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Episode 668: In this episode, we dive into a fascinating discussion centered around the biblical figure of King Hezekiah and the challenges he faced during the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem. We read from Isaiah 37, where Hezekiah, faced with overwhelming odds, turns to God in desperation. His heartfelt prayer emphasizes his recognition of God as the one true deity, contrasting the false gods of the Assyrians.
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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Good Morning, good morning, we talk the whole that through. Good morning, Good morning to you and you and you. Wow, everybody's just waiting and waiting and waiting, are they? And you saved it to the middle of the week. Yes, thank you so much. It is a good morning on Wednesday. Wow, because you're halfway done with recording with the week? No, yeah, yeah, yeah, with recording. That was great, Chris, thank you so much. I mean, people love you and they love your singing. They love it. I do people come in on your singing. I believe there's truth and everything you say they do. Yeah, there is. Everything I say is true. Yes, yeah, there is truth. And that everything I think you just at a falsity. Yeah, well I don't know. Uh. So everybody knows that you're an incredible singer. Oh geez. They also know that on Fridays you're mad about something. Yeah, and they also know that you're a movie buff. They do. Those are the things that we know about Zara, and that you love your family. Yeah. Somebody saw me, uh when we did the groundbreaking and he says, hey, you're the jingle guy. I think guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. He's like, oh yeah, yeah yeah yep. So being a movie buff, yes, We're going to do a movie buff quiz and I am going to see if you can guess what movie I'm talking about. And I always get. Nervous about and I'm only using three words. Yes, so I'm going to give you three clues. That's really hard and you have to be able to guess the movie. Now they're well known movies. That's good, okay, but the words aren't easy, it says. To make it more difficult, Jeff will give one word at a time. Yes, I'm ready, Saturday, Uh, Saturday fever detention, breakfast club. There you go. Yes, yes, I was also going to say misfits. Oh, misfits okay, okay, hey that's pretty cool. Yeah, Saturday detention. I got it. Yeah, okay, the next one of those famous movies in the world, here's. The next one. Okay, build build it. Uh, if you build it, we will call build the dreams. Yep, build it, no, come on, yes, build it and they will come. Isn't it what they will come? I can't believe. So the three words will build it and come. So you got it out and build Yep, here we go. So, here you go. One of the best ones I've ever done. You will not get this one on the first try. Boy boy means girl. No boys in the hood ORCA or c h free willy Yep, Yeah, there we go. Yeah, there's only okay, so many movies and the Boy and. Then I was gonna say Captivity maybe one. Yeah, okay, here we go, all right, number four for Beauty, Beauty and. The Beast Pageant Beauty Pageants. Yes, yes, I just think, what's the most famous movie out there? And it's what's right right? Here you go? Are you ready? Okay, right, here's the last one. You have the opportunity. This is going to go five for five. This is going well for me. Yes, ready? Irish? Irish? Oh, Irish? What's that movie? Far and Away? Football? Irish football? Notre Dame. Oh, I don't people are screaming this one at the screen, you know that, right, I don't know what this is? Underdog. It's one of the greatest movies in history. Rudy, Yes, okay, yes, but thank goodness you got miscontinuality. Of course you would say that. Thank you, Thank you for pointing out I missed the football movie. I got the Beauty Patchean movie. That was very hey, by the way, I forgot the Irish part the. Irish Yeah, what's the fighting Irish football? Well, I didn't remember. Do you know how many times I've seen Rudy Like? Probably millions? No, twice, okay, I've only seen like twice. How many times you've seen Miss Congeniality. I don't want to answer that question. Field the Dreams? Have you seen Field Dreams? Oh? I've seen Fill the Dreams fifteen times? Okay. Oh, Breakfast Club like twenty times. Okay, I bet you. I've seen Miss Casuality because my daughter, yes, it's one of her favorite movies. Yes, so she would pop it on, and so my wife loves it too, So I probably have seen that ten times. So it's not a good look to blame your kids for stuff. I blame The Bachelor. I blame the Bachelor a bachelor watching parties, And so for a while there I agreed to watch it with Sarah because that was our tradition as father daughter, and so consequently I sort of