Deliverance From Assyria
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“Why hast Thou then broken down her hedges,
So that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
The boar out of the wood doth waste it,
And the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts:
Look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;
And the vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted,
And the branch that Thou madest strong for Thyself....
“Quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name.
Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts,
Cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”
Psalm 80
.
Hezekiah’s pleadings in behalf of Judah and of the honor of their
Supreme Ruler were in harmony with the mind of God. Solomon, in
his benediction at the dedication of the temple, had prayed the Lord
to maintain “the cause of His people Israel at all times, as the matter
shall require: that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is
God, and that there is none else.”
1 Kings 8:59, 60
. Especially was the
Lord to show favor when, in times of war or of oppression by an army,
the chief men of Israel should enter the house of prayer and plead for
deliverance.
Verses 33, 34
.
Hezekiah was not left without hope. Isaiah sent to him, saying,
“Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to Me
against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. This is the word
that the Lord hath spoken concerning him:
“The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed
thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
“Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom
hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even
against the Holy One of Israel. By thy messengers thou hast reproached
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the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come
up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will
cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof:
and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of
his Carmel. I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole
of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.