crying out to God

When Things Look Down, Look Up.

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Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven. – 2 Chronicles 32:20 ESV

The psalmist asked the somewhat rhetorical question: “From where does my help come?” (Psalm 121:1 ESV). Then he gives what should be the obvious answer: “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2 ESV). In times of trouble, the one who believes in God turns to Him for hope and help. When things are down, they look up. David, the great king of Israel, wrote, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken” (Psalm 62:1-2 ESV). The psalmist, Korah, echoes this sentiment. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1 ESV). And it was with this thought in mind that King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah prayed to their God in heaven. They looked up and they cried out.

The situation was desperate. King Sennacherib of Assyria had invaded Judah with his armies and had Jerusalem surrounded and under siege. He had sent a message to the inhabitants of the city, saying: “Why are you so confident that you remain in Jerusalem while it is under siege? Hezekiah says, ‘The Lord our God will rescue us from the power of the king of Assyria.’ But he is misleading you and you will die of hunger and thirst!” (2 Chronicles 32:10-11 ESV). He went on to threaten the people of Judah with annihilation and warned them that Hezekiah was simply trying to deceive them. He ridiculed the God of Israel and bragged that no other god of any other nation had been able to stand against his armies. “Who among all the gods of these nations whom my predecessors annihilated was able to rescue his people from my power?” (2 Chronicles 32:14 ESV). King Sennacherib even had some of his troops who spoke Hebrew call out to the people of the wall, attempting to demoralize them with threats of destruction. They purposefully ridiculed God. “They talked about the God of Jerusalem as if he were one of the man-made gods of the nations of the earth” (2 Chronicles 32:19 ESV).

Things were definitely looking down. The odds were stacked against Hezekiah and Isaiah. The people were beginning to have second thoughts about Hezekiah’s leadership. They were listening to the words of Sennacherib and wondering if their God was strong enough to stand up against such a great army. There’s no doubt that Hezekiah and Isaiah were hearing a lot of complaining. They were probably getting a lot of advice to simply give up and cave in to the demands of the enemy. Self-preservation was the watchword of the day. Rather than expect victory and deliverance, the people were willing to settle for surrender and submission in exchange for their lives.

But Hezekiah and Isaiah didn’t give up or give in. They looked up and they called out to God. In the darkest of moments they still saw a glimmer of hope, because they believed in the power of their God. They knew Him to be loving, faithful, and fully capable of delivering His people from the greatest of difficulties. Sennacherib and his armies were formidable, but they were no match for the God who had created heaven and earth, who had defeated the armies of Egypt, who had delivered the land of Canaan into the hands of His people by defeating the more powerful nations that lived there. The armies of Judah were nothing compared to those of the Assyrians, but that was inconsequential. It was David, the great warrior-king of Israel, who wrote, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright” (Psalm 20:7-8 ESV). Here was a man who built his reputation on warfare, bravery, battlefield heroics and victories against his enemies. But even he knew that, ultimately, the battle was the Lord’s. Any success against the enemy was His doing.

So Hezekiah and Isaiah cried out to God. And He answered. We’re not told what they prayed. We’re not told how long they prayed. But we are told that God answered, and in a big way. “The Lord sent a messenger and he wiped out all the soldiers, princes, and officers in the army of the king of Assyria. So Sennacherib returned home humiliated” (2 Chronicles 32:21 ESV). God didn’t even have to show up Himself. He simply sent a messenger, much like Sennacherib had done. But God’s messenger brought more than threats and insults. He brought destruction on the enemy and deliverance for His people. In fact, when Sennacherib arrived home, he went into the temple of his god and was murdered by his own sons. His own god wasn’t powerful enough to protect him.

But God proved Himself faithful, powerful, and fully capable of delivering His people from the greatest of difficulties. Sennacherib had boasted, “no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to rescue his people from my power or the power of my predecessors” (2 Chronicles 32:15 ESV). But he didn’t know the God of Israel. He had yet to come up against the God of the universe, the one and only true God, the maker of heaven and earth. Like Hezekiah and Isaiah, may we learn to trust God even in the darkest of moments. May we learn to call out to Him even when all looks lost. Like David, may we be able to say, “Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand” (Psalm 20: 6 ESV).

Prayer For Guidance.

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Then all the commanders of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, came near  and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let our plea for mercy come before you, and pray to the Lord your God for us, for all this remnant—because we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us—that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.” – Jeremiah 42:1-3 ESV

Have you ever been at a loss as to what to do? Maybe you have found yourself going through what appears to be the discipline of God for something you have done and you want to know what your next steps should be. The people of Judah found themselves in that very predicament. They were surrounded by the military forces of Babylon and under the disciplinary judgment of God for their persistent sin and rebellion against Him. In fact, Jerusalem had already fallen to the Babylonians and thousands of their friends and fellow countrymen had already been taken captive to Babylon. They were the remnant that had been left. Their king, Zedekiah, had been captured by the Babylonians as he attempted to escape the city at night. He was taken to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonian, where he was forced to watch as all his sons were killed right in front of him, then he had his own eyes gouged out. The remnant that had been left knew their days were numbered. They had no king, no army, and no hope. There were some among them who wanted to turn to Egypt for help. Rather than take their problem to God, they thought they could solve it themselves with a little outside help. Others were recommending flight. We should just run away, they counseled. Some were even suggesting Egypt as the destination for their flight. So what should they do? Wisely, if not a bit too tardily, they decided to ask God. So they asked Jeremiah to go to God on their behalf and ask Him for guidance. What did He want them to do? You see, they were confused and divided. They asked, “that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.” Now that all was in a shambles and they had no other viable options, they suddenly decided to take their problem to God. They even promised to do whatever God said, if only He would answer them. “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the Lord your God sends you to us. Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God” (Jeremiah 42:5-6 ESV). But would all this prove to be too little, too late? Would God refuse to answer their request because of their consistent refusal to listen to His prophets and their call to repentance?

God answered. He made them sweat it out for ten days, but He answered. “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your plea for mercy before him: If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you. Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Do not fear him, declares the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand. I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land” (Jeremiah 42:9-12 ESV). God’s answer was conditional. It contains an if-then statement. God promised to build them up, to plant them, to relent, to be with them, to save and deliver them, to show them mercy and allow them remain in the land – IF they would simply remain in the land and trust Him. Everything in them said to run and God knew it. He knew what they were thinking. He knew they were wanting to turn their attention to Egypt and place their trust in them. But while everything around them looked bleak and beyond hope, God wanted them to know that He was not done. He would even cause the king of Babylon to show them mercy. But if they refused to listen to God and took matters into their own hands, God would punish them just as He had their friends and neighbors. “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces to enter Egypt and go to live there, then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, and there you shall die. All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. They shall have no remnant or survivor from the disaster that I will bring upon them’ (Jeremiah 42:15-17 ESV).

Even in the midst of our most difficult situations, including those that are the result of our own sin and rebellion, we can call out to God for help and guidance. But we must be willing to listen to what He has to say. God will answer. He will give us direction, but we must obey Him – even when it seems to make no sense. Fear and flight may seem the most logical next step, but if God says, “Stay!”, we must stay. There is only one thing worse than refusing to seek guidance from the Lord, and that is to refuse to obey His guidance once you have sought it. God’s will may not make sense to us. His guidance may seem counter intuitive. Everything in us may scream that our way makes more sense, but we must obey. God answers when we call. But the question is whether we will obey when He answers.