The title of this message is “God is Awesome in Deliverance.” I wonder if there has ever been a time in your life when you pleaded with God to deliver you from some imminent threat, or danger. Maybe it was an attack, an abusive situation, financial hardship, health crisis, addiction, or death itself? Maybe it was the legal consequences, or fallout from a choice you made?
Throughout my life I've always taken 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 to heart. It says, “So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall. 13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.” Sometimes we find ourselves in messes of our own making. Sometimes of other’s devices. What does it look like for God to demonstrate his faithful love toward us and provide a way out?
One of the most profound stories of deliverance is found in Isaiah 36-39. It’s the story of a certain King of Judah named Hezekiah. By now you are well aware that Isaiah prophesied during the Assyrian reign of terror. The Assyrian Empire descended upon and completely waylaid Israel (a.k.a. the Northern Tribes) But now the Assyrians, under King Sennacherib are threatening Judah and Jerusalem. A few weeks ago we talked about how King Ahaz, and all Judah, were “shaking like a leaf" as the mighty Assyrian army camped on their border, ready to attack.
When faced with danger do you fight back, with all your strength? What if your enemy is dreadful and overpowering? Do you go shopping for an alliance? South of Israel stood the Egyptian empire. Could they be of help? The last time God's people fled to Egypt they became slaves of Pharaoh. Sometimes the devil you have known is preferable to the devil you fear.
Earlier God warned Judah about the character of Egypt. Isaiah 31:1, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and who depend on horses! They trust in the abundance of chariots and in the large number of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel, and they do not seek the Lord.” Isaiah 31:3a, “Egyptians are men, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit.” Isaiah 30:1-3, “Woe to the rebellious children! This is the Lord’s declaration. They carry out a plan, but not mine; they make an alliance, but against my will, piling sin on top of sin. 2 Without asking my advice they set out to go down to Egypt in order to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protection and take refuge in Egypt’s shadow. 3 But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame, and refuge in Egypt’s shadow your humiliation.” Succumb to the devil Sennacherib and Assyria, succumb to Egypt and Pharaoh… what if neither choice is good?
How many times have you sought third option, supernatural deliverance? In Isaiah 36:4-6 Sennacherib makes a dread-filled taunt. The first part went like this: “[Hey Judah. . .] What are you relying on? 5 You think mere words are strategy and strength for war. Who are you now relying on that you have rebelled against me? 6 Look, you are relying on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who grabs it and leans on it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who rely on him.” The second part went like this: Isaiah 36:7 “[Hey Judah, you're certainly not going to trust in your God. . .] Suppose you say to me, ‘We rely on the Lord our God.’ Isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You are to worship at this altar’?” “Egypt is a weak choice, and Hezekiah, you don't have a prayer… no God isn’t going to be of any help…” And Isaiah 36:8 “Make a deal…” [Sennacherib is going all Howie Mandel, “Deal or no Deal?”] “Hezekiah, make a deal. Trust in flesh, in man, in political alliances, your back is against the wall.”
Then Sennacherib spoke a message in Hebrew directly to the people of Judah. It was kind of like the flyer drops they did in Iraq during the Iraq wars. When they couldn't persuade Saddam, they dropped flyers on the cities, and broadcast across airwaves to directly appeal to the people. Listen to this: Isaiah 36:16-21, “16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make peace with me and surrender to me. Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from 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. [That's the devil… he always promises a life of bliss… but in the end he makes you his slave] “18 Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us.’ Has any one of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my power? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands ever rescued his land from my power? So will the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?”
Every time evil rears its ugly head, the enemies of God gaslight the believer. “What, you think your thoughts and prayers matter? You think God will rescue you?”
Choice A: Surrender to Assyria. They were front row spectators to Sennacherib’s reign of terror and death to the North. Choice B: Align with Egypt and Pharaoh, lean upon Pharaoh, and his staff will pierce you. And of course. . . Choice C: Pray. Trust God. “Foolish believer, look at the body count of all those who trusted in their gods. Look at all the people who prayed but were defeated, slaughtered by my war machine.”
In Isaiah 37:3, Hezekiah sends word to Isaiah, “‘Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace. It is as if children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them.” Do you ever feel that way in life? You hoped your life or future would unfold a certain way… but your hopes and dreams appear to be stillborn… dead on arrival. What can we learn? When all seems lost, pray anyway.
Isaiah prays for deliverance. In Isaiah 37:7 God says tell Hezekiah not to be afraid. “I am about to put a spirit in [Sennacherib] and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’” Hezekiah also prays for deliverance. Isaiah 37:16-21, this is a great prayer, “16 Lord of Armies, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you are God—you alone—of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. 17 Listen closely, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see. Hear all the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God. 18 Lord, it is true that the kings of Assyria have devastated all these countries and their lands. 19 They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but made from wood and stone by human hands. So they have destroyed them. 20 Now, Lord our God, save us from his power so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are God—you alone.”
