Deliverance

Day two hundred ninety-eight

I have been thinking about the sacrifices we make for each other.  It always amazes me how willing some people are to sacrifice for others.  I have been fortunate to have people who love me in my life that are willing to make hard sacrifices on my behalf.  I prayed with gratitude for these people in my life, for the example they have set for me.  I asked the Lord to bless them for their sacrifices.  I also asked Him to give me the opportunity to give back to them somehow, so that I too might be an example to those who watch me.  May we all be willing to love each other enough to make the sacrifices we need to make!

2 Kings 19
The Assyrian empire is now the world dominating empire. Besides the many other nations that they have besieged and taken into captivity, they also have taken the Northern Kingdom of Samaria into captivity. And now their focus is the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

At first king Hezekiah was able to fight off these invasions, but over a period of time he gave in to Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and paid him tribute money to not invade them any more. But the money was not enough, the king of Assyria wants total control of Judah and its people. So he sends his representatives to king Hezekiah's representatives, and the offer is simple. They either surrender to the Assyrians or their city will be destroyed and they will be taken captive anyway. The incentive to surrender was simple to see, behind these three Assyrian representatives stood 185,000 Assyrian soldiers.

Now as we move into 2 Kings 19, Hezekiah's three representatives are going to inform him of the Assyrian demands. And they approach the king with their clothes torn, a sign of mourning, and they tell the king that things do not look good, we are in trouble!

Hezekiah calls on the prophet Isaiah for help and goes to the Lord in prayer.  What a great example, seek advice from someone you know will tell you the will of God, not just what you want to hear, and also seek the Lord's will for yourself.

The Lord hears and answers in a big way. God's deliverance in this situation was miraculous. He sent a single angel into the camp of the Assyrians, who killed 185,000 of them in the night. Angels are not creatures to be messed with! 

There are some things we learn from this awesome act:

We learn the end of those that boast.
2 Chron 32:21 "And the Lord sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his god, they that came forth of his own bowels slew him there with the sword."

We learn not to be afraid of boasters.
Psalm 44:7 "But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us."

We learn the advantage of entire reliance on the Lord.
2 Chron 32:8  "With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah."

When you see what one angel did here, you get a better understanding of the power that was in the hands of Jesus during His arrest when he said in Matthew 26:53: "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?"

One legion was 6,000 soldiers, which would mean that Jesus could call more than 72,000 angels to His side, more than enough to deal with the problem if He wanted to.  How foolish to war with God!

It is important that we understand that God brings deliverance in different ways.  It doesn’t always happen overnight with a single event.  Sometimes deliverance takes a long time (think of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt for 400 years).  Then again, He doesn’t always make the problems disappear, some challenges are a lifetime pursuit.  However, we know that He is watching over us and He takes care of us.  If we know Him, he will deliver us.

Psalm 91:14 "Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name."

There have been times in my life when I have recognized that the Lord had delivered me.  I have been fortunate to have some powerful experiences that testify to me that He hears our prayers and loves us.  But mostly, I have learned to recognize that there is no such thing as coincidence, it is only God's work in disguise.

It's stories like this one that put things in perspective; God is the same now as He was then.  If He wanted to send an angel down to us, He would.  If God says He will deliver us, He will.  There is no reason to doubt Him!