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Isaiah 35-37
Skip Heitzig

Isaiah 35 (NKJV™)
1 The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;
2 It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, Even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, The excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, The excellency of our God.
3 Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted, "Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you."
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert.
7 The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
8 A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, Shall not go astray.
9 No lion shall be there, Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there,
10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Isaiah 36 (NKJV™)
1 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
2 Then the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller's Field.
3 And Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.
4 Then the Rabshakeh said to them, "Say now to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: "What confidence is this in which you trust?
5 "I say you speak of having plans and power for war; but they are mere words. Now in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me?
6 "Look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
7 "But if you say to me, 'We trust in the LORD our God,' is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar'?"'
8 "Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses--if you are able on your part to put riders on them!
9 "How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
10 "Have I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, 'Go up against this land, and destroy it.'"
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in the Aramaic language, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall."
12 But the Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat and drink their own waste with you?"
13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew, and said, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!
14 "Thus says the king: 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you;
15 'nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, "The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."'
16 "Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: 'Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern;
17 'until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18 'Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, "The LORD will deliver us." Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
19 'Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
20 'Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?'"
21 But they held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was, "Do not answer him."
22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.
Isaiah 37 (NKJV™)
1 And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
3 And they said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah: 'This day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth.
4 'It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'"
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 And Isaiah said to them, "Thus shall you say to your master, 'Thus says the LORD: "Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.
7 "Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."'"
8 Then the Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish.
9 And the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "He has come out to make war with you." So when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10 "Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: 'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, "Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."
11 'Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered?
12 'Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?
13 'Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?'"
14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
15 Then Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying:
16 "O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
17 "Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.
18 "Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands,
19 "and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands--wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them.
20 "Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD, You alone."
21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,
22 'this is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him: "The virgin, the daughter of Zion, Has despised you, laughed you to scorn; The daughter of Jerusalem Has shaken her head behind your back!
23 "Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice, And lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.
24 By your servants you have reproached the Lord, And said, 'By the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, To the limits of Lebanon; I will cut down its tall cedars And its choice cypress trees; I will enter its farthest height, To its fruitful forest.
25 I have dug and drunk water, And with the soles of my feet I have dried up All the brooks of defense.'
26 "Did you not hear long ago How I made it, From ancient times that I formed it? Now I have brought it to pass, That you should be For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.
27 Therefore their inhabitants had little power; They were dismayed and confounded; They were as the grass of the field And the green herb, As the grass on the housetops And grain blighted before it is grown.
28 "But I know your dwelling place, Your going out and your coming in, And your rage against Me.
29 Because your rage against Me and your tumult Have come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back By the way which you came."'
30 "This shall be a sign to you: You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, And the second year what springs from the same; Also in the third year sow and reap, Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.
31 And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, And bear fruit upward.
32 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, And those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
33 "Therefore thus says 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 build a siege mound against it.
34 By the way that he came, By the same shall he return; And he shall not come into this city,' Says the LORD.
35 'For I will defend this city, to save it For My own sake and for My servant David's sake.'"
36 Then the angel of the LORD went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses--all dead.
37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh.
38 Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.

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23 Isaiah - 2004

During His ministry on earth, Jesus quoted Isaiah more than any other prophet. In this series, Skip Heitzig takes a look at this well-known book in which Isaiah called for Israel to repent from their sins, pointing to the ultimate Deliverer who would bring salvation.

Please note: this series is missing chapters 1-16. No recording of these chapters are available.

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Transcript

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Good evening.

Good evening.

Very good. Would you open your bibles to Isaiah chapter 35? It was about a year ago on the 4th of July that I was still living in Albuquerque. And I went to the local baseball team's game. It's a team called the Albuquerque Isotopes, AAA team. And I was there in the stands. And on this 4th of July, a couple rows in front of me, were a couple of guys drinking beer. And by the time the game was over and the fireworks were about to begin, these guys were well saturated. And one turned to the other, in the immortal words of that Budweiser commercial, and said, it doesn't get any better than this.

And I thought unfortunately, how true that is for a lot of folks. For a lot of people in this life, it doesn't get any better than drinking beer at a AAA baseball game in Albuquerque, New Mexico. How sad is that? But for others, it's going to get a lot better than this. A lot better than any experience we've had on this earth. What do you and I have to look forward to in the kingdom age and in heaven is magnificent and in part, it's described here in the pages of scripture. This world is not our home. Isn't that good news? But, by the way a lot of Christians live, you wouldn't know that. We're just passing through. And tonight, we get a partial description of your future home. Though you're only going to live there a short time, only 1,000 years.

And in the perspective of eternity, that's moments, the kingdom age, the millennial reign of Christ on the earth. And according to Isaiah chapter 35, the first few verses, it's going to be a very lush environment. California has been dubbed the Cadillac Desert because it wouldn't really be what it is without the water supply. It was a dream years ago, last century, of a guy by the name of William Mulholland to divert water from the Owens Valley, 230 miles north, into the LA basin and give an ample water supply so as to provide irrigation and the lush landscape that we see today. And I've watched, over the years, California develop.

