The first article in last month’s issue of this Magazine was entitled, “God Reigns Over His Church”, and illustrated the subject from God using David to overcome Goliath and so delivering His people Israel from their enemies. We noted further that God uses “the foolishness of preaching” to deliver sinners from Satan’s kingdom and to build up His own Church.
We return to the subject with a view to illustrating it from the time when Judah was invaded by the Assyrians during King Hezekiah’s reign. The invading army had reached the walls of Jerusalem and was ready to capture Judah’s capital city. Jerusalem was no ordinary capital, for the temple of the true God was there, and His people gathered there to worship Him. Later, when spiritual declension had gone much further in Judah, an invading army – this time from Babylon – did succeed in taking Jerusalem, but as yet God’s long-suffering continued. What is to be emphasised here is the offering of prayer by Hezekiah and God’s answer. And no doubt many more prayed, including Isaiah, who were sincere worshippers of the true God.
Rabshakeh was the general of the Assyrian King Sennacherib, and he had a glib tongue. He did his best to destroy the morale of the people in Jerusalem, particularly trying to weaken their trust in the Lord. Today the media, and films and theatre productions, seem very much directed towards promoting the assumption that there is no God. According to the thinking of the age, there is no value in trusting the God of Christianity. But what God has revealed is that the wise course through life is to trust in Him. He says, “Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength” (Is 26:4). How many of God’s children have followed this counsel and have been very thankful for the help that God has shown them in strengthening them to face the difficulties of life! Among them was Hezekiah and others today who believe the testimony of God’s Word and find their experience corresponds to the affirmations of Scripture.
Rabshakeh’s speech from outside the city walls was followed by a letter with similar contents, which was delivered to Hezekiah. After reading it, the King’s response was to bring the letter to the temple “and spread it before
the Lord” (Is 37:14). Matthew Henry comments “Liberty of access to the throne of grace, and liberty of speech there, are the unspeakable privilege of the Lord’s people at all times, especially in times of distress and danger”.
Clearly, Hezekiah made full use of that unspeakable privilege, for it was a time of distress and danger. It is a privilege that the Lord’s people in our time are to make full use of, especially when they are distressed about the state of God’s cause. Matthew Henry goes on, “God allows His praying people to be humbly free with Him, to utter all the words . . . before Him, to spread the letter, whether of a friend or an enemy, before Him and leave the contents, the concern of it, with Him”.
God’s people have every reason to be sad when relatively few sinners are being delivered from the darkness of Satan’s kingdom and brought into the glorious liberty of the kingdom of Christ. They may be seriously concerned also when congregations dwindle away, when few men are being raised up to preach the gospel, and when so many of those that profess to be Christ’s ambassadors do not bring their people a message consistent with Scripture. In response to a question from the Saviour, Peter asked, “To whom shall we go?” But if the context related to the low state of the Church, Peter might well have added: We have no one else to go to but the One who sits on the throne of grace and is able to answer every legitimate request that is sent up from a troubled but believing heart.
Hezekiah addressed the Lord as the One who alone is God. So Rabshakeh was broadly right when he implied that the gods of the heathen had little or no power. Hezekiah put it better: “Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries, 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” (Is 37:18,19). But Rabshakeh was altogether wrong when he put the God of Judah on the same level as these false gods. On the other hand, Hezekiah believably addressed the Most High: “Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, Thou art the God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: Thou hast made heaven and earth” (Is 37:16). Hezekiah understood that the true God was ruling over all parts of the world, not only over Israel and Judah; He has hosts of angels to serve Him – “angels that excel in strength, that do His commandments” (Ps 103:20).
As so often in Scripture, the greatness of the true God is highlighted, as Hezekiah realised, by the fact that He is the Creator of everything that exists. The theory of evolution is energetically promoted in opposition to the fact of creation. It is a highly effective weapon in Satan’s arsenal to keep people from believing that God is what He reveals Himself to be. If God is what
Hezekiah believed Him to be, and He is, then nothing is too hard for Him – not even protecting His people from an army as powerful as Sennacherib’s. In spite of all the efforts made today to banish God’s existence from human thinking, He does not lack the power to deliver sinners from Satan’s kingdom and set their thinking straight. He may not do so as often as His people wish, but they are to remember that God has His own purposes in relation to how many sinners are converted at each point in the earth’s history, and they are to realise that He acts according to His infinite wisdom.
Before Christ ascended to heaven, He promised His Church: “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. . . and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Mt 28:18,20). As He continues to rule throughout the New Testament period, He will always be with His Church, and there is no limit to His power. Surely these promises should encourage believers to pray for the Church, knowing that her King is able to answer these prayers. They may ask for the Holy Spirit to be sent, so that sinners would be convinced of sin, that those still in Satan’s kingdom would have their eyes opened to see Christ as a willing Saviour, enabling them to find deliverance from their lost condition. They are to pray that the children of God would grow in grace and be kept from sliding back from the ways of holiness. They are to pray that Satan’s kingdom would be brought down and multitudes delivered from it, and that the kingdom of grace would be advanced and that God would be increasingly glorified in this world.
We have many examples in Scripture of those who were eminent for their prayerfulness. Particularly, we have the example of Jesus, who “went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God” (Lk 6:12). It may not be possible for ordinary mortals to continue all night in prayer, at least to do so frequently; we may bear in mind that God created us with the need to sleep. Yet there are many examples in history who were given a remarkable degree of grace to persevere in prayer. For example, Jonathan Edwards writes of the noted missionary to the Native Americans, David Brainerd: he always laboured “fervently, not only in Word and doctrine, in public and private, but in prayer day and night, wrestling with God in secret”.1 May we seek grace to follow these examples, and pray that God would supply all our needs and the needs of our families, friends and acquaintances – particularly to plead that God would graciously build up His Church, for His glory and for the spiritual good of multitudes of souls. He is still ruling over everything that happens in this world and, for the sake of Christ, He is able to answer the prayers of those who seek such blessings.
1Jonathan Edwards, The Diary and Journal of David Brainerd, Banner of Truth reprint, 2023, p 499. The quotation comes from Edwards’ Reflection 5.