Hezekiah, the Praying King, Wednesday

Hello, friends. Welcome to the Seen Pod for Kids. Thank you for joining me today, as we spend time with our friend Jesus.

Spending time with Jesus is the best way to start your day. Let's begin our time together, praising Him.

As we see and thank God for the goodness that He gives us, it draws us closer to Him.

That's what the words to the song talks about. Let by goodness, like a feather, bind me closer still to thee.

My praise, streams of mercy, never ceasing, offers of thought that is praise.

Teach me a verse to adore thee, and I still adore thee with this proof.

All the love and this glory fills my heart with joy and love.

Don't you grace, average, out at her, daily, all I concentrate to be.

Let by goodness, like a feather, bind me closer still to thee.

Brought to wander, Lord, I feel it. Brought to live on our home.

Here's my heart, I'll take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above.

Hello, hello, welcome back. I'm glad that you're joining me today. I want you to think about something for a minute.

Have you ever prepared for a big storm? Maybe a big snow storm and they say the storm is coming in.

So you make sure to get all the supplies you need because you might not be able to go anywhere for a few days.

Or maybe you prepare for a hurricane. You board up windows, you get everything out of your yard, put it in the garage.

You're all prepared for a big storm that could come and destroy property and lives.

We're going to find out about something that was coming to destroy the kingdom of Judah and what Judah did to try to protect itself.

But first, let's pray. Lord, thank you for a new day that we get to spend with you.

Please help us to learn from the story of Hezekiah and how we can trust in you because you are faithful in Jesus' name, amen.

We talked about Syria as a nation. Remember, Captain Naaman, remember the Syrians came and they wanted to capture Elisha and he took them to Samaria and they were unblinded and they realized where they were.

That was Syria and that was a small nation that was close to Israel. But today we're going to talk about a Syria.

Syria was a far away strong nation and the king of a Syria had already conquered the northern kingdom of Israel.

We talked a little bit about that last time. Now he decided to fight Judah. He wanted to make that kingdom part of his kingdom too.

He sounds like he's being a little greedy, doesn't he?

Well, the kingdom of Judah was small. Remember there were only two tribes and Hezekiah as the king of Judah knew that the Syrians were coming to Jerusalem.

Maybe his spies told him. Maybe that was just the rumor on the street. I don't know, but he was preparing.

He didn't want them to come and destroy his people and his place and so he started getting ready.

He stopped up the water springs outside the city so that they wouldn't have water very easily.

It would be very difficult for them to get water. So he made it so that it wouldn't be easy for them to come and be there.

He also rebuilt the city walls. He made many spears, many shields and he called all of his army officers together and what did he tell them?

Let's go to 2 Chronicles, chapter 32, verse 7 and 8.

So we're going to 2 Chronicles, chapter 32. Let's look this up. If you have your Bible, that would be great.

Go get it. Let's look this up together. If you want, you can ask an adult for some help. If you need some help looking it up.

Let's go to 2 Chronicles, chapter 32, verse 7 and 8. Here's what it says.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid nor dismayed before the king of Assyria, nor before all the multitude that is with him.

For there are more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and fight our battles.

And the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah.

I love these verses because we can claim them today too. We can be strong. We can be courageous. We don't have to be afraid or dismayed because who is with us?

God is with us. Yes. With the Lord to help and fight our battles will be safe. Oh, that's just such an encouraging verse.

The king of Assyria sent messengers to tell Hezekiah how foolish he was to think that his God was strong enough to deliver the people of Judah.

He said, your God isn't that strong. Just look at all these other nations. None of their gods have helped them to win against Assyria. Your God is going to be the same. I'm going to win.

The messengers even shouted in the Hebrew language so that people who were watching and listening from the walls of Jerusalem so that they could understand and they could hear what the enemy was saying. Look at verse 17 and 18.

He also wrote letters to revile the Lord God of Israel and to speak against him saying, as the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver his people from my hand.

Then they called out with a loud voice in Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall to frighten them and trouble them that they might take the city.

Why did they want to do it to frighten and trouble the people so that they could take over the city? They're like, let's say this in their own language so they can understand and they'll be afraid of us.

King Hezekiah, he told the people he said, don't answer back. Do not answer them. Don't even say anything. And so the people on the walls, they kept really quiet. They didn't say anything.

Hezekiah knew that the enemy was strong and that it would be terrible to have them surround the city. He might have even remembered what had happened to Samaria when the Assyrians surrounded Samaria and the people starved when they ran out of food.

He knew that the only one that could help them was God. Later the Assyrian kings sent a letter to Hezekiah and he took it into the temple and spread it out there before the Lord, before God.

And he prayed, he said, Lord, please save us. Save us from the wicked enemy. He's making fun of you and he's making fun of your great power. Save us, Lord.

Let's skip back to second Kings because second Kings also tells this story. Second Kings, chapter 19.

So we're just going back a couple books in the Bible. Second Kings, chapter 19. And then let's look at verse 14.

14 and then we'll read verse 19. Second Kings, chapter 19, verse 14 and verse 19.

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.

Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord God, you alone.

Did God hear his prayer? Well, let's see, turn. Well, I have to turn my page. Look at verse 35. What does verse 35 say?

And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000.

And when the people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses all dead.

Wait, what did hezekiah have to fight? No, the Bible says that who came? The angel of the Lord went out and what did he do? He killed in the camp of the Assyrians. How many?

185,000 people. And when everyone got up in the morning, all the ones who weren't dead, what did they see?

All the dead bodies of everyone just laying their dead. The proud king found out very quickly how wrong he had been about our God.

And before long, he went back to his city and he ended up being killed by some of his own people.

Boys and girls, I love these verses because it shows us that God has more power than Satan, more power than all of his wicked angels.

How many of God's angels did it take to destroy so many Assyrians? 185,000 Assyrians? How many angels? One angel? Wow.

One angel can kill that many people. That's incredible. You know, God has promised that He sends us His angels to protect us, to keep us in all our ways, to be there for us.

And if one angel can be that powerful, do you think we can trust the angel that God has given us? I think so. I am so glad for His promise about angels and how they are with us always.

Let's pray. Lord, you protected Hezekiah. You helped him. He didn't even have to go to battle. He didn't have to fight. But you took care of him and his people.

I pray that you will take care of us, that we will have our minds fixed on you. We will be connected to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Proverbs 29-25

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