* Will God Fight For You?

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, 

but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Isaiah 55:11

Yes, God fights for us!  

Let me attest to the fact that everything you need, every situation you are going through, you can find a relative account in the word of God that will give you strength, encouragement, empowerment and increased faith.  

Like King Hezekiah, we should take our petitions to the alter of God and leave them there.  By leaving them there, we are indicating that we have turned it over to God, it is out of our hands and now in the hands of God.   King David bore witness to this:

I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Psalms 37:25

King Jehoshaphat was truly a testament of God fighting for us; of Him being our shield and defense.  When King Jehoshaphat was up against a battle that was humanly impossible for him to win, the spirit of God, through the prophet, told King Jehoshaphat how that God would fight for them.

And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. To morrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel.  Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.   2 Chronicles 20:15-17

All we have to do is trust God and stand on His word.  He will do what He says:

And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.  For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.  And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.  2 Chronicles 20:22-24

When we call on the name of the Lord, He hears us; He won't leave us nor forsake us because He loves us.  It is a mighty God, an all powerful, sovereign God that we serve.  Unfortunately, we often lack in faith and take matters into our own hand or we lack patience and are not willing to wait on God or we don't want the help or outcome  that God is giving us; we want it our way.

The prayer by King Hezekiah takes place as Assyria is attempting to conquer Judah. The King of Assyria sent word that spoke boldly against King Hezekiah and against God:

Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and spake, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria: Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand: Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.  Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern: Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The Lord will deliver us.  Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?  Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?  Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand? 2 King 18:28-35 

After the speech, King Hezekiah was sent a letter from the king’s messenger.  The account continues with:

And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.   2 Kings 19:14 

King Hezekiah took the letter from the envoy and read it. He went to The Temple of God and spread it out before God. 

Then King Hezekiah prayed:  Oh, how he prayed!

. . . O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, Lord, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.   2 Kings 19:15-19

God’s response to Hezekiah’s prayer:

Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel. By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel. I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places. Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps. Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up. But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest. And this, Hezekiah, will be for you the confirming sign: This year you'll eat the gleanings, next year whatever you can beg, borrow, or steal; But the third year you'll sow and harvest, plant vineyards and eat grapes. A remnant of the family of Judah yet again will sink down roots and raise up fruit. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.   2 Kings 19:20-34 

And this is what God did:

And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.   2 Kings 19:35

If you read the entire account, you find where at one point King Hezekiah tried to plea and bargain with the King of Assyria but to no avail.  But when he took it to God in prayer . . . God moved on his behalf!

We should be encouraged from this account that God is bigger than our enemies.  

King Hezekiah knew he was up against an enemy that he, in his own strength and power, could not defeat.  He literally placed  his concern (written in a letter) on the alter.  

Know that we can do this same thing today.  We can place our struggles, our issues, our concerns and our negative situations on the alter and let God know that we are lost without Him, we need His help and that we need Him to make a way and because He loves us so . . . He will avenge us.  Only have faith to believe!

I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Luke 18:8

Be blessed and encouraged in God today.

(Biblical Studies)




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