In our first study, we situated ourselves back in Isaiah 36-39 as we looked at "The Assyrian Crisis" and "The Gospel According to Hezekiah". It was a great study meditating on the character of Hezekiah, the faithful reformer King of Judah — not perfect by any stretch of the imagination — after all, he flirted with Egypt and Assyria itself for security - in the face of Assyrian invasion.
Despite his shortcomings, he held to God's Law. In Hezekiah's moment of profound crisis, as the armies of Assyria marched up to the gates and the Assyrian representative, the Rabshekeh spoke forth words to taunt the faith and security of people of Judah, we were presented with a dramatic picture of our own spiritual conflict with the world. We who are in this world transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of light are in but not of this world, aren't we? We were reminded that we are all embroiled in a war as followers of the Lord Jesus.
From Isaiah 36:1-37:13, we learn that:
Friendship with God is enmity with the world (Isa 36:1)
The fight of faith wars against rationalizing, replacing and relativizing God (Isa 36:2-22)
Faith in God trusts in His saving Word (Isa 37:1-8)
Practically, we were confronted with tough questions: will we recognise the pointed challenges of a hostile world ridiculing and rationalising away our faith in God? Then will we entrust ourselves to Him to defend us and fight, not with the weapons of this world, but in the way He calls us to fight for faith?
Like the psalmist of Psalm 79, we learnt to pray God-centered prayers for vindication before the nations: “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake! Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes!” (Psalm 79:9-10 ESV)
In the weeks to come, in our “The Gospel According to Hezekiah” series, we'll sit with Hezekiah and learn vital lessons about prayer, health, war and faith from this flawed, yet faithful king. If you've never read Isaiah before, this is a great short series to get a taster of this wonderfully rich and complex blend of historical narrative and prophetic writing and perhaps get that foothold into making better sense of the Old Testament. Isaiah after all, is considered by many to be the "Fifth Gospel" and one of the high points of the Old Testament.