My dad was a land developer. And I saw photographs of this area all the way from the 1930s on. And what a Marvel of engineering that man has been able to perform. But in the kingdom age, the master architect is going to do a remodel job on this earth that nothing will be able to rival. Verse one, the wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them. The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. Chapter 35 is a stark contrast to the chapters we saw last week. The devastation on planet Earth, Armageddon, populations wiped out, destroyed. The earth, devastated, uninhabitable. Normally, after a war, it takes many years for that land to get back to be able to be used again. But God will instantaneously recreate it in that age.

I was in an elevator in Hawaii a few years back. And the guy in charge of the elevator turned to us-- he could tell we were tourists-- and he pointed outside, he said, another perfect day in paradise. Well, now we step into paradise. We step into our future on the earth. It shall blossom abundantly-- verse two-- and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it. The excellence of Caramel and Sharon, those verdant, beautiful mountain ranges and valleys in the land. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God.

In other words, there is going to be great geographical and topographical changes on the earth. The entire hydrological cycle of the earth will be differed in the kingdom age. Areas that were once desert-- and by the way, deserts in the world are expanding. It's a big, long stretch of desert from just up about Victorville and Asperia, all the way through Arizona into New Mexico, all the way out to the edge toward the border at [INAUDIBLE]. The deserts, they say, are expanding. But in that day, lush, verdant, blossoming like a rose.

Perhaps the desert that Isaiah had in his mind was the desert just to the east of Israel. It could be to the south, but the vast desert is in the area of, today, modern Jordan, and Iraq, and down into Saudi Arabia. Huge desert. In fact, it's more bleak than anything I've ever seen. A few years ago, I took a taxi cab drive from Amman, Jordan, to Baghdad to bring Christmas presents, Operation Christmas Child that Franklin Graham collects every year. 32,000 shoe boxes we brought. I was in a taxicab. It was a 25 hour drive across the bleak desert one way. To make matters worse, the taxi cab driver was a chain smoker and was playing Madonna tapes the entire time. I knew it wouldn't be a good trip.

Finally, I just pushed the eject button and asked the guy to put out his cigarette for the entire trip. And he did. The only thing that kept me sane was realizing, as I looked over that vast expanse of desert, the changes that were coming in the future, how all of that rocky, barren soil would one day be a lush paradise. He goes on, strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees. Those are symbols of despair and unbelief, so words of encouragement. Say to those who are fearful hearted, be strong, do not fear. Behold, your God will come with vengeance with the recompense of God. He will come and save you. Isaiah addresses the leaders of Judah saying, look to the future. Don't be discouraged. Don't give up. It's going to get a lot better than this.

Some people think this is the most unhealthy way to live, that is, to live in the present with your eye on the future. They'll say things like, you can be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. The way I figure it, the best way to be of earthly good is to be heavenly minded. It's the heavenly minded people that do the earth the most good. They're living in a temporary zone. They realize we're just passing through. And because they have their eye on the future, they're going to invest the most in the present for the right cause, for the right reason, reaching out to this last world. We can become so encumbered with the cares of this world that it chokes the seed and becomes unfruitful. So Isaiah's encouraging these people, look to the future, live in the present, but look ahead into what's coming.

Then, the eyes of the blind shall be opened. The ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb sing. For water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. When Jesus came the first time, he offered what I'm going to call a preview of coming attractions. He reached out and touched the blind, the deaf, the lame. He raised the dead. He restored that which was broken. In fact, when John the Baptist wondered if Jesus was the one, he was in prison, and he inquired, and said, go find out if he is the one that we've been waiting for. The signs that Jesus offered, he said, go tell John the things you have seen and heard, that the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

What Jesus did then when he walked upon the earth will be true of everyone during that time in the kingdom age. I got to thinking about this week and I thought, if you're not a Christian, the worst possible thing is to grow old without Christ. Because the older you get without Christ, the only way you have to look is in the rear view mirror. You look backwards. You try to hold on to family vacations, watching the kids grow up, pets that you've had, whatever would bring a moment of joy in your memory. You're looking backwards. But you have no future. But if you're a Christian, as you grow older, the best is yet to come. Your eyes do naturally look to the horizon of this life because of what is coming ahead. No hospitals, no funerals, no Parkinson's disease, no Alzheimer's disease, no broken homes, no broken hearts, no hell.

The future's looking very good from our vantage point. Paul the Apostle said in Romans eight, for I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. Again, the end of verse six, water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool. And the thirsty land, springs of water. In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, there shall be grass with reeds and rushes. Water was a scarce commodity, still is, especially in that part of the world where they depended on annual rainfall early and the latter rains. And they collected the water in huge, underground cisterns, carved out of solid bedrock to sustain them through those dry periods. The apostle Paul said that the creation groans and travails in birth pangs waiting to be delivered.

The whole creation is in this period of waiting for this restoration of planet Earth, just like a woman would be in the pains of labor. Bring forth a child, this creation, this earth will have a new birth, all things will become new. Then in verse eight, a highway shall be there and a road. And it shall be called the highway of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it. But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it. It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there. Sounds like a great road, doesn't it? It's better than the toll roads. It's absolutely free, uncluttered. And you know, I wouldn't even mind gridlock on this highway of holiness. Would you? All the redeemed of the Lord gather there.