Did you know “Lord of Armies" is God's chosen name throughout Isaiah. We think our enemy is ultimate, yet only God is ultimate. God was sovereign over Egypt in the days of Moses. God is sovereign over Assyria—they can do no more than God permits. God will be sovereign over Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar. God will be sovereign over the Persians and Medes—Isaiah prophecies King Cyrus of Persia will be God's anointed instrument. God would also sovereign over the Roman reign of terror. Sovereign over the power of sin, over the power of death itself. When we pray, we need to address God in his power. He is Lord over Armies. Lord over Cancer. Lord over Terror, Evil, Violence. Lord over all that threatens and endangers. Lord over our health, over doctor’s diagnosis, over life and death. Lord over the governments of men. King of Kings. Lord of Armies!
God is Awesome in Deliverance. God is faithful and provides a way out for Hezekiah and Judah. He does as he says. Listen to Isaiah 37:33-38, “Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies! 37 So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh. 38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. Then his son Esar-haddon became king in his place.”
This is the power of prayer. When we pray our fleshly, finite, feeble minds cannot imagine any possibility beyond A or B. But then we pray, and what happens? God bring about scenario C, or D, or E, or F, or Z. God does something infinitely beyond all were capable or asking or imagining. If Isaiah and Hezekiah never prayed, it would have been A OR B. But they prayed and God did C. If we never pray, maybe we never come to know this amazing truth… GOD IS AWESOME IN DELIVERANCE.
By the way, after God delivered Judah from the Assyrians, Hezekiah became very ill. A word of the Lord comes to Hezekiah through Isaiah (38:1), “This is what the Lord says: ‘Set your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’” I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty ominous. There will come a day when all of us will hear those words. Given the news that he was about to die … (news which came from God Himself through Isaiah)… Hezekiah doesn't resign himself to death. Instead, he prays for deliverance!
By the way, how do we pray when we get a bad report? Assyrians are gathering. Death is imminent. Do we pray boldly for God to be awesome in deliverance? Or do we resign ourselves to fate. “Oh well, I guess if it be God's will that I die…” What if I told you that God is so Awesome in Deliverance, that he'd entertain your most boldest of prayers. Hezekiah didn't accept fate, he prayed (Isaiah 38:3), “Please, Lord, remember how I have walked before you faithfully and wholeheartedly, and have done what pleases you.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.”
Here is a mind bender. What if God’s mind, even his will, is “changeable.” There are numerous occasions in Scripture where it says, “God repents…” Once Moses prayed for God to spare his people, and God repented, and changed what he said he was about to do. If you are from a reformed tradition, you might find yourself struggling with what happens next. . .
Isaiah 38:4-8, “. . . the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: 5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I am going to add fifteen years to your life. 6 And I will rescue you and this city from the grasp of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city. 7 This is the sign to you from the Lord that he will do what he has promised: 8 I am going to make the sun’s shadow that goes down on the stairway of Ahaz go back by ten steps.’” So the sun’s shadow went back the ten steps it had descended.”
The steps of Ahaz? What a curious reference… wasn't that the King of Judah left shaking like a leaf in face of danger? The audacity of Hezekiah, to pray for deliverance even from death… the wondrous mystery that God grants him 15 more years of life. What does it mean that God is Awesome in Deliverance? It means God isn’t just the Lord of “Armies” but also the Lord of “Fates.” Neither defeat nor death is our fate. Life and life more abundantly is the believer's fate.
Listen, Hezekiah didn't get everything right in life. Late in life, Hezekiah foolishly shows officials from Babylon the Temple treasures and storehouses. Because he boasted about Judah's wealth and treasures and Babylon, Isaiah tells Hezekiah they would later come to plunder Judah, and his offspring.
In Isaiah 36:10-14 Hezekiah writes a poem at the end of his life. I wonder if any of us have ever expressed similar thoughts to God: “I said: In the prime of my life I must go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the rest of my years. 11 I said: I will never see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living; I will not look on humanity any longer with the inhabitants of what is passing away. 12 My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver; he cuts me off from the loom. By nightfall you make an end of me. 13 I thought until the morning: He will break all my bones like a lion. By nightfall you make an end of me. 14 I chirp like a swallow or a crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed; support me.”
But what has Hezekiah learned in life? He's learned that death is no longer the destiny for those who trust in God. Those who trust in God will never be put to shame! Why? Because God is awesome in deliverance!
Isaiah 36:15-20, Hezekiah's Poem continues… “What can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I walk along slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul. 16 Lord, by such things people live, and in every one of them my spirit finds life; you have restored me to health and let me live.
17 Indeed, it was for my own well-being that I had such intense bitterness; but your love has delivered me from the Pit of destruction, for you have thrown all my sins behind your back. 18 For Sheol cannot thank you; Death cannot praise you. Those who go down to the Pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. 19 The living, only the living can thank you, as I do today; a father will make your faithfulness known to children. 20 The Lord is ready to save me; we will play stringed instruments all the days of our lives at the house of the Lord.”
Buckle up my friends. Isaiah 40-66. Isaiah is about to announce in spectacular, predictive, high-definition detail, how God's anointed suffering servant Jesus is about to bring deliverance from power of sin and death and become our resurrection, our life, our comfort.