In God We Trust (Part 1)

Posted On August 7, 2023

“Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria:
On what do you rest this trust of yours?
Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war?
In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?'”

2 Kings 18:19-20 ESV

“Finally, in the ninth year of King Hoshea’s reign, Samaria fell, and the people of Israel were exiled to Assyria. They were settled in colonies in Halah, along the banks of the Habor River in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. This disaster came upon the people of Israel because they worshiped other gods. They sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them safely out of Egypt and had rescued them from the power of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.”

2 Kings 17:6-7 NLT

As a young man, Hezekiah became king of the southern nation of Judah. Six years later, he witnessed the downfall of the northern kingdom of Israel at the hands of Assyria. Now the powerful Assyrian army was coming for him and his tiny kingdom. How could he hope to stand against them when his fellow Israelites could not?

Our plan for 2023 is to journey through The NeverEnding Story of the Bible and discover how we fit into it along the way. Our plan for this year is loosely based on The Story, an abridged chronological version of the Bible, and the accompanying study guide The Heart of the Story by Randy Frazee.

Here is where we are in The Story:

MOVEMENT TWO: The Story of Israel (Genesis 12-Malachi)

Chapter 16 – The Beginning of the End (of the Kingdom of Israel)

This chapter in The Story covers 2 Kings 17-19 and Isaiah 3, 6, 13-14, 49, & 53. This chapter begins with the fall of Israel. After a three-year siege, the Assyrian king captured Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, and the Israelites were deported to Assyria. As Scripture explains, this happened because the Israelites adopted the evil practices of their pagan neighbors and, despite numerous warnings, refused to remain faithful to God.

“If he let them continue in their wicked ways, no one would ever see his true character and therefore be drawn to him. God patiently waited for them to come to their senses, but they ignored him. He gave them countless opportunities to bring their Lower Story into alignment with his Upper Story, but they were content to go about their lives as if he didn’t even exist.
It was time for God to act, and he did so decisively. According to the Bible, he chose another nation — Assyria (roughly the equivalent of modern-day Syria) — to invade Israel, defeat it, and deport its citizens back to their own nation. Just like that, Israel — the northern kingdom — ceased to exist. Gone forever.”

Randy Frazee, The Heart of the Story

“To ensure against organized rebellion, Sargon II of Assyria deported over 27,000 people from the northern kingdom of Israel to distant cities after Israel’s defenses broke down. Any semblance of a nation — a people with a common cause and heritage — was gone.
In the southern kingdom of Judah, young King Hezekiah watched these developments take place. How do you run a tiny nation when the greatest army in the world is camped on your northern border?”

The Story

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah. And it appeared that Judah would now suffer the same fate as Israel. But Hezekiah refused to give up. The Assyrian king sent his commanders, along with a large army, to taunt Hezekiah and to entice the people of Judah to surrender. After all, they were no match for such a superior military force. If they stayed in Judah, they could starve to death. Would they place their hope in the same God who had allowed the northern tribes to be destroyed? Or would they accept the Assyrian king’s offer of peace and a bountiful new home?

“Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death!
Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?”

2 Kings 18:31-33 NIV

It was a good offer. And, if I’m honest, I think I would have been pretty tempted to accept it. Because the Assyrian king wasn’t completely wrong. The Lord hadn’t delivered the people of Israel from him. What made the people of Judah believe the Lord would deliver them? I’m sure the king of Assyria was completely baffled by their silence at his generous offer. But they knew something he didn’t know. They knew that unlike the kings of Israel, Hezekiah was completely faithful to God:

“Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before or after his time. He remained faithful to the Lord in everything, and he carefully obeyed all the commands the Lord had given Moses. So the Lord was with him . . . .”

2 Kings 18:5-7 NLT

Hezekiah remained faithful to God in everything, and he put his trust in the Lord. When Assyria threatened his kingdom, he was understandably afraid, but he didn’t panic. And he didn’t try to take matters into his own hands. Instead, he went into the Temple and prayed.

Here was God’s answer:

“And this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
‘His armies will not enter Jerusalem.
    They will not even shoot an arrow at it.
They will not march outside its gates with their shields
    nor build banks of earth against its walls.
The king will return to his own country
    by the same road on which he came.
He will not enter this city,
    says the Lord.
For my own honor and for the sake of my servant David,
    I will defend this city and protect it.'”

2 Kings 19:32-34

And here is what happened:

“That night the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrians woke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere.  Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there.”

2 Kings 19:35-36 NLT

What a miraculous ending! The people of Judah didn’t even have to fight. The angel of the Lord did it for them! But the story could have ended much differently. The king of Assyria certainly thought it would. He mistakenly thought that he could not be defeated, especially after what had happened to Israel. He believed the God of the Hebrew people no longer fought for them.

But he was wrong. Because Hezekiah and the people of Judah understood where their true power and identity came from. Unlike their northern relatives, who worshiped other gods, they chose to put their trust in God alone. And that made all the difference!

“I trust in God, so why should I be afraid?
What can mere mortals do to me?”

Psalm 56:4 NLT

This week’s Scripture passages focus on putting our trust in God. He is our refuge and our strength. When we’re afraid and our future seems uncertain, we can choose to panic. We can choose to take matters into our own hands. Or we can choose to pray.

Let’s choose to remain faithful to God and put our trust in Him alone. Because if God is for us, nothing can possibly stand against us!

“Those who know your name trust in you,
for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.”

Psalm 9:10 NIV

References:

• Frazee, Randy.  The Heart of the Story: Discover Your Life Within the Grand Epic of God’s Story. Zondervan, 2017.
• The Story: Read the Bible as One Seamless Story from Beginning to End. Rev. ed., Zondervan, 2008.

Images:

• “In God We Trust” featured image by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash (edited)
• Chariot image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay (edited)
• Israel Ruins image by yaeluri from Pixabay (edited)
• Prayer image by RENE RAUSCHENBERGER from Pixabay (edited)
• Cross image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay (edited)
• Man on Mountain image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay