The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Pray” it comes from the Hebrew Word “palal” which means “to pray, to intercede.”
Facing an impossible enemy, Hezekiah does the one thing that actually changes everything. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is 2 Kings 19.
Hearing the Rabshakeh’s taunts, Hezekiah tears his clothes, covers himself with sackcloth, and goes into the temple, sending word to the prophet Isaiah asking him to “pray,” “palal” in Hebrew, for the surviving remnant of Judah. Isaiah responds with reassurance from the Lord, that Hezekiah need not be afraid of the words spoken against Him, promising to send a spirit that causes Sennacherib to hear a rumor and return to his own land, where he will fall by the sword.
Sennacherib sends Hezekiah a threatening letter, again mocking the Lord’s ability to deliver Jerusalem just as other nations’ gods had failed to save them. Hezekiah spreads this letter out before the Lord in the temple, praying earnestly, acknowledging God alone as the true God of all the kingdoms of the earth, and asking Him to hear Sennacherib’s reproach and save Judah, “that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.”
Isaiah sends word that God has heard Hezekiah’s prayer and will defend Jerusalem, since Sennacherib’s pride and blasphemy have come up before Him, promising he will not even shoot an arrow into the city, but will return home by the same way he came. That very night, an angel of the Lord strikes down 185,000 in the Assyrian camp, and Sennacherib withdraws, returning to Nineveh, where he is later assassinated by his own sons while worshiping in his god’s temple, exactly as prophesied.
Hezekiah’s response to an overwhelming, seemingly hopeless threat wasn’t panic or immediate military strategy, but honest, specific prayer, physically spreading the threatening letter before God and pleading His own reputation among the nations. That prayer, offered from genuine desperation, brought about deliverance no army or diplomacy could ever have achieved.
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