Deliverance From Assyria
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God of Hezekiah deliver His people out of mine hand.”
2 Chronicles
32:17
.
The boastful threat was accompanied by the message: “Let not thy
God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not
be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, thou hast
heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying
them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered? Have the gods of the nations
delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran,
and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar? Where
is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city
of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?”
2 Kings 19:10-13
.
When the king of Judah received the taunting letter, he took it into
the temple and “spread it before the Lord” and prayed with strong faith
for help from heaven, that the nations of earth might know that the
God of the Hebrews still lived and reigned.
Verse 14
. The honor of
Jehovah was at stake; He alone could bring deliverance.
“O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims,”
Hezekiah pleaded, “Thou art the God, even Thou alone, of all the
kingdoms of the earth; Thou hast made heaven and earth. Lord, bow
down Thine ear, and hear: open, Lord, Thine eyes, and see: and hear
the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living
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God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations
and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire: for they were
no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they
have destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech Thee,
save Thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may
know that Thou art the Lord God, even Thou only.”
2 Kings 19:15-19
.