There have been some pretty notable roads built in our country. I think of the Blue Ridge Parkway that connects those two great mountain ranges in the east, the Shenandoah mountains and the Great Smoky Mountains. Beautiful stretch of highway. Or the million dollar highway up from Durango to Silverton, Colorado and the San Juan River basin. Beautiful, picturesque. Then there's even roads named after people. There's the Billy Graham Parkway in North Carolina. It's great to drive down that road and remember the legacy of that evangelist. But the highway of holiness-- I believe we're going to go on that road, that's going to be the main thoroughfare once a year as we go to Jerusalem and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. That huge, holy convocation where the redeemed of the Lord go on.

Now, you remember that John the Baptist, in his ministry, quoted Isaiah chapter 40. He spoke about a highway, too, but in a different sense. John the Baptist called himself a voice crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, or prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. John the Baptist was calling on people to prepare a way for the messiah. In the kingdom age, the Messiah will prepare the way for his people, the highway of holiness. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zio with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy, and gladness. And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

It's very, very similar to Isaiah 51 verse 11, one of our favorite songs that we used to sing around here. Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion. And everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy and mourning and sorrow shall flee away. Great song. Maybe Pastor Chuck will close the evening with that song. Great, great tune. Here's the point, gladness is going to replace gloom. Singing is going to replace sorrow. All sad experiences will vanish. John, in his vision in the Book of Revelation, looked into the future. He saw heaven. And it was described, first, in a negative sense. There will be no tears, no death. There will be no sorrow.

Do you ever get moody? Or do you know people who get moody? You might live with somebody who gets moody. Those dark days that are like clouds that come over us. Most of us have times like that. That's why we love the book of Psalms so much, because we relate to David and others who wrote Psalms like, I am weary with my groaning, I'd drench my couch with tears. There's going to come a day when those days are history. Never, ever again hitting the redeemed. You won't be able to relate to sadness or depression. Now, in chapter 36, we have a change in the book of Isaiah. It's the second major division of the book. It's a historical section. It's a historical interlude, four chapters, 36, 37, 38 and 39. Now, we shift in this section from prophecy to history. We're not looking ahead, we're looking backward.

A historical interlude. And even the style changes. Modern versions will show that readily. That is, the first 35 chapters are set out in Hebrew parallelism, the ancient form of poetry. The prophecy given in poetry. Then there's four chapters of prose. And then the rest of the book, by and large, continues with that Hebrew poetry. Question you might ask is, why is this section inserted here? A couple of reasons, I think. Reason number one, it forms for us an historical bridge, a historical bridge. We've been dealing with this superpower Assyria. And that's been that superpower that has swept through the world, has gone through Sumeria, has landed up in Judah, and now is at the doorstep of Jerusalem.

The next world power is Babylon. And this historical section forms a bridge that shows us the power shift from Assyria to Babylon. Chapter 39, we'll see envoys from Babylon coming into Jerusalem. And that becomes the new world governing empire. And so it's important for us as we see the power is shifting that will lead eventually to the captivity of Jerusalem or the beginning of what Jesus called, in the Gospel of Luke, the times of the Gentiles. There's another reason I think it's here. I think that God has given us variety. And that is, chapter, after chapter, after chapter, of prophetic poetry. And now we have just a little variety with history. And it helps our minds and our hearts digest it.

Rather than having one homogeneous writing style, is just a little bit of variety. It's just sort of a nice change. Now, just a point before we move on. The chapters that we're going to read, the next four chapters-- we'll read two tonight, if I hurry up-- are almost verbatim, with a few minor subtractions and additions, to 2 Kings chapters 18 through 20. But very similar. Now, it came to pass in the 14th year of King Hezekiah, that Sennacherib, King of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. Interesting fact. Besides Kings David and Solomon, no other King of Judah is given more space in scripture and more commendation than King Hezekiah. 11 chapters are devoted to him, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and here, in Isaiah. And he was a good guy.

He scores high marks as far as being a King. In 2 Kings 8, he trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah nor any that were before him. Hezekiah was one of the five good kings that reigned in Judah. There was Hezekiah, there was Jehoshaphat, that there Asa, there was Joash, and there was Josiah. And what King Hezekiah did is bring spiritual reformation. He broke down the altars, tore down the high places of false worship where people were conveniently worshipping Jehovah but in the wrong manner, and brought them back to worship in the temple in Jerusalem. He even instituted a two week passover celebration for all the inhabitants there in Jerusalem.

Having said that, there were some weaknesses. One of his weaknesses is that he tried to bribe the King of Assyria, Sennacherib, by giving him talents of silver and gold, 300 talents of silver, 30 talents of gold. He did that hoping to bribe his way into an alliance, paying him off. But it backfired on him. He depleted the treasuries in Israel, stripped the temple of its treasures, tried to pay off this King of Assyria. It didn't work. By the way, I think it's always bad-- foreign policy-- to try to buy friends with chunks of money. He tried to do it. They came against him anyway. And he's going to learn a mighty lesson of trusting in the Lord.