knew all of the Bachelor. If you were into it, well, and then when she moved away, obviously it's. That you know, I have never watched and I don't know that I've watched a minute, but I've never watched an episode. Guess what you are the better for it. It is about us, trash, worthless. Anything, okay, So, and it's just yeah. It's awful. It's every part of it's bad. So talking about bad, by the way, it's not okay. Well, first of all, it's not. It's not bad as in like dirty. It's bad as in like everything about the way God created the love is violated, right right, That's what I. Was me, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And you're a delight by the way. I just want you to know it's so much fun making fun of me picking on you. I love I love it. Picking on you is a delightful me. And our listeners. He just said, that's good. I like it. And you said, speaking of what would you say? What was your transition? I don't remember what were you saying? You said something about you speaking of. Yeah, I'm sorry, try again. You said something about that. You said some word about how bad the show is, and I can't remember. And I was talking did you because I had to clarify. I had to clarify. Yeah, when I said so bad, it wasn't like dirty bad. Yeah. So we're just talking about bad news here, or bad bad experience, bad something, talking about bad Chris. That was bad news, Yes, bad news. You remember we're reading the book that has A of Isaiah, and Isaiah was a contemporary of the king has A. Kyle was a good guy. Yep. Right. He went back and started doing the good things again, rebuilding the temple and opening up worship and tearing down the altars to the other gods and all those kinds of things. But Syria, Assyria is coming. They're the most powerful empire in the world, and they're coming to wipe out Jerusalem. They're getting ready to just destroy them. And here's what it says in Isaiah chapter thirty seven. They went up being sieged to Jerusalem. They're completely besieged by the Assyrian army, and the Assyrians were ruthless. And it says this when King Hezekiah heard their report, because his generals come in and they give him information. When the King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the temple of the Lord, and he sent Elia Kim, the palace administrator, Shebnah, the court secretary, and the leading priests, all dressed in burlap, to the prophet, Isaiah's son of Amos. They told him, this is what King Hezekiah says. Today is the day of trouble, insults, and disgrace. It's like when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no strength to deliver the baby. Perhaps the Lord, your God has heard the Assyrian chief of staff sent by the king to defy the living God, and will punish him for his words. Oh, pray for those of us who are left. After King Hezekiah's officials delivered the king's message to Isaiah, the prophet replied, say to your master, this is what the Lord says. Do not be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian king's messengers. Listen, I myself will move against him, and the king will receive a message that he is and needed at home. So he returned to his land, where I will have him killed with the sword. Meanwhile, the Assyrian chief of staff left Jerusalem and went to consult the King of Assyria, who had left Lakish and was attacking Libna. Soon afterward, King Sanakara received word that King Terhakka of Ethiopia was leading an army to fight against him. Before leaving to meet the attack, he sent messengers back to Hezekiah and Jerusalem with this message. This message is for King Hezekiah of Judah. Don't let your God and whom you trust deceive you with promises that Jerusalem will not be captured by the king of Assyria. You know perfectly well what the kings of Assyria have done were wherever they have gone. They have completely destroyed everyone who stood in their way. Why should you be any different? Have the gods of other nations rescued them, such nations as goes On and Hauran Rezef and the people of Eden who were in tel Usar My predecessors destroyed them all. What happened to the King of Hamas and the king of ourpad what happened to the kings of Cepherveaum? Is that how you said, Sepharveaum, Hannah and Iva. After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord's temple and spread it out before the Lord, and Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord, O Lord of Heaven's Armies, God of Israel, you are enthrone between the mighty chair of them. You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and of the earth. Bend down, O Lord, and listen. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see listen to Sanacrib'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 down the gods of these nations into the fire and burn 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, our God. There you go, there it is there, it is there you go. Well, there you go. Well that is that is a heck of a story. And I love Hezekiah's proclamation. Right and he says you alone, you alone, O Lord. And by the way, have you noticed the heavy references of saying, O Lord of Heaven's Armies. Yes, you know, because it's not everywhere in the Bible. It's but it seems to be like a season right where it's where it's used constantly. It's David writes it a lot. Yeah, so so he wrote about So that's in like the King James, it would say the lord of hosts. Oh that's what that is. Yeah, I'm not sure I knew that. Yeah yeah, And so in in in the more modern translations, like the New Living Translation, that'll say the Lord of Heaven's armies, which is even cooler. O, lord of hosts. We don't think of hosts, right, right, So it's just a little bit more clear when you. Say, yeah, that's really great. You are enthrone between the mighty Cherubim. What a word picture right there? Right? Yep, you alone, or God of all the kingdoms of the earth, you alone created the heavens and the earth. I just love it. So here's what happens, just to kind of because Hezekiah goes to God and says, hey, did you hear what they just said about you? Remember? Now? It's funny because in King Sanakreb's mindset, he knows his gods aren't real either, right, So he's mocking Hezekiah probably his faith in his religion was a tool to manage his people. Sure, right, So he's mocking Isaiah in I mean Hezekiah in this story, by the way, shows up in second King's second chronicles and in Isaiah. So this chunk shows up in three different passages, and they all describe it the same way. But there is this moment where the chief of staff for Sanacrib the king comes and he goes, what makes you so confident? What are you trusting in that makes you so confident? Do you think that mere words can substitute for military skill and strength? Who are you counting on? Why have you rebelled against me? Right? Are you leaning on Egypt? Perhaps you say to me, we're trusting in the Lord, our God. But isn't he the one who was insulted by Hezekiah. Didn't Hezekiah tear down his shrines and altars? So he's misunderstanding what Hezekiah did when he cleaned up things in the areas, in the groves and stuff. And he starts mocking God and going, where's all your faith? Where's this coming from? Dude? Don't you know we wipe out everybody? Right? And that's why Hezekiah goes to temples to God, did you hear what him were saying about you? So where the king Sinakreb has this confidence in his own military strength and his strategy, he's basically that's that's the speeches giving. It reminds me of what we're about to get into probably next week, which is nebu Kadnezzar says, then who will save you from my hand? Right? Same thing. I had a friend. He was just a giant of a man, even as a young twenty year old you know, eighteen nineteen, twenty year old guy. I've never known anybody stronger just naturally stronger than him. And so I was believing or not back in the day, just this little skinny guy. But I had a smart mouth, and I was sassing off to this guy who was kind of just being a jerk. And this guy starts like cussing me and saying bad things about me. And then you ever, you ever hear somebody say you and all your friends? Yeah? And I turned around to Steve and I said, you hear what he just said about you all your friends? Right? So he was saying all kinds of mean things to me because I had been sassing off to him and was threatened into fighting or whatever. And then when he puffed up, he didn't back down. He puffs up and then he says all these really horrible things about me, but then he ends it with you and all your friends, and I turned around to see me. Right, that's kind of the feeling I have with Hezekiah. Yeah, because the king King Sanakrab, if i'd read all those other things, King King Sanakrebs has all these things about yours, sissy, and you guys can't fight me, and you think you're going to be able to stand up against the kings of a Syria. We've wiped everybody else out and your God can't do anything about it. And Hezekiah didn't take offense. He discerns, like, God, did you know what you just said about you? Right? Right? It's really funny. Well, it shows you the reality of his faith and the lack of faith that Snackrib has in his gods. Yeah, because his his faith is in his ability to wage war. Yeah. In the Second Chronicles thirty two version or record, I should say, it says, this is what King Sinakreb of Assyria says. What are you trusting in that makes you think you can survive my siege? Of Jerusalem, and it's just it's it's that arrogance that says, like, what what are you thinking? Like you're you're up against me. Yeah, it's it's a total you're right, even