Mon.’s Devo - Humility and Repentance Brings Deliverance

Read: Isaiah 37:1-38:22; Galatians 6:1-18; Psalm 65:1-13; Proverbs 23:24 Yesterday we read where the leaders of Jerusalem brought the message from the wall of what the Assyrians were going to do to Jerusalem. They were distraught, but Hezekiah knew what to do. He tore his clothes in humility and put on burlap, the sign of mourning and repentance. He took the report to the Temple of the Lord and sent his men in the same clothing to Isaiah to tell him the report. When they told Isaiah the report, he didn’t blink an eye, he sent back to Hezekiah God’s report. God said not to worry about these Assyrians, God would take care of them. Sennecheruib would receive a message that he was needed at home and when he returns, he will be killed with a sword. Sure enough, Sennecherib found out that the King of Ethiopia was leading an army to fight against him and he left to fight him. He sent Hezekiah this message: Don’t think that your God has won because I am coming back. Then he reminded him of all the nations he had conquered. Hezekiah took this letter into the Temple and spread it out for the Lord to read. He told God that it was true what the Assyrians had done to other nations and their gods, but their gods were not real. They were just stone and wood and he knew that God was a real God. He cried out to God to save them and to let them know that He alone was Lord. Isaiah sent the king a message saying that because he had prayed about this, God was coming to save them against the arrogant Sennecherib and his army. God gave Hezekiah a sign: this year they would eat what grew up by itself, the next year they would eat what grew up from that and the next year they would plant again and harvest their own crop. God did come with his army and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrians woke up the next morning they found their fellow soldiers corpses all around them. Can you imagine the terror? The King took the rest of them home to Nineveh and one day while he was worshiping in the temple of his god, Nisroch, his own sons killed him with their swords. About that same time, Hezekiah became sick and was told by Isaiah to set his affairs in order because he was going to die. Hezekiah cried out to the Lord and reminded him of his faithfulness toward Him. So God relented and promised him 15 more years. Hezekiah should have died when God said it was time. In Galatians, Paul brings them all down a notch. He encourages them to help someone who has fallen into sin, because they are not greater than that person just because they hadn’t fallen. He reminded them that God is the God of justice and He will decide every man’s fate. Their job is to live their own lives for Him and not judge another man’s walk. Our boast is in Christ, not ourselves. Lord, may we be like Hezekiah and humble ourselves before you because you alone can save our nation. We pray for our leaders that they would humble themselves and see you as the only answer and we pray for your deliverance from evil.