Then the King of Assyria sent the Rabshake with a great army from Lachish. It's about 25 miles to the southwest of Jerusalem. So-- or to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller's field. And Eliaquim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shibna the scribe, and Joah, the son of a Assaf, the recorder, came out to him. Then the Rabshake said to him, say now to Hezekiah, thus says the great King, the King of Assyria, what confidence is this in which you trust? I say you speak of having plans of power for a war. But they are mere words. Now, in whom do you trust that you rebel against me?

King Sennacherib was still flush with victory. He was successful in conquering most of the nations, all of the cities in Judah, the fortified cities, including Lachish, a very important, strategic, fortified city on the way to Egypt. He had taken it. And now, in the arrogance and insolence, he stands in front of Jerusalem. Well, he doesn't stand. He sends this guy named Dirab Shake. Which is not his name, it's his title. It's like saying, chief captain. There was a pecking order. There was the King, Sennacherib. There was the chief commander, this guy. And then there was the guy called the commander in chief, he was the Tartan.

So King, Tartan, and then under him, the Rab Shake, or the general who was leading the battle. Have you noticed that so often a crisis will come when circumstances in life seem to be at their best? They come from out of the blue. Things were at a high point up to this point. Hezekiah brought in spiritual reformation. The worship was going back toward the Lord. The idols were banished from the land. Baal wasn't worshiped anymore. Astaroth wasn't worshiped anymore. At least in public, people may have been doing it in private. Everything was good. And yet, rather than blessing, the people of Judah find they're in a battle. You'd expect that after seeking the Lord with such fervor that there would be blessing upon blessing. But rather here, their faith is challenged with the battle.

I'm saying that because it often happens that way. When Peter, James, and John had a beautiful experience with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. You know that they were coming down from that mountain like, we just saw something none of the other boys saw. Were special. As soon as they get down the hill, they're confronted with a demon possessed man whose Father said he throws himself in the fire, throws himself in the water. And we brought him to your disciples and they couldn't help him. Immediately, their faith is challenged by this demon possessed individual, a challenge to their faith or the prophet Elijah. Talk about a success. Talk about a victory. On Mount Carmel, 450 prophets of Baal, 400 prophets of Ashura. And you know the story. They have that great contest.

Fire comes down from heaven, consumes the sacrifices. Elijah takes them out to the brook Keshawn and slaughters all the false prophets of the land. Then he prays, and waters come back, rains come back into the land. The drought is over. The famine is over. What power he had just seen. Yet, the very next chapter, woman by the name of Jezebel is successful in driving him all the way down south. Here's a mighty prophet of God running away from this gal who's threatening his life. And he becomes so despondent, so discouraged, ready to end his life. Such a high peak and such a low moment afterwards. Well, why does God allow that? I'll tell you why God allowed this with Hezekiah. To shake this King up so that he would trust in nothing else and no one else save the Lord. It's a lesson that he'll never forget.

In verse 6, look, he says, you are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is pharaoh King of Egypt to all that trust in him. But if you say to me, we trust in the Lord, our God, is it not he who is high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar? Listen to his arrogance. It's one of the most arrogant, blasphemous speeches in all of scripture. Who are trusting in? Don't trust in Egypt. You tried that. And if you dare say, we're trusting in the Lord, let me tell you something, your King broke down the altars of the Lord. OK, what's he referring to?

What he's referring to is something the King Hezekiah did do. He broke down the altars, the high places in the land where people started going and worshipping God in an inordinate way. Instead of going to Jerusalem, they were going to the nearest high place, those little hills under groves of trees, and they were worshipping God in the manner that pagan idols used to be worshipped. So it was a syncretism, worshipping God in the way that gods of this world are to be worshipped. Hezekiah got rid of all that. And what this guy misinterpreted is that you've insulted God. The people are going to say, you know, it used to be easy to worship the Lord. We could just go right down the street to that local high place. And now we have to go all the way to Jerusalem.

What he didn't know is that the Bible, the word, the scripture, the Torah demanded that people worshipped God in a certain way and it wasn't their way. So Hezekiah was actually bringing revival and restoration of that worship. It's a misunderstanding that this general has as he's addressing the people of Jerusalem. His mistake is that he placed God at the same level as all of the other gods and goddesses that people were worshipping in that part of the world. By the way, cults do that. One of the marks of a cult is to either elevate man to the level of God or take God and bring him down to the level of a man. And here, this general is going to put God on the same level as all of the other gods, goddesses, and worship systems around.

It's a mistake people make today. They lump us all together. Oh, Christians, Mormons, Jehovah witnesses, whatever you are into, whatever you believe. It's amazing how much authority people have about the Bible who are ignorant of the Bible. This guy claims to have knowledge of God and the worship system of the Jews and he is off base. Now, therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master, the King of Assyria, and I will give you 2,000 horses if you are able, on your part, to put riders on them. How demoralizing. How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master's servants and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

Have I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, go up against this land and destroy it. Now, this arrogant ruler is saying, hey, I am here because God told me to be here. Your God told me to conquer you. By the way, this is one of the oldest tricks in the book. God told me this. God told me that. Now, I don't discount that God can't tell you this or that. I say it's the oldest trick in the book because as soon as somebody says, well, I'm doing this because the Lord told me to do it, there's no appeal. There's no accountability. Because if you say, now, wait a minute, that sounds really goofy. Oh, you can't say it's goofy. It's from the Lord. You have really no level of accountability or appeal.