even. Though he had his religion in his group. Yeah, it probably was just a way to control people, you know, it's it's a necessary thing, right, it allow people to have their religion. It's a control it's a control mechanism, which, by the way, there's no shortage of, right, there's no shortage of people hijacking religious you know, things for their own agenda. So you see Hazekiah in his humility, he goes to God multiple times, two different times, and humbly says, God, I don't have anyone else to turn but to you, and what what are we going to do? Uh? If you don't come and rescue us. And Hasekaiah is aware the fact that he has no hope, there's no help, and that's not a terrible place to be. No, when you finally realize you know what my only chance is with God, and well it's terrible emotionally, well it's it's scary at the moment, but you're never closer, right, Right, The Bob says, God draws near to the broken hearted in that moment, right, God is close to you. You might feel like he's far away, but that's when you're the closest to God, when you have nowhere else to turn. Its it's almost like a forcing of dependence in a lot of ways. Right. Nobody wants to be there, but when you are there, that's what you mean by it. It's not a bad place to be. I've been there, right, Oh, me too, We've been there right. So yeah, it's it's hard, it's difficult sometimes, but you know, so I get a good buddy Mark who always says, you know, when you lead a church, and when you when you create a service, and when you create an Easter service, whenever you do anything. He says, you've got to put yourself in the spot to where if God doesn't show up, you're going to be toast. Right. I love the way he says that. He says, when you put yourself on a spot where you're thinking God, if you don't show up, we're toast. He said, that's the place you want to be. So then you know the really famous name here, King Turhaka of Ethiopia. Everybody knows about that guy, right. As a matter of fact, for the most part, people would not have known his name except for the fact that it's in the Bible. Right. But then, this is one of the reason why I love these life applications study Bibles. You see that little note down there in the left hand side at the bottom of the page. It turns out they've found reliefs and designs and even words that mention this guy. So once again archaeology always proving even the most obscure of things. God uses this Ethiopian king to come up and decide he's going to kind of mess around with Snakreb while Snakreb is surrounded Jerusalem. So Snacreb now has to leave his intent to invade Jerusalem to defend himself against this pretty obscure a Hakka king, right right, And and so God already begins to maneuver this way. So this is the guy that was saying, hey, who are you trusting in? Hezekiah is mad about that, and God says, you know, I'm going to send him back to Syria. He's going to get himself killed, right. So God goes ahead and wipes that guy out, but then sends this Turhaka king to come and fight against him, and then they so. Then Senacribs people have to say, hey, listen, uh, don't let your God and whom you trust deceive you with promises that Drusalem will not be captured by the king of Assyria. You know perfectly well what we've done, and so you know, I think the devil does that to us a lot. He tries to say, hey, don't don't don't, don't believe that fairy tale. Right, God's not going to look out for you or whatever. But this is the beginning of the end for Sanacribs people. They wind up getting wiped out later on, and God gives deliverance, right, but he uses Isaiah to encourage and challenge and even reinforce Hezekiah that hey, God is going to take care of you. And Hezekiah's final statement is, yeah, hey, what he said is true. They did wipe out other gods, but guess what, they weren't real gods. They were just stone and wood. And we're trusting the true God. So either your God is the real God, the God of heaven, or he's not and he's your only hope and God delivered him. Yeah, and you know what. I often run into people who tell the story about them worshiping like false titles. You remember met Buddy Eddie that Christmas story that we did, Yeah, yeah, and he was involved in the Santa Ria and where they have statues and they have these all these different kinds of things. It's a it's a Catholicized voodoo. Yeah. So it's eventually essentially the West African people brought voodoo to Cuba, and then the Cuban Spaniards owners, slave owners forced Catholicism on them. And all they did is blended the two and used Catholic words to keep doing their their voodoo. Yeah, which by the way, is crazy. Yeah, I mean, blood sacrifices, the whole nine yards, it's all. It's all full on witchcraft. It's witchcraft and so. And it's the prevailing religion