One of the great profs of the Bible is the honest with which it treats its hero’s warts and all…
Isaiah 36 and 37 (Read on your own)
• The high places where destroyed that Hezekiah’s dad had set up… the enemy went after Hezekiah for doing the right thing… Doesn’t this sound familiar… The enemy tries to get us to doubt and question every the right things that we do…
When we miss it we hear these voices don’t we… We hear the Rabshakeh (Rab-shook-a)’s in our lives…
• Give up, give in…
• You’re damaged goods, God could never use you…
• God’s not strong enough for this one, (like all these other gods)… the enemy makes equivalencies… you’re too bound…
• It’s too late for you…
• Even when we’re doing the right thing… ‘Why are things still so hard… just go back to the old life…’ Sometimes the right thing is the hard thing, and that’s why so few do it…
But here we see the enemy went too far…
• He mocked the ability, and desire, of God to deliver those whom He loves…
So the king prayed… Isaiah 37:1, 14-20
What do we see in this prayer…
• He spoke to who God is… In our prayers we need to realize and vocalize just Who it is we’re praying to…
• He was honest… he wasn’t saying these Assyrian’s were nothing… we must drop our pretenses with God… be honest about what we’re feeling… be honest about the obstacles in front of us…
• Finally Hezekiah appealed not to his rights or merits… because in this moment he knew he’d missed it in leading Judah… but to the character of God… to His honor and His glory…
Our God saves and heals and restores… He defends His own… He does the impossible…
I’ve missed… and the enemy was right… I failed… I was depending upon my Egypt… (A Splintered Reed)
• But he always overplays his hand… “you’ve gone too far now” …
• Never underestimate God’s ability to restore… to redeem… to save… to deliver… to anoint…
• He can take our wreckage… our broken lives… and form them into something beautiful…
I don’t deserve this in my own merit, but God has come to seek and save that which was lost… to restore the broken… it’s in His character…
Never underestimate God’s ability to restore in a moment… right where we’ve fallen… in the middle of our wreckage, His grace and His love is running to us, wanting only to restore us, make us whole, and return us to the dignity with which He desires we live…