Who are you to argue with God if you're arguing with God? I've received letters over the years, weird letters, basically say, God picked me to tell you this as if to say, God couldn't tell you on his own. God didn't have your phone number. But he has my phone number. I happened to be listening to God. And God told me to give you this message. When I get those letters, I honestly evaluate them. Maybe the Lord did speak. And how do I know? Well, we have the book. We already saw in Isaiah chapter 8, to the law and to the testimonies, if they do not speak according to this word it is because there is no light in them.

We compare it with scripture to see if God is indeed speaking. You know, in World War I, the Germans start they were doing the will of God. The Nazi party thought they were fulfilling the will of God. The murder, the mass murder, the Son of Sam, murdered because he said, Jesus told him to, spoke to him. And here, this arrogant ruler, God told me to come against you.

Then Eliaquim, Shibna, Joah, said to the Rabshake, please, speak to your servants in the Aramaic language for we understand it. Do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall. But the Rabshake said, has my master set me to your master and to you to speak these words and not to the men who sit on the wall who will eat and drink their own waste with you?

Then the Rabshake stood and called out with a loud voice-- he's turning up the volume-- in Hebrew, and he said, here are the words of the great King, the King of Assyria. Thus says the King, do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. This is called psychological warfare. The diplomatic language of the time was Aramaic, the language of the Assyrians and eventually the Chaldean slash Babylonians. It was the diplomatic language. It was the language of negotiation. Hebrew is the language of the Jews. But it was demoralizing. It was breaking down the morale of the people on the wall to have the armies surrounding them and saying the things that they did. It was getting people to doubt the promises of God.

There is a division of our military that specializes in this, by the way. It's called psyops, psychological operations. And the idea is to understand your enemy well enough as to give them communication, and in giving them that communication, cause dissension among the troops, demoralize them So. That they lose their edge, lose their confidence. We found this to be successful in some of the battles we have fought. Over in the Gulf War, phase two, the last one, leaflets were dropped in Arabic. Loud rock and roll music was played through the night through speaker systems in these towns so that people couldn't sleep. And they'd hear this Western music over and over again and get nervous.

We even dropped from the sky, a couple of times, pigs out of the air to hit the ground and some of the settlements and villages. Because pork is considered unclean among the Muslims. And in seeing these things dropped out of the sky, it made them really nervous. Like, these guys have a lot more up their sleeve than we thought. Psychological warfare. By the way, Satan uses psychological warfare. What he will try to do is shake you to your core by getting you to doubt God's truth, God's promise. He tried it in the garden. God told us not to eat. Has God said, Satan questioned. Getting Eve to go, ah, I don't know. Did God really speak? Nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord saying, the Lord will surely deliver us, this city will not be given into the hand of the King of Assyria.

Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the King of Assyria, make peace with me by a present. Give me a gift. Pay me off. They already tried that. And come out to me, and every one of you, eat from his own vine, and everyone from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink from the waters of his own cistern until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. He promises free food, free drink. You win an all expense vacation to our land, the land of Assyria. Now, this is how the Assyrians would practice it. They would come in and conquer land. And having conquered the people, they would relocate them, repatriate the area with other people they conquered. So for instance, when they took Samaria in 722 BC, they extracted the northern peoples of Israel and they brought in people from other areas of the world they had conquered to settle in that land so that they could all congregate together in one place and form a coup later on. They would relocate them, dislocate them.

Beware, lest Hezekiah persuade you saying, the Lord will deliver us. Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the King of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hemoth and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sefarbahim? Indeed, they have delivered. Or indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? You see what he's doing. He is again, placing the Lord God, Jehovah God, Yahweh, at the same level as all of these gods mentioned in these verses from all of these other places, putting them on the same level. There was a belief system in those days. Not only was there polytheism, the worship of many gods, but there was a unique trait among these people in the Middle East known as henotheism.

That is, there were gods of different topographical and geographical locations. You'd have a god of a river. A god of another stream. The god of the ocean. The god of that mountain. The god of that valley. And these gods were in competition with each other. Local deities were battling each other using armies on earth to further their territories. And we get a reference to that in the Book of 1 Kings chapter 20. The Assyrians say of the children of Israel, their gods are the gods of the hills. Therefore, they are stronger than we. But if we fight against them in the plane, we will be stronger than they are. The idea is that we worship a certain kind of God. And when we get in that God's territory-- that's henotheism-- we're going to destroy them.

So that's the mindset of this chief general who's standing in front of the people of Jerusalem. Who among the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand? But they held their peace. And they answered him not a word for the King's commandment was, do not answer him. Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshake. It's a good strategy actually. They didn't say a word. They listened. They didn't speak. They reported it to their King. It's a good policy. It's a good policy for workers, by the way. Don't answer. Bring it to the boss. Let's see what the boss says so that you don't get in trouble. And I think it's a good practice for Christians.

