Today's Daily Lesson comes from 2 Kings chapter 18 verses 19 through 25:
19 The Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you base this confidence of yours? 20 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom do you now rely, that you have rebelled against me? 21 See, you are relying now on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. 22 But if you say to me, ‘We rely on the Lord our God,’ is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’? 23 Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 24 How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 25 Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.”
King Hezekiah "did what was right in the sight of the LORD.
That is a tremendous statement in the Bible, and the opposite of so many of statements laid against the other kings of Israel and Judah.
King Hezekiah did what was right.
And yet, here is, his city surrounded by the Rabshakeh and the Rabsaris, representatives of the mighty Sennacherib, King of Assyria, who demands the surrender of the city of Jerusalem.
Why has it come to this? How did they get here? Is there any way out of it? Is it really the LORD's doing, as the Rabshakeh says?
No answer is given to these questions in today's reading. And I think it is best to leave them unanswered this morning. This is where they were. This is where we are -- surrounded, confused, distraught even.
What got us here is the same thing that got Judah where it was -- poor choices, bad public policies, poor leadership, a people bent on doing what they desired. Few foresaw how unprepared the nation was in to confront such an overwhelming enemy. And, no matter that our institutions -- whether they be churches, or schools, or hospitals or city governments -- may now have some good leadership; the lot has been thrown, and Sennacherib is at our gate. And we are not really sure what to do next, except pray and be not dismayed.
NOTE: We are reading the Bible through this year. We are doing so in chronological order. Multiple things are happening all at once, so we move from book to book sometimes. We do tomorrow. Tomorrow's Lesson comes from Hosea chapters 1-7.
No comments:
Post a Comment