Mon.’s Devo - The Power of Our God -

Read: 2 Kings 18:13-37; Acts 21:1-17; Psalm 149:1-9; Proverbs 18:8 King Hezekiah had rebelled against the taxes King Sennacherib placed on his country and stopped paying them. The king of Assyria sent his army and conquered many fortified towns in Judah in return. King Hezekiah then sent a message to King Sennacherib saying he was sorry for not paying him and asked what he wanted. He wanted eleven tons of silver and one tone of gold. Hezekiah had to give him all the silver he had stored up and take the gold off of the doors of the Lord’s Temple to pay him. Still, the king of Assyria was not happy. He sent his army telling Hezekiah that he needed to surrender to him and he would give his people horses to ride out of there as his exiles. He told them that their God would not be able to save them. None of the other nations’s gods could save them. The leaders of Judah asked the army officer of Sennacherib to only speak to them in Arabic so the people wouldn’t be able to hear his threats. The army officer refused because it was the people he wanted to intimidate. He offered them great lands and food and a wonderful life if they would surrender to him and come to Assyria. The people wouldn’t answer because Hezekiah had told them not to. *** Hezekiah was distressed when he heard what the army officer had said. He tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the Temple of the Lord to pray. He sent word to Isaiah to tell him everything that was going on. *** Isaiah told them to tell the king not to be disturbed by their blasphemous speech against the Lord. The king of Assyria would receive a message from home and return where he would be killed. *** Before he left, he sent a message saying that he would return. He reminded them that all the other nation’s gods had not been able to defend them against the army of Assyria and then wouldn’t be able to either. *** Hezekiah read what the message said and took it to the Temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. He told God that he was the creator of the heavens and the earth. He reminded God what the king of Assyria had said. He asked God to rescue them so all the kingdoms of the earth would know that he was the only God. *** Isaiah sent Hezekiah a message saying God had heard his prayer. King Sennacherib had defied the Lord by bragging of their great power and might. They had conquered all these nations because He had ordained that he do so. But their arrogance has caused him to now put a hook in their nose. They would return the way they came and Judah would eat what grows up by itself. The next year they would eat what springs up from that. But in the third year, they will plant crops and harvest them. They will tend their vineyards and eat their fruit. They will put down roots and prosper in their land. *** God said the army of Assyria would not enter Jerusalem or attack it. The king would return to his own land. *** That night, the angel of the Lord attacked the Assyrian army and killed 185,000 of them. When their officers woke in the morning their were corpses all around them. King Sennecherib went back home the way he came and was killed in his temple of his god by his own two sons. They fled to Ararat while another son, Esarhaddon became the next king of Assyria. *** In Acts, Paul, Luke and their companions left the Ephesians and sailed on to Jerusalem. They stopped at Tyre where the ship unloaded its cargo. They stayed a week with the believers there. The believers there warned Paul not to go to Jerusalem. They prayed for them before they left. *** The next stop was Ptolemais where they stayed at the hoe of Philip the Evangelist. Prophets there told Paul he would be bound by the Jewish leaders and turned over to the Gentiles if he went to Jerusalem. They begged Paul not to continue his journey. *** Paul told them to stop crying over him. He knew what was ahead and he was ready to face it. When they realized they could not keep him from his destiny, they prayed for him and bid him farewell. When Paul finally arrived in Jerusalem, he was met with a warm welcome from the believers there. *** Today You taught us not to be afraid of a taunting enemy. No one can stand against You and Your power. We trust in The All-Powerful, Magnificent God. Lord, You are on our side, who do we need to fear.