When the enemy comes against you to hassle you, don't engage in a conversation with the devil. Don't even talk to him. Bring it to your King, King Jesus. When Satan comes knocking, let Jesus answer the door, don't you answer the door. I've been in certain meetings, certain places where it would seem that people are almost praying to the devil. Now Satan, we bind you. And Satan, we say this. And Satan-- what are you even doing talking to him? Talk to the Lord about him. In the book of Jude, the ninth verse, we read a very important principle. It says, Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed over the body of Moses, dared not bring a railing accusation against him but rather said, the Lord rebuke you. Even this most powerful angel of God didn't even get into a fighting or shouting match with the devil. He made sure that the Lord was his buffer.

What does Paul tell us in Ephesians? Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, not your might. His might. We're nothing before that demonic super power. Jesus is something. A few years ago I was in India. And I happened to be there on one of my first trips with one guy, one fellow-- I didn't go with him, but I met him there-- who claimed that his entire ministry was casting demons out of Christian leaders. And he would speak for long periods of time to these demons in these meetings in public, Christian meetings. And he said-- he boasted, he said-- I've casted demons out of the greatest Christian leaders in America. And he's addressing a group of evangelists and pastors, most of whom knew what persecution, laying down their life was.

And he addressed them, and he said, as he looked over the crowd, I see Satan and his demons all over you tonight. Now, I understood. He was speaking in English. He had an interpreter speaking in Malialian, the local dialect, who was a theological professor and had enough moxie in the scripture to know true theology and he misinterpreted what he said and corrected his theology. So as the guy said I see demons all around you tonight, this guy mistranslated saying, I see God's angels surrounding you tonight. And everybody broke out in applause. And this guy couldn't understand why they were so excited about that. I love it.

Take the devil to your King. Don't say a word. Isaiah 37, so it was when King Hezikiah heard it that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna, the scribe, the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. And they said to him, thus says Hezekiah, this day is a day of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy. For the children have come to birth but there is no strength to bring them forth. In other words, it's a critical moment of being utterly helpless, utterly unable and unprepared. It may be that the Lord your God-- interesting. The Lord your God. He's banking on Isaiah's relationship with God-- will hear the words of the Rabshake, whom his master, the King of Assyria, has sent to reproach the living God and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard.

Therefore, lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left. Did you notice that he calls God the living God? Why? He is contrasting the only God-- living God-- with all of the inanimate, insensate, powerless, false gods of stone and wood that these nations around them worship. He is the living God. It's the same outlook that David had when he faced the giant Goliath. Everybody was scared of Goliath. And he said, who does this guy think he is, this uncircumcised Philistine? He's defying the armies of the living God. He had the right perspective. Psalm 115, the psalmist speaks about the false gods of nations around. Eyes they have, but they don't see. Ears they have, but they cannot hear. Mouths they have, but they do not speak. Feet they have, but they cannot walk. Hands they have, but they cannot handle.

And everyone who trusts in them, said the Psalmist, will become like them. False gods, insensate, unable, powerless to help. Years ago, when I was working in the radiology department of Westminster community hospital, I was on call that night, and I was called into x-ray, a patient, a lady who had severe abdominal pains. And it was an odd sight because she had books stacked up on her belly. And I thought, well, that's the reason of her abdominal pain. She's got a load of books. She had grabbed this group of books on her way to the emergency room that night. And they were books on eastern mysticism, eastern religions, different cultic religions. And she was looking for them for solace, for answers. She thought that during her stay in waiting, she would thumb through them and get some comfort in a very painful, difficult, uncertain time.

I had a chance to witness to her. But I thought how sad to talk to some god or goddess because you'll get no answer. You know what it's like when you get on the phone and the voice on the other lines says, sorry, you've reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. That's what it's like trying to talk to a false god or goddess. No hope. No answer. This is the living God, right perspective.

So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah and Isaiah said to them, thus, you shall say to your master, thus says the Lord, Jehovah, do not be afraid of the words which you have heard with which the servants of the King of Assyria have blasphemed me. Surely, I will send a spirit upon him and he shall hear a rumor and will return to his own land. And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. That will be fulfilled literally. Isn't it great that the first person that the King feels he should talk to and get in his presence is Isaiah the prophet? Get in the preacher. We're in a mess now. I like that. I like the idea that in a crisis you bring in somebody who knows the Lord. We got to pray. It's a good move.

Something else, tradition places Isaiah in the royal bloodline. According to Jewish tradition, Isaiah's dad Amoz, was the brother of King Uzziah's Father, Amaziah, which would make Isaiah the prophet a cousin to King Hezekiah. We don't know. It's just a tradition. But it's possible that there was a link there. And so he had regular access to the throne. Then the Rabshake returned and found the King of Assyria warring against Libna for he heard that he had departed from Lachish. And the King heard concerning Tirhaka, the King of Ethiopia, he has come out to make war with you. So when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah saying, thus, you shall speak to Hezekiah, the King of Jusah, saying, do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you saying Jerusalem shall be given into the hand of the King of Assyria.

Look, you have heard what the Kings of Assyria have done to all the lands by utterly destroying them. And shall you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed? Gozzan, and Harran, and Rezef, and the people of Eden-- all of these, in the Middle Euphrates River Valley-- who were in Talassar? Where is the King of Hamath? The King of Arpad, the King of the city of Serpharbahim, Hena and Iva? And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and he read it, and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord-- I love this-- and he spread it before the Lord.

