WFTD: Our Great Deliverer

/ adamrenken
I love reading through the Old Testament, because I see so much of Christ there in all His glory.  When you understand that God does not change (Malachai 3:6 – “For I the LORD do not change”), but has always and will always be as He is, magnificent in His perfections, you will read the Old Testament this way.  You will see the righteousness of God and tremble.  You will see the faithfulness of God and His enduring steadfast love, and be comforted.  All the characteristics of the glory of God are present in the Old Testament, for your instruction and joy.

In Isaiah 36, Sennacherib king of Assyria invades Judah, taking the fortified cities surrounding Jerusalem.  The king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh (the chief cup-bearer to the King) from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army.  This was the message delivered:

Isaiah 36:13-20 – “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!  Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.  Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.  Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?  Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?  Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'”
King Hezekiah upon hearing hearing the message, tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth (humbled himself), and went into the house of the Lord.  The prophet Isaiah responded to Hezekiah with a word from the LORD – Isaiah 37:6-7 – “”Say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.'”

Isaiah speaks for the Lord further to say Isaiah 37:30 -35 – “And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.  And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD. For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

What’s interesting to note is that God did not spare the surrounding areas of Judah from the King of Assyria.  God had a specific plan for a remnant of the nation of Judah.  This plan was prophesized by Isaiah.  God said, He would defend Jerusalem to save it, and that this would be done for God’s sake, and for the sake of His servant David (Jesus was born through the line of David), thus Judah was spared because God had an ultimate plan of salvation through Jesus Christ.  Notice also the imagery given.  In the third year, the surviving remnant of the house of Judah was to take root downward and bear fruit.  After three days, Christ was risen.  Those whose faith was rooted in Christ’s atoning death, were purposed by God to bear fruit (reconcile others to God).  Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  I want you to be encouraged brothers and sisters, God is faithful to defend His work in you.  If you are struggling with sin or otherwise facing temptation, the promise of happiness if only you would trust your flesh and not trust in the Lord, know that God is faithful.  His steadfast love endures forever.

Oh, by the way, I don’t want to leave you hanging… this is what God did to the King of Assyria:  Isaiah 37:36-37 – “the angel of the LORD went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.  Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword.” 

Those who mock the living God, who trust in their own gods, will reap what they sow.  Thanks be to God that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  My exhortation is to know the fear of the Lord, know the faithfulness of God, and bear fruit in keeping with the gospel – preach Christ crucified to all who woud listen.  You are not an accident, God, our Great Deliverer, has a plan for each of us, and He is faithful and able to secure it.

Grace and Peace,
Adam 

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