in Cuba, right. And so when you walk around Cuba and you're going the door to the door, knocking on the doors, telling people about Jesus, you're seeing statues. Let's just say like for instance, I even hate to say this out loud, but it's like the Virgin Mary statue and it's got like black stuff running it's from its eyes right, and you're like, and of course me growing up Catholic, you know, you're used to seeing you know, statues for instance, of Mary, but not with black stuff running up its size. And that's one of like thirty statues that. Are just and they make sacrifices to them and they're doing they're doing witchcraft. It's crazy. But anyway, all I have to say, my buddy Eddie had dabbled in that and even said that there are evil powers in that, but then finally recognizing that that none of that is going to lead. To anything good. Because what he ended up saying in the video that we did. With him is he said, I realized that there wasn't a single leader in this false religion who ever had blessing or prosperity or success or or even lived. Right, because a lot of them just died and so and so he. Said, he said, so everything is torture, everything is demise, everything is and so he said, he goes, so this question for power that he was trying to obtain through these false gods, he said, he just recognized they weren't the one true God, right, and so so there's there was this moment where he was like they are statues. They are just. Would right and then and then there's the one true God. This is this is what Hezekiah is saying Isaiah. Right, So so this is Hezekiah. Hezekia is talking. Isaiah was just communicating and helping him to responsory. That's right. But it all comes down to this. So when I was saying, it's not a bad place to be, Difficulties in life can feel like they're the biggest thing and the most important thing until you realize that this life is so unbelievably temporary. The more you get an eternal view of your existence, the more you go from thinking that this is it and every day and every problem is the biggest day and the biggest problem to realizing that all of this is only dress rehearsal for eternity. James tells us, Peter tells us our life is like just a little poof of steam. It doesn't last very long on this earth, but we're going to spend eternity somewhere. When you be goin to have any eternal view, the problems here aren't so big when you begin to realize that, yeah, this is a broken world. Sin has happened here, We live in desolation, and we're trying to we're trying to carve out some kind of paradise in this desolate place. And God has God has perfection for us coming. Then our current circumstances are just circumstances. But this isn't home, and we're not supposed to be permanent here. And so instead, anything that drives us to be closer to God builds our faith more is a good thing. It's not a bad thing when we begin to see it that way. Right where then we run to God like a child runs to his mom and dad. I can remember thunder outside, boom, My little kids come running to me in the moment. Were they in danger? No, but they can't running to me in that moment, they cry the middle of the night. You know whatever, you'd hold them. It turned out that thunder wasn't actually a bad thing for them, but it was good that they ran to Daddy in that moment. Right. And so this is what you're finding the King doing. He's saying, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. And then he says, and this is appropriate, bend down, oh Lord, and listen open your eyes, o lord, and see listen to Sanakrib's words of defiance against the Living God. Right, and so he's inviting God, God, I need you to help me out. Would you bend down? Would you listen? I think about that. You know, the thunder rolls and the little kids come running to Daddy and then they're like, hold me toad. Right, And that's what he's doing in this moment. And so you have one king who's puffing up being a tough guy and God wipes him out. You have another king who humbles himself, and russ Jim says, God, it needs you to bend down and help me. And that's what God does. Right. That that's a pretty great thing. And you wind up seeing God do incredible things in Hezekiah's life because that's always his posture. Yeah and uh. And the words of Hezekiah remind me of David where he says, who is this philistine that defies the armies of the Living God? Member, that's right, And that's that's what he's really doing. He's Hezekiah is saying, listen, listen to his words that defy against the Living God. That's right. It's it's it's a similar. Statement, So that might be your prayer today. Just bend down low Lord, right, I need I need you. That's great, that's great. Well, hey, that's a great place to end and hopefully we'll see you tomorrow on the Bible Gush