant of Judah will survive and in the third year life will return to normal (verses 29-31).
- Jerusalem will not be attacked because of God's covenant with David (verses 32-34)
The Judahites were the surviving remnant of the twelve tribes of Israel, but their numbers had also been diminished by the 200,150 Judahites that had been captured by the Assyrians and deported. The population of Jerusalem is now the hope of the nation.
21 Here is the pronouncement which Yahweh has made about him: "She despises you, she scorns you. The virgin daughter of Zion; she tosses her head at you, the daughter of Jerusalem!
Question: Who is the "she" and who is the "you"?
Answer: The "she" is the "virgin daughter of Zion" who is "the daughter of Jerusalem" and the Church of the Sinai Covenant. The "you" is Sennacherib.
In verse 22 Sennacherib's insults and his boasts that he will destroy Jerusalem is seen by God as an assault on the God of heaven and earth. In the Assyrian king's boasts, he thinks of himself as godlike in his accomplishments (verses 23-24)
But because of his personal attack on Yahweh, God will rein him in like a domestic ox with a nose ring or a donkey or horse with a bridle to make the king go back the way he came.
Remnants of the Broad Wall of biblical Jerusalem, built during Hezekiah's days against Sennacherib's siege
2 Kings 19:32-37 ~ Yahweh's judgment on Sennacherib and his army
Hezekiah now had Yahweh's promise that the city will not be taken nor even attacked. That night the army of the Assyrians was silently struck by the Angel of Yahweh. When the king and the surviving members of his army discovered the dead in the morning, they immediately abandoned the siege of the city of Jerusalem and returned to Assyria, just as Yahweh had promised.
Question: What other prophesy by Isaiah was fulfilled?
Answer: Sennacherib died by the sword as Yahweh predicted.
Assyrian annals record that the king and his army gave up the siege of Jerusalem, but no reason is given for the sudden retreat in the Assyrian documents. Sennacherib was indeed assassinated in the year c. 681 BC, and he was succeeded by his son Esarhaddon.
CHALLENGE: “There is no proof that the unborn are human beings.”
DEFENSE: There is proof, and it is obvious regardless of one’s faith perspective.
Objectively speaking, a human being is a living human organism. For the unborn to qualify as human beings, they must meet three criteria:
1. They must be alive.
2. They must be human.
3. They must be organisms.
They meet the first criteria—life. We observed elsewhere that they are alive (see Day 191). This is illustrated by the fact that the unborn have biological processes occurring in their cells, which are multiplying and specializing throughout pregnancy. The simple truth is that dead embryos don’t grow, making it unmistakable that the unborn are alive.
They meet the second criteria—humanity—for each has a human genetic code, not that of a cow or a chimpanzee or a carrot. They belong to our species, not some other one, as their genetic codes make clear.
They also meet the third criteria—being organisms. An organism is an entity that is whole in and of itself. That is, it is not part of another, larger organism.
Sometimes abortion advocates claim that the unborn are part of their mothers’ bodies, but this is false. The unborn have their own unique genetic code, which is distinct from the mother’s.
The fact that there is a stage in which the unborn are single cells also is not contrary to this. There are many single-celled organisms in the world, and at one point in their development, humans pass through this stage.
Fundamentally, the unborn are organisms because they are organic wholes with their own, in built principles of growth and development. Unless interfered with, they will mature and be born in just a few months, then continue their development toward adulthood.
Since the unborn are living human organisms, they are—objectively speaking—human beings. Any attempt to deny this is a rationalization that violates the known facts.
The unborn also are innocent human beings (see Day 202), and it follows that they must be accorded the same right to life as other innocent human beings. To claim otherwise is to adopt a fundamentally inhuman and immoral position.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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