Now, can you picture him going into the temple, going into the house of the Lord? He spreads it out. Perhaps-- perhaps what comes to his mind is the promise that was given to Solomon after he dedicated the temple in 2 Chronicles 7:14. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I, the Lord, will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin. I will heal their land. Perhaps that was the thought he had as he came in to humble himself before God. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord saying, O, Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim, you are God. You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made the heaven and the earth. I love it. It's a prayer with perspective.

You know, we so often come before God with our limitations. Oh, God, this is so hard. I don't know if you can handle this one. You're talking to God, the creator. Acts chapter 4, they did the same thing, came into God's presence with perspective. They were hassled by the leaders of Jerusalem, commanded not to preach, threat of being arrested. And they come before the Lord, and they say, Lord, you are God. You made the heaven, the earth, the sea and all that is in them. That's the way to approach God, with that perspective. Incline your ear, o, Lord. And hear, open your eyes, o, Lord, and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations in their lands and have cast their gods into the fire for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore, they have destroyed them.

These kings of Assyria and their ilk, they new culture. They knew military operations. They knew the customs. They knew the religion of the cultures around them. They knew of the Pantheon of gods of all of these other cultures. What they didn't know is the Lord God. And they didn't know what God could do. And Isaiah, and King Hezekiah, they knew what God could do. They knew the Lord. And this Assyrian King, Sennacherib and the Rabshake, ignored a single fact that invalidated their assumption. Here's the single fact. There is no God save our God, save the Lord. And that's the basis they approach God on.

Now, therefore, O, Lord, our God, save us from his hand. The prayer not only had perspective, the prayer was specific. He gets right to the point. It's their hour of urgency. Help! Save us! It's like Peter when he's drowning, he didn't have time for a long, drawn out prayer. He couldn't say, oh, Lord, sovereign King-- [IMITATES DROWNING]. He just said, save me, Lord. And this guy's specific. He gets to the point. It also is God honoring. Notice the last part of that verse. Save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord, you alone. He is thinking of the honor and dignity of God. It's like saying, thine is the kingdom, thine is the power, thine is the glory. Do it, Lord, for your own sake.

And Isaiah, the son Amoz, said to Hezekiah, saying, thus says the Lord God of Israel, because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him. The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you, laughed you to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind your back. Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you risen your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. By your servants you have reproached the Lord and said, by the multitude of my chariots, I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the limits of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and it's choice cypress trees. I will enter as farthest height to its fruitful forest. I have dug and drunk water. And with the soles of my feet, I have dried up all the brooks of defense

God speaks to him, did you not here long ago how I made it? From ancient times that I formed it? Now I have brought it to pass that you should be for crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins. In other words, hey, listen, buddy boy, you're a pawn on my chessboard. I'm using you temporarily to effect my cause. But your days are numbered. Therefore, their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were as the grass of the field, and the green herb, as the grass on the house tops, and the grain blighted before it is grown. But I know your dwelling place. I got your number. I know where you live. You are going out and your coming in. And you rage against me. Because you rage against me and your tumult have come up to my ears, therefore, I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came.

Captives, in those days, were often led by their captors in front of the King by putting a hook through the nose and the upper lip and carried away into captivity by a cord. It would a guarantee of no false move. This shall be assigned to you. You shall eat the shears that grows of itself. And the second year, which springs of the same. Also, in the third year, sow and reap. Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. Before the land could get back to normal productivity, they'd eat what would grow of itself over the next couple of years, which would take faith. They just trusted that the Lord will give what is needed. But the promise here is normal conditions were returned to the land once again and yield in abundance. And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

There is a promise for you. Be rooted and grounded in love. Be rooted in ground in truth. Hang in there. Abide in Christ. As you are rooted in him, fruit will naturally spring upward in your life. For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant. And those who escaped from Mount Zion, the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this. Therefore, thus says the Lord, concerning the King of Assyria, he shall not come into the city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with the shield, nor build a siege mound against it. Did you know that if just one soldier would have shot one arrow over the wall of Jerusalem this promise and the word of God would have been false.

It didn't happen. God kept his word. By the way that he came, by the same he shall return. And he shall not come into this city, says the Lord. For I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. Brings up an issue. Why did God deliver his people when so many of them were not faithful to him? So much of the prophecies of Isaiah were an outcry against the sins of Judah. False hope in Egypt. False hope in Ethiopia. False alliances. So many of them weren't faithful. Why did God deliver his people? He gives you two answers. Number one, to glorify his own name. God's glory is at stake against these loudmouths who are defying the living God. It's exactly what Hezekiah prayed for. God, glorify yourself.

Second, to fulfill his promise to David. See God had promised David long ago that eventually his descendants would occupy that throne forever. God preserved the city and his people, and would bring them back in the land so that Messiah could come and God would fulfill his plan in the future. Then the angel of the Lord went out and killed, in the camp of the Assyrians, 185,000. And when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses all dead. Ding dong, the witch is dead. It's over. Imagine what it was like as the sun rose that morning and all the people stood on the walls of Jerusalem and looked over and saw those corpses. Wow. Pride goes before destruction. A haughty spirit goes before a fall. Remember how this general, the Rabshake, was joking that one Assyrian junior officer could take on 2,000 of the people of Judah? It just took one of God's angels to wipe out 185,000 Assyrians.

