Serving God & Suffering

2 Chronicles 32:1-33

In January of 2007 my wife and I stepped out and did something we have never done. Apart from any organization we set forth on a journey from Oregon to Kenya. We spent a little over a week helping to train and encourage pastors in Kenya who were laying down everything to preach the gospel in areas that had not been reached and were most remote and poverty stricken. It was a wonderful experience we would not trade. What we didn\'t realize is that we brought back more than memories with us. While in Kenya we picked up a dangerous bacteria, one that would affect our lives for the next two years.

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Thank God we are healed now-my wife was especially hard hit much more than I. We have discussed this many times since-why after doing such a good thing would God allow such a bad thing to happen?

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Though we don\'t know all the answers yet, we do know one thing-to know God better means to know (Phil 3:10-11) That I may know him and? the power of his resurrection, and? may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may? attain the resurrection from the dead.

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God has done much in us but clearly has much more He wants to do. Once we think we have arrived we realize we have just stepped forth on the path-for God to show Himself even more powerful and do more powerful things through us.

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2 Cor 4:12 ?So? death is at work in us, but life in you.

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That\'s the kind of situation Hezekiah finds himself in here in 2 Chronicles 32. In Ezra\'s account anyway, it seems Hezekiah did everything right. He more than almost any other king since David turned the hearts of Judah back to God and even reached out in a significant way to his northern brethren, bringing them back to Yahweh as well. Yet even after all of that, an enemy invaded and threatened to make all that Hezekiah had done seem worthless. This enemy not only came with swords but also with words-words that tried to undo the very faith in Yahweh that Hezekiah had worked so diligently to foster.

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But praise God, He uses what the enemy meant for evil for great good!

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1

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I find it interesting that Ezra says \"After ... these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib ... came an invaded.\" You would think that faithfulness to God would result in protection from all harm. While that is true in the larger sense, often as we draw close to God we find ourselves in the midst of more serious battles. The enemy does not want us to succeed. The more serious about our relationship with Yahweh the more serious the opposition that comes our way.

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In this case, and in ours as well, what the enemy means as a way to hurt us, God means as a way to make us stronger by depending on Him more.

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The invasion by Assyria came through a whole series of events. Judah was dominated by Assyria through the invitation of Hezekiah\'s father Ahaz (2 Chron 28:20-21). In reality, Hezekiah himself bears some responsibility for this invasion. In 715 BC Ashdod and some other Palestinian cities rebelled against Assyria at the urging of Egypt (2Kings 17:4). Assyria subdued them and Hezekiah submitted to Sargon II. On Sargon II\'s death, Hezekiah disregarded the word of the Lord and joined with Egypt to revolt (Isaiah 30:1-5). So Sargon\'s son Sennacherib thought to take back control of Judah\'s fortified cities (2 Kings 18:13, Isa 36:1) and did in fact do that, except in the case of Jerusalem.

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2 - 5

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One of Hezekiah\'s lasting contributions is a tunnel that was built to rechannel water from the Gihon springs into the city of Jerusalem. You used to be able to walk this tunnel-we were able to do it back in the early 1980s. It is 1750 feet long and was cut into solid rock by two groups of diggers. Without GPS or other technology, they managed to meet in the middle (of the \"S\" shaped tunnel). There is even an inscription at the pool of Siloam (where the water comes out) that talks about that event.

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6 - 9

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Hezekiah\'s encouragement is very reminiscent of what Elisha told his servant in 2 Kings 6:16 when the Syrians had surrounded Dothan. It\'s a great encouragement to us who follow Yahweh as well. Our enemies can only fight with flesh, but God has weapons that far exceed what the enemy brings against us.

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2 Cor 10:4-5 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

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This is interesting in light of the history that surrounds this situation. As I had mentioned, Hezekiah had revolted against the king of Assyria and against God\'s Word. Isaiah criticized Hezekiah when it says \"He set to work resolutely\" (vs 5). in Isaiah 22:9-10. Hezekiah was using human means to protect the city. Isaiah even criticizes the rechanneling of the waters - \"But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.\" (Isaiah 22:11). In addition to releasing the pro-Assyrian Philistine king, Hezekiah had to pay a bunch of money and surrender 200,000 captives.

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Later, Sennacherib scrapped the peace treaty and wanted to invade anyway.

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10 - 15

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Sennacherib obviously misunderstands who Yahweh is. Lachish is 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem. He\'s basically saying \"no other god has been able to help so why do you think Yahweh is any different?\" Well, He is-very different. People today say \"I\'ve tried every philosophy and religion there is and nothing really works-why is Jesus any different?\" He is different, and as Sennacherib will find out, coming up against God is a BIG mistake.

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I\'ve noticed too that God really starts to move when the enemies of Israel make the mistake of talking down God. It\'s one thing for someone to insult us, but it is quite another to insult the King of Kings. (it happened to Goliath, remember?)

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16 - 19

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2 Kings 18 gives us a lot more detail of what happened. Rabshakeh was the Assyrian officer who purposefully spoke in Hebrew and not Aramaic. We also read how they delivered letters to Hezekiah. Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and went to the temple to seek God. There Isaiah comforted him saying \"do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard ... I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.\" (2 Kings 19:6-7) We\'ll see that in a moment.

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When Hezekiah got the letters, he went back to the temple, spread them out before the Lord praying \"save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.\" (2 Kings 19:19)

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20 - 23

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That night the angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. So it says Sennacherib went home to Nineveh where he was assassinated. A lot of the surrounding nations indeed discovered that there is no god like the Lord, fulfilling Isaiah\'s prophecy.

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24

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2 Kings 20 gives us all the details behind the illness, healing and the sign. Hezekiah got a boil and was about to die. Apparently it had become abscessed and had become septic. Isaiah told him he was to die, but Hezekiah cried to the Lord telling God how faithful he\'d been. God answers with 15 more years of life-but not because Hezekiah had been so good, but \"for my sake and for my servant David\'s sake.\" (2 Kings 20:6). Again, it is God\'s covenant and not our righteousness or faithfulness that matters.

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The sign was that the shadow would go back 10 steps on Ahaz\'s sundial.

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But now comes Hezekiah\'s big test. Would he keep trusting God or go back to trusting in treaties with men.

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25 - 31

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Because Hezekiah once again trusted in riches and men, God declared the people would be sent to Babylon (2 Kings 20:16-18). Hezekiah repented, though, and so God said it would happen later on. Part of Hezekiah\'s problem was that he couldn\'t help but show off all his \"stuff\" to envoys from Babylon. They came not only to inquire about the great miracle healing, but also to attempt to conspire together against Sargon.

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God sometimes leaves us to ourselves too, to let us see what is in our hearts.

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James 1:13-15Let no one say when he is tempted, \"I am being tempted by God,\" for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

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God reveals who we are and our motivations not to hurt us but to help us.

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Heb 12:7-11 It is for discipline that you have to endure.? God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good,? that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

32 - 33

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Ezra clearly wants to portray the good parts of Hezekiah\'s rule in order to encourage the returning exiles. We spoke last time about his reinstitution of the priesthood, renovating of the temple, rejuvenating worship and celebration of Passover. All these encouraged the people that they could rebuild the temple and restart worship in Judah in the face of stiff opposition. This chapter shows that God is faithful to His covenant and will be victorious for all who place themselves in His hands fully.

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Conclusions

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Hezekiah relied on two things mainly-his personal accomplishments, including riches, works, and even his faithfulness to God-and agreements made with other people. God put him in a box at least three times to show him that he must rely on God\'s promises and Word, rather than these things. It happened with Sennacherib, his illness, and his showing off to the Babylonians. It\'s an important lesson for us-that relying on ourselves or any other human will ultimately lead to disappointment. Instead we need to place our trust and our satisfaction completely in the hands of God through the promises of His Messiah Jesus contained in His Word. God\'s blessings come through grace, not through our merit.

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Secondly, Ezra is encouraging the returning exiles to rebuild Jerusalem, the temple, and restart worship. I just wanted to remind us that our real home is not here on earth, but in the New Jerusalem God is preparing for us in heaven.

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Heb 11:13-16 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

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God may allow us to experience pain and turmoil, but He is always good in every bad situation and uses those things to make us more reliant and effective here, and to look forward to being called home!