To hear this Morning Devotion, please click Laying it before the Lord
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Have you ever wondered where the phrase “laying it before the Lord” came from?
From King Hezekiah’s desperate plea to God in the face of Jerusalem’s looming destruction, that’s where.
It’s found in 2 Kings 19:14.
“After Hezekiah received the letter (from Assyria’s King Sennacherib poised to attack the city) from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord’s Temple and spread it out before the Lord.”
This is a very visual description of what the Hebrew king did when he saw that all his earthly options for survival were gone.
Today’s reading in the One-Year Bible shows that Hezekiah had already paid Sennacherib 11 tons of silver and one ton of gold as extortion money in order to have him take his army back to Assyria. Hezekiah had even stripped gold from the temple walls and doorposts in order to meet the quota.
But Sennacherib wanted more — as in permanent control of the city — and he told Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem that they were going to be destroyed and, in fact, that God had sent them there to do it.
Hezekiah did the military math and knew that his only hope was with the Lord.
And so, to the Lord he went, possibly spreading the letter out on the floor in front of the doors into the Holy Place.
It is quite instructive for us to look closely at what Hezekiah said to God in the face of a 185,000-strong army experienced in destroying cities and slaughtering without mercy.
“And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord: “O Lord, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth.
“Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God.
“It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all—only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands.
“Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God” (vv. 15-19).
In the midst of terrible threats and the resulting fears, Hezekiah first chose to praise God. This is a good example for us because it shows that we are to be more concerned about honoring Him than we are about saving our skin or our stuff or our status. God first, you know.
Second, Hezekiah pointed to the spiritual context of the attack. Sometimes the attacks on us are actually attacks on God through us.
Third, Hezekiah concisely asked God to save Jerusalem so that everybody would know that God is supreme, not Sennacherib.
Faced with challenges larger than our ability to overcome, our only hope is to pray as Hezekiah prayed.
As we practice this pattern more faithfully, I believe, we’ll see God’s intercession more frequently.
Amen to that, huh?
As always, I love you
Martin