So Sennacherib, of King of Assyria, departed and went away, returned home and remained in Nineveh. It came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisrah, his God, that his sons, Adramaleb and Shariza, struck him down with a sword. And they escaped into the land of Ererat. Then, Esherhad and his son, reigned in his place.

After Sennacherib left Judah, he returned back to Nineveh, his home, as a defeated warrior. 20 years later, there was a power struggle with his sons. His sons, two of his boys, assassinated him. And even secular history will attest to the fact that this King died in the temple of His own god. At that point, Assyria begins to crumble. Babylon gets built up and rises.

So many lessons we have seen. One of the lessons is God is slow to anger. He is patient. He warns, but he does act. He does defend his people. Years ago, in Great Britain, one of the most famous atheists was Robert Ingersoll who would try to impress audiences. And on one occasion, he took his stopwatch out, and he said, there is no God. I didn't believe in a God. I defy God. And I'll give God five minutes to strike me dead. And the people looked at him like, whoa. Silence for five minutes. At the end of five minutes, he closed his stopwatch and he said, see there is no God. I am still alive. After that particular meeting, a couple of Christians were talking and somebody else came up to them and said, well, you gotta admit, you know, Ingersoll certainly proved something tonight.

And one of the Christians, Theodore Parker was his name, said, oh, yes, he proved something. He proved that even the most defiant sinner can not exhaust the mercy of God in five minutes. That's all he proved. God is patient, slow to anger. Now, these people were on the walls of Jerusalem, cooped up in that city for such a long time as those Assyrians surrounded. They were wondering, what's going to happen? Trusting, praying, that God would deliver them. And you know what? God did. And all of the promises of God to you are in Christ, yes, and amen. You may be weary tonight. You might feel cooped up, captivated. The walls are around you. You don't know what's going to come down in the next weeks, months. But God does. And tonight, God is here to answer your prayers. And we're going to have an opportunity at the end of the service to come down front and have pastors pray with you and pray for you.

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for your word, for the lessons that are just so plentiful in the pages of scripture. Thank you for your people, hungry people who love you and love your word. Lord, I pray that you would direct the step of each one throughout the week. Bless, direct, make yourself known to each one for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

You know, reading how that the angel of the Lord, in one night, wiped out 185,000 of the Assyrian troops sort of brought to mind when Jesus was arrested by the soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane. And Peter pulled out his sword and began to seek to defend Jesus. As Jesus said, put away your sword. Don't you realize that at this point I could call 12 legions of angels to deliver me? If one angel could wipe out 185,000 Assyrians, imagine what 12 legions of angels could do. He didn't need Peter's defense. He doesn't need our defense. So many times we find ourselves in the position of seeking to defend Jesus. He he's perfectly capable of defending himself.

We need his defense. And even as Hezekiah discovered, the Lord is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that we could ever think or imagine. Let's stand together. The pastors are down here at the front as Pastor Skip mentioned. They are here to minister to you to night and to pray for you. If you are going through a difficult time, as Hezekiah said, this is a time of trouble. And if you're going through troubling times, best thing you can do is what Hezekiah did. Lay out your troubles before the Lord. Let him help you. The Lord wants to help you tonight. All he needs is that you give him the opportunity to do so. And so we're wanting to give you that opportunity tonight, to find the help of the Lord for whatever problemed situation you might be facing. The pastors are down here at the front they're here to pray for you and to bring before the Lord those troubling issues in your life.

So we would encourage you to take advantage of that. Come on down. Spend some time seeking the Lord. You'll find that things will go so much better this week, better than you ever dreamed or imagined as you give God that opportunity to work in your situation. Isaiah 51 verse 8, in case you need the words. It's been a long time. Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be on their heads. Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy. And sorrow and mourning shall flee away. Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. You did great. God bless you.

This is the end of this message. If you'd like further information on any of our products or to receive our free catalog, contact the word for today. The address is PO box 8000, Costa Mesa, California, 92628. Or you may reach us by our toll free number, 1-800-272-WORD. That's 1-800-272-WORD. Ord.

Additional Messages in this Series

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6/13/2004
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Isaiah 17-19
Isaiah 17-19
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6/20/2004
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Isaiah 20-22
Isaiah 20-22
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6/27/2004
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Isaiah 23-25
Isaiah 23-25
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7/4/2004
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Isaiah 26-28
Isaiah 26-28
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7/11/2004
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Isaiah 29-31
Isaiah 29-31
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7/18/2004
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Isaiah 32-34
Isaiah 32-34
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8/1/2004
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Isaiah 38-40
Isaiah 38-40
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8/8/2004
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Isaiah 41-43
Isaiah 41-43
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8/15/2004
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Isaiah 44-46
Isaiah 44-46
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8/29/2004
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Isaiah 50-52
Isaiah 50-52
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9/5/2004
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Isaiah 53-55
Isaiah 53-55
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9/12/2004
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Isaiah 56-58
Isaiah 56-58
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9/19/2004
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Isaiah 59-61
Isaiah 59-61
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10/3/2004
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Isaiah 65-66
Isaiah 65-66
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There are 14 additional messages in this series.
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