IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Daily Bread

The Lord Saves Israel

Date: May. 8, 2019

Passage

2 Kings 19:20-37 (ESV)

20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. 21 This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him:

  “She despises you, she scorns you—
    the virgin daughter of Zion;
  she wags her head behind you—
    the daughter of Jerusalem.
22   “Whom have you mocked and reviled?
    Against whom have you raised your voice
  and lifted your eyes to the heights?
    Against the Holy One of Israel!
23   By your messengers you have mocked the Lord,
    and you have said, ‘With my many chariots
  I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
    to the far recesses of Lebanon;
  I felled its tallest cedars,
    its choicest cypresses;
  I entered its farthest lodging place,
    its most fruitful forest.
24   I dug wells
    and drank foreign waters,
  and I dried up with the sole of my foot
    all the streams of Egypt.’
25   “Have you not heard
    that I determined it long ago?
  I planned from days of old
    what now I bring to pass,
  that you should turn fortified cities
    into heaps of ruins,
26   while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
    are dismayed and confounded,
  and have become like plants of the field
    and like tender grass,
  like grass on the housetops,
    blighted before it is grown.
27   “But I know your sitting down
    and your going out and coming in,
    and your raging against me.
28   Because you have raged against me
    and your complacency has come into my ears,
  I will put my hook in your nose
    and my bit in your mouth,
  and I will turn you back on the way
    by which you came.

29 “And this shall be the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 30 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD will do this.

32 “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. 33 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD. 34 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

35 And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 36 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. 37 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Daily Bread

Key Verse: 19:34

For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

1. For my sake and for the sake of David (20-34)

The Lord listened to Hezekiah's prayer and answered through Isaiah. Sennacherib had ridiculed God and boasted of his own might; the Lord revealed himself to be the one who ordained it, who planned to use him as his instrument. In the same way he would quench the Assyrian king's rage and send him back where he came from. God honored his name as holy and defended Jerusalem for his sake, and for his servant David.

2. Sennacherib's end (35-37)

In a single night the power of Assyria was eliminated when an angel of the Lord went through their camp. Sennacherib withdrew and was later assassinated by his own sons. The Lord is mighty to save, and he saved Israel for the sake of his name.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for hearing us when we pray and depend on you. Though we are weak, use us to reveal your almighty power to save.

One Word: God has power to save

Daily Bread

God’s Wrath and Justice

Revelation 6:1-17

Key Verse: 6:17

for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Read More

Intro Daily

Today's Question

What does God require from us to escape His anger and curse, which we deserve for our sin?

See answer and references